DVD picture quality, Instant-On vs. InterVideo

Why is the quality from the Instant-On DVD player so much better then the picture received from InterVideo Home Theater under Windows XP?
Are there any settings to get the same picture quality?
What DVD software are you guys using?

I've tried DriverCleaner, but to no help: I was still getting a foggy picture. Then I noticed that playback of a previously recorded Tv-show did show a good quality!? So that guided me to the fact that the problem wasn't caused by the Nvidia drivers but perhaps by the InterVideo WinDVD player. Reinstallation of the program completely solved the problem!
Although you didn't provide the answer, thanks for your help anyway Dr. Stu.
JaDi.

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Streaming dvd picture quality vs dvd disk

I was going to download a hd/blu-ray quality movie from itunes to be watched on my big screen tv via Apple TV, but I'm not sure if I will notice a difference in picture quality between that and just watching the movie on my blu-ray player via the actual dvd disk. My router is in the other room, so ethernet connect is not an option.

I've tried DriverCleaner, but to no help: I was still getting a foggy picture. Then I noticed that playback of a previously recorded Tv-show did show a good quality!? So that guided me to the fact that the problem wasn't caused by the Nvidia drivers but perhaps by the InterVideo WinDVD player. Reinstallation of the program completely solved the problem!
Although you didn't provide the answer, thanks for your help anyway Dr. Stu.
JaDi.

IDVD picture quality

Just wondering I just made a dvd from tape on my camcorder which is min dv. The picture quality of the dvd is not as good as when you play the tape onto the TV using the camera. In other word the dvd picture quality is not as good as the mini dv is this normal even when the encoding quality is set to prof. Thanks Rob

.....is this normal even when the encoding quality is set to prof.
The DVD is highly compressed data. so yes the the .dv (or minidv tape) will always look somewhat better than the compressed version.
Hope this helps and good luck.

I am attempting to convert 8mm video cassettes to dvd using a video cassette player, elgato video capture with rca/usb connections to the mac, editing in imovie and burning on idvd. The picture quality is awful. What can I do?????

I am attempting to convert 8mm video cassettes to dvd using a video cassette player, elgato video capture with rca/usb connections to the mac then editing in imovie and burning dvd-r using idvd. The picture quality is awful. What can I do??????

At what point is the video quality bad? Is it bad on capture? I would recommend using an s-video 1394 firewire converter instead. They capture the video at a higher bit rate. If you have a lot of 8mm tapes to capture, invest in a stand alone DVD recorder. They capture and compress in one shot. If you need to rip it back from the DVD into iMovie again, I would recommend using DVDxDV.

Picture Quality Degrades On DVD

I am creating a dvd using photos from i-photo. All the photos are 5meg to 10meg. The pictures look fantastic in i-photo but when I burn them to a dvd the quality of the photo becomes much less. Does anyone know any tricks on how to keep the good photo quality on the dvd. I have tried different quality settings as well as different aspec ratios.

Klaus' method of producing high quality slide show movies/DVDs:
There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, iMovie or iDVD, but they all have one thing in common: they reduce the quality of the photos to that of a movie still frame and sometimes limit the number of photos you can use.
If what you want is what I want, namely to be able to use high resolution photos (even 300 dpi tiff files), to pan and zoom individual photos, use a variety of transitions, to add and edit music or commentary, and to end up with a DVD that looks good on both your Mac and a TV - in other words end up with and end result that does not look like an old fashioned slide show from a projector - you may be interested in how I do it. You don't have to do it my way, but the following may be food for thought!
Firstly you need proper software to assemble the photos, decide on the duration of each, the transitions you want to use, and how to pan and zoom individual photos where required, and add proper titles. For this I use Photo to Movie. You can read about what it can do on their website:
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
(Other users here use the alternative FotoMagico: http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/homevspro/ which you may prefer - I have no experience with it.)
Neither of these are freeware, but are worth the investment if you are going to do a lot of slide shows. Read about them in detail, then decide which one you feel is best suited to your needs.
Once you have timed and arranged and manipulated the photos to your liking in Photo to Movie, it exports the file to iMovie 6 as a DV stream. You can add music in Photo to Movie, but I prefer doing this in iMovie where it is easier to edit. You can now further edit the slide show in iMovie just as you would a movie, then send it to iDVD 7, or Toast, for burning.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how professional the results can be!

How to get good picture quality on a burned DVD slideshow using IDVD?

