DVD Playback Quality

My DVD playback (made with DVDSP & Compressor) looks Good on a 27" TV monitor, but when I play it on my 15" Powerbook, many of the images look soft. Why is this? Is there anything that can be done? It seems to contradict the logic of "smaller image=better resolution."
Thanks.

A TV monitor is interlaced whereas a computer monitor is pixel based. A dvd is bound to look good on a TV monitor as the DVD is interlaced as well. NTSC resolution is 720x480. Your computer monitor may have a reolution way above that. Hence the image has to be scaled and hence the softness. Try viewing it without zooming in and you will be quite happy with what you see.

Similar Messages

DVD playback quality problems

I've made a few movie using photos from Iphoto to imovie to idvd.All seems to go smoothly. When I preview it in idvd it looks fine. After burning to a DVD the quality changes.Both on my mac & on my dvd player on the tv.
Let me explain what I mean when I say quality changes.
When a new photo comes out of it's transition it is crisp & clear.... for about 1/2 a second. Then it goes slightly out of focus or fuzzy.
This happens with every photo in the movie.
Is there something I can do to stop this from happening in future projects?
My computer skills are limited at best.
Is it something I'm doing wrong or my settings somewhere?
Any assistance or advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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

Optimizing dvd playback quality (macroblocking problems)- HELP!

Nothing is quite so frustrating as spending countless hours editing, encoding, and authoring a DVD and then discovering that the video has playback issues (macroblocking, digital artifacting, sometimes so serious it halts playback altogether) at some point in the stream.
I feel sure others must have some idea what I'm talking about, and yet I haven't found a thread on this forum or any other that addresses what is really the root cause here. As I figure it, there are a number of factors (variables) at work:
1. the media itself
2. the software used to create the disc (in my case DVDSP 4.0/Compressor usually at the "Best" quality encoding)
3. the hardware used to burn the disc (in my case the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-815 superdrive in my powerbook)
4. the DVD player used for playback
In my experience, a disc might do fine on one player but then have significant playback issues on another. On one occasion I even saw playback perfectly through an hour of video, and then the next day on the same player and the same DVD I got significant macroblocking through parts of it.
What gives!? Are there some DVD-R media that are way better than others? Or do I need to invest in a better drive to burn them? Or is this just the growing pains of emerging technology? Is there some other thread anywhere in cyberspace that addresses this issue?

Hi John
So you're saying that your mpegs are clean and clear of any macro blocking, and this is only introducted once you burn to DVD, and then only on some players, but also a disc that played fine one day on a deck, plays back bad the next day on the same deck.
Man, you've got some serious gremlins at work in your office. Before you pull your system apart, chack you mpegs again. If you're using Compressor 2 with any of the VBR presets you're going to get macro blocking because C2's VBR is not very good - I've not had one successful mpeg out of it. If your project is under 1hr try CBR at 7.5Mbps, that's been working fine for me.
Now, are you encoding your audio to .ac3, or .aiff. If you're using .aiff you might be hitting wall with your bitrate. Your .aiff will have a bitrate of 1.5Mbps, and if your using using a high max bitrate on your vision and you get a bitrate spike which Compressor is also known for then you could be blowing your bit budget (max of 9.8Mbps for vision and audio together), which could result in stuttered playback and freezes.
Next, are you burning out of DVDSP or are you using Toast. Some users report problems burning at higher than 2x speed (personally I burn at the limit of the media and haven't had a problem). As you can't control the burn speed out of DVDSP you might want to try just building in DVDSP and burning in toast at a low speed.
If you're burning from data on an external FW drive try moving it to the HD and try it again.
Try a few different brands of media. Keep it clean and out of the sun.
That's about all I can tell you at the moment - these are all the obvious things , maybe somone else can chime in with some more obscure causes.
Cheers
B

Appalling DVD playback quality

I posted this in the Intel-based iMac forum but was advised iot might be better here.
DVDs play back with loads of image noise and blocks, what handles the decompression as using VLC media player displays the same poor quality as Apple's DVD player. Is there a way of using a better decoder or is this a more serious problem? cheers...rob

