DVD quality problem

I'm producing training videos and most of it looks good on the final DVD. The exceptions are Camtasia screen movies. I can make them look very clear using the DivX encoder but when played on older DVD players and TVs, the image shakes. Also, if played on a high-end TV (plasma, lcd), the screen movies look fine. All of the on-screen instructor footage is fine. It's just the screen movies that are giving me a headache. I'm very interested in using BitVice and just downloaded the demo version. However, I can't figure out how to export a sequence using BitVice instead of Compreeor. With DivX, I export as QT conversion and choose DivX. That option isn't there for BitVice. So two questions - do you think BitVice can solve the shaking problem and if so, how can I export a sequence using BitVice? btw...I think I need to export the sequence rather than import the BitVice clip directly into DVD SP since I have to syncronize all of the voiceover in FCP. Thanks for any help you can give me on this.
Ernie Horan

Hi saylahv,
Thanks for the reply! I think your idea is a good one and it's a technique I tried a couple of months ago, one that's worked best so far. Unfortunately, it still doesn't meet the quality requirements we need to achieve. I was able to connect my Sony DCR-VX2000 to the pc via s-video, set the camera up as a second monitor, record to mini-dv, and capture to FCP. The limiting factor seems to be the maximum resolution of the second monitor (the camera), so the image quality still isn't as sharp as the image you see on the pc screen. I think this is still a far better solution than using Camtasia and going through all of the conversion steps necessary to get it to the final video (and that hasn't worked yet anyway!). So now I'm wondering if I use the DV in/out jack to connect the computer to the camera (or better yet to the G5 where I can capture everything with Snapz Pro X), would I get the quality I need? I tried that initially and could seem to make it work at all. Since I'm not as familiar with a pc as I am with a Mac, that's not a surprise! Or is there a DVD recorder available with a DV in jack (lots seem to have DV out), so I could record everything happening on the pc screen, burn it to DVD, and use something like Mac the Ripper to rip the mpeg-2 files for use in FCP? All I know is there's got to be a better way to do this than the ways I've tried so far. When I watch tv news, I ofter see screen recordings as part of news graphics, etc. and they always look fine. I guess it's possible they're doing it with the help of a bazillion dollars worth of equipment ... but maybe not. Anyhow, I again thank you for you response and welcome any further suggestions and ideas.
Ernie Horan
Topsham, ME and White Plains, NY
CP 5.1.1 DVD SP 4.1.1
Power Mac G5
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2 GHz
Memory: 4.5 GB
Bus Speed: 1 GHz

Similar Messages

Dvd quality problems

Hi,
I really need some help with this. Spent a very long time editing up a 12 minute movie in iMovie HD. I exported two versions one to as a full quality quicktime .dv file (back up) and one to iDVD. My problem is really poor playback quality in the final burnt dvd particularly titles. I noticed other posts on this and have tried the drag and drop option, the control click shared movies drag and drop and importing quicktime movie, but the problem persists. When I originally exported to iDVD I did click ''ok' to render for iDVD in iMovie ? could that be something? Get perfect playback in iMovie preview and iDVD preview.
The titles I am using are the video terminal, white, courier font.
I would really appreciate some tips on this as I've spent way to long putting this together and have deadline to meet.
Many thanks in anticipation !

Sue,
My monitor is an Apple 20" cin. display and it is on this that I have been viewing the dvd. Not tried on a tv yet, as my dvd player (playstation) doesn't play the dvds. The person I made the movie for is trying it out on dvd player/tv set tomorrow so guess I'll find out from their reaction !
It does actually look ok when playing in a window about a quarter of the size on my monitor.
Having tried a few test disk images using various methods of iMovie export, iMovie file drag and drop and quicktime export (see earlier post) followed by drag and drop and found that the quicktime .mov version produced the best quality text for me.
Regards

AVCHD to DVD quality problem

Recorded 1440x1080 AVCHD 25fps
Imported to FCP using Apple ProRes 422
Export using Compressor using the 'DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes' preset
I get incredibly poor quality on frames with motion. Here is a screenshot of the preview window:
http://gallery.me.com/pkjb/100013/dvd_comp
I have tried adjusting the Frame Control settings but nothing seems to make any difference.
Any ideas?

That is called interlacing. Have you tried watching your DVD on a regular DVD player or in the DVD Player application in OS X?
If you want to get rid of the interlacing, you can deinterlace your video by implementing frame controls in Compressor.
1. Export from FCP using Compressor
2. Apply the DVD preset you want
3. In the Inspector window, click the Frame Controls tab
4. Set the Resize Filter to Better or Best
5. Set Output fields to Progressive
6. Set Deinterlace to Better or Best
7. Uncheck Adaptive Details
8. Hit Submit and give your job a name
Good luck!

