I-movie verses I-photo quality questions

I am starting to learn i movie, and while creating a production i noticed that the slide show in i-photo looks beautiful as far as quality goes,but in i-movie the same photos lack the clarity i expect. are they two different beasts,or can i expect more from i-movie?
Also is there any school of thought on wether i-movie is up to the task for creating quality shows on an lcd projector,or should i be getting something else? i want the ultimate resolution show i can do,but honestly this movie stuff confuses me with its limitations. i am supplying i-movie with 6 meg jpg files which i gather is almost to much info for it.

Hello Donald,
You may want to have a look at a Slideshow software package from Boinx; it's called FotoMagico and you can download the software free of charge for a duration of 6 days. They recommend OSX 10.4 and preferably the latest "dual chip" system ! It took me quite some time to understand how the thing worked !!! The "help screen" is only basic; but you get good response from the "Support Team", although there can be some delays in the process.
Because of the limitations of my Computer, I was not able to project the results via a projector or even burn to DVD, but the image quality on my computer screen is superb; you dictate which resolution you want to end up with, including the 16.9 format 1920 x 1080. To modify an image to the format you want is child play. The Audio side has me still puzzled as to how to trim the sound to fit a sequence in a smooth way; it is certainly not to the level in terms of facility and flexibility in use, of that in iMovie.
I think you'll need to spend a fair bit of money for a good projector, probably DLP rather than LCD. I've seen some A/V 1024 x 768 which looked pretty good, but the projector was part of a fixed professional installation.
Keep in mind though that you still can't beat the quality of top quality, sharp slides, projected in the conventional way with top quality optics. On the other hand, video projectors can throw a lot of light onto the screen !
I think you and I are probably demanding a level of quality in video projection which is not quite as yet readily available at a reasonnable price; looking at the latest Sony top of the range porojector, it's on the way, but too expensive for me !
Good luck
jcr
eMac - G4 Mac OS X (10.3.7) 768 MB SDRAM

Similar Messages

Digital Photo Quality Question...

I'm using a Cannon A550 (7.1MegaPixels) set on the highest quality and importing photos into iPhoto. The files on my computer are 3.1MB (3072x2304) when I look at the individual files. Does this sound right or am I loosing quality somewhere?
Thanks...

Nile36,
Sounds good to me, too. Do the math: 3072 X 2304 = 7,077,888 which is pretty close to 7.1 million.
Regards.

Photo Quality Question

Right now I am taking pictures at 2592x1994 resolution and am wondering about developing. When I upload these pictures to the internet, facebook to be exact, the image looks grainy. I assume this is because compressing so many pixels into a smaller image hurts the quality, or maybe its just the file was too big and it had to be dumbed down. Anyway, I am wondering if when I develope these pictures they will look grainy like they do on facebook? Any tips, or what resolution do you use and how well does it work?

trey
What do you mean by 'develop'? Do you mean print?
How are you uploading to Facebook? Are you by any chance getting files from the Data folder in the iPhoto Library Folder? If so, then you are uploading the thumbnails that iPhoto uses to display. The correct way to upload is to select the pics in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export to the desktop. You can then upload it from the desktop. After the upload is completed you can trash the file from the desktop - it's only a copy.
2592 x 1994 should give you good quality prints... depending on the size. What's the dpi at that size?
Regards
TD

Photo quality follow-up questions

I read OT's response to a photo quality question and had some follow-ups I'd like to ask. Aside from cropping photos to 4:3 format does increasing the dpi of the photos have any effect in improving the quality of the final image in iDVD?
I'm making a dvd of family photos for my wife. Some were taken with a digital camera, some are photos scanned by myself and some are photos given to us by relatives that they scanned. I'm putting them together in iMovie, leaving them static - no pans or zooms, keeping the image size at a value of "1", setting the duration at 5 seconds and grouping them by subject using chapter markers so I can get around the 99 photos limitation. (I have over 1500 photos.)
I've already burned on dvd and was disappointed by the "jaggies" on most of the photos when viewed on my cinema display. Haven't looked at the dvd on a regular tv (CRT, not flat screen/digital). The images looked great in iMovie. It occurred to me that increasing the dpi - most were at 72 dpi - to 300 might improve this issue all other things remaining the same. I can do that easily in Photoshop, but was wondering if that would be a waster of time - especially if no improvement would be realized.
Thanks for any thoughts/help that anyone can offer.

