DVD Quality for Slideshow presentation

Morning.
I have created a slideshow in iMovie 09 and followed the standard route to getting this in to iDVD. Once burnt to a DVD the quality is very very poor and unwatchable. The images are high end SLR quality and there is slight quality regression when imported into iMovie 09 which is a shame but manageable. The degregation is when it gets burnt as the slideshow in iDVD09, when viewed pre burn in iDVD its OK. A number of people i have met including a photography is having the same problem. Any help would be appreciated as i am tearing my hair out with this mac when i should get decent results with the out of the box software.
Thanks all Matt.

The difference being that that would have been a data DVD and not a video DVD.
There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, iMovie or iDVD and some limit the number of photos you can use (iDVD has a 99 chapter (slide) limitation).
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, place text exactly where you want it, 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, including adding other video clips, then send it to iDVD 7, or Toast, for burning.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how professional the results can be!
To simply create a slide show in iDVD 8 onwards from images in iPhoto or stored in other places on your hard disk or a connected server, look here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1089

Similar Messages

Poor DVD Quality for slide shows from quicktime

I have generated a slide show in QT and the quality is great. When I try to generate a DVD the quality drops significantly (very disappointing). How do I generate highest quality DVDs especially for slideshows.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You should take all your JPEGs and turn them into 720 x 480, then import them into a program like Final Cut Pro.
Put them all in the timeline.
Add sound or whatever, fades, etc.
Then export it out as a QT Movie, File>Quicktime Movie
Then add this to Compressor or DVD SP.
If you just add a .mov to DVD SP, your bitrates need to be set in the preferences.
DVD Studio Pro > Preferences > Encoding
Try 7.0 average, 7.4 high, 2 Pass VBR, Best
Sometimes fades on photos get messed up with lower bitrates.
7.0 is decent.
Set Compressor up with those settings as well if you are using Compressor.
If you just drag photos into DVD SP, you can do it that way as well, just be sure your preferences for your bitrate is higher.
What you had was pretty low.
Let us know how it goes.

Image Quality for Slideshows

Hello Everyone. I just purchased Photoshop Elements 9 and I have just joined the Adobe Forum. I am an amateur photographer with a challenge. I am creating slideshows for family, and before I go any further, I need to get some questions answered about quality. I have scanned old photos to my computer. I have scanned old negatives to my computer. I have digital pictures on the computer with varying ranges of size and quality. When these are imported into a slideshow program to be put on DVD, what kind of sizing and pixels per inch do I need to use so that when the DVD is played on a TV, (for instance, my brother has a HDTV that is 46"), the quality of the photos remain good for that size of a screen? Another example would be a slideshow of my trip to the desert where I shot a couple hundred photos, and when I made the DVD, some of the images appeared pixelated, and/or noisy. The pictures were shot with a Nikon D50 3008x2000 pixels, 300dpi 24 bit depth jpegsRGB. The size of the original file is 2.78MB. I would appreciate any input on this. Thanks so much. Arthur

Is the image quality improved for slideshows using the new Pro Encoding option in iDVD08? For me, the quality was unacceptable in previous versions
iDVD '08s Pro Encoding mode won't improve things if your total DVD size is under 60 minutes (for a single layer disc) and can use Best Performance mode encoding.
Best Performance uses a encoding bit-rate about as high as a DVD player can handle on playback. The Pro mode advantage will 'kick in' when you have content over 60 minutes. Best Quality simply picks a fixed encoding rate necessary to fit 'standard' content into the space available. The Pro mode will look at your content first and can assign a high encoding bit-rates for content with lots of detail or movement and a lower encoding bit-rate for content with less detail or movement. Pro modes highest encoding bit-rate shouldn't exceed the fxed encoding bit-rate used by Best Peformance.
For slideshows, you must keep in mind that the DVDs we can make today are low resolution devices - NTSC discs are less than 640x480 pixels at best (that's less than 0.3 megapixels) - so your great 10 megapixel digital images MUST loose a lot of detail in the encoding process.
FWIW - I recently made several large slideshows using FotoMagico that I felt gave me better quality than iMovie or iDVD directly. Others like Photo to Movie. Both offer free trial versions.
F Shippey