Im having problem with the dvd quality, I'm using compressor to convert the video fils from apple prores to mpeg2 .It doesn't matter how long my video is even if its just 5 minutes I'm getting cut edges in the video , does anyone have any idea ?

Im having a problem with the dvd quality, I'm using compressor to convert the video fils from apple prores to mpeg2 .It doesn't matter how long my video is even if its just 5 minutes I'm getting cut edges/lines in the video specialy if i have titles it comes up really bad , I took the same video to a friend of mine who have PC and he uses Encore , did the encoding there and it was just fine no problems! BTW I tried using doferent setings in compressor from CBR and VBR I even pushed up the setings to 8 or 9 BR and still no luck !
does anyone have any idea ?
Thanks in advence ...

Let's focus attention on just the Sony. (What model and what resolution are you shooting?)
For now, I'll assume you're shooting 1080i.
Take a representaive clip into a new sequence. Add a title.
In your sequence, make sure field dominance is set to Upper.
Set render settings to Pro Res 422.
After rendering, export QT self contained.
Import into Compressor (I'm now referring to v3.5).
Select the 90 minute Best quality DVD preset.
Open frame controls and turn on (click the gear icon). Set Resize filter to Best.
Submit burn and check quality on TV.
Good luck.

One Step DVD quality

I have been reading the posts about using IMOVIE09 and then using IDVD. I understand the quality is not great because of IMOVIE09 and the way it does the import.
IS the quality better if I skip IMOVIE and use the One Step DVD option in IDVD directly? I am importing Mini-DV tapes.
Thanks

Hi
IS the quality better if I skip IMOVIE and use the One Step DVD option in IDVD directly? I am importing Mini-DV tapes.
YES !
else on Quality and iDVD - my notes
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-6 - 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. 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 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 - or - PAL to PAL 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 DeaskTop/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 poor.

Created a project in Encore with a MP4 file. DVD quality very poor. Very pixilated. Tried multiple settings. Bitrate etc... Did same project in FCP, 100% clearer.

Joe Video wrote:
Original recording with a JVC HD cam GY HM 650.
1080 60i Quicktime
File directly imported into Premier from SD card.
Edited and saved.
Premier monitor picture quality excellent, even full screen.
Exported – Media - H.264, MPEG 2 DVD, MPEG2, MP4
Results the same.
I even tried importing the original clip from the SD card into Encore and the results was the same.
In the Encore monitor, original layout with monitor small, you can see the pixels and the unclearness of the video.
Not even close to the quality with the Premier monitor
I am using a MAC Pro tower, dual Xeon processors, Apple 27” display.
Thank you again…
What codec is the camera quicktime please? a MOV file is a container, and the source in it could be nigh on anything from AVCHD (unsuitable for editing), Long GOP MPEG, lossless, and anywhere in between.
Besdt approach (in addition to the excellent advice from SafeHarbour) is to import into Premiere and create a new sequence from the clip - this will make sure the sequence settings match the source - and then output (at least this is how I would do it) to an interim SD file first rather than scaling & data reducing at the same time. Use at least an 8-bit file, and I recommend the Aja 2VUY codec.
As to why the difference in the onscreen monitors - are they set up right? I got bitten by this one once, and it turned out the in the hamburger settings (the funny little icon for settings on top right of panel) was set to automatic draft quality......
The biggest problem really is the source - why 1080i please? Will the camera not shoot 1080p?

DVD quality

Sorry for my poor english.
I 've made a 94 minutes imovie (ilife 11) project with my brand new retina.
But when I make a dvd from idvd of the imovie project, I get a bad quality film (worse than before with the old imovie).
I try to save the project for a double layer dvd to avoid compression but I get the same bad quality.
Thanks for your help.
olivier

Hi
There are many layers to this Question - May be You find help here
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-6 - 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. 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 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 - or - PAL to PAL 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 interlaced Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
• iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 - CAN NOT DELIVER THIS any way know - as they all discard every second line when going from Event's to Project's = Can not be mended.
• iMovie HD6 - Can deliver 100% of what any DVD authoring program needs - and so can -
• FinalCut - any version
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 Player: Poor tolerance to less-than-ideal DVD quality?

