FCE Burn quality vs iMovie

I am looking to upgrade to FCE. One reason is the DVD quality in iMovie is so poor. My DVD's come out dark and with poor resolution. WIll FCE be better?
Thanks

I assume you're using iMovie to edit and iDVD to encode. Is this correct? If so, are you satisfied with the movie quality before it is burned to DVD? If so, your issue is with iDVD rather than iMovie, and FCE will do you no good.

Similar Messages

Burn Quality on IMovie 10

I made a movie and burned onto DV, unfortunately the quality of the playback is poor.
The blacks look like shadows and the pinks are too bright.
When I play the film on the computer it is fine.
Can someone advise where I have gone wrong

You can set the default duration of stills but you have to do it before you start the project.
iMovie is not really suitable for stop motion videos and iMovie 10 is worse than iMovie 9 because the minimum still duration is not really controllable as you have found. I don't have experience of making such videos but there are 3rd party apps which appear more suited to this, for example http://www.macworld.com/article/1146623/stop_motion_Mac.html
mentions some of them, though its a bit old and you may be able to find more up to date information.
Geoff.

FCE import quality vs. iMovie

Is FCE capable of capturing/importing video at an improved quality level than iMovie 6?
I understand the superior editing & functionality aspects of FCE, but am trying to see if using FCE also gives you the ability to produce a higher quality video. FYI, I will be working with a bunch of MiniDV tapes.

I went to FCE because I was disappointed with the DVD final results of iMovie 06 at its best setting (at least what I think is the best). Thinking Imovie was just a poor factory add-on program I got FCE and on my initial tests with the same footage imported then exported through their respective programs, I saw great differences in the picture. Viewed back on a good Panasonic Gaoo 37 inch TV.
Smoke or fog, trees, anything with a lot of detail seemed less vibrant with iMovie.
I am open to opposition on these findings as perhaps something wasn't set right, but to date I have not been able to encode a DVD from Imovie as well as that from FCE
I suppose this is off topic since the question was of import quality, not export.
Cheers

IDVD Burn Quality (Cam iMovie '11 iDVD disc

I'm planning on buying a Canon HF21. During my research I found that the HD camcorder>iMovie>iDVD>Burnt DVD produced a very undesirable, low quality disc when played on a DVD player on an HD TV.
During my research I found plenty of other threads on other sites asking questions regarding quality, but have resulted in a "you can't get BluRay ..." tangent.
I do have a BluRay player and I understand that it takes special software/equipment to "burn-your-own" BluRay. I can play regular DVDs on it and use the built in "up-convert" to improve the quality a little.
I guess the "simple question" is: Can iDVD or another software package burn an SD DVD that is comparable in quality to one that is commercially produced? Again, I'm not looking for a BluRay solution, just a burned disc that doesn't lose quality due to compression, etc.
It seems, according to the other threads, the "weak link" is iDVD. I have just upgraded to iLife '11 if that makes a difference. So, iDVD will work by doing xxxx? or I need to get DVD burning software yyyy?
Thanks in advance.

You seem to have double posted this information.
I will repeat what I told you in the other thread:
Can iDVD or another software package burn an SD DVD that is comparable in quality to one that is commercially produced?
Sure - or very close to it. The limiting factor ISN'T iDVD, it's the video content used. In general, commercial DVDs use very high quality video - well lit. great focus, tripod. etc. It is also carefully processed during encoding.
It seems the "weak link" is iDVD.
DVDs are only standard definition devices as mentioned here many times. It is more likely that iMovie is the weak link in HD video production. MANY people still use iMovie 6 HD because it is the last version that doesn't have interlacing issues with HD content. It you want to know more, check out all the comments in the iMovie forums. There are things you can do in iMovie to make things better - but I want you to understand that iDVD ISN'T the weak link.

How can i improve burning quality of dvd.looks fine in preview on idvd,but final burn quality is poor/

how can i improve burning quality of dvd.looks fine in preview on idvd,but final burn quality is poor.

Had same problem with iPhoto pictures and poor burn quality. Went back to original picture file and dragged images into idvd project from there. Set encoding at professional quality and burned at slowest speed. Got very good result with high quality slideshow when played on TV.
Also tried Old Toad's Aug 30, 2011 advice to get a slideshow into iDVD with transitions, music, etc. from iPhoto.
Again the quaility of the burned CD was very good.

Ken burns cropping in iMovie 9.09 changed with mavericks update. Cant zoom in to a small area....it limits the size now. How do i get back to the old way?

