IDVD low quality slideshow

Hi There,
I start a new project slideshow of a wedding I shot with my Canon DSLR and decide to make a slideshow DVD with iDVD. I shoot my pictures in RAW and convert them to JPEG in Adobe PS the RAW image is 24MB each and when convert to JPEG they go to 7.9MB. The Issue is I make the presentation and it looks fabulous in my iMAC but when i view the final product in my dvd player the photo's looks out of focus like if the convertion decrease the quality a lot,also i burn the disc in professional quality and Best performance with the same results,i little lagy using Best performance. Anything else i should try? Any advice?
Mike

Hi
And here is my "un-sorted collection of thoughts about DVD-Quality" read if You can take it - It's long !
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 DeaskTop/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

Similar Messages

Low quality of burned DVD even if I drag&drop iMovie project into iDVD

Hi all,
I've a iMovie HD project that I want to burn via iDVD (7.0.4).
If I click "Share with iDVD" the quality of the resultung video (which is burned to DVD) is rather poor. As I've read within this discussions, the preferred way is to close iMovie and "drag and drop" the iMovie project into iDVD.
With this way, iDVD (instead of iMovie) will render the movie, which should give a video with far more quality.
Unfortunately, the burned DVD with the "drag and drop" method has the same low quality as the video with "Share with iDVD".
I've done a little research and noticed that the "shared movie" for iDVD (iMovie project->Show package Contents->Shared Movies->iDVD) for a 1:10 video has a filesize of only 32kb!
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Is there any way to export the movie from iMovie HD and keep all the chapter markers for iDVD?
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Thanks in advice,
Kind regards.

Hi,
the iMovie project was created as "DV" project and I imported DV PAL clips. The iDVD preferences are also PAL (25fps) and the quality setting is "professional quality".
I've also tried the setting "best performance" within iDVD (as suggested within this forum), but with the same poor result.
I can see within the iDVD "project info" that iDVD will use "mymovie.mov" within the "Shared Movies->iDVD" of the iMovie project (Show package contents).
As this converted movie is of low quality, I think this is the root of evil.
If I export the movie from iMovie with "Export as DV stream" and import this converted movie into iDVD the quality is ok - but I lose the chapter markers ..
Is there any way to keep the chapter markers?
Kind regards.

Showing lower quality photos in slideshows

I'm trying to create a slideshow that has a mix of high-quality pictures that look good full-screen and others where the quality is much less and shouldn't be viewed at full screen. I cannot figure out a way to show the low-quality pictures in a slideshow at less than full screen. Is there a way to restrict their size to the optimal viewing size rather than spreading them to full screen where they become grainy and blurry?

writeguyfla:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. There is no way to create a slideshow with a smaller image on the screen than the options in the Setting pane.
There's a 3rd party slideshow application, PhotoPresenter, that has some wonderful themes that do not require the photo to fill the screen that might work for you. You can try it in demo mode before deciding to purchase. This is one of their fancier themes.
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.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Better viewing of low-quality photos in slideshows

I'm trying to create a slideshow that has a mix of high-quality pictures that look good full-screen and others where the quality is much less and shouldn't be viewed at full screen. I cannot figure out a way to show the low-quality pictures in a slideshow at less than full screen. Is there a way to restrict their size to the optimal viewing size rather than spreading them to full screen where they become grainy and blurry?

writeguyfla:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. There is no way to create a slideshow with a smaller image on the screen than the options in the Setting pane.
There's a 3rd party slideshow application, PhotoPresenter, that has some wonderful themes that do not require the photo to fill the screen that might work for you. You can try it in demo mode before deciding to purchase. This is one of their fancier themes.
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.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Poor image quality -slideshow iDVD-need help asap

Hello
does anybody know how to create a better quality slideshow???? It sim,ply does look totally unprofessional .. when the dvd is burned.
We have supersharp images .. but once the DVD is burned and you pop it back in the unit .. the images look fuzzy .. and not as crisp as when you actually run them in iPhoto, or iDVD...
this is really urgent .. I'd appreciate if somebody give us a hint ... what to do .. or is there an alternative to created 100% quality slideshows on a dvd.
We need to play the burned DVD's on a computer (to show to clients) as well as on a TV .. in case the client wants to view the DVD at home.
please respond to
[email protected]
Thank you!
I understand that it might look fuzzy on a TV screen .. but why does it look so bad on a computer screen? That is not a good way to present work/images .. please help!

