Getting best quality Hi-8 to DVD transfers

I'm getting ready to transfer old Hi-8 home videos to my computer. The camera the video was recorded on is kind of tired. I'm thinking of buying a Hi-8 deck for the project. Does anyone have experience with this? Nicer used decks on e bay with a TBC are a little pricey. I might not mind spending the money if I would get substantial results over a cheaper plain vanilla deck. Also I was told archiving from Hi-8 to i Movie an back to Mini DV would look better than burning to a DVD. Is the format on DVD and Mini DV tape not the same?
I've got a fair amount of experience using both i Movie and Final Cut Express. I'm just not sure about getting the best look I can out of my old video tapes, and I don't have the equipment to do my own comparisons. Thanks for any info. Steve.
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Steve,
You might look into getting a Digital8 camcorder. Many (but not all so be sure to check specifically) will play back old Hi8 and 8mm tapes, doing the convertion to digital on the fly into your Mac. I use a Sony Digital8 and play back my old 8mm and Hi8 analog tapes directly into iMovie 4 without any problems. Probably a much cheaper solution than a dedicated Hi-8 tape deck.
As much as I respect Lennart's opinions and comments, I do have to disagree with his statement that "no principal difference between VHS and Hi-8". I would argue there is about 150 more lines of resolution in Hi-8 tapes (400 lines) over VHS (240-250 lines) and better color.
As mentioned in this thread, DVD is really a display/viewing media, not an archive media. For long term archiving, you want to keep your newly digitized footage in DV format so you want to export to either Digital8 tape, Mini-DV tape, leave it on a hard drive, and/or wait for Blu-Ray DVD drives to become afforable.
I import my old analog tapes, edit slightly the now digitized footage, then make a archive copy back to tape on my Digital8 camcorder. I then also make a DVD version, but that is to have a convienent way to watch out home movies, not as an archive I would want to use later to edit or work from. I will use the digital tape for that.
Patrick

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IMovie '08 option to make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08

Which iMovie '08 option will make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08?
1. Share-Media Browser-Large-Publish
2. Share-Export Using Quicktime
3. Or can you use an unpublished iMove in iDVD?
(Of course I'll have to first get iDVD to open without crashing...)

Which iMovie '08 option will make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08?
1. Share-Media Browser-Large-Publish
2. Share-Export Using Quicktime
3. Or can you use an unpublished iMove in iDVD?
As always, this depends on a number of factors which you failed to cover in your original question.
1) If you source files are SD, other than an increased loss of time in converting you gain nothing in scaling the files up in iMovie '08 only to scale them back down in iDVD. On the other hand, if your source files are HD, then you will likely see a marginal increase in quality which may or may not be worth the price of increased processing time. In this latter case, you are allowing the MPEG-2 compressor to get the most it can out of your file at the P- and B-frame level.
2) Export using QT allows you to customize your output with regard to both compression format and settings. For instance, you can use a codec with extremely high data rate (e.g., VGA dimensions with DV at 28.5-57.0 Mpbs, AIC at 18.0-22.0 Mbps, or even unlimited H.264/AAC at 16.0-20.0 Mbps). High video data rates generally translate to less lost quality during the re-compression process. Thus, if the intermediate file produced by iMovie '08 and passed on to iDVD retains more of its original quality, the MPEG-2 compressor can get more quality out of the final conversion as stated above.
3) Since no physical file actually exists until the project (simply a set of instructions detailing how the final file will be created) is published, there is nothing to be physically sent to iDVD. basically you must create a physical file from the project in order to do anything at all whether sending it to a gallery, iTunes, YouTube, iDVD, etc.

New to 16x9 format, how get best quality when using standard dv footage?

If I am capturing standard NTSC dv footage, and adding standard dimension digital photos, what capture and sequence settings should I use to get best looking 16x9 output? I know I can export as 16x9 and burn a 16x9 DVD in DVDSP, but I was thinking I should capture and edit that way as well to get best quality.
Thus far, I've been editing everything as 4x3 and assuming the tv's these will be shown on will compensate, which is generally true. I would like, however, to give my clients the option of which output option is best for them.

