From AVCHD to iDVD

Okay - I've gone through posts here ad infinitum until I'm thoroughly confused! Without any reference to codecs, muxed audio or deinterlacing, can someone give me a simple workflow to take 1080i AVCHD footage from my camera, edit it, then burn the resulting movie to DVD with the best possible quality (best DVD, that is - I know it won't be HD. Until the whole planet owns Bluray and DVD is dead, I have no need for HD final product).
I have a Canon HF S11 AVCHD hard-drive camera, I'm running Snow Leopard, and I have iMovie 11, iMovie HD, Quicktime 10, Quicktime 7, and iDVD 11. I also have Final Cut Express, but can't even manage to get it to import video, so let's not go there.
I thought getting iLife 11 would finally end my continuing reliance on iMovie HD, but it's not looking that way. I like some of the transition and titling effects in iMovie 11, but I still like the clean and intuitive audio editing aspects of iMovie HD for cutaways and soundtrack creation (the ability to adjust levels, cut, and drag to place with a couple of clicks). I've only used Garageband when I want specific effects put onto soundtracks.
Note: File sizes are unimportant to me. Fast is always good, but I'm used to hours of rendering and dubbing. I don't want fast/low quality. I just want the slickest way to import, edit then output the best possible quality DVD.

I would also recommend Cosmos from Shedworx to archive your original AVCHD files in their native AVCHD format. I finally found this software after hours of reading through posts about converters etc. But I wanted cataloging and asset management and I don't want to store all my footage in the Apple AIC format which takes up 10x the space of AVCHD.
The workflow now is:
1) Import from camera using Cosmos, do basic cutting in trimming of the AVCHD files right there (without recompression, so no losses!)
2) Decide which clips I'm going to use
3) Batch convert only those clips using Voltaic (by the same company) to AIC (or in my case ProRes422)
4) Edit in iMovie, FCE or in my case FCP
5) Burn with iDVD or DVD Studio
Can't believe how hard it was to find an AVCHD management software on a Mac that actually works directly with the AVCHD files themselves.

Similar Messages

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    Hello,
    I know enough about video editing with PE7 to be dangerous, and was hoping someone could help me out.
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    Pixel Aspect Ratio: HD Anamorphic 1080 (1.333)
    and Full HD 1080i 30 5.1 channel:
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    Frame size: 1920h 1080v (1.000)
    Frame rate: 29.97 frames/second
    Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels (1.0)
    But I see no discernable difference in the quality of my output onto DVD.
    This is where my knowledge is lacking...how can I get the best quality output from my AVCHD onto a standard DVD? Is there some format I can convert to first, and then burn to DVD? Also, I am willing to break the footage into a couple of DVDs to improve the quality, but I don't know how or what to do for that.
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    Gina

    Hey Gina,
    This may be a year late, but as I have been pulling my hair out trying to solve this problem for the last 48 hours I finally did find somewhat of a work around, but it requires Adobe PP CS4.2.
    There is a plug-in here:
    http://www.mainconcept.com/site/prosumer-products-4/mpeg-pro-hd-7850/features-7861.html
    Which will actually output your edit as an AVCHD file. You can then burn this straight to an AVCHD using Nero 9 and keep the highquality level of your clips and not need Blu-Ray. The DVD player will need to be AVCHD capable, but I just bought one of those for $40 as compared to the $200+ of most Blu-Ray players.
    Hope that helps.
    Regards,
    DSW

  • How do I move from iMovie to iDvd?

    I am new user to both iMovie and iDvd (both in iLife 09). I have made my first movie in iMovie and it is 1 hour 49 minutes. How do I get the movie to iDvd? I tried Share, iDvd, and it worked away for an hour, then gave me an error message that the movie exceeds maximum content duration? Huh? I saw some postings about that and to change encoding settings, but do not know where those are.
    If I go to iDvd, I thought if I went to Media and iMovie, it should show all movies in there, but my movie does not show up in that area. It is in iMovie in the Project area in both an original and duplicate form. How do I get my movie into iDvd for best quality, what kind of settings do I need, and where do I do that?

    I think I found the answer to my question. According to a message I got in iDvd when attempting to open the movie I was told that I should choose Share, Media Browser. Seems like it should be Share, iDvd, but that is what it says. Also, I found the setting in Preferences for encoding and see I need to make it Professional. Guess I had a misunderstanding of encoding, too. I thought that would not be relevant until burning a cd, but evidently it is involved when taking the movie from iMovie to iDvd.

  • Import files into iDVD from iMovie OR export files from iMovie to iDVD?

    I've been told it is better to import iMovie projects into iDVD (within iDVD) rather than exporting from iMovie to iDVD within iMovie. I was told that iDVD does a better job of rendering things than iMovie. Is this true because this is not the instructions given in the iMovie tutorial.

    Not sure what advice you have been given and how you have interpreted it.
    You are of course referring to im6 here since you can't drag projects from im08 to iDVD.
    I don't make many DVD's anymore and may well be wrong here but I'm not aware that dragging an im6 project to iDVD is any different than using share/iDVD and I'm wondering if the advice relates to exporting from im6 and then importing the exported movie into iDVD which is indeed a different workflow.