Don't count on FCE or DVD Studio Pro to be better. I think your issue is with MPEG-2 compression.
I build my slideshows within iDVD, not iPhoto or iMovie HD. Here's an example:
Ireland 2004 iDVD Project
Nearly 800 images dragged into iDVD as organized folders from the hard drive. Transitions on each image, and menus, sub-menus, and sub-sub menus. The sub-menus are created by clicking on the Folder icon on the iDVD interface.
Main Menu has 6 buttons: Downpatrick, Antrim Coast, Letterkenny, Sligo, Trim, and Extras. Behind each button are additional buttons ranging from 3 to 6 buttons. The Extras button goes fairly deep. When you click on Extras, it gives you 3 choices on a new menu. The "B&Bs" button opens a new menu with 5 buttons. The "Movies" button opens a new menu with 4 buttons. If you click on the "Irish Music" button, you open a new menu with 2 buttons. At that point, you are at a "sub-sub-sub menu."
Music was on 95% of the slideshows. Some movies converted to QT DV from Canon S400 digicam .AVI files (iDVD 4). Now convert to H.264 with QuickTime 7. Images are original 4MP (2MB) JPEG images from the same digicam. This DVD project is around 4GB with all pictures as DVD-ROM content.
G4 DP 1.25 GHz 4 Drives 720GB Mac OS X (10.4.4) 2 SuperDrives (SL 8X & DL 16X)

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

Just upgraded, low quality warning on all photos?

Hi All,
Hoping someone can assist me here. Just upgraded to iPhoto 6 and was experimenting with the greeting card function. Apparently, all of my photos (unretouched & uncropped) which are 1704 x 2272 at 180 dpi are too low quality to print reliably. I'm trying to print the images at 5x7 or smaller, and as far as I understand 1704 x 2272 should be adequate, but I get the low quality warning on every picture in my library. I use a Canon Digital Elph S400 at maximum resolution/quality, am I going to need a higher megapixel camera to produce images of sufficient quality for the online printing services? Any advice appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Jennifer

Jennifer:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Sound like somethings broken in iPhoto. First run Disk Utility and repair disk permissions. Then, if needed, go to your User/Library/Caches folder and delete the iPhoto folder there.
Next, log into another account on your Mac and see if you can create a card and not get the warnings. If so then your primary account has some incompatibility with iPhoto. If you get the warning then it's probably iPhoto and you'll need to reinstall iPhoto. If you do have to reinstall iPhoto you'll have to delete the current application and all files with "iPhoto" in the file name that reside in the HD/Library/Receipts folder. Be sure to repair disk permissions after the installation and updates.
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.

Low quality images in web gallery from Output Module

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The same problem here. I've noticed it just yesterday, but my Safari rendering is affected the same way.
I don't think it has anything to do with the recent updates. I reinstalled my MacOS X Leopard day ago and all the images (jpg, gif) have been somehow in lower quality ever since that moment. Even before I installed all new updates today.
The strangest think is, that it wasn't like this before the reinstallation. I used the same media, and I have, indeed, the same machine.
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Preview in Canvas and Quicktime movie export low quality

Hi Guys
I am trying to make a slideshow/movie using Final Cut Express HD 3.0 the preview in the canvas is very low quality both with the images and titles. I have tried to export to quicktime movie but that movie is still very low quality. They are not sharp and are pixelated. The images look fine with Preview and iPhoto. I do not have quicktime pro I don't know if that has anything to do with it.
Thanks a bunch

This comes up pretty off and was discussed in the last couple of days. You might do a forum search. Basically you'll looking at a lores display unless you look at the output on a video monitor.

IDVD08 lower quality video than iDVD06

I'm not a pro video guy, so I really relied on the "simple" Mac apps and associated iLife (mainly '06). There were MANY changes from iMovie/iDVD '06 to '08 and maybe I'm missing something.
With a recent import of DV tape into iMovie '08 and sharing it with iDVD, my wife and I immediately noticed lower quality video in the films (let alone the lack of chapters, sigh). Reading these (and other) forums, I found the iMovie '06 download and proceeded to use it for another movie and sent it to iDVD '08.
Using the same quality (professional -- I don't mind the lengthy time), the output DVD was definitely better looking than the previous work flow (iMovie 08, share, iDVD 08).
Has anyone else seen/noticed this?

Hi Andre
There is another aspect too.
If You add photos to Your movie and use "Share/Export to iDVD" from versions up to iMovie 6
then You'll probably get a lousy result what ever coding scheme.
If You done this and let iMovie render - two problems occures:
• iDVD performs badly
• Your original iMovie movie is harmed and You need to re-import Your photos and re-do the edit.
Then close down iMovie. Drop the movie icon (with a Star on it) into the theme window in iDVD.
Now iDVD will do the rendering and so much better.
Most probably this goes for iM08 and iDVD08 too.
Ps. I used Pro Quality on a small project and got a very good result - but may be I just was lucky Ds
Yours Bengt W

IDVD output quality

I'm trying to create a slide show with music using iDVD ver 7.1.2 running on Mac OS X ver 10.6.8 and the output quality is very poor. I'm using high quality jpg files some from Lightroom and others from Photoshop CS5. Both are highest quality when saving or exporting. I've tried all thee encoding settings in iDVD with no noticable difference. I've tried to drop the photos directly into iDVD and also tried to put them in iPhoto and export them to iDVD...nothing works for me. What am I doing wrong?