Best DVD quality for 136 minute project

Hello!
I am putting together DVD's for a show from a local theatre. The runtime is around 136 minutes HD video shot with a Sony HDR-HC3.
I did a rough copy to give to the director and used the 120 minute DVD settings in compressor. The quality was terrible and definitely not what i want for the final project. The HD video looks really good, and i've seen HD to SD DVD's still look pretty darn good on a decent TV.
So what is probably by best option for exporting into DVD Studio? If you need any other details please let me know.
Thanks

what frame rate is your original material and what is the frame rate of your sequence? If your original material is 23.98 fps, make sure you maintain that frame rate thru your workflow. Adding compression markers in fcp around sections that have a lot of movement or are particularly complex may help. Just make sure you include compression markers when you export to compressor.
Also, deleting all renders and sending to compressor from within fcp may give you a bit more quality.
And using a dual layer dvd will allow you to compress at a higher quality. Unfortunately burned dual layer dvd's may not be as compatible as replicated dvds.

Display Quality for slideshows

How do I improve slideshow quality. I am using professional quality settings. I have tried different resolution camera output but it doesn't make any difference. Images are very soft and small. When I create an Iphoto slideshow with the same pics I get a full screen and better resolution. Any ideas?

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.

Help me with picture quality for slideshow.

Hi I'm David and I'm new to adobe elements and video editing and am trying the elements 9 trial.
I'm trying to learn the software and thought i'd start witha a slideshow vid with some holiday pics.
My first and biggest issue i've come across is the pictures quality is really lousy when i have added them to the video. even thought they are fairly fine 8 mp jpg pictures from my digital camera and looks nice when wieving them outside of elements. Why and how do i solve this?
Also i wonder if there is a way to preview the pictures in big size before ading them to the timeline?
Can i change the time lenght shown for many pictures at the same time instead of changing them one at a time?
Will really apreciate help on this matter.
Thx!

Okey I thought that cs5 was the big really proffesional program.
I want to do much more than just slideshow but thought that would be an easy start and i had the fotage already.
I want with more features than moviemaker or similar but having to use another program to not get bad quality pics is not what i expected.
I'll check your tutorials out.
Thx

Poor Image quality of photos that are loaded into imovie 09 for slideshows

I've been scouring through the topics on the subject and cannot seem to find a definitive answer. I use imovie primarily to make photo slideshows mainly for my wedding photography. imovie HD (the 06 version) was/is fantastic. imovie 09 however seems to have a problem coping with the images that are imported. The issue lies with colours, particulary where a smooth colour gradient occurs, also too it seems to struggle with blacks on occassion. It is as if imovie 09 doesn't have enough colours and this 'gradation' is clearly evident on a number of pictures used. All my images a hi res jpeg, some converted from RAW.
In iphoto, photoshop, finder, bridge etc they are 100% fine but the moment they are either dragged from a folder into IM09, or imported via the menu the issue occurs. I have burn't a DVD with these slideshows and the DVD shows the same problem. There must be a problem when the image is brought into IM09 initially, perhaps the downsizing process is too much resulting in a super compressed image, hence this messy colour gradation.
I've even exported to a quicktime movie and they are 100% clean images, but I, prefer the ease of adding music and other features in imovie.
Something is not right and it's a pain. imovie HD 06 is so much better at handling this, I'm not sure what apple have done here. This problem was presented a week after I had my mac book pro 13" at the Australian PMA back in July. Apple guys acknowledged the problem and even used my 'clean images' on several of their macs to confirm a software issue, they said they would pass it up the line but nothing in terms of software updaes have fixed the issue. I'm sure others have encountered the problem. Any suggestions? Help appreciated.

Yup, you are not the only one, its sooo easy to demonstrate. Take any nice photo with some dark gradients, resize to HD resolution, import and export as HD.

Kiosk-type slideshow presentation: suggestions for Keynote alternate app?

I’m looking for some software ideas to accomplish the following task.
I am looking to create continuously-playing slideshow presentations to to play on a flat-screen tv/monitor (~42”) running on an Intel MacMini.
The monitor will be placed in the physician lounge of a hospital and its intended purpose is to be a source of “bullet-point” type information for physicians regarding a wide variety of topics (new drugs added to the hospital formulary, new hours of operation of the outpatient laboratory, etc -- pretty much general F.Y.I. stuff). (There will be no sound).
My current plan is to use Keynote which seems to meet the basic needs of this setup (although I’m not sure you can set it to continuously loop).
I am curious if anyone can recommend any other applications for this purpose. I’m a pathologist (but really a closet graphic designer), and love playing with graphic/multimedia applications. Keynote does the nuts and bolts of what I need -- looking for any recommendations of other applications that might give me more “wow factor”.
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Cannot select a music into slideshow and book slideshow presentations. In the older Mac this was easy. With new Mac OS X 10.6.8 it should work as I can stop the slideshow with cursor but pop up window for choosing music is dead. I cannot drag music into i

Cannot select a music into slideshow and book slideshow presentations. In the older Mac this was easy. With new Mac OS X 10.6.8 it should work as I can stop the slideshow with cursor but pop up window for choosing music is dead. I cannot drag music into it. Preselected music just goes on.