iMovie HD 6.0.3 and iDVD 6.0.4
As far as I know - this will give max quality possibly when making a Video-DVD
resolution: 72dpi or 300dpi
depends on size
A small picture 200 x 300 pixels - will be worse than a 1200 x 1600 picture.
Resolution doesn't matter as I see it.
iMovie and/or iDVD will try to scale it to fit - and up or down-scaling
will not be done kindly.
Still using my 2016 × 1512 - usually give good result in iMovie
but if I Share to iDVD (iMovie HD6 6.0.3 or 4) - BAD RESULT
I just close the iMovie project
Drop the iMovie project icon (With a black star on it) into the iDVD application (menu window).
Result best possibly for a Video-DVD - DVD standard is the limit.
Else that determine the final quality on the DVD
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, 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 and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are 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 e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
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). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
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) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before 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 short-lived 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-Player.
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 playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed 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 record 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 JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 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 play-backed 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 choice 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 this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• 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 screen-saver 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
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W

I got my New iPad in the mail yesterday. I imported my photos and videos to make a short movie. The photos had lost all their original quality. Is there any way to import photos without losing quality?

I got my New iPad in the mail yesterday. I imported my photos and videos to make a short movie. The photos had lost all their original quality. Is there any way to import photos without losing quality?

If you mean "optimizing for iPad," no.

Maintaining Photo Quality In iMovie

Question for one of you brilliant guys using iMovie.
I have my movie for the veterans almost finished, but I have a question on maintaining photo quality when publishing or finalizing the movie.
I did a test and exported my movie to hard drive, but the photos have piilation in shaded areas like the photos were taken with a Dollar Store throw away camera. The original photos are good quality. I exported as 720 HD. How can I get the best quality if I want to put the movie on DVD?
Thanks so much.

Sorry for the Typo, I meant "Pixilation, Spottines" generally poor quality

Poor photo quality when importing slide show into Elements 10

Hello,
I'm using Elements and Photoshop Elements 10 on Vista.
What I'm trying to do is import a slide show I made in Photoshop in to a movie I'm making so that the slide show appears as a menu item and I don't have to include a separate disk for the pictures. I've sucessfully imported it, added the menu marker and the disc works, but the photo quality is really crappy. When I play the slide show on its own, the pictures are fine. What am I missing?
Thanks in advance!
Mary

Welcome to the forum.
They work on several levels:
A subscriber comes with a problem/question, and then, hopefully, someone will have an answer
A subscriber comes with a problem/question in mind, and then finds other threads, very similar, and hopefully gets the answer
A subscriber comes to read, to pick up ideas, etc.
In your case, it appears that # 2 worked, just as it should.
As for your question, PrE can produce SlideShows for display from DVD-Video, as good as it gets. Where commercial DVD-Videos enter a different realm, is with Video footage, with motion. There, Hollywood uses special Transcoding software, that allows for many, many more passes to identify the areas of motion, to Transcode at just the right Bit-Rate, for best results. PrE does that with but two passes, unlike the US $ 500,000 programs, staffed by highly-trained experts, who do nothing but Transcoding, all day long. PrE is limited in that respect, but with SlideShows, it will be able to apply the highest Bit-Rate (the DVD-specs. are strict here, so, though higher Bit-Rate = higher quality, DVD-Video can ONLY go so far.) Also, Hollywood uses DVD-9's (DL) so that more Duration can be authored to disc, at the highest-allowed Bit-Rate, for each segment of the Video. With a SlideShow, the Bit-Rate will be as high as the DVD-specs. allow, and per the Duration of the SlideShow vs the capacity of the disc.
Now, there are some other considerations, such as the limited Color Gamut (and Gamma) of DVD-Video vs display on a calibrated computer monitor, or a calibrated Broadcast monitor. One needs to study that limited and different Color Gamut, and perhaps adjust the colors first, in Photoshop. PrE is not designed for Broadcast output, so lacks many of the Tools, that PrPro has. Also, very few PrE users have a calibrated Broadcast monitor hooked up for Color Grading. Last, even if one has produced the ultimate output, with full understanding of the Color Gamut, and used a perfectly calibrated Broadcast monitor, there is no telling what the calibration of the client's monitor (computer, or TV) will be. What is perfect on a calibrated Broadcast monitor might look great on the client's setup, or perhaps not. A Broadcast Engineer can only adjust to standards, and hope for the best, when the disc hits the public. Same for Audio. Who knows what "Aunt Marge" has to play back the DVD-Video?
For ultimate results, I would create a Timeline with a few Still Images, but with each adjusted in slightly different ways in Photoshop. Add a Title, like a Lower-Third, with the Color and Gamma settings over each version, maybe 5 variations, that are slightly different. PS allows one to adjust Colors and Gamma in many ways, so explore. Then, author that Timeline to DVD-Video, using high-quality media, and test on their DVD player/TV setup. See which version looks best, and note the specifics from that Title. Use that to process the actual Still Images for the DVD SlideShow.
Also remember, if one has set things up ideally, they will have calibrated their system and Photoshop. As Photoshop is a Color Managed Workspace, things will be, as good as it gets. DVD-Video, and TV's are NOT Color Managed Workspaces, and most consumer TV's are out of general calibration, having just the generic setting from the factory. Nothing can be done about that.
As mentioned above, if the playback is for a computer (not a DVD player and TV), then better Color and Gamma might be achieved by doing an AV file, and then burning that to a DVD-Data disc, for delivery. However, one still has the variables of the client's computer, its monitor and even the software player used. All play a big role in how that AV file will play for them.
Good luck, and I wish there was an "iron-clad" answer, as to how to achieve the ultimate results, but there are so very many variables involved.
Hunt