"Real world" DVDs from rental stores have surface scratches, fact of life AFAIK most DVD players handle most of these fine. (With the odd exception, naturally.) I have had 6 consecutive DVDs that "broken down" on being played using Tiger's DVD Player (10.3.9). At first I blamed the DVD quality, but now I suspect I should be blaming Apple's software for not handling "real world" standards--?
Its a bit hard to believe 6 in a row are faulty, or the store would be getting a rain of abuse. Currently, I'm getting more more DVDs that "break down" than that play right through...
I'd welcome other's experiences: is "normal" for Apple's DVD Player? Do "set top" DVD players perform better? If so, why? Etc, etc.
Basically, I'd like to get the low-down on what's up. I'm thorougly sick of finding my movies "stall" on me, it makes the whole thing pointless after all.

While I could try a cleaner, I'm doubtful that this is the problem: the stalls occur in essentially the same places on replaying the DVD, even after ejecting and re-starting the movie. I would have thought a dirty lens would show a more random pattern of issues--?
(Excuse the very slow reply: I've been trying over a couple of days to post when Apple's forum is actually working for me!)

Bad DVD quality

Imported video as "large" from Sony HDR SR12. burned a DVD using Toast 11. I realize Std def on a 40" LCD is not ideal but I expected better. I have Blu ray and plan to burn HD or BD but some friends do not. Render the movie in Imovie and then burn or import the raw footage into Toast and burn? I tried to increase the Mbps to 7-8 in Toast but that extended my approx 1 hour video to 2 disks needed? I otherwise tried to use the best quality settings. Any tips appreciated!

Hi
May be my notes can give an idea ?
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-6 - 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. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start. (Share to Media Browser and as Large (not HD or other res.) (I never use "Share to iDVD" any version of iMovie)
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 - or - PAL to PAL 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 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
Yours Bengt W

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!

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

I tried watching movies on ZEN using a variety of formats; WMV, XviD and DivX mainly..... I usually placed them in my SD card. By the way, i believe that the loss of the data of the video is not due to file format regardless of the video formats i used, this problem persist.... The video i used is 25 frames/sec, 800kbps for video bitrate and 28kb for audio. this is the usual spec i used. I have also tried using higher bitrate?as well as higher frame speed, but the problem still persist.... The problem only occurs in scenes that are dark.... those scenes in the movie with bright view... the display is fantastic....

DVD Quality - Jumpy

Hi,
In the last 6 months the DVD quality has become jumpy when burning MPEGs to DVD using Premier Elements. Before this it was fine. I purchased a new camcorder but it hasn't improved. When I view the Mpegs on the computer they are fine, however after burning them to DVD and playing it in the DVD player (and a second one to test it), the quality is jumpy like it can't catch up when moving the camcorder. Do you think this is a problem with the computer's DVD burner, the software when compressing it to DVD or something else? I have always saved the movies as MPEG PAL Widescreen then combined several to make the DVD, is this what you'd recommend?

Hi
I haven't changed any of the setting in Premier Elements.
The camcorder is a Sony Handycam DCR-SR78E. Previously I had the DCR-SR52E which used to be fine for creating DVDs until earlier this year when I noticed the jumpiness. That camcorder's LCD lost part of its colour so replacecd it with the 78. I haven't changed Premier elements settings throughout this process.
The files are mpegs which I copy to the laptop using a cable from the camcorder and Windows Explorer to move them around.
Project settings are Editing Mode DV PAL, Timebase 25.00 frames/second. Frame size 720*576 16:9
Playback settings are DV25i (720*576), 24p Conversion method is Interlaced Frame, Desktop Display mode is Standard.
Capture format: DV Capture
Video rendering: Maximum bit depth (unticked), Optimize stills (ticked)
Default timeline: Video 3 tracks, stereo 3 tracks
I've noticed discussion http://forums.adobe.com/message/1753696#1753696 which also uses a Sony camcorder. Could it be the same issue?
Please let me know if you would like any further info.

Quality problem exporting from FCE

Hi,
i have a quality problem exporting from FCE. I have finalized a 30 minute movie and want to send it to friends on DVD or CD-ROM. when i use "export as quicktime movie" the file has 6.5 GB and won't fit on a DVD-ROM. when i use "export with quicktime conversion" and choose quicktime movie with H.264 compression and highest quality the movie goes down to 4.2GB. Now it would fit on a DVD-ROM, but the quality is not good. The picture looks blurred and i see some type of interlace-effect.
which type of export format do i have to choose to avoid the interlace and blurred pictures? is there a magic format that does not cost that much quality and reduces the movie by 30-40%? or would a video DVD work better? how do i create a DVD? with iDVD?
thanks for your help!

or would a video DVD work better? how do i create a DVD? with iDVD?
That's what Id do.
Export as QuickTime Movie (reference file is OK) and drop the export to iDVD.
You will get 1 hour of FCE Timeline on a single sided disc using Best Performance (iDVD setting).
Two hours using Best Quality (iDVD setting)
Al