So, a client would have to give me 16x9 raw footage for me to produce a true 16x9 DVD?
Yes.
I know I can't produce HD DVDs, at least not cost effectively, and most people don't have players anyway.
Right. None of us can. The movies from the store or Netflix aren't HD. HD has no current relevance in DVD production (other than as acquisition formats).
I do want their footage to look as good as
possible on those large screen tvs.
If you produce a good DVD it will look good. All the other DVDs that are 4:3 are just that - 4:3. Same with 4:3 television. If they were produced well they should look great on any screen.
1. I'm starting with DV NTSC raw footage, a low-res
codec.
OK.
2. I'm compressing to MPEG-2 to be playable on an
SD-DVD player, a further low res codec.
OK. But you really mean "to be playable on a DVD player".
3. Regardless of what I do, it's going to be
low-res.
Regardless of what you do, the resolution is limited by current DVD technology. That is, in the NTSC world, 720x480 whether it's 4:3 or 16:9.
Does MPEG-2 always look crappy on an HDTV? On a 72dpi SDTV, it looks acceptable. Is there a workaround for HDTV?
Whether or not it looks crappy is subjective. If Hollywood-produced DVDs and SD television look great on it, then it's possible to make it look great.
Your real limitations - the ones you have control over, are:
- quality of camera, glass, and related equipment
- quality of lighting, audio, camerawork, production in general
- recording format (DV ain't the greatest).
- editing format (hint: you don't have to edit in DV)
- quality of editing / editor
- quality of MPEG2 encoding
In your case I think the last one is the most relevant. If you aren't getting acceptable results you may need to learn more about MPEG2 and Compressor.
BTW 72dpi is a print term, it has absolutely no meaning in video.
Further question, if I'm doing a photo slideshow, not DV footage, can I leave it uncompressed or will it convert to MPEG-2 and stink regardless?
To make a DVD movie it needs to be MPEG-2. That's the technology we have. But it doesn't have to stink. The MPEG-2 you use is the same MPEG2 the studios use with movie releases. The technology is the same, the difference is that they have people who really really know how to use it well.
There is a way to make actual slideshows from JPEGs which play from a DVD or CD. I know little about this, but I suspect that the resolution is still limited to 720x480. Someone will correct me if that's wrong. But you don't have to put them through MPEG2 compression.
You may benefit from finding out what 16:9 really means. All it means is that the display is wider. That's all. There is no implication of a quality increase, in fact from DVD playback the 16:9 picture will always appear a little softer than SD if viewed on a widescreen device. That's just the way it is.

What settings do I need to get best quality Word (mac office 2011) to Acrobat 9?

What settings do I need to get best quality Word (mac office 2011) to Acrobat 9?And what is best method, save as from Word, or create from Acrobat?

Thank you Steve! For the benefit of anyone following this thread, if Acrobat tab does not show in Word
This add-in may be disabled in Word. We can try to re-enable it:
=============
1. Open Word program.
2. Click the Office button. Then click the Word Options button.
3. Click Add-Ins.
4. From the Manage dropdown list select Disabled Items and click Go.
5. Check the list for PDFMakerOfficeAddin:
1) If it is listed, then select it and click Enable. Close all dialog boxes and restart the Word program.
2) If it is not listed, then make sure that PDFMOfficeAddin.dll is located in the ‘…/Program Files/Adobe/Acrobat 8.0/PDFMaker/Office’ folder. If the file is missing, then reinstall Acrobat.
For the detailed troubleshoot steps, you can refer to the link below:
http://acrobat.timhuff.net/?p=29

How to get best quality when exporting presentation to dvd?

I have just completed a keynote presentation with 21 slides including various movie clips.
I want to export this to Dvd where it can be played on someone elses computer and then onto a projector.
I have tried exporting it as a Quick time movie and then to idvd, however the quality seems to dimish considerably. The picture is shaky and the resolution seems rather low and grainy.
Could someone tell me how I can get this onto Dvd with the best quality possible. i.e if I change the slide size will this make a difference, or if I make the dvd interactive?
I am a completely new keynote user so I apologise for my ignorance but would appreciate any advice!
Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Thanks David.
I will give that a go. I went to the Mac store on Regent street, and they were really helpful. The guy there advised me to compress the movie in quick time and then export it onto either a flash drive or ipod, which can then be transfered onto any other computer (mac or p.c) which has quick time downloaded on it. This works for me as I needed my presentation to be exported to my bosses laptop P.C.
Sarah

How can i get high quality slideshowpix on my DvD?

Hy everyone,
I tried to make my own video montage using Slideshow of iPhoto, applied Kern Burn effects and Transitions, everything was absolutely fine until imported my project to iDvD and burn my Project on DvD, the quality wasn't as excellent as i expected it to be, i set everything in Encoding as Best Quality, still nothing's happened.
Is there anything that can be done to improve the quality of my DvDs?
Thanks in advance,
any suggestions is much appreciated.
The Beast "MacBook" Mac OS X (10.4.7) The Beauty "2Ghz Intel Core Duo 2GB RAM" Itself

ML:
Any slideshow created in iPhoto and ported (shared) to iDVD will not have as sharp an image quality as those created in iDVD from the stills. That's irrespective of whether you use the KB effect or not. The slideshow gets converted to a Quicktime movie and then in iDVD it's encoded for a second manipulation of the image file. Created in iDVD the stills go thru only one process, the encoding by iDVD.
That being said, you might give a look at Photo to Movie. It's reported to produce better results with the KB effects and general conversion to Quicktime. It also can add text and music. Might be worth playing with the demo version.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.