Rob, I think you have another problem. I have DVD player 5.0.3 and the playback is great.
I'm not a DVD player expert and you might get better advice posting in the Leopard forums: http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=235
There is also a iMac DVD category: http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1113

DVD Playback Quality G5 vs G4

I have a G4Dual and a G5Dual and two identical monitors. Playing back the same DVD of 3D animation on the G5 shows badly aliased lines (stair stepping) while playing back on the G4 looks perfect. I tested everything, swapping monitors, swapping cables, each computer on each monitor and I am certain that it is the G5 playback. What would cause this?

Check the "Displays" pane in "System Preferences" to make sure both monitors are set to the native resolution and "Millions" of colors.
In the "DVD Player" "Video" menu see if "Deinterlace" is set on both machines.
If that is no help, try the VLC player <http://www.videolan.org>
It has a lot more video settings, so may help in finding what is causing the problem.

Poor DVD playback quality

Hi, I have an iBook G3 500 MHz w/ 256 MB Ram and a DVD-Rom. The drive will accept a CD or DVD fine, but when the program DVD Player opens to play the DVD, I just get a large black window on the screen. If I stop the playback, it will go to the title menu and sit there. If I use VLC to view the DVD, it will play the movie, but seems to be a bit skitterish. The OS is a new install of 10.3.9 BTW. Also, the sound doesn't work properly on the iBook with any application (the built in speakers). I tried an external set of speakers and they work fine, and also swapped out the built in speakers with a known good set and still nothing. Perhaps the two are related? I searched the archives and couldn't find any related threads..
Thanks in advance to all those who offer advice.
...Tom

Does the iBook still have its OS 9 startup volume? Go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and see if OS 9 is available. If it is, select it and start up in OS 9 and see if the speaker problem exists there, also. If so, it points to a hardware issue.
As for the DVD problems, try closing all other applications when trying to watch a DVD. Maximizing the RAM with a 512 MB RAM module may help. With the limited RAM, DVD's may play better in OS 9, as well.
How big is the hard drive and how much space remains available on it?

Problems with playback quality of animated DVD on television

I'm sending a ~20 minute (uncompressed, millions of colors) animation in QuickTime out of Final Cut Express HD in a format of HD-1080i and trying to get a very high resolution DVD for television (HD TV). Before taking the QuickTime video to any DVD writing software the aspect ratio (16:9) is correct and resolution is immaculate.
However, all my efforts to get a super-high resolution DVD of this animation, whether I go through iMovie or only to iDVD have gotten me a lot of written and wasted DVDs in my tests. The resolution is very poor.
QUESTION:
How do I get a very complex animation that requires very intense color and clarity to a DVD for playback on a HD TV using my software? In my arsenal is Final Cut Express-HD vers. 3, iLIfe '06 incl. iMovie and iDVD, Toast (if needed).
Please advise.