Ken burns cropping in iMovie 9.09 changed with mavericks update. Cant zoom in to a small area....it limits the size now. How do i get back to the old way

These timezone definition changes are fairly common, when viewed world-wide.
For notifying Apple, contact the folks at the Apple Support Center or (if you have access) log a bug report. (The folks at Apple might or might not notice any postings made here.)
For the immediate case, updating the timezones yourself is straightforward; the sequence is basically the same on Linux, OS X, Unix and even OpenVMS. Ugly, but it works. (The US folks got to see this mess first-hand a few years ago, but there are other locations that see these sorts of timezone definition changes far more often.)
For those following along that aren't familiar with this sequence, this old posting should get you close when rebuilding your definitions, though the timezone database has moved to IANA.

How do i burn dvd from iMovie

How do I burn dvd from iMovie. iMac has yesomite installed.

Why is there no iDVD on my new Mac? How do I get it and how do I install it?
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3673
To burn a DVD with iDVD from the latest version of iMovie, you have to export the movie using the Export button and select 480p as the size. Open iDVD and start a new project, then drag that exported movie file into the iDVD menu window, avoiding any drop zones you see.

Tiff or JPEG better quality in iMovie?

Which format gives better quality in iMovie...TIFFs or JPEGs or does it not make a difference?

Thanks for learning, Sue!
QuickTime Pro image format imports are a different Apple than images used in DV editor such as iMovie.
Did you know, assuming you have a very fast Mac or PC, that you can import nearly every major image file format via QuickTime? How about 60 fps screen grabs in .pdf or .png or video formats?
You could, in elementary theory, assemble an HD image sequence?
QuickTime Pro has so much power and it is the basis for such "i"Apps as iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, and the higher end "Pro" apps like Final Cut and Logic Pro.
Apps like Apple "Preview" (an image viewing application) are also built on the core foundation of QuickTime.
PC users still get "Picture Viewer" when they install QuickTime? It is Mac's Preview app now.
QuickTime.
It is so deep into the Mac OS it would be impossible to separate it from the OS.
QuickTime helped develop our Mac "eye candy" experience.
It also helped developers understand the rules. And game developers create such rich graphics.
Even HD TV owes a bit of gratitude to the software engineers behind it.

Loss of quality from iMovie Project to Burned DVD

Hello,
I have read some strings regarding this subject but I'm still left with questions.
I have created a photo collage set to music, in iMovie. It's 12 minutes long, and when I play it in iMovie on my computer, it looks great. All the photos are crystal clear, rich with color, and vibrant in all the right places.
I played the file in Quicktime 10.0 and it looks great.
The info in the Quicktime Inspector is
Format: H.264, 1920x1080, Millions AAC, 2 Channels, 44100 Hz
FPS: 29.97
Data Rate: 20.23 Mbit/s
Current Size: 1549x871
I burned this to a DVD using Toast Titanium (because ever since my iLife '11 upgrade my iDVD hasn't worked past startup. I can't get it to do anything at all.)
Somewhere between the Quicktime movie and the Burned DVD, the movie loses a significant amount of quality. It seems all the colors are washed out. I can see my edits on some of the photos... it looks like crap. To me it looks awful, to others it may not look as bad, but I know the difference. It looks awful.
Can someone please tell me why this is happening and how I can prevent it? All while still using iMovie through this whole process, and Toast for burning?
Thank you so much
YahYah

Hi Ziatron,
The quality workaround I proposed assumes the person starts with a progressive source material. The original poster did as I don't see how you would import true progressive source media and get interlaced artifacts at the end, especially for stills! We are not in the days of the Sony Mavica you know. What you are doing is importing interlaced video and processing it in interlace with a progressive scan workflow. The combing artifacts you saw is from the consumer algorithm that is inherent in iMovie 11. I know iMovie 6HD and FCE or FCP have better de-interlacing algorithms. You can by pass iMovie 11's weakness by treating the interlaced video through a commercial/high end de-interlace software and get better results.
As long as you are working with a progressive source media, then you are not bound by de-interlacing artifacts unless your movie was shot in it. Suffice to say, best de-interlace programs cost money and a lot of computing power. That is not something the majority of computer owners use iMovie possess. I see you have a high end Mac Pro. I also have a high end Quad PC with a high end Nvidia graphics card to utilize its hundreds of CUDA cores for vReveal to eat on. But that's not what the general public of Mac or PC owners have nor what the general public buy during Black Friday or Boxing Day in Canada either. High end Macs or high end Quad PCs go with high end video editing software where the de-interlacing and the encoding and decoding algorithms are much better than the consumer versions.
This is OBVIOUS! Better algorithms will simply slow down any mid-end Macs to mid-end PCs to a low teeny 1-5 fps processing a video clip in H.264 in very very high quality and multiple passes. This is not acceptable to the general public. Which is why, you are also seeing noise artifacts in the workflow too, because you need to first de-interlace the source media and then re-encode to H.264 which obviously adds artifacts to the source before you can use it with iMovie 11, so clearly iMovie 6HD has a clear advantage. This carries over to the final workflow. But most AVCHD material out there is compressed too!
Consumers need to be aware that there is a difference between consumer grade software and commercial grade software. Also, commercial grade software require a hefty computer to do its job reasonably well! People need to understand that just because you own a nice $900 to $1000 camcorder does not mean that your mid-end Mac can deal with it.
Getting quality is so easy. Just spend lots and lots of money on hardware to shave off 15mins to a few hours of video encoding to digital video processing, but at what end because it will never end!
I've seen a few footages floating around on Youtube that looks really good made with iMovie 11. Just keep in mind that there are always tradeoffs for reasonable rendering time vs cost of your computer package.
Message was edited by: Coolmax

