Image quality of movie transferred from VHS

I’ve recently begun using EyeTV 200 to transfer old VHS home movies to DVD using iMove and iDVD. The movies look OK on my monitor, but on the burned dvd, they don’t look as good – especially during quick pans (this is especially a concern for another movie I am working on as the camera was manned by a friend who had no reservations about whipping the camera around from scene to scene). I realize that I can expect some image quality loss due to the compression (and also due to the fact that the VHS tapes aren’t that great in quality to begin with), but I was wondering if there were other ways to improve the image quality through settings in iMovie or iDVD. Also, I am getting iLife ’06 this weekend. Are there any improvements in the compression in that version?
Thanks,
George

Hi, George,
I don't use Eye TV, but I have copied many hours of old VHS family movie tapes onto DV tapes using my camcorder.
I was surprisingly pleased that the quality of the DV tapes was a big improvement over the original VHS tapes. I then imported the DV tapes into iMovie and have been creating DVDs of my old photos and movies.
I have found that those VHS clips were darker and less clear when viewed in iMovie, but on the burned DVD they came out better. "Better" is a subjective term, because VHS quality is much less than digital to begin with, and the older the VHS tape, the worse quality. So, I am not sure why you are finding that the burned DVDs are not so good. I would expect them to be better, as I have found.
Maybe it is because I recorded the tapes to digital first, before importing into iMovie. I did it this way because I wanted to have the DV tapes to preserve the VHS movies in addition to the iMovies and iDVDs that I am making.
I have not yet purchased iLife 06 because of the problems I have been following in these forums. I have everything working well in v5, so I am going to continue on with that until I get more of my movies completed. I started with 1979, and am finishing 1990 this week! Only 15 more years-worth to go!
Good luck to you!

Similar Messages

  • HT1014 I'm working with imovie 08 and converted movie originally from VHS tape to .m4v files imovie wouldn't recognize it.  I converted to .mov files and imovie generated thumbnails (for hours) and shows a New Event but there is nothing there. Any help?

    I'm working with imovie 08 on Macbook pro OS X and converted movie originally from VHS tape to .m4v files imovie wouldn't recognize it.  I converted to .mov files and imovie generated thumbnails (for hours) and shows a New Event but there is nothing there. Any help?

    markmc78 wrote:
    .. I'm really struggling with the concept of events/clips/projects.
    consider usage of a diff. editor.. iMovieHD6, you're entitled for a free downlaod at apple.com:
    http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html
    but IF you're relaxed, opened your mind, follow the bright light, ommmm.. for Events & Stuff:
    your intended workflow will add another step of quality-degradition (8mm>>avi>>mp4>>iM08) ..
    consider the free tool Mpeg Streamclip www.squared5.com for 'chopping' that 90min beast into pieces..
    rename these new chunks, follow advice given on my site:
    http://karsten.schluter.googlepages.com/im08changeeventdate
    there's the manual..
    http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovie08_GettingStarted.pdf
    and the most recommended books from Mr Pogue's Missing Manual series..

  • Premiere cs6 changes image quality of .mov from d5200

    When importing the .mov files from the nikon d5200 to premiere pro cs6, the movement looks strange and there is pixelisation. What can I do about it?

    Here are some screenshots for illustration. Of cours the poor movement of the video is most annoying, but even in the stills you can see the difference:
    orignal d5200 .mov (h264)
    transcoded via Adobe Media Encoder

  • Poor Image Quality when Printing PDF from Office 07 using Acrobat 9 Pro Ext

    Hi there,
    Hoping to figure out why my images (jpegs, gifs, pngs, etc) seem to print in very poor quality when printing from Powerpoint and Word 2007?
    When I actually print out the pdf onto paper, the images seem fine. The image quality is also good in Word and Excel
    I did not have this problem using Office 2003 products.
    Is this a common problem? I realize that the problem maybe Office related but any help or information appreciated.
    Thanks

    If the images' file format is PNG or TIFF you could play with the compression settings available in Acrobat's Preferences.
    Edit > Preferences > select the Category "Convert to PDF".
    In the"Converting To PDF" pane, select PNG or TIFF.
    Then, click on the Edit Settings" button.
    For either image format you could try one of the Lossless compression routines.
    Be well...

  • Image quality in ePub exports from Pages

    Something changed in ePub exports of images recently, or in iBooks' rendering of them. Now they are fuzzy when double-tapped and enlarged. Originally (at beginning of iBooks) they popped up looking quite crisp.
    Oddly, I can still get crisp images with double-tap if I export an ePub file from Scrivener, and import it into iBooks—using the same images I'm used in Pages.
    Does this make any sense? Have others noticed this change in image quality?

    Just for the sake of clearness - InDesign 5.0 = InDesign CS3
    InDesign CS5 = InDesign 7.0.x
    I suppose you are talking about InDesign CS5 and not something older.