IMovie and DVD Quality

Hello,
I tried to burn a dvd (iDVD) with 3 short movies (2 min).
- 1 movie imported (as Large) from a Canon HG10 Camcorder (AVCHD) and exported to the media browser (as Large) for iDVD.
- 1 Movie imported from an old Sony minidv camcorder (SD) and directly used in iDVD (.dv file).
- 1 Movie from the same Sony camcorder and exported to the media browser (as Large) for iDVD.
My problem is that once played from the DVD, the quality of the first movie is very poor (not smooth, picture quality, ...). In fact the second one (from SD .dv file) look far better (and actually very good).
How can it be ? I know that you cannot burn HD content on standard video DVD without converting it to SD, but how can the resulting quality be so poor, not even approaching standard quality of an old SD camcorder ? I'm also aware that i didn't import my movie from the camcorder at full quality (1920/1080) but 960/540 should be enough for home DVD quality.
Remarks :
I tried to burn the first movie from the original (and very large) .mov file instead of the media browser file but same problem.
The quality of the third movie was also very poor.
Am I missing something ?

This is very interesting Aaron ... Thank you for the link. I will try this out.
I have a HDD camcorder (MPEG-2) and have been experimenting with different workflows in the past few days, and here is what I found:
*A) Camcorder (MPEG-2) --> iMovie08 --> Media Browser --> iDVD*
Picture is blurried, colors look washed out. Not much, but catches someones eye (ie. my family)
*B) Camcorder (MPEG-2) --> MPEG Streamclip (convert to DV) --> iMovie HD6 --> iDVD (direct export from previous).*
This worked good, and the quality is very close to original, played on TV directly from the camcorder. The only thing I did not like is lengthy process of converting to DV + importing to iMovie HD6. One note here ... When converting to DV in Streamclip, "deinterlacing" setting should be checked! Otherwise, the edges become jagged.
*C) Same workflow as 'A', but prior to importing clips into iMovie08, I changed the quality setting in QuickTime preferences to "Use high quality video setting when available".*
Now, quality wise, 'C' = 'B'! There has been a lot of discussions on this topic, for iMovie08+DV content, but it seems that works with MPEG-2 as well. Perhaps (I'm far from expert) iMovie08, during conversion process (ie. for media browser, or internally) uses some of the QuickTime help, regardless of whch export (share) option is selected. I also noticed a difference in processing time (longer), when preparing the project for media browser. I may be mistaken about my speculations, but difference in quality is very pronounced.
Message was edited by: Milan 011
Message was edited by: Milan 011

Superdrive replaced, DVD-DL problem still exists (sorta)

I have a Mac Pro 2 x 2.66 ghz Intel Xeon - the machine shipped with a SONY superdrive up top, and I installed a Pioneer in the bottom slot.
The SONY drive was able to burn dual layer DVDs - I am using Memorex DVD+DL disks. The SONY drive was NOT able to read the DVD dual layer disks that I burned.
The disks are readable in all other machines in my house (All Macs)
I called Apple, they said this is a known issue, and I needed to swap out my superdrive. I just picked it up from the Apple store and it now has an OPTIARC AD 7170A drive, which I believe is a SONY as well.
I just tried burning a dual layer DVD with the newly replaced drive, and it worked fine the first time, however the verification failed. The 2nd dual layer DVD I tried to burn just plain failed - MEDIUM ERROR.
The drive CAN burn dual layer DVDs, but it CANNOT read them. The drive can read and burn DVDs no problem.
Why on earth would the brand new drive fail to read the dual layer DVDs, but everything else reads just fine???

I had very similar problems with the Sony OPTIARC drive in my 2007 Mac Pro (Intel Xeon, 10.4.11).
I found others having the same problems here with the OPTIARC and some said it was 2nd-rate quality. Also - I never liked the noise it made while burning, sounded "cheap."
I got the Samsung Internal DVD/CD 'Super-MultiDrive' DVD DL/CD w/LightScribe. From macsales.com ($29.95 USD). This unit requires you install Patch Burn (software) but runs fine, no more "coasters" from any format DVD, including DVD-R DL (but never tried DVD+R DL). After testing, bought a 2nd one for the lower bay.
The Samsung unit comes with a plastic front (bezel) which must be removed to fit properly. This is easy & quick: illustrated instructions on the macsales.com website.
I wanted the Lightscribe labeling system: no fuss & bother with design / printing labels. Burn DVD, flip it over, launch Lightscribe, enter text in"Edit mode" - click "Print" and 3-4 minutes later your DVD is labeled.
I do wish I could find a way to get both drives working at once (i.e., labeling two DVDs at once, burning two at once). Otherwise: completely satisfied.

DVD quality problem

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