Hi
There are several layers to this
• DVD - is as Standard (whatever program used) - interlaced SD-Video - and can not be anything better than this.
• How material was created to iDVD matters
iMovie'08 to 11 - is not the tool of choise if quality is of importance - as they can not export interlaced video any way known to me - but does this by discarding every second line resulting in a sever quality loss
iMovie HD6 and FinalCut are so much better - as they can deliver 100% interlaced video over to iDVD
• How material is sent to iDVD matters
Share to iDVD - I NEVER USE as this makes iMovie any version to render (badly)
iMovie'08 to 11 - Share to Media Browser and as Large (NOT HD or other resoultion as this too degrades final quality) - forces iMovie to NOT RENDER and iDVD to do this (and so much better)
iMovie HD6 - just close it and import the movie icon into iDVD and iDVD renders.
Else my notes on DVD Quality
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 speed 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 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
Yours Bengt W

IDVD image quality v.poor

I have just bought iWork 08 for iDVD as I need the improved quality for slideshows, however the so called "professional quality" is balony! after you have set this quality level then put the dvd into your player and play it, its rubbish, the quality is worse than iDVD 06!
For a few new features this is a waste of money, no better performance in fact its worse!

For the highest quality slideshows, I use FotoMagico. It gives you an option to encode a DV file at a high quality level. When the movie file is used in iDVD, slideshow quality is improved.
See http://homepage.mac.com/prof_pixel/FotoMagico.jpg
BTW, the 'Pro Quality' encoding only make a difference if your content is over 60 minutes. Under 60 minutes, 'Best Perfotmance' give the best quality.
F Shippey

IDVD reduces quality of original recording

My source video is DV from a hard-drive handycam. A 50-minute video uses 10.2 GB. The quality is terrific. When I use Sony's software in Windows to burn directly to a disc, the image quality viewed on a plasma screen TV is professional-looking.
When I use iDVD 08 to add a theme and burn a disc, the image quality viewed on a plasma TV is like VHS (and only uses 2.38 GB on disc). I have iDVD set to "Encode: Professional Quality."
How can I get a high-quality disc?

Hi f
1. iDVD 8 has three levels of qualities.
• Professional Quality (movies up to 120 min) - BEST
• High Performances (movies less than 60 min) - High quality on final DVD
• High Quality (movies up to 120 min) - slightly lower quality than - se below
2. From
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov
• iMovie - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos. Instead just drop the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
3. I use Toast™ to make an as slow burn as posibly eg x1 (in iDVD’08 this can also be set)
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disc. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc).
5. Verbatim
6. DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW)
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
Yours Bengt W

DVD Low Quality

Hello.
I am importing images from my Nikon D70 but when i am exporting them as a DVD sldieshow the images appear jagged and at a low quality.
Can anyone advise?
Thanks.

This post has helped alot. I think after reading peoples descriptions it is an encoding problem. Its MiniDV footage from a Panasonic DVX100. Tranfered via Firwire and edited in FCP. Then Exported as a Quicktime movie, with Current Settings, then put into a Dvd and selected as First Play.
I am convinced its not my footage, if I encode the dvd in iDVD the section in question looks fine, but artifacts appear in other sections. i have deleted and rebuilt all the render files several times. So I am in the process of using Compressor to output a mpeg2 file that I will use to build the dvd, instead o f just the straight export from FCP. I set it on Best Quality for a 90 minute dvd. I am hoping this will solve the problem, but not sure, will know tomorrow.
Any other thoughts.

Portion of DVD Low Quality and Pixalated

I am burning a FCP project to dvd and a portion of the video is low quality, it looks significantly degraded and pixelated. It doesnt seem to loo this way in FCP. Colors are great, the picture is just has really chunky pixels. The rest of the project is fine, and its a weird because its a multi camera shoot, and all the different camera angles during the segment seem to be affected.
Any thoughts?

This post has helped alot. I think after reading peoples descriptions it is an encoding problem. Its MiniDV footage from a Panasonic DVX100. Tranfered via Firwire and edited in FCP. Then Exported as a Quicktime movie, with Current Settings, then put into a Dvd and selected as First Play.
I am convinced its not my footage, if I encode the dvd in iDVD the section in question looks fine, but artifacts appear in other sections. i have deleted and rebuilt all the render files several times. So I am in the process of using Compressor to output a mpeg2 file that I will use to build the dvd, instead o f just the straight export from FCP. I set it on Best Quality for a 90 minute dvd. I am hoping this will solve the problem, but not sure, will know tomorrow.
Any other thoughts.

IDVD low quality slideshow

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