  • Movie Transfers from a Reformatted Comp

    I recently reformatted my computer and was hoping to get all my movies back from iTunes (Purchased Movies that is). Unfortunately I ran a check for all available downloads and nothing! I have the order history of when I bought the movies. Do I need to contact Apple over phone or what? Or does anyone here have the answer? Thanks in advance!

    If you didn't make a back-up of your purchases to restore from (as you are advised to do) then I'm sorry to say that the policy on lost purchases is that you have to pay to download them again:
    "Once a Product is purchased and you receive the Product, it is your responsibility not to lose, destroy, or damage the Product, and Apple shall be without liability to you in the event of any loss, destruction, or damage." iTunes Store: Purchased content can be downloaded only once
    You could try contacting iTunes Store Customer Service and you might be able to persuade them to sanction a second free download. There have been occasional reports in the iTunes forum of this happening, however just be aware that they are not under any obligation to do so. If you click on this link you'll be able to email your query: Customer Service - iTunes Store Support
    If you have an iPod that still has any of your purchases on it you'll find details in this article on how to transfer them to the computer: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
    You might also want to check out these pages for future reference:
    How to back up your media in iTunes
    Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

  • Audio quality in video imported from VHS tapes

    Hi All,
    I am trying to import old videos on VHS tapes, using a Canopus converter. The video is importing into iMovie just fine, but the audio has a loud buzzing sound that covers up the actual audio and is very annoying. Is there a way to extract the audio so I can clean it up using Sound Soap, then return the cleaned up version to iMovie?
    I am using iMovie '09, version 8.0.5.
    I also use Final Cut Express, so maybe it would be better to just export it to FCE and then extract the video from there?
    Please give as much step by step detail as possible for both approaches. In the iMovie "Help" it said to extract audio using advanced tools, but I couldn't find a command in any of the advanced tools to do that.
    Thanks.

    Is there a way to extract the audio so I can clean it up using Sound Soap
    iMovie 06 has some good filters for that.
    I also use Final Cut Express, so maybe it would be better to just export it to FCE and then extract the video from there?
    Final Cut Express (or iMovie 06) will give you better quality but it won't solve the buzzing noise. I also suspect a grounding problem.

  • Pages Image Quality Degrades When Dropped from Desktop or Inserted

    I'm having a problem with image degradation when dropping an image from my desktop into Pages. Even though it's a large file, the quality and resolution is obviously reduced when it's dropped into Pages. I can view the file on Preview and in Pages side-by-side and see a dramatic difference.
    I'm trying to keep the total file size of a Pages document smaller and more manageable. I'm a photographer too, so I'm familiar with the file size needed for proper resolution, but I'm just not seeing it come through in Pages.
    Anyone else having a similar experience? Any ideas what could be wrong?
    Thanks!
    -Dan

    Hello
    Not really surprising.
    Pages works using a given resolution (I don't know which one).
    When you display a picture from an other app, the res is not the same.
    As Pages goal is to print documents, I may easily assume that to spare time, the algorhytm used to display on screen is not a high quality, keeping the high quality one to build the map to print.
    Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE dimanche 16 décembre 2007 19:00:41)

  • Image loses contrast when transferring from ACR to PSE11

    I have a new PC running Windows 8.1 x64 bit and have reinstalled PSE11 from the CD (previously it was installed on a PC running Vista x32 bit).
    Apart from having to go into all my most frequently used sections to re-set the parameters to how I had them before, all seems to be well with one rather irritating exception ...
    I get the image looking just about right in ACR, but when I click Open Image to apply a few final tweaks in the PSE11 Editor, the picture seems to lose contrast in the move.  With my previous setup, once I was satisfied with the general look of the part-edited image in ACR, it appeared pretty much the same when opened in PSE.
    This will have nothing to do with monitor calibration, since the common factor here is the monitor screen.  The issue is to do with the general appearance of the image when viewed in ACR as compared with how it then appears in PSE.  I have the colour space set as sRGB and the PSE viewing parameters as 'optimised for viewing on computer screens' (I don't do that much printing).
    Anyone else experienced this problem?  What have I missed or what can I do to rectify things, please?

    OSX outputs pdfs at 72dpi if there is any transparency such as shadows, reflections, charts and of course directly specified transparency.
    The jpeg is generated from a pdf and is the wrong method of producing an ad, which should remain text/vector to stay sharp, with photographic style images at 300dpi.
    jpegs should only be used for purely photographic material because it makes everything else fuzzy.
    Your ad should be supplied as a vector pdf. If it has photographic material do not use transparency effects and make sure the images are at least 300dpi at final size.
    Peter

  • What program to use to watch movies transferred from S4 to my laptop

    Hi. I have copied/transferred videos taken on my S4 to my HP Pavilion laptop. The OS is Vista Home Premium. I play them through iTunes since they are .mp4 files. However, the video is jerky and not in sync with the audio. Is there anything I can do so the video and audio play together, smoothly, like the files play on the S4? Or, is there a better program to use to play .mp4 files?
    Thanks for your help.