NEED THE BEST QUALITY QUICKTIME MOVIE FOR DVD! THANKS FOR ANY ADVICE.

I just finished a three minute piece that will be shown on DVD and projected to a sixteen foot screen. I usually just output a self-contained quicktime movie with current settings and then compress with bitvice. While I'm happy with those results, because of the size of this screening, I'm curious whether there might be better options for output to quicktime, such as uncompressed, etc?
I've also heard that I could output as a Jpeg, or a PNG file, but I'd love some advice on what works best and the workflow, as I need to get this done fast and can't really afford the time to experiment.
Any advice would be HUGELY appreciated. THANKS1

I usually just output a self-contained quicktime movie with current settings and then compress with bitvice.
That will provide the best quality ... the quality won't improve over what you had in FCP. Depending on your source media type(s), you may have had a better quality export IF you had edited and rendered with another setting.
-DH

Best quality exporting iMovie to DVD?

Hallo!
I have just finished a movie in iMovie HD 5, and now I am wondering how can I get the best possible quality when converting this project into a movie and then making a DVD?
Specific questions:
1. Which way to export the movie? Export it directly into iDVD, or make a quicktime movie, if so, use "high quality" option or try out the option "custom settings"?
2. When using "custom settings" - which option now? QT movie, MPEG-4?
3. If QT movie - which codec works best? DV, H.264?
3. With the QT movie finished, which program yields the best quality? iDVD, DVD Studio Pro? Toast?
Can someone please help me out here, or at least point me to a website where these options are explained?
thx a lot, Alexander
G5 2Ghz, PB G4 1,67, Sony HX 1000 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Hi Alex,
no conversion needed:
iM works with dv, a dvd has finally mpeg2 - any "inbetween conversion" means loss of quality!
in case, you have many stills in your project, many recommend here NOT to use the export button in iM, but simply drag'n drop the project (that file with a star) onto an open iDVD project, so rendering is done by iDVD......

Best quality to burn a dvd for duplication

Looking for the best way to get the best quality burning a dvd for duplication for resale.
I have iLife09. Its about a 33min video shot with a mini HDdv

Hi
My list on DVD Quality.
*DVD quality*
1. iDVD 08 & 09 has three levels of qualities.
iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality (movies up to 120 min.) - BEST
• Best Performances (movies less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6) (movies up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
2. From
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not selfcontaining, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly eg x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with (Apple) Disk Util tool.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc).
5. Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW)
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
8. Don’t burn more than three DVD at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while befor next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JESDeinterlacer3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are plabacked by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior 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 choise 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
Yours Bengt W

Best Quality too big for DVD. need help

Hi,
I just completed a movie using iMovie. I compressed the movie as a Quicktime file at best quality and it is 6gb. I understand that this is too big for the 4.7gb dvd-r's i have.
I wanted to know the best way to get my movie to fit while still mainting the best possible quality. This project is very important and i need it to be able to play on a home dvd player tomorrow.
I'm using iDVD.
Can somebody please help me out.
Thank you so much

Hi Karl,
first of all: on this forum, my guess is, you are the one with the deepest insight in iMovie (one word: corrupted projects... oops, that was two).
BUT...
My job for more then 20 years is communication, advertisement as an example. make the message in less then 8 words...
Apples says: 60/120 minutes of an iM project fit on a dvd-r.Full stop.
that is from my p.o.v crystal-clear..HOW is this done? easy: make project, click "iDVD" - BOOM! done... to quote the CEO of a small computer company...
people buy cars without ANY idea, what ABS, EPS, etc is, besides HOW it works. they use it. full stop. anyone any idea, what happens, when you push the pedal...? ... when the car DOESN'T accelerate, you realize, you have NO clue...-
funny enough, this forum is CROWDED with people, who don't own a driver's license, but try to explain, the car manufacturer has done big bugs, lots of mistakes, should fix that & this.- you CAN use a car, to boil eggs, iron your shirts and create a painting... but THAT would need a better understanding of how a car works.
topics which are/can not understood lead to what the behaviorism calls "superstitious behavior" - you do some really weird things, because you believe it has any effect....
so, sometimes, less knowledge leeds to better results
(from a communicator's point of view)
I agree, maybe the "help" files should offer an "expert" mode....

