HD video to DV IDVD - feeback

for anyone interested, I have just completed my first HD to DV conversion. Here are the results:
G5 1.8 Ghz, OSX 10.3.9, 2GB of Ram
Imovie HD 5.0.2
IDVD 5.01
Imovie lenght 58 minutes
Imovie file size 50 GB
IDVD file size 1.9GB
IDVD processing time 15 hours and 45 minutes (WOW!! - i was worried that the system would automatically shut itself down - It did not and all is well)
Comments : Everything worked pretty much as it does with the normal DV format. Problems with hesitations, stop/start motion started when I erased the original soundtrack and replaced it with music from Itunes (just as it does on long DV Imovies). But, everything worked just fine on finished DVD.
I did find that dragging an Itune causes more synchronizing problems than selecting the option "apply at playhead".
I wish Apple would fix this problem. My Imovies usually last close to two hours, and my DVDs will accept 4.7GB of data. But, because of this problem I end up making two half full DVDS.

Klaus - you are absolutely about locking audio at the playhead - i learned that lesson several years ago and I always do that. It is a must.
I am quite sure that I am not using DRM protected tunes. But, that is a possibility.
My feelings is that the synchronization problem is linked to the number of clip modifications, as well as the number of sound modifictions. I usually discard about 40% of my original video. This means that just about every clip has one or more cut. In addition, I usually import a large number of pictures from Iphoto, and do several clip transitions. My videos are travel reports, and I also add text to many of the clips. I add even more to the system overload by keeping some original sounds. This means that whenever I switch from one sound to another I do a manual sound transition by lowering the volume of both the ending sound and also that of the new starting sound (this causes more splitting and locking at playhead).
I have noticed that Imovies with few changes have few synchronization problems, and that Imovies with many changes start to become unmanageable at around one hour of playtime. I suppose that I should be using FCE and IDVD studio pro. I do have both and have never used them. I only edit movies every few months and found it too hard to understand and remember the intricacies of these advanced program.
The only reason for my original post was share my experience in converting HD to DV. But, thanks for your interest and support.

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Unfortunately, I got the same artifacts/distortion at about the same point in the movie even if I tried a different iDVD theme (same movie length) or tried the output to Vid-TS folders...:-( This seems to point to a bug in the internal conversion to VOB...
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Ok, this time I tested it in playback mode.
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Message was edited by: inthecards

inthecards wrote:
.. Anyone know how to get the same quality of the .mov file ..
a mov can contain all kind of codecs and esp. resolutions..
a videoDVD, by standards, has a 720x480 res, and is interlaced.
=> quality HAS to be 'lower' than any 5Mpix on a HiDef computer screen..
but, I did tons of slideshows with iMHD6 and iDVD.. for me, quality is superb.. for sure, tiny 'checker patterns', 'sub pixel lines' etc. HAVE to flimmer..

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Hi
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do I need to burn it differently to work with a video projector.
No
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We ended up placing a mike next to the speaker on the projector and that worked.
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Any ideas ?
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Sparkley,
Try going to JVC's website, and see if you can get a new manual.
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Read this too:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=165336
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Wavy video problem in iDVD

Howdy.
I'm new to video editing, so please forgive any incorrect use of terms.
I've got a problem with video in iDVD. I'm importing my HDV data from my Canon HV10 (I believe it's 1080 HD) to FC4 Express. I edit, then export to Quicktime movie.
Then in iDVD I create a new project (using the simple interface). Unfortunately, the video has a problem with wavy lines in iDVD. It's fine in Quicktime. Here's a link to a screenshot that illustrates the problem - http://michaelteter.com/images/iDVD_problem.jpg
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Message was edited by: michaelteter

I'm answering my own question for the benefit of anyone else who has had this problem.
The problem appears (no pun intended) to be just a Quicktime rendering problem. When I view an exported movie in Quicktime it opens at max size, which is either the native resolution of the movie I made or as close as it can get given the window border and such. At that resolution there is visible trash that's worse in areas of rapid movement.
Resizing the Quicktime view window smaller changes the way the trash looks. It appears to be some kind of scaling error, as I can affect the amount and type of trash by adjusting the size of the viewing window. If I scale the window to about 1/4 or smaller the trash goes away.
Long story short, I believe this is just some kind of rendering or playback problem. I went ahead and burned a DVD to compare and discovered that the burned DVD video was fine (both on the Mac's DVD player and on an external TV+DVD player).
It's a shame that Quicktime, for all it's expected goodness, appears to have such a nasty problem.

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In some commerical DVDs moving between menus or selecting the movie or extra features will show a brief movie clip or animation before the video plays.
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Hi there,
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I am not familiar with iMovie 08, but I am with the HD6 version. This is the one that you will be able to download using the link provided by SDMacuser.
You can use iMovie HD6 to combine your clips into a movie that will either play straight through or stop at the end of each clip if you wish. First, import your clips into iMovie to create your new movie project. Add audio, titles, effects, etc., and, if desired, chapter markers. Chapter markers will give you the option to advance to different parts of your movie, like a scene selection menu.
From iMovie Help, *Setting Chapter Markers*:
To set chapter markers:
Move the playhead to the point at which you want to start a new chapter.
IMPORTANT: You cannot add a chapter marker to the very beginning or end of your movie. (iMovie HD automatically adds an initial chapter marker at the beginning of a movie.) It's also a good idea not to add a chapter marker within a transition, or within one second of a transition or other chapter marker. If you do so, other applications may have trouble recognizing the chapter markers.
Click the Chapters button, and then click Add Marker.
Tip: To quickly add a chapter marker, you can also choose Markers > Add Chapter Marker.
Type a chapter title next to the thumbnail that appears in the Chapters pane.
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iMac Power PC G4 Mac OS X (10.4.11)

More than 12 videos on an iDVD project?

I have a bunch of short videos in the 20MB range. Wanted to put them on the same DVD, chose one of the simpler themes, thinking it would allow more graphic space on the screen for titles.
Proceeded to click the + and add movies, shrunk the font and moved them around.
The app began complaining around video 11, allowed me to 'temporarily override' the complaint, then absolutely refused to allow me to add video 13.
I know these don't total anywhere near 4GB nor is the aggregate time near 2 hours.
So.. is there any way to continue adding videos - past 12 - to an iWeb project for burning?
thx

The limitation is iDVD's 'themes' design, not the size of the movies in GB. In fact, the limitation for iDVD menu/submenu content itself is the TIME LENGTH of all the content, not the actual GB size. iDVD will compress the data to fit its 4.7 GB single-layer limitation (8.5 dual layer). The actual limitation is 120 minutes for single-layer DVDs (twice that for dual-layer).
You cannot have more than 12 'buttons' on iDVD's main menu. However, you could accomplish what you want in several ways:
1. Place 10 of your videos on the main menu and then select 'Add Submenu' to create a button that would allow navigation to a submenu where you could place the remaining 10 videos
2. Don't place any of the videos on the main menu, but add two submenus and put 10 videos on each one.
3. Other variations of the above pattern: Have 4 submenus with 5 videos on each one, etc......

HD video to DV IDVD - feeback

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