I am talking about iPhoto. In my old Mac even in Books choosing slideshow gives a pop up where you can select a music from I tunes library. In this new one I can stop the slideshow with cursor and it shows music option but it is, as I said dead. Does not response at all to commands.

DVD Quality on the new ZEN for your movies or TV Sh

On SUPER Converter: Format: AVI Video Codec: MPEG-4 Audio Codec: MP3 Resolution: 320x240 Aspect: 4:3/6:9 Framerate: 25 Bitrate: 008 SUPER Converter: http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg.html go to the bottom of the page to download PS. Quality will depend on what video you are putting in, if the video is already in DVD quality then it be in DVD quality jimi Message Edited by jimi36 on 0-3-200703:8 AM

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Quicktime Pro Settings for DVD Quality Streaming to TV?

Hey All,
I have a lot of home movies I've made on my SD camcorder shot in widescreen. I have them all saved in as individual iMovie Project files. In the past I exported from iMovie as Full Quality then went to QP pro and exported them to stream on the web using Video and Audio settings I like.
Now I have connected my Xbox360 to my mac and want to go back into QP and export the files so they can be streamed to my Xbox360 and have DVD quality. I can already watch the videos but they are pixelated because they are obviously in the wrong format.
What QP export settings should I use under Options for Audio and Video on a 16:9 display?
I want DVD quality. On average my videos are 2,3 or 4 minutes long. I assume this solution would also transger over if I ended up getting an Apple TV.
If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!

I would still use the save as method to change the file extension. The default "open with" application for .m4v is iTunes, not QuickTime Player and not all users have installed it. Viewers know what a .mov file is. A .m4v may confuse them.
Use the Export to iPod settings (nearly foolproof) and test the file so you're sure it plays in QuickTime and the iPod.
Next use the Movie Info window to add "Annotations". These can be things like changing the "title", adding copyright notices, artist names and dozens of other things.
Also set the movie "poster frame". This special frame shows as an image when, or if, you decide to use RSS feeds or Podcasts for the file.
Now that you've edited the file you need to save it. A "regular" Save may not preserve the fast start properties. Using "Save As" will restore the fast start feature.
Your viewers can either watch the file in the browser window or click on your other link and choose to save the file to their computer.

Exporting To Highest Quality for DVD

Hi, I'm preparing to send a 12-minute short documentary that I shot on a GL2 to a film festival, and they need to receive it on a DVD. What is the best quality format to export it to (without Compressor)? H.264 as a .mov file? I exported it to .mov file using mp4 compression, but the quality was not nearly as good as I would have liked, but if there's a way to export to a "DVD-quality" image without spending hours exporting H.246, I'll be happy. Thanks.
Intel MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2GB RAM, 2.16GHz CPU

Are they going to play the H.264 file (sending it as a data DVD) or are they going to play it as a video DVD?
If the latter, h.264 has nothing to do with the process.
Export your file from FCP to compressor. Select 60 min best quality and import those files (m2v + ac3) into DVDSP to create the disk.
x

What are the best asset formats to optimise DVD quality?

