Help understanding workflow for best quality.

Greetings.
I've read countless hours on this forum in the effort to understand this extremely complicated subject of getting my video out of my camera and onto a DVD in the best quality possible, and I'm still a little confused.
I'm not recording anything that is particularly high-action, but rather weddings, funerals, (yeah, I know), children's school programs, and my next big project is a seminar with keynote speaker.
I have three Sony HDR SR-11 cameras, which clearly record video as ACHDV and the video signal is 1080/60i (NTSC). I could also record in SD with an MPEG2 file.
I understand the a DVD is only SD at best, and am recording in HD since I have room for the files, and someday we might have better options for the video than we have now.
I started using iMovie, and have iMovie 11, and just love how easy and slick it is to make impressive looking stuff.
Once I import into iDVD to make the cool menus, I use "professional" encoding. I am about to produce a longer video than will fit on a single layer disk, and will be burning to a dual-layer DVD.
I own a copy of FCE, but was overwhelmed when I first started to use it, and on a time crunch for that project, reverted back to iMovie.
How I record events is to set up three cameras from different perspectives and then create a movie from the best angles, switching back and forth. This is a little cumbersome in iMovie, but I've had no trouble except for the date stamp disappearing and having to fix that on my most recent project. (once the date stamp is gone...it's hard to figure out where the clips are that you need for the next minute or two at a time).
I'm about to embark on an effort to market my work professionally, and am clearly working with amateur equipment, and without the time or resources to start all over with a $50K investment, would like to squeak by on what I have, and need to get the best quality possible out of it. Without any question, my market requires the movies to be on DVDs.
I'm most confused by interlacing/deinterlacing issue. I understand what the two are, but not what to do about it, if anything. I notice there is a button to check "deinterlace" in iMovie, and wonder why it's there and if it works and if I should be using it.
What would my specific advantages be, if any, to learning FCE? If a huge difference could be made, I would take the time to learn FCE, and I could lay out another couple hundred bucks for other software, if you had some to recommend that would greatly surpass what I'm doing, in place of iDVD or another intermediary I should be using.
I've been exporting with QT, using the following settings:
Video:
Compression: H.264
Quality: High
Key frame:24
Frame reordering: yes
Encoding: multi-pass
Dimensions: 960x540
Sound:
Format: Integer (Little Endian)
Sample: 44.1 kHz
Sample: 16-bit
Channels: Stereo
Then create menus in iDVD and burn to DVD.
Could you please give me feedback on my process, and try to answer my questions and clear up my confusion? I'd appreciate it so much!
Karen

Does FCE do this with multiple cameras? I'd want to make sure that FCS does it, before I buy it and am stuck with it, especially if FCE will do it and I already have it.
Yes and No
No - Multicamera is a function in FC Pro
Yes - but You do it in a very "Paper-clip" way. Put each Camera on one track ontop of each other
Camera 1 - v-tr 1
Camera 2 - v-tr 2
Camera 3 - v-tr 3
Then schrink the view of each track to 25% with Vireframe and put them into one corner
each (Not the same one)
Move them so that the sync. frame eg a photo flash is on the same time for all three video-tracks.
Now when playing one see the three views in paralell.
THIS demands that all Cameras has a common Sync-point (I use a photo-flash)
AND that no Camera was turned off during uptake.
IT is also important to know if any of the Cameras are sencitive to movements.
My small one is.
So I put mine on tripods !
This recording behaviour is the same if using FinalCut Pro ! Cont. recording and one sync. frame.
Then when playing in FinalCut Express - one use the transparicy tool to make the
Camera visibly that has the best picture.
When done the full movie (by adjusting transparicy - one re-size the Video tracks to 100% and let them fill view.
Now when playback - You see the edited result.
In FC Pro - You set Your Cameras as Multi Camera and set the sync frame. Now it will
in Viewer play (in 25% size) and You just point at the best view trough the movie
and it will assemble in TimeLine. You need not to be especially on target - easily adjusted
with roll-tool (I think) in after hand.
1 hour editing two Cameras takes for me (ME)
• FinalCut Express - about 10 hours
• FinalCut Pro - 2 hours to Capture - 1h15min to edit.
There is a program - CaptureMagic SD (HD) - that let's You copy directly to Your Mac
hard disk - NEED is one FW-port per Camera
(Port is something else than the connectors, My PowerBook G4 has one FW400 and one FW800 connector
BUT ONLY one FW-port - So I need to use a CMA-CIA-card with one FW-connector to get a second FW-port )
This set-up works and I get the material Captured in real-time. Resulting in editing time 1h 15min per hour movie.
Yours Bengt W