FCE export quality worse than iMovie with same settings

Hi, I'm having real problems exporting video from FCE. If I import an HD clip from my Panasonic sd200 into iMovie and export it as a .mov and do exactly the same in FCE using the same export settings, the quality of the exported movie from FCE is much worse than the same from iMovie. I have been struggling with this problem for months and cannot seem to get any sort of decent quality export from FCE (using H264) and spent hours trying different settings.
Also, the colours in the exported videos from iMovie and FCE are less saturated and look really bland next to the same clip in FCE canvas.
Please can anyone help? Even the guys in the Apple shop could not figure this one out.

Sorry the camera is actually a Panasonic HS200.
The native format is .MTS and films in 1920x1080 50i. Imported via iMovie as a .MOV which gives the same quality footage as if I imported via Log and Transfer.
I will expand on the problem I am experiencing. When I export from FCE4 using "QuickTime conversion" I use the following settings:
Codec: h.264 Key Frames: every 25
Frame rate: 25fps Frame Reordering: on
Data Rate Restricted to: 10mbps
Optimised for: Download
Quality: High Encoding: Best quality (multi-pass)
Dimensions: 1920x1080
Deinterlace Source Video: ticked
When the deinterlacing is ticked, the final exported video appears ghosted, with two of the same images projected side by side rather than one on top of the other, creating a very bad image. However when deinterlacing is not ticked the final exported video ends up with horizontal lines across the entire image. This is seen even more clearly when not in full screen.
When I export from iMovie 09, using Share>Export using QuickTime using the same settings as in FCE4 (deinterlacing ticked) the footage is very clear and there is no noticeable ghosting or horizontal lines.
When I export footage from FCE the video also end up desaturated and washed out, with low contrast. The same happens when I export from iMovie, but to an even greater extent!
My 'Easy Setup' for FCE4 is:
Format: Apple intermediate Codec Rate: 25fps
Use: AVCHD- Apple Intermediate Codec 1920x1080i50
These are the problems I experience; described above.
I do no know whether the problem is something to do with my export settings; settings in FCE; or whether FCE exaggerates the quality of my images (which i highly doubt); or if it is because FCE4 is now around 4 years old, and iMovie is from 2009, and therefore has more advanced settings for AVCHD?
I am by no means a professional when it comes to talking video jargon.
Any help is truly appreciated as i have completed over 150 test exports in FCE and the Final Cut experts at the Apple store spent almost 2 hours trying to work something about, but could not think of anything!
Thanks in advance.

Do i lose quality from iMovie to FCE HD

Sorry to clarify that last post i am asking if i connect my camcorder to my laptop and then import the footage to iMovie and then import the clips into FCE HD if i would lose any quality from the video
thanks alot,
Hunter

Hunter,
There is no loss of picture quality but there are some limitations:
- you must render all media to convert it to FCE compatible format
- you can't "recapture" any media that originated in iMovie
- don't throw away the iMovie media files, you may need them again
- iMovie sound effects, titles, transitions, effects or iDVD chapter markers won't import.
I believe if you have a timecode jump FCE will create a new file, but not sure. I recall reading something about this and can't quickly find it.
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 1GB RAM, 60GB + 400 GB

Photo quality in Imovie

I have Imovie HD 6 and Final Cut Express. I am creating the typical slideshow with photos from a digital camera and adding transitions and music, blah, blah.
When I export in each application I get the same quicktime export screen. No matter what I do I get crappy photo quality in the imovie export and amazing photo quality in the FCE export. Are they not both using the same quicktime export? Why is there such a difference in quality?
I did notice that if I render the imovie video as "uncompressed" ir in HD I get ALMOST the same quality as the FCE render on a typical MP4 export.
Just wondering why this is since they seem to both just be using Quicktime to create the compression.