After producing a slideshow on IDVD from either jpg or psd photos, it looked great when I played the project. Picture quality was excellent. When I burned a DVD to share the slideshow with a friend and when I played this on the same computer, it had lost resolution and looks awful. I am using best quality but this made no difference. On a hdtv using a standard player, the quality is mediocre. Is there any way to get a decent picture quality. I have also burned a DVD and CD from the IPhoto album, and the quality is better. IPhoto will not burn a slideshow or at least I do not know how to. Can you produce decent quality DVD using IDVD or is there a better application to produce decent DVD of photo slideshows?

....or is there a better application to produce decent DVD of photo slideshows?
Yes. It's called DVDSP (apple's top of the line DVD Authoring application). It has a much longer learning curve than iDvd and is more $$$ but it does work well. The Help Menu alone is over 640 pages long. However, is this app significantly better than iDvd solely in terms of visual quality?.... No.
But it does offer many more tools to address visual artifacts on the finished DVD, more audio control, much better control of durations per slide, audio, buttons that work as expected, among other things. (for additional examples of this see chapter 12 of the DVDSP Help Menu / starting on p. 373).
Short of DVDSP, and much less money, you can also try these 2 third party apps which come highly recommended on this iDvd Forum:
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/overview/
At the moment most macs do not yet support burning to Blueray (which does offer much better results). Once this technology is more commonplace, then I believe we will see a significant improvement in what you are trying to do above.
Hope this is helpful but if not just come on back.
Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software products that may be mentioned in this topic. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information above at your own discretion.

Picture quality of DVDs and iTunes HD video on my iMac less than other macn

Hi,
This might be difficult to help with, but I've been concerned about this for some.
The picture quality of DVDs (retail movies) and iTunes HD video look far superior on my mother's and sister's laptops than on my iMac. Even a movie I just recorded off TV looks way better on our old CRT TV than on my Mac.
I can't find any way to adjust settings.
Can anybody help? What info do I need to give to help you help me?
Regards

I'm not exactly sure what you are describing, but you can consider the following...
Laptops have smaller screens, with higher pixel density (smaller pixels). Also DVDs are typically something line 720x480 resolution. When you spread those pixels out on a larger iMac screen, especially one that is 24-inch 1920x1200, it will look less sharp. The screen may be larger, but the quality of the video image stays the same.
A 8"x11" photograph, may look fine at that size. But if you blow it up to poster size, it will probably look terrible.
iTunes HD is usually 1280x720. That should look pretty good on an iMac's larger screen. But if you are comparing (side-by-side) how sharp the same video looks on a small laptop screen, it will look sharper on the small screen with less area and smaller pixels. But if you back up a few feet from the iMac when you are using +full screen+ mode (to TV viewing distance), it should look about the same.
Even a movie I just recorded off TV looks way better on our old CRT TV than on my Mac.
CRT TV's are optimized to show motion, with a technique called interlacing. If you freeze a frame (pause), it will look terrible. Since an iMac's display will not use interlacing, the same video will not look as good, especially when the size is increased. The quality of showing the same video on an iMac will be impacted by the method used to transfer it to the iMac. If it is encoded to a digital format, there will be loss of quality in that process.

Lousy DVD video quality on high res photos!

I need some help. I am new to using iMovie and iDVD.
I just created a 15 minute video with a lot of high resolution photos (anywhere from 1920x1200 to 4256x2828). These photos are sharp and look superb on a computer monitor. Once processed through iMovie and iDVD the photos look terrible - low res noise all over the place - pixels are swimming - when played back on an HDTV with a nice upscaling DVD player. (I've tested on three DVD players - one on my MacBook Pro - all DVD output looks terrible.)
The process I used from iMovie was Share Export to iDVD. While the Share Export to Quicktime output looks great in the native 960x540 playback in QuickTime - even full screen on an HDTV. But quality of what is on the DVD is terrible - particularly at showing the still pictures!
Question: If I want to optimize the image for highest quality DVD playback is there a resolution I should process the photos to with Photoshop prior to importing to iMovie (640x480 for example?) Is this just one factor? What about the method of getting the iMovie product to iDVD - does THAT matter?
How do I get to a quality, hi res. image during DVD playback if I'm using iMovie and iDVD for a slide show?
Note that most DVD players are upscaling to an HD monitor with resolution of 1080i or 1080p.
What is the secret?
Thanks!!
Terry Tigner

