DVD Compression Quality

I created a 25 minute video using photos and music and the quality was excellent. Recently, I updated the project in same version of iMovie by changing a few of the photos and rearranging some of the music. When I made the Disk Image (with same preferences as the first time), the quality was subpar. I took the two DVDs to the Apple Store and they played them simultaneously on two computers. They could see the difference in quality, checked the particulars of both, and were at a loss for an explanation. I have tried burning the DVD with different preferences and always get the same lousy quality. Smiles look like frowns, plaids or stripes are wavy in Ken Burns, like how a mirage appears. I think it is a compression problem. Apple Support had me make a trial video and I was disappointed in that quality when it was saved as a Disk Image as well. Any ideas?

I have invested a lot of money to up grade to HD and the dvds i am producing are of very poor quality. I had better results using SD footage
The video DVD standard IS standard definition with widescreen supported only by anamorphic squeezing.
Video DVDs are NOT HD (high definition) devices. If you want true HD, you will need to create Blu-ray discs (and must have a Blu-ray player).
Roxio's Toast Titanium 10 (with the Blu-ray plugin) will let you create short (about 20 minutes) Blu-ray playable discs using standard writable DVD media.
I receintely upgrades to snow leopard and this is not compatable with my Final Cut Pro studio HD
Nobody forced you to convert to SL. Anytime you consider a system upgrade, the first thing you should do is check for compatibility problems with your existing applications.

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    Hey Lee, looking at what you are doing and how you are doing, let me make some recommendations.
    obviously you are able to capture an 8 and 10-bit uncompressed 4:2:2 YUV NTSC and PAL elements from your internal drive with no problems (since you mentioned Blackmagic's Decklinck card). but you said that you are working with HD material, so assume you have some faster external drives. anyway, bring in the material in the highest quality you can in the above choices the 10-bit would be ideal.
    what are your source tapes? i ask this bcz if they are some form of DV format (HDCAM, HDCAM PRO) your material is already compressed 5:1 (not helpful).
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    Best / High Performances (most often my choise)
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    Mike

    Hi Mike
    Your observation is same as mine.
    Two problems occures:
    a. Your DVD disk is bad - so is mine
    b. More problematic is that Your original iMovie movie project also is harmed.
    You'll need to re-import Your photos and r-edit them.
    NOW: Don't use the Share/Export to iDVD from within iMovie.
    • Just close iMovie.
    • Open iDVD
    • Drop the movie icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD themw window
    Now iDVD will do the rendering and so much better.
    More: Quality of the DVD-disc depends on several things.
    • I DON'T USE the function Share/Export to iDVD from within iMovie - IT IS DESTRUCTIVE !!
    Just drop the movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window - then iDVD do the
    rendering and so much better. Especially if there is photos in the movie.
    • Free space on internal (start-up) hard disc - should be about 25Gb when all material is imported
    and structured. This for iDVD to work with - iDVD can't use an extern hard disc as scratch.
    (less than 5Gb - result is most probably of no use at all)
    • Best Quality isn't Top - better is Best Performances (up to 60 min movie)
    confused naming - in iDVD'08 there is Pro Quality AND I like it.
    • Media brand - I use Verbatim
    • Type: IF SL DVDs -> DVD-R my choise no DVD+R or +/-RW
    • I save a Disc-Image and burn this at an as SLOW speed as possibly (eg x1) with Toast™
    (Disc Util tool can also do this)
    from Karsten:
    • Keep to same standard NTSC or PAL trough all steps
    from: Matti Haveri:
    • Is it jerky (=maybe some part of the workflow deinterlaced the footage -- iMovie can do this behind the users's back quite well!)
    • Or is it awfully jerky (=maybe the field dominance is wrong -- this happens very easily when importing upper field first stuff from MPEG).
    This is what come's first to my mind.
    Yours Bengt W

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