  • Trying to add album from iphoto into idvd slideshow.  Not all photos are loading.  Message "creating thumbnail images...(31 remaining).  Been there a long time.  What is wrong?

    trying to add album from iphoto into idvd slideshow.  Not all photos are loading.  Message "creating thumbnail images...(31 remaining).  Been there a long time.  What is wrong?

    Open your iPhoto Library, go to that particular album and verify that you can view the full sized version of each image by double clicking on them.  Report back with the results.
    OT

  • What format to export from FCP for iDVD?

    I am having trouble coming from FCP to iDVD. Material was shot HDV on a Sony Z5 and I downconverted to DV to edit on FCP. I make a Quick Time Movie of the edit (as DV PAL) but the pans are all juddery. How should I export from FCP to stop the juddering on pans?

    http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCDon_a_Macintosh.html#edit_convertMPEG
    BTW, this is the mother of all FAQs here Sadly the FAQ section of the forum decribes just the problem, not any solutions. And searching the forums doesn't always work either.
    ObSig: I don't benefit from the link.

  • Quick Question (re:exporting from iMovie into iDVD)

    Hello everyone!
    I just have a quick question for you all... (I want to see if this is normal - I'm on a deadline and this is kind of freaking me out)
    So, we have a 20 minute or so video in iDVD. It plays fine, etc etc. The goal is to burn it to a DVD.
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    Hi Matt!
    when you export from iMovie to iDVD, does iDVD normally give you any 'heads-up' that it is working? how long does it normally take to open the project in iDVD?)
    Yes, and it's instant.
    What you should see is iDVD opening and asking you to create a new project, It will suggest naming it the same as the iMovie project.
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  • Export from FCE to iDVD, results in black border around movie

    Here is the problem....
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    Thanks for any tips.

    Hi
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    This QT.mov file I import into iDVD from within iDVD.
    Free space on Start-up hard disk
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    Medicine - Start a brand new iDVD project.
    Use of Chapters
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    • NO Chapter-mark at very beginning - iDVD NEEDS TO set this by it self
    • No Chapter marks in or within two seconds from a transition
    (Way around this last one - Export movie as QT full quality and NO Chapter marks
    Import this into a new Movie-project and now You are free to set C-Ms where You want
    them except at very beginning - still)
    Material used to build movie
    • video - I use streamingDV (or convert all other to this e.g. .mp4, .avi, .wmv etc)
    • audio - I use .aiff 16-bit 48kHz or from Audio-CD (44.1kHz) - no .mp3 or direct from iTunes
    • photos - I use .jpg - no .bmp etc
    Problems - then Trash iDVD pref. file and run Repair Permissions - and have a re-try.
    from post ??
    May not be relevant, but I had the same problem with iDVD, where burned DVDs showed a green screen. It was cured by quitting Quicksilver and Quickeys as well as disabling sleep and screen-saving
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  • Slide Show from iPhoto to iDVD

    How do I transfer a slide show from iPhoto to iDVD? I like the effects in the show make in iPhoto, and I don't see anything comparable in iDVD. Thanks.

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  • Importing photos from iphoto into idvd

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    Try this possible solution from acgray on Mac OS X Hints:
    I have worked with many users who like to take iPhoto albums and make DVDs of them with iDVD. However, one very annoying bug (feature?) has to do with the fact that when you are in iDVD, it randomizes the sort order of the Photos in your album. Not only that, but it is painstaking and time consuming changing the order in iDVD.
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    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9159493&#9159493
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    Message was edited by: SDMacuser

  • What is a user parameter list in iMovie? I am trying to sent the movie from imovie to idvd and I keep getting an error with the user parameter list. Help?

    What is a user parameter list in iMovie? I am trying to sent the movie from imovie to idvd and I keep getting an error with the user parameter list. Help?

    Can you give more details?   What exactly is the entire error message text?  there should be an error number too.   Are you trying to finalize this to an external disk?

  • Exporting From FCE to IDVD With Chapters How long

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  • Exporting slideshow from iphoto to idvd /message says" disc is full"

    when exporting slideshow from iphoto to idvd /message says" disc is full" It is a new mac with 2gb extra memory. I have cleared out all extraneous files, so there should be room on the disc. Help, this is a student''s work and would love to help them burn the dvd slideshow.

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    I have cleared out all extraneous files, so there should be room on the disc
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    Regards
    TD

  • Including "Comments" from Iphoto to iDVD

    I am trying to include Comments from Iphoto to iDVD and could use any suggestion on how to do this? I just want to be able to see the copy we have worked so hard to type in next to each photo.

    Export the slideshow to QT and then add the QT movie file to an iDVD slideshow. This will scale the movie file to the TV safe area like it does with still photos avoiding the approx. 10% image loss due to TV overscan on older TV set.
    Another slideshow application to consider is PhotoPresenter which offers over 25 animated themes, some of which are demostrated here.
    OT

  • Can't get a project from iMovie to iDVD to burn

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