HHHMMM….. where to start. First, you can’t possibly
hold yourself to commercial quality unless you have a
commercial budget.
I don't expect commercial quality - just to be able to display the millions of colors and the extreme clarity on any TV and even better still on a HDTV. So far I only can get the quality I seek on a computer display. All my efforts to find a solution for television playback have resulted in a fuzzy and jerky animated feature. Here again I'm not looking for commercial quality - just clear, crisp and smooth.
Hollywood spends millions on
feature films. Compression hardware alone can run
several thousands if not hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Compared to iDVD included in a $79 software
suite? However, even the Hollywood produced DVDs must
rely on the DVD specification and as such, 1080i is
currently lost on them. So your answer to “isn’t iDVD
supposed to write anything I give it” is that if iDVD
takes your QT file (Which BTW, should be in the DV
format) it WILL compress it to a DVD MPEG 2 compliant
file. This means 720x480.
But I don't want any compression other than the final step MPEG2. And after reading this reply today - THANK YOU - THANK YOU - I at least understand now that I can't even use iDVD because it doesn't offer MPEG2 as a compressor.
I have located a mpeg2 encoder program that is shareware and will try to find a formule to use after iMovie HD additions of themes and chapters.
So the first step to take
is to recognize the limitations of equipment and
understand the standards. So now we should examine
the workflow to see if there is anything that can be
done. Other than knowing what Flash is, I don’t know
much about it. Can you select a frame size for doing
your animations? If so, guess what, use the 720x480
frame size. This is what iDVD is going to make it
(again, FCP may offer more options to you but that
isn’t listed in your arsenal).
Final Cut Pro isn't needed for what I'm doing, is it? I have already gotten exquisite playback quality for computers using FCE HD and I'm now trying to get the playback quality on a TV as good as I can get it.
Next, from within FCE,
do not change the settings when exporting via QT. You
want to export it as it is in FCE, you don’t want to
change it. iDVD is expecting a DV file. Any other
file and quality will likely take a hit. Finally, why
DVDs? Flash is typically web based. And computer
monitors have a much higher resolution than a TV.
Flash is generally web based but it can be used to produce a single QuickTime movie if the elements are primarily drawings as my animated feature is. Then on to Final Cut Express all of my imported clips are in QuickTime and thus are already compresssed by QuickTime's excellent compressor. I found that I do not get a good result if I allow any further compression - at least not on computer displays - as long as I export with QT conversion, compression none, millions of colors and specify the size I want it to maintain.
You
could output your Files and serve them up via a data
DVD to be played on a computer. Just curious.
I am already getting excellent playback quality on computers but now I need playback quality on any television because it is not intended only for computers.
Mike
Thanks Mike. You've already been a help in getting me away from iDVD for this project. iMovie may be OK still because its "HD". Got any more suggestions for my situation?

Best quality for DVD playback!

I just finished a film i shot in HDV my sequence properties are:
Vid Rate: 29.97fps
Frame Size: 1440x1080
Compressor: HDV 1080i60
Field Dominance: Upper Odd
what is the best why to export this sequence onto a dvd for maximum playback quality?

Hi there,
1)make sure you export your movie in FCP as QT movie self-contained
2)Import it in Compressor
3)In the Settings tab (lower left window) Open Apple>DVD10 groups>choose DVD 90 minutes best quality and drop that folder on your video (upper left batch window). Compressor will encode your movie as Mpeg2 video an AC3 dolby stereo. In the inspector window you can change a number of settings if you wanted to but, if you are not familiar with Compressor, leave default settings to see if you are happy with the result (take sometime to read the very useful PDF manual that you can find in the main menu>help)
4)Choose destination
5)Submit
G.

Is the DVD playback of poor quality?

I'm still miffed by the quality of the dvd playback. We have dvd players both in a pc, xbox, ps2 and stand along units. Yet somehow the one on my imac looks really rough. Is this more down to the really new hardware? I still have have the same full screen dvd playback glitch on my replaced intel imac so dont know where to turn to.
Sarfraz

I don't think the problem is the dvd player, but the resolution of the monitor. When you stream hi def trailers, it looks awsome. The resolution of the mac monitor is higher than a hi def television. You are not seeing a limitation of the hardware, but the limitation of the source dvd itself. My cable company has some analog channels mixed in with the digital ones and a hi def tv will make a bad picture look worse. The highest settings on hi def tv's is 1080. If you look at the display settings on the mac, you are at 1440. That's a significant difference.

