IDVD 6.0.3 - Poor quality DVD burn

I'm somewhat stumped and hope the good people on these boards can help.
I recently picked up a Panasonic MiniDV camera in order to video the kids etc. here in the USA so I can send PAL DVDs home to the folks in the UK.
I've been somewhat dismayed by the quality of the resulting DVD. I burned a DVD in PAL format (source DV was NTSC) 43 mins long and it only used up about 1.6GB on the DVD and the resulting DVD quality is pretty poor. I made sure that I had the "High Quality" setting on.
Is this something to do with converting and burning an NTSC DV source to PAL format or something else? Anything I'm missing?

Len,
The OP has 43 minutes of content that only required 1.6 GB in Best Quality mode.
I doubt going to a DL disc would help. At 43 minutes, he probably will get better image quality in Best Performance mode because that uses a compression bit-rate about as high as a DVD player can handle. Using Toast makes it possible to dedicate more of the bit-rate to video because it can use Doly compressed audio instead of iDVD uncompressed, PCM audio, so Toast might be a little better.
It's that darn 'Best Quality' - 'Best Performance' name game confusion again - 'Best Performance" usually gives better quality than 'Best Quality' - I wish Apple had simple called them something like 'mode 1' and 'mode 2'!

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Try sharing to the Media Browser rather than using share to iDVD. Then, create a new iDVD project and drag the movie into the project from the Media pane in iDVD. This worked for me. I think you still need to use iMovie 6 to put the movie back on tape. Just export your movie from iMovie 09 using Quicktime (AIC codec) and import to iM 6.

I must be doing something stupid: Very poor quality DVD rendering!

I am new to Apple products and after trolling this forum, I was able to create a DVD using iDVD on my Mac mini Core Duo - 2Ghz model. But, the video is of very poor quality (compression artifacts). I am lookging for guidance to creating a better video quality. But first, let me give you some background...
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3. Also, added some of my old low resolution avi files (from my older Canon camera - probably in 640x480 resolution).
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4. Opened this movie file in Garageband and added the Chapter markers.
5. Shared it with iDVD which automatically launched iDVD and showed the chapters in very nice scene selections menus.
6. Invoked the Burn menu to burn the movie into a DVD using iDVD.
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Thanks a lot, F Shippey.
I exported it as a .dv file and then I was able to produce the DVD correctly with the Revolution theme and 11 chapters. I haven't done any editing any clips yet in iMovie. In most cases, I will not need to do that in most cases as the Canon TX1 creates individual avi clips every time I record and stop a recording. Having used a camcorder for over a decade now, I know how silly most of the recordings are.
I will be rendering most of my videos as h.264 so that I can use the mac mini as a media server instead of using DVDs. I have to rip my own DVDs as h.264 soon (back to handbrake).
PS: While creating my first DVD in OS X + iLife'08 tools, I noticed the following bugs:
1. The clips disappear from the display in the editing window when the project becomes large and I had to zoom in and out to make them reappear. I verified that I wasn't viewing past the end of the last clip. If I hover the mouse in the blank window, it will show the clip in the preview window on the right.
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These two bugs are way few compared to what Pinnacle Studio threw at me.
Message was edited by: new2appletv

Poor Quality DVD with AVCHD input

Hi all:
I did not find this addressed on the iDVD pages or this page. I have imported AVCHD format video of my son's soccer game. Used iMovie08 7.1.1 to edit it. I was shooting in sports mode. It looks great connected directly to the TV.
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Steve Mullen wrote:
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HEY, AM I READING THIS RIGHT, (yeah I'm shouting)
Your telling us you know how to use im08 and iDVD in some way that (apparently) no-one else knows but you won't share it, at the same time as advertising your book in your signature. I think you should be reading the terms and conditions of the forum here.
Oh and by the way, while the video in the linked clips is indeed crisp and clear it stutters like a nervous old man with Parkinsons, not sure if the clips are yours but have to wonder if your books merely tell us how to make less than acceptable video.
Tom Wolsky writes some really excellent books but is quite happy to share his knowledge for free and has helped 10's of thousands of people in the video forums. Indeed Jon and Karsten from this very forum have shared their considerable knowledge in the form of online written and video help.
Get a grip Man.