How do I move all the photos from the i-photo library on one account to the i-photo library on another account?

I have recently bought a new mac mini running Lion, and yesterday I migrated an account off an older machine running Tiger.
I want to delete the older account from this machine as it is causing some problems with i-cloud, but I want to transfer the photos first and add them to a different account on the new computer.
So my question is How do I move all the photos from the i-photo library on one account to the i-photo library on another account?

Copy the iPhoto library from the old Mac to the Desktop of the new one. Then download the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager, which is now compatible with Mt. Lion, and use it to merge the two libraries into a new, third library. This will preserve the two libraries in case the merged library isn't to your liking.
Here are screenshots of iPLM's coping and merging preferences:
When you're satisfied that the new, merged libraray is complete and working OK you can delete the two earlier libraries.
OT

How do I move Elements 11 photos and catalogue from iMac to new iMac both running Yosemite?

I've been researching best way to move my photos and catalogue from my current iMac to my new iMac. I'm using Elements 11. Both iMacs running Yosemite. I know I need to deactivate the current computer's version of Elements if putting it on the new one runs me over the license limit - I don't think it will. I have read enough to be pretty sure I have to NOT migrate the Elements 11 program to the new iMac because it won't work properly - I'll have to reinstall it from my installation disc on the new iMac. So far, so good.
Now, I want the easiest way to get the photos on the new iMac, in the same folders, and preserve the catalogue and my current ratings on the photos. I am unclear on how the catalogue works with its backup and restore function. Should I move all my photos in their folders in exactly the same locations on my new iMac before installing Elements and trying to restore the catalogue? I read about the ways to restore the catalogue and I am unsure about whether it just looks for the pictures in the places it expects to find them (which will be the same if I copy everything on to the new iMac first), or whether it restores the pictures where it thinks they should be (in which case I should NOT put the pictures on the new iMac before restoring the catalogue or I'll end up duplicating everything). Also I have read - and been confused by - the options about restoring catalogue in new location, old location, etc. I don't want my folders changed. I have my pictures stored where I want them and I want to keep them there - and I'd prefer not to add some extra layer under the basic My Pictures on my iMac.
I have stored the most recent version of the catalogue, with all photos reconnected, on an external drive. All the pictures in the catalogue have their meta-data associated with them. I hope that this will allow me to preserve ratings. Going through thousands of pictures to find the really good ones again is a time-consuming mess. When I went from Windows to Mac 3 years ago - I lost the catalogue and all ratings. When I upgraded from Elements 9 to Elements 11, I lost the catalogue and all ratings. I do NOT want to ever go through that again.

I appreciate your answer and agree that it is correct, but you told me nothing I did not know. There is an Elements technical paper which says this in much greater detail, but still does not answer the questions I was trying to ask.
The catalogue file seems much too small to include my thousands of photos. Are you telling me that it has magically reduced the size of all those photos - from 64 GB to 33 GB, and added the catalogue information - so that the photos will just appear out of nothing but that smaller catalogue file when I restore catalogue? If so, will you explain the options of same location, new location, new location with existing file structure, etc?
I understand installing the program. I understand that I should backup the catalogue (I've done it). I understand I will use restore to restore the catalogue. I found all this on other sites. I need someone, somewhere, to explain to me if I need to copy the photos themselves to their new location before I restore catalogue - or not. And which option in restore to use. I thought I explained this in my original question. Any help on these questions about matters I do not understand will be appreciated.