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

DVD Image Quality Problem

I just began using Final Cut Studio and elected to burn my DVD from IDVD as I am not yet comfortable with Sutdio Pro. When I play back my disc on any computer MAC or PC it plays fine. However, when I play it on a set-top DVD player two problems occur. 1) I get occasional brief pilelation in a scene. It doesn't always happen at the same place in the playback. 2). Some of the video scenes (especially those which I have extended by slowing the motion, even thogh I have applied frame blending) tend to flicker. Neither of these problems occur when the DVD is played on a computer/monitor or even when played on a tv monitor using the s-video output from a computer. But both happen on the three set-top players I have tried. Any thoughts. Thanks.
G-5 Quad Mac OS X (10.4.2)
G-5 Quad Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Welcome to the world of authoring DVDs. It is very difficult to troubleshoot the exact problem. For starters, iDVD did its job, it made a DVD compliant disc that plays on a DVD player. It plays better on your computer DVD player for a variety of reasons. Your computer has much more sophisticated hardware/software for DVD playback than does a tabletop unit. It could simply be that a progressive scan tabletop DVD player may give you better results. The point being that two different players can yield different results. Artifacts/ pixilation can be by-products of MPEG2 compression (which is what iDVD does to create a DVD). It is helpful to have a basic understanding of what makes a DVD a DVD. When you record on mini-DV you are recording to an already compressed format. Arguably a very good compressed format but compressed nonetheless. This means information is being tossed at the point you are using the camcorder. iDVD, or any DVD authoring app on any computer, Windoze or Mac, compresses this material even further into the MPEG 2 format for playback via a tabletop DVD player. Now mini-DV has about 30 frames per second (NTSC). MPEG (in a very basic nutshell) takes a picture about twice every 30 frames and uses this as a reference frame and then only records the motion difference between that reference frame and the next time it creates a reference frame. So you go from 30 frames/second to TWO, with motion difference! This is how one hour of DV which is 13 gigs, can be compressed to fit onto one DVD. Two hours would be 26 gigs of DV compressed to one DVD! Hence the general quality difference between one-hour and two. And keep in mind that is compression will show artifacts that may have always been there but you didn’t see until the other 28 frames where tossed out. Slow motion can also be very difficult to encode. I have found that going under 50% slow-motion is problematic. One work around is to create your slow-motion sequence and send it back to tape and then re-import from the tape. Now it is no longer a software effect but an actual 29.97 fps clip. Clips with a lot of motion, quick pans & zooms, hand held shots and so on, will also suffer more artifacts because the whole frame is in motion and thus difficult to encode. Which is why a tripod is recommended to keep the frame steady!
Just some thoughts… welcome to the Discussions!
Mike

DVD playback blurry with Kaffeine/Xine

Hi guys,
I wanted to watch my first DVD under Linux yesterday and I noticed that the image quality is really, really bad compared to watching the same DVD under Windows with PowerDVD.
DVD playback in Kaffeine with Xine engine is really blurry. Does anybody know what the reason could be? There's a lot of options for xine engine parameters in Kaffeine, but I don't have a clue about them. Any tipps appreciated.
I've also tried kmplayer, but the image there has small black horizontal lines in it, which looks really weird. I thinks that's called interlaced, right? I'm a total video noob. ^^
TIA,
Blackhole

[timetrap@darkstar ~]$ mplayer dvd://
MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.2.3 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2060 @ 1.60GHz (Family: 6, Model: 14, Stepping: 12)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
115 audio & 237 video codecs
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.
Playing dvd://.
There are 9 titles on this DVD.
There are 1 chapters in this DVD title.
There are 1 angles in this DVD title.
number of audio channels on disk: 0.
number of subtitles on disk: 0
MPEG-PS file format detected.
MPEG: No audio stream found -> no sound.
VIDEO: MPEG2 720x480 (aspect 3) 29.970 fps 8000.0 kbps (1000.0 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try appending the scale filter to your filter list,
e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
VDecoder init failed :(
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm: libmpeg2 (MPEG-1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
==========================================================================
Audio: no sound
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 720x480 => 854x480 Planar YV12
V: 0.3 2/ 2 ??% ??% ??,?% 0 0
Exiting... (End of file)
[timetrap@darkstar ~]$
For reference I am trying to play: Planet Earth; From the BBC; Disc 4
mplayer VERY briefly flashes up a window then writes Exiting. . .