Hi Guys
Some of my clients have been complaining about the DVD quality they received from me, and I wondered to myself how can I improve in future.
I just want to confirm if these are the best formats for each asset:
1) Video - AVI format (as opposed to MPEG2)? The major irritation I find about AVI is that it eats up lots of disc space, and it takes a lot of time as far as transcoding in encore is concerned.
2) Photos - TIFF format (as opposed to JPEG)? Same story as above regarding disc space.
3) Audio - AIFF format (as opposed to MP3)? Same space problem as the first 2. Furthermore, my major annoyance with WAV files is that you have to know which version of WAV files are the best quality.
Now, I do not what TVs most of my past and future clients own, i.e. a normal 4:3 TV like mine or the 16:9 plasma ones (although the trend these days seem to be LCD TVs). What is the best aspect ratio to use that will work on most TVs?
Also, I use a Sony 30g HDD video camera to record events. I like it since these is no hassle about carrying tapes or DVDs around. But, the problem with the camera is that MPEG2 is the "highest quality" it can record events; my still camera can take jpeg's as the highest quality. And the photos on the DVD look - most of the time - OK in terms of quality. It's only in my last DVD that I built that I saw some of the photos having some sort of problem in the slideshow (something like a water effect on the blazers and shirts of some of the audience - definitely unwanted).
To edit my assets, I use:
1) Power director 6 (for my video). I know you are going to say I should use Premiere Pro. I'm still reading the manual for PPro2 and Ppro doesn't have SVRT like PD6 does.
2) Photoshop elements or Fireworks (for my photos). Photoshop CS2 looks very complex for me at the moment - will learn later.
3) Adobe Audition (for my audio).
All I want is to have the highest quality possible. What's the best advice?
Thanks for all your help guys.

Since you raised the question of Hi8 versus DV tape formats, here are a few thoughts intended partly for you and partly for those who (unlike you) may be planning to get their first camcorder and are wondering about the different formats available.
Hi8 is a second-generation analog format that was marketed starting about 1988 to permit better resolution than the original VHS and Video8 camcorder formats. It was superseded about 1995 by the digital video, or DV, format.
Hi8 produced video of decent quality and was a good capture medium for material that was going to be distributed on VHS or SVHS tape. But the quality of DV is better, and DV has enormous advantages for editing and distribution. In particular, DV has absolutely no "generation loss" when transferring from tape to computer, from tape to tape, or from computer to tape, and it permits sophisticated editing using any one of many "nonlinear editing" applications that are available on PC's or Macs. Once you have edited your video using one of these applications, you may proceed to "author" your DVD's (i.e. add menus, etc.) and they will be of surprisingly high quality.
In mentioning Hi8 you may actually have been thinking of the Digital8 format. This is a format developed by Sony as a bridge between the older Video8/Hi8 world and the DV world. It is logically identical to DV but it uses the same physical tape as Hi8. This tape is now customarily labelled "Hi8/Digital8" to emphasize this fact. Hi8/Digital8 tape is less expensive and reportedly more robust than DV tape.
In principle Digital8 is just as good a format as DV. However, Digital8 has been targeted at a lower end of the market than DV, so even the best Digital8 camcorders may not have as good optics, as good sensors, or as many features as the better DV camcorders.
A few years ago, many people would recommend Digital8 as a very practical format for someone just getting started in video, since it was available at lower price points than DV, was identical in quality as regards format and perhaps better in value as regards camcorders, i.e. Digital8 camcorders were less expensive than DV camcorders of the same quality. Above all, Digital8 was ideal for someone who had previously used Video8 or Hi8, since the early Digital 8 camcorders would play back analog tapes and so could bridge the transition to digital. In fact, by buying or borrowing a second Digital8 camcorder, you could play back your analog tapes from one camcorder and record them as digital tapes using the other camcorder, forever after enjoying the advantages of the digital format.
At the present time, however, DV would be a much better choice than Digital8. Most (or all?) recent Digital8 camcorders have abandoned the ability to play back analog tapes. Only one or two manufacturers are making Digital8, and their offerings have dropped to a handful in recent years. This hardware will quite likely cease to be available in the near future, though the tapes will probably be marketed for years. When your present equipment wears out you would not want to be left with a library of family videos in an unsupported physical format.
In the last few years the DV format itself has been superseded by various high-definition formats, especially by HDV, a format that records to the same physical tapes as DV, at the same bitrates as DV, but, thanks to much greater compression, with twice the horizontal and more than twice the vertical resolution of DV.
Another format using even greater and more sophisticated compression, AVCHD, promises similar quality as HDV with even greater horizontal resolution, although the implementations of AVCHD available now are probably not as high in quality as the best HDV, and are certainly much harder to edit.
Despite the emergence of high-definition formats, there are good reasons for some people to prefer standard-definition DV at this time. One reason is cost. A good HDV camcorder -- the Canon HV20 is probably the best consumer model right now -- is likely to cost $1,000 or a bit more, while good DV models cost a few hundred. A second reason is low-light capability. The imaging chips for high-definition have many more pixels than the chips for DV. If the lenses are the same size, then these pixels must be crowded into a sensor about the same size as that of a DV camera, meaning that each pixel must be smaller and therefore less responsive to low-light conditions. So a good DV camera may be much better in low light than even the best high-definition camcorder of the same size.
Camcorders are now available that record direct to DVD (NOT advisable as John Smith said: the DVD medium is not robust for long-term storage and the necessary MPEG2 compression robs your source video of the quality it would have on tape and is much harder to edit).
Camcorders are also available that record directly to hard disk. Depending on the implementation, and your handiness with computers, thes might be just right FOR SOME USES. In particular they permit much more rapid turnaround between shooting and editing, so they might be right for something that is needed quickly but where archiving is not important (for example, shots of a football team at practice). But (as you have undoubtedly discovered with your 30gig Sony) you must download the material from camera to hard drive when the camera fills up, and this is not as easy as putting in a new tape. Also, the file may not be stored on disk in the relatively uncompressed, and easily edited, DV format. Finally, no hard drive is as safe a storage medium as a tape. With a hard drive and especially with a DVD, you risk losing everything to a crash or scratch; with a tape, you risk at most losing a few frames to a dropout caused by imperfections in the media.
Only you can balance all these factors knowing the type of things you will be shooting, how you will view or share your videos, and what you plan to do with them in the future. Note that DV can be edited together with HDV by many editing programs, though either the quality or the size on screen or both will be noticeably different. Also note that the high-definition formats are all in the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, like the newer TV's, while DV was originally 4:3 and may be available in 16:9 but with the additional width achieved by stretching the same number of pixels and possibly by using a smaller fraction of the imaging chip.
I would recommend that you search for articles and forums about camcorders to learn what is available. There is a lot of information out there. As for me, I would certainly not recommend Hi8, or even Digital8, at this time. Choose DV if you have a pressing reason for it, such as cost or the need to get good images in low light; otherwise make yourself more future proof with HDV or AVCHD. They will produce high-quality DVD's when "downconverted" when capturing them into the computer or when exporting them from the nonlinear editor or authoring program (experiment to find which method is best). Unless you are using AVCHD, which is not a tape-based format, stick with tape (for now) if you are concerned with long-term storage.
Best wishes!