Hi
Still just thinking.
What file format was Your photos ? .jpg, .tiff, .psd, .bmp else
Free space on internal boot hard disk way over 25Gb free - I hope.
4x3 SD video standard or 16x9 HD - iMovie project ?
Make a small 4x3 SD DV iMovie project with a few pictires - no Ken Burns
Close iMovie
Open iDVD - import (This should work - if not the problem is more severe)
Here make a DiskImage
Close iDVD
Open the image
Play with Apple DVD-player
How does this play.
as Standar DVD ? If so we have a start to work from.
Else on DVD Quality - Unsorted list of thoughts.
*DVD quality*
1. iDVD 8 has three levels of qualities.
iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality (movies up to 120 min.) - BEST
• Best Performances (movies less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD
• High Quality (in iDVD08) / Best Quality (in iDVD6) (movies up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
2. From
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not selfcontaining, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly eg x1 (in iDVD’08 this can also be set)
This can also be done with (Apple) Disk Util tool.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc).
5. Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW)
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
8. Don’t burn more than three DVD at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while befor next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on:
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JESDeinterlacer3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS: They are plabacked by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD08
Pro Quality (only in iDVD08)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choise)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD08
2. Project info: Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD08.
Region codes:
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes:
1 = US
2 = EU
Yours Bengt W

Significant loss of picture quality in iMovie, what are my other options???

Hello All,
I am new to the Mac world moving over from windows.
Hooking up my dv camcorder (non high-def) to my TV gives a pretty good picture.
If I use iMovie to import from my camcorder and then iDvd to burn a dvd and play the DVD the picture quality is significantly reduced (looks worse than VHS!).
I am reading that this is uncorrectable through any settings available in iMovie or iDVD. This to me is unfathomable!
Being a newbie in the Mac world I don't know what my other options are.
I read about iMovie HD and Final Cut Express but don't know how they position and can I achieve better picture quality preservation.
I want my camcorder picture quality better preserved. I’ve certainly gotten much better results on windows with various packages (but have little experience).
I came into the Mac world believing that this sort of thing is what Mac was great for so a bit surprised.
How do you folks get around such a significant picture quality loss???
My home movies through iMovie and iDVD look embarassing for circa 2009!

I convert my imported dv files to AIC at 1080p before editing.
There is a small quality drop using this approach, I find it acceptable but some others don't.
I have added an original dv movie clip, two exports in different formats of the same clip as prepared in imovie 09 and another of the same clip exported to back to dv as prepared in imovie 6, to a disc image of a DVD created in iDVD.
I don't feel the differences represent the differences some here are reporting they see themselves, see what you think
Source Comparisons (580 MB)

Improving Ibook to TV picture quality?

Hi.
I have tried hooking my ibook G4 with my TV (32" CRT) as an external display using the video adapter and a composite video cable.
Its really only good for viewing pics and video. Web pages and print are unreadable. Is there any way of improving the quality? Is it because of the lack of digital connection or the non-LCD/plasma TV I am using?
Thanks!
- John

If anybody is still following this thread I still haven't quite given up yet! I thought I would just try dragging ten photos out of iPhoto on to the desktop. I then inserted a CD and dragged the ten photo icons directly into the CD icon. Lo and behold when I played this CD, via my DVD player, to my standard definition widescreen TV the picture quality is excellent. It at least has proved to me that it is possible to get good quality TV results from a DVD. The big drawback is that each image takes 3-4secs to scroll down the TV screen which is not acceptable. I presume this is because the method I used has loaded the original full resolution image to the DVD. I thought I would then try 'exporting' the same 10 images to the desktop using the JPEG/MEDIUM/MEDIUM settings and dragging the photo icons to the CD icon exactly as before. When displayed on the TV the picture quality is very poor but of course composes much quicker.
My tiny compact camera can display these original images on TV perfectly adequately and composes the next photo instantaneously. Amazing! I now conclude (probably completely incorrectly) that to obtain a good quality image via DVD to TV the original full resolution image must be used even though the TV itself doesn't need this. Presumably the image data is corrupted if the iMac is used to reduce the resolution. Is there no simple answer to displaying good quality pictures on a TV screen?
regards Malcolm Sheppard

DVD Display Quality for Mac Mini Core Duo

I'm moving from PC to Mac, starting with a Mac Mini Core Duo as a media server.
The spec looks great, but I'm concerned that the CNet review says that on their test machine:
the DVD- and video-output quality was marred by false contouring (banded or splotchy colors), moiré patterns (line distortion), and jagged diagonals
I can't find any mention of this problem in this forum, so perhaps CNet had an early version, or a manufacturing defect, or was poorly configured.
To put my mind at rest, can anybody confirm that the DVD player works fine for them on this system? And if so what exact configuation they have?
Mac Mini Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.6)
PC (Toshiba Tecra) Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Yes, large display - I'm outputting to a Panasonic
AE900 projector and putting up a 90 inches diagonal
picture.
nice setup.. OSX with Front Row is a good platform for HTPC. Unfortunately the picture quality is not as good as what you can obtain with PC's. but it is still plenty good. Then again, if you will watch DVD's only, I would recommend getting an upconverting DVD player (Oppo is a good brand for 200 bucks aprox). Again, check out the avsforums, you'll find plenty of useful info and very helpful people.
Gmas.