Freezing within DVD playback

Having searched many forums for a solution to freezing on DVD playback (particularly with DVD players older than about 4 years) without success, I have isolated the issue to layer separation in Encore when building.
The solution I have discovered to get around this is
1. Create your video in Premiere Pro as normal.
2. Export to hard drive using Adobe Media Encoder and set Multiplex to DVD, Bitrate encoding to CBR for better final quality.
3. Import into Encore and create menus etc normally.
4. Build as a DVD Image to your hard drive with the following settings, irrespective of your file size, set size to 4.7GB, this turns off the Layer break options. Then set size to "Custom" then set custom size to slightly larger than you file. Make sure "side" is set to 1.
5. Press "Build". This will build an *.iso file to your hard drive without a layer break being inserted.
6. Import this file into DVD Shrink and shrink back to your hard drive as an *.iso file to fit a single layer DVD.
7. Double click this file to automatically open and burn a DVD using Nero. Make sure burn speed is 4x or less.
Good luck

Bill,
Thanks for posting your solutions.
I've found that three factors affect DVD playback most, and in this order:
1.) choice of media - Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden are highly recommended. Falcon gets good reviews, but is/was only available in US. Have never used it.
2.) burn speed - slower is always better (as you point out). Luckily, Encore allows one to choose a slow burn speed, based on one's selection of media and also the capabilities of the burner. I always buy the slowest media, that Verbatim, or TY offer at the time. I want SLOW.
3.) keeping the bit-rate at about 7MB/s. This one gets debated a bit, and many have never had an issue at 8MB/s - YMMV
Now, my workflow is a tad different, as I always Export from PrPro as a DV-AVI Type II elemental stream (Video-only, no multiplexing obviously) and AC3 DD 5.1 SS Audio-only (or PCM/WAV 48KHz 16-bit, if I'm not doing 5.1 SS with the SurCode encoder). The DV-AVI is Imported into Encore as a Timeline, and the AC3 (or WAV) is Imported as an Asset. The Audio is dragged to the respective Timeline.
Unless I have some real need for bit-budgeting, I let Encore Transcode on Automatic. Even if one uses the above Assets and requires bit-budgeting, you can still set up the Transcoding manually, or can Export from PrPro as an MPEG-2 with the necessary settings. I strongly recommend not using any muxed files as Assets in Encore. Some will work, but many just flat fail.
So far, my method has yielded several hundred Projects with almost 2000 DVD's Burned. Not one has ever come back. Now, each Project gets checked with a DVD RW "test," and then the first DVD -R, or +R gets run through 5 different machines, plus the computer, before delivery, but still no returns, and some of my clients have some pretty old gear. For my testing, I use several brands of players and the models range from a pure esoteric down to a re-branded discount store cheapie. If it plays on all of these, I ship it out the door.
Appreciate the posting of your workflow,
Hunt

How achieve highest playback quality from shared iMovie HDV Project?

I have a Sony HDR-HC9 1080i HDV tape camcorder and I am able to play back HD video to either a Mac computer or to a Panasonic Full HD 1080p TV. Playback quality of unedited HD holiday video footage to TV using HDMI cable and to the computer via Firewire is superb. This excellent playback quality is also preserved in an edited iMovie Project in HDV format 57 minutes long and 48 GB in size which I made from the original 90 minutes holiday video footage.
The problems arose in trying to preserve this high quality when sharing the iMovie Project. Before I bought this HDV camcorder I had a Sony DV tape camcorder and I always used to make an archive tape from an edited DV Project by exporting the iMovie Project back to tape. However, when attempting to do the same with this latest HDV 48 GB Project the computer message informed me that it would take about 43 hours to do this. So that is out of the question!
Next I decided to make a Quicktime movie from the iMovie HDV Project using Full Quality compression via Apple Intermediate Codec (1440 x 1080). This took 12 hours to do! Computer viewing of the resultant 44 GB movie gave excellent image sharpness in still views, but for views of moving objects and also panned footage from the camera, closer viewing showed fine comb-outlining on most objects, but especially on narrow vertical objects. Is this what some of you call "jaggies" and is it an interlacing artifact? Whatever it is it was NOT in the iMovie Project but was introduced by the compression process Project->>Movie. Still worse was the jerky playback of the movie. The "IMovie Inspector" info confirmed that the movie had been made during the compression process at 25 frames per second whereas playback was in the range of only 3 to 10 fps! Previously made shorter Quicktime HD movies have not shown this jerky playback and played at 25 fps. Can anyone explain why this jerky playback occurred with the the longer 44GB movie?
Finally I made a DVD by dragging the uncompressed iMovie HD Project icon directly onto a DVD theme in iDVD and burning. The result was OK on both the computer and on TV but not great. Close viewing on the computer showed an effect which looked like a thin film of water rippling horizontally. This effect also showed in TV viewing of the DVD. Interestingly, this effect was almost eliminated when "Deinterlace" was UNCHECKED in the iDVD player viewing options.
My own conclusion is that the highest quality for archiving and playback is achieved by storing the large edited iMovie HDV PROJECT on an external hard drive and playing it back at full screen size on the Mac computer. In this way the iMovie editing functions such as the Timeline are hidden from view and cause no distraction when watching the superb HDV quality.
IS THERE A BETTER WAY?
Please comment and advise.
Vee Kay