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Q: Is there some specific way I'm supposed to export the original video from FCP?
A: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/6.0/en/22.html
Click Here:
SDMacuser
PS J/C What media are you using? I recommend Verbatim DVD-R Minus media and burning from a disc image at 4x or slower using apple's DU or Toast.

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Hi again!
I have edited a project on Final Cut Pro 5.1. The project was shot in 960 HD, and I exported the finished project using the "Export Quicktime" command in FCP. When I open the quicktime file, it plays beautifully in QT on my computer. I build an iDVD project and dragged the file in. On the iDVD preview, it plays in very high quality, but when I finally burn the DVD, it plays terribly.
I can see wavy lines and the sharpness is very poor.
I am no expert, but I am assuming this has something to do with the interlaced nature of the QT file. Is this right? Does anyone know how to fix this without using compressor/DVD studio pro? (Unfortunately I don't have them)
THANK YOU!!!

I have edited a project on Final Cut Pro 5.1. The
project was shot in 960 HD
So called PAL-optimal 960x540 isn't one of the usual formats for iMovie and iDVD.
I exported the finished project using the "Export Quicktime" command
in FCP. When I open the quicktime file, it plays
beautifully in QT on my computer. I build an iDVD
project and dragged the file in. On the iDVD preview,
it plays in very high quality, but when I finally
burn the DVD, it plays terribly.
The preview function in iDVD (and iMovie) plays the RAW source material and has no relation to the actual final encoded quality.
I can see wavy lines and the sharpness is very poor.
iDVD only support SD discs. All 16:9 content must be anamorphically squeezed to fit the SD format.
I am no expert, but I am assuming this has something
to do with the interlaced nature of the QT file. Is
this right?
I'll bet it has to do with the 960 format. iMovie and iDVD use the Apple Intermediate CODEC for 16:9 content. Your FCP movie probably went through a lot of interpolation/translation steps before making the mpg-2 encoder in iDVD.
Does anyone know how to fix this without
using compressor/DVD studio pro?
I suspect DVD SP could handle your content properly, but before buying FC Studio to get DVD SP, you might want to go to the DVD SP forum to ask about support for 960 format content in that application.

Poorer quality DVDs with Menus then without?

Finally managed to burn a DVD of my son's first moments.
First off, just edited 45 minutes of clips with transistions, titles, audio, etc. etc.
Picture quality was equal to the DV tapes in my camcorder and I was very pleased.
Got bored. Used the same movie but added some chapter markers, menus, photos and some music in iDVD and burnt an updated version of the first attempt.
Picture quality, especially on my iBook is a lot grainier and when viewed on my TV looks inferior to the original DVD without all the menus.
I can understand the photos that were placed in the drop zones perhaps not being the correct resolution but why should the picture quality of the movie be any different?

Umm. Just what I thought.
I'll let you know how 'Best quality' fairs but I'm definitely not impressed with my efforts to tart up the original - might just as well left it as it was.
OK, the in-laws wouldn't have any menus or chapters but at least it won't look like it's been filmed with a two bit halfpenny camera!
Incidentally, total running time went from 45 to about 60 minutes but not only are the photos in the drop zones blurred but the actual chapter names and other lettering is extremely blurred.
As for the resolution of the actual movie it has gone from broadcast quality to a noticeable grain. In iDVD it looks fabulous but both the disc image version and burned DVD version look sub-standard.

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When recording your video with miniDV, are you shooting in High Definition or Standard?
What project preset are you setting for at the Premiere Elements Welcome Screen/Setup?

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Are you looking at the output on a video monitor? Are
you talking about after the DVD has been burned, or
the QI player of the exported file? Is the QT player
set to high quality? exporting to QT Conversion will
not not improve the image, even if you use a lossless
codec. Don't be confused by what you see on the
computer screen. Different codecs will display
different and behave differently. Unfortunately
you're still ending up crushing it to MPEG-2 onto a
DVD designed for display on a television set.
I am looking at the DVD after it was burned. It seems to have lost a lot of quality from the way it lookked in FCP. I guess that is just because of the compression in iDVD?

IDVD 6.0.3 - Poor quality DVD burn

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