IDVD quality

Question

This is a question regarding Final Cut Express to DVD Quality. I am using a Panasonic GS-150. It is a very good 3CCD camcorder. The picture quality in Final Cut's Canvas is awesome. I go to File>Export to QuickTime movie. This was the instructions Apple gave in order to export to iDVD from FCE. So...I do that then go to iDVD. Make a disc image and then burn it using Disk Utility, again, like what Apple says to do. I pop it into my TV's DVD player. It looks bad. Go to this to see what I mean
I took screenshots of the actual DVD. The picture is grainy (it was in sunlight), and pixilzed. Can you give me some advice? You would think since some Hollywood movies are made using Final Cut, it would look better.

Answer 1

I am using a Panasonic GS-150. It is a very good 3CCD camcorder.
As far as consumer camcorders go, it is OK. But it is hardly a good 3 CCD camcorder, it is actually one of the cheapest. A good 3 CCD camcorder will be something like the Sony VX2100 and a very good 3 CCD would be something like Sony DSR 400. I know my Panny 250 (essentially the same as the 150) is very grainy compared to my Sony 170/250. If you aren't already, you may want to hook a cheap 13" TV up to your deck when editing and this will give you an idea of what the footage will look like as you edit. And here is my stock reply on iDVD & Quality:
Quality and iDVD- Quality is subjective; what one person finds as good another may not. Quality is also highly dependant upon input. In other words: quality in, quality out; garbage in, garbage out. It is helpful to have a basic understanding of what makes a DVD a DVD. When you record on mini-DV you are recording to an already compressed format. Arguably a very good compressed format but compressed nonetheless. This means information is being tossed at the point you are using the camcorder. iDVD, or any DVD authoring app on any computer, Windoze or Mac, compresses this material even further into the MPEG 2 format for playback via a tabletop DVD player. Now mini-DV has about 30 frames per second (NTSC). MPEG (in a very basic nutshell) takes a picture about twice every 30 frames and uses this as a reference frame and then only records the motion difference between that reference frame and the next time it creates a reference frame. So you go from 30 frames/second to TWO, with motion difference! This is how one hour of DV which is 13 gigs, can be compressed to fit onto one DVD. Two hours would be 26 gigs of DV compressed to one DVD! Hence the general quality difference between one-hour and two. And keep in mind that is compression will show artifacts that may have always been there but you didn’t see until the other 28 frames where tossed out.
Having a basic understanding of what makes a DVD can help you make better DVDs. As example, if you see that your recordings have a lot of motion… that is bad. Remember, when compress to DVD it only records the motion difference so you want to keep the camera steady and use slow controlled movements (pans & zooms). Quick pans or zooms or jerky movements are the bane of any MPEG compression scheme.
Other than that, you could try other encoders. BitVice & DVDSP for software encoders or LaCie's FastCoder hardware encoder.
Mike