I have a Sony HDR-HC9 1080i HDV tape camcorder and I am able to play back HD video to either a Mac computer or to a Panasonic Full HD 1080p TV. Playback quality of unedited HD holiday video footage to TV using HDMI cable and to the computer via Firewire is superb. This excellent playback quality is also preserved in an edited iMovie Project in HDV format 57 minutes long and 48 GB in size which I made from the original 90 minutes holiday video footage.
The problems arose in trying to preserve this high quality when sharing the iMovie Project. Before I bought this HDV camcorder I had a Sony DV tape camcorder and I always used to make an archive tape from an edited DV Project by exporting the iMovie Project back to tape. However, when attempting to do the same with this latest HDV 48 GB Project the computer message informed me that it would take about 43 hours to do this. So that is out of the question!
Next I decided to make a Quicktime movie from the iMovie HDV Project using Full Quality compression via Apple Intermediate Codec (1440 x 1080). This took 12 hours to do! Computer viewing of the resultant 44 GB movie gave excellent image sharpness in still views, but for views of moving objects and also panned footage from the camera, closer viewing showed fine comb-outlining on most objects, but especially on narrow vertical objects. Is this what some of you call "jaggies" and is it an interlacing artifact? Whatever it is it was NOT in the iMovie Project but was introduced by the compression process Project->>Movie. Still worse was the jerky playback of the movie. The "IMovie Inspector" info confirmed that the movie had been made during the compression process at 25 frames per second whereas playback was in the range of only 3 to 10 fps! Previously made shorter Quicktime HD movies have not shown this jerky playback and played at 25 fps. Can anyone explain why this jerky playback occurred with the the longer 44GB movie?
Finally I made a DVD by dragging the uncompressed iMovie HD Project icon directly onto a DVD theme in iDVD and burning. The result was OK on both the computer and on TV but not great. Close viewing on the computer showed an effect which looked like a thin film of water rippling horizontally. This effect also showed in TV viewing of the DVD. Interestingly, this effect was almost eliminated when "Deinterlace" was UNCHECKED in the iDVD player viewing options.
My own conclusion is that the highest quality for archiving and playback is achieved by storing the large edited iMovie HDV PROJECT on an external hard drive and playing it back at full screen size on the Mac computer. In this way the iMovie editing functions such as the Timeline are hidden from view and cause no distraction when watching the superb HDV quality.
IS THERE A BETTER WAY?
Please comment and advise.
Vee Kay

Exporting from PREMIERE to ENCORE (Correct Settings for crisp and clear DVD playback)

Please help. I have tried exporting a Premiere CS6 movie project to Encore, and when I play the burnt Encore DVD on my DVD player, it plays back fuzzy and it actually bounces. Here is my question: What are the correct Premeire CS6 export settings/ Encore DVD burning settings to get a normal, crisp and clear DVD playback?
This project is due tomorrow!!! Any help is much appreciated!

Export from Premiere as MPEG2-DVD.
Import and burn resulting file(s) in Encore.
You can twerk your Bitrate Settings on export to increase quality.

DVD Playback Quality

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for