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t_hall10 wrote:
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I'm hoping someone can help me to get the best quality DVD for home movies.
I have been editing and putting the movies to DVD for a number of years and the quality has been excellent. but over the last year something has changed and the quality of the final DVD is quite poor (pixalated)
I have tested different settings in both imovie HD and idvd but it hasn't made any difference so far.
I am using the following:
Sony HDR-HC9 handycam (Recording in HDV1080i)
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Hi
As written - dust on lens - first thought
If You made a lot of DVDs in a row (>3 at a time) then there is a risk to burn out/harm the laser.
my list on DVD Quality - read or keep. It's long !
*DVD quality*
1. iDVD 08 & 09 has three levels of qualities.
iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality *(movies + menus up to 120 min.)* - BEST
• Best Performances *(movies + menus less than 60 min.)* - High quality on final DVD
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6) *(movies + menus up to 120 min.)* - slightly lower quality than above
2.Video 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’s Disk Utilities application.
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. 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)
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.
• 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 shortlived 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-layer.
*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 plyback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be playbacked 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 recorde 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 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
*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 eg EnergySaver
• Don’t let HD spinn down or be turned off (in EnergySave)
• 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 screensaver 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

How much video footage can be in movie for Best Quality

I made an IMovie with about 1 hour of video and exported it to IDVD. I added a slideshow with about 150 photos and music - about 15 minutes long. When I went to burn it to a DVD - it would not allow best quality. Why?
Is there a limit to how much video can be procesed as Best Quality?

iDVD encoding settings:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/11417.html
Short version:
Best Performance is for videos of up to 60 minutes
Best Quality is for videos of up to 120 minutes
Professional Quality is also for up to 120 minutes but even higher quality (and takes much longer)
That was for single-layer DVDs. Double these numbers for dual-layer DVDs.
Professional Quality: The Professional Quality option uses advanced technology to encode your video, resulting in the best quality of video possible on your burned DVD. You can select this option regardless of your project’s duration (up to 2 hours of video for a single-layer disc and 4 hours for a double-layer disc). Because Professional Quality encoding is time-consuming (requiring about twice as much time to encode a project as the High Quality option, for example) choose it only if you are not concerned abo
In both cases the maximum length includes titles, transitions and effects etc. Allow about 15 minutes for these.
You can use the amount of video in your project as a rough determination of which method to choose. If your project has an hour or less of video (for a single-layer disc), choose Best Performance. If it has between 1 and 2 hours of video (for a single-layer disc), choose High Quality. If you want the best possible encoding quality for projects that are up to 2 hours (for a single-layer disc), choose Professional Quality. This option takes about twice as long as the High Quality option, so select it only if time is not an issue for you.
Use the Capacity meter in the Project Info window (choose Project > Project Info) to determine how many minutes of video your project contains.
NOTE: With the Best Performance setting, you can turn background encoding off by choosing Advanced > “Encode in Background.” The checkmark is removed to show it’s no longer selected. Turning off background encoding can help performance if your system seems sluggish.
And whilst checking these settings in iDVD Preferences, make sure that the settings for NTSC/PAL and DV/DV Widescreen are also what you want.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1502?viewlocale=en_US

Which method for best quality video?

I am importing analog home movies into iMovie 08 via Canopus ADVC300 (works great). Which of the following methods in iMovie will produce the best quality video when I eventually burn DVDs in iDVD: (1) Share to Media Browser and check "Large", or (2) Export to DV Stream? Or is there some other option I have not mentioned? Thanks for your help!

I agree with most of what has been said here.
Use iMovie 06 instead. I was having the same problem when using iMovie 08. I believe it has to do with how iMovie 08 deinterlaces your video. Even at the highest settings, my videos would look bad once burned to a DVD. At first I thought maybe it was just how the video looked previewed in iMovie, but that wasn't the case. When using iMovie 06, the video looks just like the original DV while editing.
However I have a different opinion regarding DVD media.
I have found DVD+R to be more reliable than DVD-R. The only disadvantage to DVD+R is that DVD players manufacture before 2003 may not play them.
DVD+R disks are better than DVD-R disks because of the increased error correction technique used for the +R type.
DVD+R has a more robust error management system than DVD-R, allowing for more accurate burning to media independent of the quality of the media.
I would recommend Taiyo Yuden DVD+Rs. (I get excellent results using iMovie 06 with iDVD 08.)
If money is no object look at MAM-A DVD+R 4.7GB. Mitsui Gold Archive DVD
Gold archive recordables are high performance discs featuring gold-on-gold construction, which provides longevity and maximum resistance to environmental degregation.

Help understanding workflow for best quality.

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