What is the best workflow procedure for importing DV SP 16x9 footage into FCP7 and then exporting the best quality 16x9 to standard DVD so that it looks great (or at least good) on a 50" Samsung LCD TV ?????? Please help! anybody?? Thanks!

We are using a Sony HDV-Z7U camera for acquisition. We recently recorded an event using the camera's non HD capabilities. We set the camera to record "DV SP" 16x9 settings on both Mini-DV tape and CF card.
To import the DV SP footage into FCP7 we chose the "DV NTSC anamorphic" setting in the log and transfer settings window. After a successful transfer from the CF card (the CF card held approximately 83 minutes) we checked the size of the file and found it to be 16 Gigs! Why so big? An 83 miniDV tape shot in SD should easily fit on a standard 4.7 gig MPEG2 DVD.
We need to burn DVDs of this show - we sent it to compressor and got horrible quality.
What is the best setting to use in FCP7's log and transfer settings window to import DV SP 16x9 standard def. footage and what is the best method for exporting for outputting this footage to DVD that preserves the original quality of the DV SP footage?? Anyone? Many thanks

> Why so big? An 83 miniDV tape shot in SD should easily fit on a standard 4.7 gig MPEG2 DVD.
No it doesn't. DV is 13GB per hour.
In any case, a Video DVD uses the MPEG 2 codec, not DV.
>What is the best setting to use in FCP7's log and transfer settings window to import DV SP 16x9 standard def.
DV NTSC anamorphic.
>what is the best method for exporting for outputting this footage to DVD...
Use the Compressor DVD preset "Best Quality 90 mins".
>...that preserves the original quality of the DV SP footage?
Not going to happen, you are compressing by a factor of 1:4. Shooting as HDV would have given you better quality material to start with. DV is at the bottom end of the scale.

What are the key features to get best quality printing?

Just head toward the best quality printing company so that they can fulfill your requirements according to your needs.

OK, did you get a chuckle out of that, or are you promoting your business which states we do all kind of custom printing

Best quality for burning to DVD?

I've created a video project for a friend - home movies, scanned family photos, etc., with narration and music. Some of the images are pretty good quality, some not so great, but it's okay. I now want to burn it to a DVD - what's the best quality way to do that? Is there a compression type better for this than others?

Just export from FCE to QuickTime Movie. DO NOT export to QuickTime Conversion if the ultimate purpose is to create a DVD. iDVD or other DVD authoring software will take care of the necessary encoding for DVD.
To save time & disk space, when you export from FCE you can UNcheck the option called "Make movie self-contained." This will create what is called a QT Reference Movie, which you can import into iDVD or other DVD authoring software just the same as any other QT Movie.
One more tip - before exporting your movie from FCE be sure to do the following to actions. This will make your export go more smoothly and help maintain quality overall:
Sequence > Render All > Both and
Sequence > Render Only > Mixdown

What is the absolute best quality xport for a dvd?

I want to export the best quality Movie. Standard definition, 60 minute long movie. Should I go through Compressor, or would a simple FCS-2 Quicktime Xport due, if so then what settings should I put it at. When I bring it into DVD Studio Pro, How do I make it Burn the Best. I'm Just Curious, I usually do a standard quicktime export and I want to make sure I'm not if I can do anything to improve. Thanks!

Welcome to the forum, Cinema. There's a ton of people on here with lots of good advice and experience, so read frequently and if you have any questions do a quick search before posting. You'll probably find the answers.
As far as best export out of FCP, the best is going to be File>Export>Quicktime Movie. This will export your project with the settings your timeline is set to. Any other option is going to compress the project somehow and you'll lose quality.
Compressor and DSP I'm still learning myself, so do some reading on the forum and in the manual (always a good place to look) and see what you can find.
Hope this sets you on the right track.
jesse.

"150 minute Best Quality" should fit on DVD, right?

I just waited 24 hours for Compressor to encode an SD project in "DVD Best Quality 150 minutes 16:9" and it shows in DVD SP as being 5.5 GB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why would it do that????? It won't burn!!!!! Now I have to encode yet again!!!
I just wasted mucho time waiting for a file that SHOULD have fit on a regular DVD.
What am I missing?

Hey I know the feeling it can be really frustrating.
It happened to me once and what I did was I found a good free "DVD calculator" here Before I throw it into compressor I run it through the calculator to make sure it will fit and know exactly what my settings need to be before hand.
So far no problems what so ever since and what is also awesome is that it does BlueRay calculations as well.

Getting best quality Hi-8 to DVD transfers

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