Photo Quality in iDVD

I work with still photos only. Want a slideshow that maintains photo image quality. iMovie coverts to video file & degrades the quality. Changed to FotoMagico. Maintains photo quality in slideshow & offers transitions, KB effect & title slides. It exports to iDVD or Roxio Toast to burn DVD. After the burn in iDVD, the images are distorted and the transition movements are very choppy. Is iDVD coverting this to video images, thereby degrading the photo quality? Is there a way to use iDVD and maintain quality? Would Toast be better? My goal is to produce a photographic quality "still photo" slideshow using transitions, KB, etc. I am selecting NTSC 4:3, best quality in both programs. Getting very frustrated trying to output the quality I can see on my display in a DVD...any suggestion?

Hi,
I feel like I am back at school...
1. I have the BETA version because when I tried to export or burn a DVD neither worked. They knew that was a problem & sent me the BETA fix. Now I can burn or export.
2. My problem is whatever I do with the burn results in loss of image quality. I have been corresponding with Werner at FotoMagico who has been very helpful. He says image quality from still photos which have been authored & burned can not maintain image quality the technology just doesn't exist unless I go to a pro DVD lab and have them work with compressions per frame. He specifically said it is due to limitations with the MPEG-2 stream, which is standard in DVD playback. The little I have read on this is over my head.
3. Right now I will forgo the idea of playback on a TV. Let's just deal with computer. When I burn to DVD as my option and it opens in iDVD it results in degraded images. I don't know what to select in iDVD and or FotoMagico to change this result or if it is even possible. I run a G5 with a 23" monitor, most current software on ALL prgrams. Picture files are digital froma Nikon D200 and a mix of negative and slides scanned in with a Nikon CoolScan 5000 and moved into iPhoto via the scanner or a transfer from Adobe. I am having the problem with all these types. What do you mean by resolution in iPhoto?
4. I transfer from FotoMagico to iDVD by selecting 'Burn DVD' and it opens to 'iDVD'. I have left all settings on FotoMagico and iDVD at default settings and Werner said that should be okay. FYI - I have tried changing slideshow setting from display reolution to 23" monitor to NTSC. Nothing seems to change image quality.
5. I would like at this point to be able to maintain image quality for transer in Quick time, upload to .MAC web account, etc. Help me there I am lost.
6. Someone on this discussion also suggested burning to iDVD using the data portion only of the DVD using disk utility. I need help there. Also will that reproduce sound or only the photos. I understand that TV's and DVD players will not accept this mode and that is okay until someone figures out a way to maintain image quality for TV w/o an expensive lab.
7. Werner said this is possible but they suggest copying the entire package (document as well as images and audio) and move it to iDVD or Toast. On the target devise install a FOtoMagico demo version & run it there. or if the target machine is not a Mac & FotoMagico can 't be nstalled there, you can export manually to a QuickTime movie by selecting 'export' frpm the File menu. Use 'HD preset or 'QuicltTime' & burn the resulting file to a DVD. My husband & I will work on this (with a tech if nec) and maybe you have some thoughts as well.
At the end of this I think I will know more about video and FPS and MPEg's than I ever intended. Oh well, a little knowledge never hurt anyone!
One last thing, what is a BETA for NTSC. I hate to bug Werner again without knowing what this is!

Losing photo quality

I am creating a movie using both video and still photos. With a number of the photos that I'm importing to the movie (some are scanned jpegs, some are not), I'm losing a tremendous amount of photo quality. They look great in iPhoto, but in iMovie they look terrible. Any suggestions? Thanks.

You'll find lots of useful information in earlier threads discussing this topic. Try searching for "blurry", for example.
Here's one:
Winston Churchill, "iMovie- Pictures become blurry after import" #1, 08:49pm Apr 12, 2005 CDT
Karl

IPhoto library slideshow - to iDVD photo quality

Hi,
i'm new to Mac computers, just got my first one - and I've created a photo slide show with iPhoto and exported/burned it with iDVD with my own menu and everything and all went well, except the photo quality is AWFUL. The pictures are jagged and not as sharp as they appear in iPhoto. I checked and watched the mpeg file it created in order for it to go to iDVD, and that was great - is it the Mpeg2 encoding that is ruining the quality?
I tried creating it in iMovie and it's the same thing.