Keynote for Windows Presentation

I have just upgraded to Keynote 3.0.1. I would like to create a slideshow in Keynote for a presentation. The church that will show the presentation uses Windows. I tried last year using Keynote 2, and tried upteen different exports to Powerpoint, but had a variety of issues which are too numerous to mention. So....does anyone know if Keynote 3 has a new solution? Right now I use iPhoto slideshow (which has improved to be honest), but I then have to create a QT movie which obviously loses some of the quality of the images.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

the two biggies for me are soft drop shadows, and images that have transparency placed INSIDE (or as a fill) to a ppt auto shape.
I ran into this second one when I exported a theme I'm working on into PPT 2004. All my photo cutouts are actual Keynote shapes, and I created shadow images that actually sit inside a shape, so you get a nice hard edge on the cutout...but when I opened the PPT file, these shapes (which came over as PPT shapes) which should have shown a shadow with transparency around it ended up with solid white backgrounds.
Then I tried to just use a standard PPT shape and add an image into it, and got the same effect. Transparency INSIDE a ppt shape just isn't supported.
You might also want to look at the transitions and effects to see if they've caught up to Keynote at all.

Adjusting/expanding pic size for slideshow so it is not fuzzy looking

Greetings!
You all have been so helpful to me re: slideshows and I-Movie, I-DVD. Thank you.
I have another question, which hopefully one of you can answer. How does one expand the size of a pic for DVD slideshow to allow for clarity? Some of my pics get so fuzzy when placed in a slideshow.
Thanks so much.
PhotogLuvr01

Hi
As I see it - it falls back to two things
• What kind of photo used - total resolution and in what file format
• DVD Standard - as this is only Interlaced SD-Quality (as on old CRT-TVs) - and if feed progressive material or with a high resolution - Downscaling and Interlacing it can reduce quality in a significant way.
So to get maximum quality on the DVD - I create my SlideShows in FinalCut Pro and Export as full Quality Interlaced SD-quality QT.mov (No QT-conversion what so ever)
see my notes on DVD quality.
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-HD6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project
BUT go via Media Browser and as Medium (or ev. Large) or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
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). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC (29.97fps) - or - PAL to PAL (25fps) when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• 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.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• 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 JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 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 play-backed 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 iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W

DVD Quality for Slideshow presentation

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