Loss of picture quality?

I am making a commercial for class and am having a problem exporting .avi files to the .mp4 files. There seems to be some loss in picture quality. The pictures are darker than in the .avi files. My professor says that theoretically there should be no loss and I just need to adjust my lighting but when looking at the two files side by side on my computer there is a difference. Am I doing something wrong when I am exporting the files or should I expect there to be a difference since the file size is very different? Suggestions would be very much appreciated!

MP4 video that you are importing to FCE is a delivery format that FCE does not handle directly.
It most likely has a smaller dimension size than the HD codec (Apple Intermediate Codec) that FCE works with resulting in soft looking finished video/DVDs.
Knowing your Seqeunce setting would confirm this!!
Right click the Seqeunce icon in the Browser and select item properties for info.
Do the same for a clip in the Browser and get the info.
If you tell us the info about the Sequence and Clips we will be in a better position to assist.
You will most likely get better results by converting your clips to AIC before importing them to FCE.
A search on this forum will provide the details on "how to".
Al

Picture quality deteriorates

I just made three short films on iMovie, which I imported into iDVD and burned to a single DVD. But when I play the DVD, the picture quality is fine for the first few minutes, then deteriorates, the picture becoming pixellated and the text being hard to read (two of these three 'films' are in fact a series of still images with subtitles and music in the background, ie slideshows).
The two slideshows both deteriorate in the same way, but the third film (actual moving pictures) doesn't, although it is shorter at just 3 mins long, the slideshows being 5mins long.
I have to show this film at a big ceremony tomorrow so am getting near panic and would appreciate any help! Thanks.
I recorded the Project on PAL 4:3 Best Quality.

PS I should add that the picture quality is fine when played in iMovie

Computer vs. TV picture quality for iDVD

I'm making about a 10 min sequence using nothing but still images (jpegs mostly) and edited text using FCX to make a slideshow displaying my artwork. My question(s) are when I burn the dvd how does a computer display the movie? when I display my movie while working on my tv the images are cropped about 10% all the way around while on the computer its being displayed the way I want it to be. Also on the tv the images are good quality but on the computer they are not. When all the data from the movie goes on the dvd will it look good as far as picture quality AND NOT be cropped? the cropping on the tv pretty much ruins most of the images since they are perfect on my computer. Thanks

"I suppose I'm slightly screwed if anyone wants to view it on a tv... "
More or less.
"If I want people to view it on a computer since thats whats typically going to happen (color is better, etc) is it going to be cut off or will it look like it does in the canvas? and it will be good quality right?... like looking at the photos through photoshop or something but simply fitting the screen at max. ?"
FCE is a video editor designed to output to interlaced TV/Monitors as opposed to non-interlaced computer displays.
There are big differences in how they work and display images.
In short, if a computer has a decent DVD player (hardware and software) you should pretty much see what you had in the Canvas.

Loss of picture quality - HD Go Pro Camer

I have a go pro helmet cam HD. whe i watch the videos straight off the camera with no editing the picture quality is fantastic. However when i edit the videos in Final cut Express the picture quality goes down. It becomes less clear, and a bit dull. Still good quality but not what the camera actually produces.
How can i edit it to get the quality back?
Thanks

MP4 video that you are importing to FCE is a delivery format that FCE does not handle directly.
It most likely has a smaller dimension size than the HD codec (Apple Intermediate Codec) that FCE works with resulting in soft looking finished video/DVDs.
Knowing your Seqeunce setting would confirm this!!
Right click the Seqeunce icon in the Browser and select item properties for info.
Do the same for a clip in the Browser and get the info.
If you tell us the info about the Sequence and Clips we will be in a better position to assist.
You will most likely get better results by converting your clips to AIC before importing them to FCE.
A search on this forum will provide the details on "how to".
Al

DVD picture quality, Instant-On vs. InterVideo

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