I don't own FPE (or have any "video" camera) but you're mixing apples and oranges when using image formats in "video" apps.
iMovie is a DV editing app and converts your single image into 30 similar files per second (.dv). The same is probably true with FCE but it may be set for "high quality" which may appear better. And the newer option to use MPEG-4 does make a bit of difference.
Neither is appropriate for using still image files because of this conversion.
First rule would be to use the appropriate dimensions for your destination. Standard definition video would be 640X480 and not your multi megabyte source files.
I would add (scaled) the 640X480 sized image to a few seconds of audio (you decide the duration), extract the new video track and then export that as DV Stream (.dv) using QuickTime Pro.
Same as if it came from a DV camera.

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

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

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

"Still" photo quality in iMovie & iDVD

I work with still photographs only. Trying to produce a slideshow DVD that maintains the original quality of the photo. After reading some postings on iMovie & this problem, I took the advice of several photographers & now use FotoMagico. Photo qulaity is execellent as images are not coverted to video as they are in iMovie. Program also allows the transitions & Ken Burns effects available in iMovie. To produce DVD, you must export to iDVD or Roxio Toast to burn DVD. After export to iDVD the images degraded - both on the screen & on the burned DVD & hen played on screen or HD TV. I don't have Roxio Toast. Does Roxio maintain the photo file or covert to video image? Can someone tell me what it will take to produce a DVD from Still photographs that will maintain image quality & offer transitions & title slides?

There is a > Discussion > iMovie > iMovie HD6 going on into which I entered. I posted the following earlier today. I am the entrant with trhe Japanese doll in red, can't miss it.
Have you a set prescription that you use when beginning the Burn to Disc from iDVD. That's where my problem is.
Please read the following and send help soon . . . potis
"My rendering is from iPhoto to FotoMagico. There the album is assembled with all of FoMo's attributes. I find it very user friendly. The blurring of a photo in iPhoto with the Blur adjustment does blur alright and it my instances I get a perceptible lightening of the image. Useable, but not the original. —Cut to the finish. Beautiful rendering in FoMo, so sent to iDVD the 130 photos and music. Beautiful in iMac playback in iDVD. Cannot complain a wink. Burn disc. Play disc, and there are the jaggies on the two buildings, one a church with lots of green and white marble on the facade, the other the Ponte Vechicco shimmering as in a desert as the zoom moves out. The jaggies appear on any horizontal or vertical shape, especially buildings (as noted elsewhere in this forum).
My logic says that if the project plays very well in iDVD and wavers in a DVD burnt from iDVD, that the wavies are introduced in the burn process. I tried recording at Slideshow settings of HD 720p as suggested. No help there.
Another suggestion has been that the digital cameras are ahead of the iMac Dual Core capabilities. I don't know about that. My Pentax SLR does load them in.
For the moment I am eliminating the two dramatic zooms because they are distracting and waiting for a solution which will have to take form outside of my meager experience.
Thanks muchas for your reply.
potis
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7) "

Video Quality in imovie

I am capturing video using a Sony HDR-SR12 Handycam, converting the video using QT in a MPEG4 format, so can use the file with imovie. Once I transfer over to imovie the video quality is very bad. Playing the video out of the camera on to the TV the picture is perfect, also the video seems fine in the Microsoft Picture Browser.
Is this an imovie issue or a conversion issue? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi John
Sorry i don't have the answer, but i'm interested in your question because i have the same kind of issue when i import in iMovie 08, 09 and iMovie HD from my Sony SR10 AVCDH camera.
I just can say that when i export directly from iMovie to iDVD the quality is bad; this seems to be a well known problem and it is recommended to export video using the Quicktime with H264. With that method, i can obtain good quality in the STATIC images, but during the panoramic movements of the camera the final result (i mean a DVD on my cathodic TV) is disappointing, with a "jerky" rendering.
You can download on my iDisk an exemple of it at: http://public.me.com/leclercqpascal
When i compare with the same sequence treated on the PC Sony's software, i find in the latter case a perfectly smooth result.
The problem is the same when i import from the camera to FCE.
Help welcome, because i would be disappointed to resort to a PC software!

FCE Burn quality vs iMovie

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