I am trying to create a project for a client. It is a slideshow with music. Seems simple??? NOPE!
I thought to use imovie and burn it to a CD, but am I crazy?
I have questions and need answers please!
-best program to make a slideshow in with about 150 CD's able to burn onto CDR with music
-have to be compatable with both mac and pc's
-and every time I am importing good quality pictures into imovie they look like crap. pixels gallore and cant seem to make it better.
freaking out a bit, have a deadline...
please help!!!!

The SOLUTION to bad iDVD Photo Quality

I have been a fairly silent member of this forum for a long time now, and have seen many supposed "solutions" with the known issue of how iDVD compresses, and ultimately destroys, image quality in DVDs. Granted, much of this compression is normal, considering a full-quality photo from iPhoto looks quite different after being smashed into the standard NTSC 720x480 format of a DVD and compressed to a variation of MPEG-2. That being said, this workaround has been well-tested, and will give you a very high quality slideshow that you can play on your TV. (take note that low quality TV will come into play in making the final product look bad, not the slideshow itself!)
NOTE: I only tested this in iPhoto 6/iDVD 6 on a 10.4.8 PowerMac G5. I would love to get confirmation it works on Intel Macs and other machines.
1. Select an album or group of pictures in iPhoto
2. Go to File > Export and click the Quicktime tab
3. You will have several options...
- Width/Height: Defaults to 640x480 (4x6 image). This will result in about 100kb per image file, which gives you over 90 pictures for a 10 MB slideshow that you can e-mail to your friends.
- Display image for: Obviously controls how long each image is displayed in the slideshow.
- Background: Can be an image or a color. This is what you will see as a border if the slideshow image is smaller than the window.
- Music: This is actually kinda complicated. What is the "currently selected music?" When you select an album and press the "Play" button to do a quick slideshow, there is a tab for Music. Whatever is selected here will be added to the slideshow when you export it.
4. Click 'Export', choose the filename and location, and then save it.
The resulting Quicktime file will be quite small, while still retaining the quality of your images. It uses a default crossdissolve transition that can't be changed. It keeps this quality when you drag the Quicktime file into iDVD and burn a disk/save a disk image.
Downsides...
- no ken burns
- can't use different transitions
- no other advanced slideshow options
But it gets the job done! If you're wondering why this works while other methods don't, it's all in the .Mov container that's created. If you open the file in Quicktime and got to Window > Show Movie Info, you will see that it lists each JPEG within the package, along with a transition component. It doesn't compress the images into a video file, but rather references the original images within the .Mov package! Cool huh?
Let me know if this works for you guys. I've offered this advice to many people with good results, which is why I'm posting it here.
smi1ey =)

Smiley,
What you suggest isn't really a SOLUTION to bad iDVD photo quality, because you aren't creating a DVD that can be played back with a DVD player.
You are simply suggesting an alternate approach for distributing slideshows which requires the receiver have a computer. iPhoto/iMovie give you several options on prepairing slideshows/movie for various methods of distribution (CD, email, etc).
Some DVD players will also play jpg files from a CD or DVD and that avoids the mpg-2 compression quality loss, but a TV set image is still a TV set image.
which gives you over 90 pictures for a 10 MB slideshow
A lot of email programs aren't happy with a file that size, and of course, since you have created a QuickTime movie, your PC friends will also need to install QuickTime. The Flip4Mac Studio application will let you convert your QuickTime movie to a WMV movie for those with PCs.
I'm glad you found an approach that you are happy with.
If you open the file in Quicktime and got to Window > Show Movie Info, you will see that it lists each JPEG within the package, along with a transition component. It doesn't compress the images into a video file, but rather references the original images within the .Mov package
BTW, there are several different CODECs that can be used in the .MOV file container - Photo JPEG is just one.
QuickTime Pro offers more saving options than the standard version, so I recommend you invest in QuickTime Pro. You will be able to create your slideshow directly in QuickTime Pro.
F Shippey

Poor photo quality when exporting iPhoto slideshow

Does anyone know which setting produces the best quality for an mp4 when creating a DVD using iDVD? I put a slideshow together using iPhoto because I wanted to use the iPhoto scrapbook theme. I exported the iPhoto slideshow using the highest quality (standard display setting) which produces an mp4 1422 x 800 (H.264, 30 fps, 7 Mbps, ~907 MB).
The iDVD project settings are:
1) Best Performance
2) High Quality
3) Professional Quality
What doesn't make sense to me is that #1 claims to produce a total ~1GB DVD with a 995 MB movie and shows the Quality level as green.
When selecting #2, the claim is a total ~643 DVD with a 575 MB movie with Quality in the red.
When choosing #3, the numbers stay the same as #2 but the Quality goes to yellow.
Why wouldn't the higher quality settings produce a larger DVD with less compression? Which setting really gives the highest quality?
The default is #1 (Best Performance) which clearly produces the lowest quality video when compared to the mp4 export from iPhoto (appeared with a higher quality) and when compared with playing the slideshow directly in iPhoto (appeared with the highest quality).
Would the quality be any higher if I export the iPhoto slideshow using a customized setting? iPhoto custom settings allow the choice of about 10 different compression types from Animation, Apple Intermediate Codec, to DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, to H.264, to MPEG-4 Video, to None (and others not listed here). The frame Rate can also be adjusted from Current (whatever that means), to 8, to 60. The Compressor Quality can be adjusted from Least to Best. Would "None" as the compression type produce the best quality when producing the iDVD?
The ultimate goal is to display the slideshow on the project at my church. The easiest way to do this is to put it on a DVD. But as described above, the quality decrease from iPhoto direct play of the slideshow is noticeable when moving to the .mp4 and extremely noticeable when putting the .mp4 in iDVD and playing the DVD back.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions or links to better documentation.

you just cannot export your slideshows in order to burn DVDs, with the same quality
That's an issue with iDVD and the DVD standards. All DVD media is downsized to 640 x 480 or the wide screen 720 x 480. It's the nature of DVDs, not iPhoto. If you use the Ken Burns effect in iPhoto you will need to use the largest 4:3 ratio images possible so the zoom and scan of the KB effect is working on the most number of pixels possible.
I've found that the best final image resolution is obtained by creating the slideshow in iDVD from stills imported from iPhoto at the 4:3 size ratio. The downside to that method is no KB effect and only one transition per slideshow. I play those types of slideshows on a 50" 1020p HD Panasonic plasma TV and the images are quite good. But good is in the eye of the beholder.
See Jim Symon's post in this iDVD topic: Re: High-definition DVDs. Also search his other posts as he was working out a workflow using Photo to Movie to create high def movies and burn them with iDVD. As I recall he found and posted his workflow at one time.

How to get a jpeg image to a movie with best possible quality

I've got a jpeg image from my 2 megapixel digital camera and I'm playing around with converting it to a movie. Yes, its a one image movie.
+QuickTime Pro+ does a superb job when I choose H.264, 1024 kb/s, but I can't get iMovie 5.0.2 to give me the same quality. This is what I have done:
1. Create a new movie as type MPEG-4.
2. Imported the jpeg image and adjust the time from 5 seconds to about 2 seconds.
3. Select Share, choose H.264, 1024 kb/s from the relevant option and after the movie making happens, the quality is obviously inferior to that from +QT Pro+.
*QUES 1*: Why is the quality inferior?
I have been to iMovie help and noticed this comment:
"When you import clips in a format different from your project, they are converted to the video format of your movie."
*QUES 2*: Is this why my jpeg image is losing quality? Is iMovie converting it to something else?
Further, when the jpeg image is first imported, it is assigned a clip time of 5 seconds. When I move one of the sliders to reduce the time to just a few seconds, I notice that a black band appears at the top of the image in the iMovie window and as I make the time smaller, the image zooms in and the black band becomes wider. Letterboxing at the top seems to be occuring. This I can't fathom.
*QUES 3*: Why does iMovie zoom in when I adjust time?
Any comments most appreciated, especially those that tell me if iMovie can make a movie from jpeg images with the same quality as QT Pro -- and how to do that.

Re the quality -- I think I have answered this one myself. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that when I select a video option (DV, HD 1080 and so on), iMovie sets up a frame size to suit, and the frame size that iMovie sets up for MPEG-4 happens to be 640 x 480, thus the poor quality of my jpegs when I selected that option. The poor quality had nothing to do with the MPEG-4 format.
Now the interesting things is, MPEG-4 is not limited to 640 x 480. It can be any size. So my question is:
Ques: Can I set up a movie within iMovie that is any size I want? QT Pro gave better results because it allows any size movie at all, and thus adjusted the movie size to my jpeg size (1800 x 1200 pixels) when I imported an image from my digital camera.
As it stands, not even the highest quality option in +iMovie 5.0.2+ (HD 1080) can handle the images from my piddly-little 2 megapixel camera.
Message was edited by: Guy Burns

I-movie verses I-photo quality questions

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for