    I use VLC all the time for any video formats that are not native to Apple OSX.  Which is usually MPG2 and WMV.  Pretty much every other video format plays within quicktime with no problem.  (although MPG2 works sometimes).
    VLC is a good player to play pretty much ANY video type.  It even plays those pesky proprietary formats that many Hard Drive Camcorders compress the video to.  So you should be good to go.
    Now... a note about the program.  It does have some sort of video render function that will allow you to recompress from one format to another.  such as .MOV to MPG or something to that effect.
    My advice... Don't even try.  It's for advanced users.  I'm an advanced video editor and even after 4 years, I still can't figure out that part of VLC.  I just stick to other programs for that.
    But just to watch difficult video formats... this is a really good program to use because it will play EVERYTHING!
    Good luck.

  • Image quality issues - Sony Handycam (MPEG) to iMovie / iDVD

    I have read through dozens of posts but the recommendations vary widely and am hoping I can get some guidance specific to my situation. The image quality I am getting from home movies I edit in iMovie11 and burn to DVD in iDVD are far inferior to the original material.
    I have a Sony DCR-TRV17. This camera is a little over 10 years old. It is a miniDV with 500 lines resolution, 680K gross pixels and uses MPEG. While not HD, the image quality is exceptional. The DVDs I used to create using my Sony Viao likewise looked fantastic. But the results I get from iMovie and iDVD are on par with VHS -- very poor, especially in low-light.
    I hope the issue is just the settings when I import, edit (iMovie) and share to iDVD. I generally use the default settings, and often alternate settings don't seem to be selectable. It also sounds from other posts like iMovie sacrifices quality for reduced file size and increased simplicity? I would appreciate help with the following:
    1) Please list the settings I should be adjusting from default when I  a) import, b) edit in iMovie11 and c) share to iDVD and burn -- and the recommended settings for each
    2) Is there a process I should be trying? Should I be creating test DVDs using different settings at each stage and then reviewing various setting combinations to find the best one?
    3) I will most probably buy an HD camcorder very soon, and plan to burn to Blue Rays. I have no problem with going ahead and buying Final Cut and an external drive to burn Blue Rays. Should I just go ahead and do it and get away from iMovie / iDVD entirely. Will Final Cut solve this issue for my old miniDVs without a whole lot of hair pulling? Or will I still have to tinker with a bunch of settings or convoluted processes to get it "right." I never had to tinker with settings on my Viao. Really expected Mac software to be more user friendly…
    Thanks very much for any help or advice!

    On Import you could try unchecking Optimize video and choose Full Size. Your disk space however will get eaten up incredibly quickly choosing these settings as each hour of video = 40GBytes of disk space. So be forewarned about how big those files will expand as they come off the MiniDV tapes.
    Another thing you will immediately see a difference in is how you move files from iMovie to iDVD. Share to iDVD while named in an intuitive way, is NOT the best way to get good quality DVDs out of iMovie. Instead you want to Share to Media Browser. Choose the Large Size setting. Then quit iMovie. Open iDVD, click the Media button, the Movies button. Find your project listed under the iMovie star icon and drag it into the iDVD project. Burn the Disc and see if you get a higher quality disk by Sharing to Media Browser instead of Share to iDVD.
    If you choose a Blu-Ray burner, also get a copy of Roxio Toast. The encoding to Blu-ray that Toast provides will be top notch and prevent you from making mistakes as the recordable Blu-ray disks are more expensive than DVDs. So every mistake will be expensive.

  • Web page image quality to printer

    I have an Epson cx7800 which I have aligned and cleaned the heads.
    The image quality of the print from my G5 iMac to the printer is sort of like a double image of the colored text (for instance, the word DVD will be printed twice, in a blurry fashion, in red and yellow). When I just copy a page from the printer, the quality is fine. It's just the images I'm getting from the Mac to the printer that are poor.
    I get this same problem when I print a CD cover from iTunes.
    Is there any way I can improve these images?
    Thanks.

    Suggest that you contact Epson by phone, email and/or check out their Epson cx7800 Troubleshooting Guide link for answers. Did the printer come with a manual?
    You posted no system info. Therefore, I also suggest that you also cross-post in one of the "Printer Forums" of whichever OS you are using.
    Good luck!

  • Image quality lost through editing with Photoshop?

    I find a number of professionals using Lightroom as their primary photo editor. 
    I did a search on Lightroom vs Photoshop.  I found the following listed as the first reason for choosing Lightroom: 1.  Nondestructive Editing.  Nothing is actually changed (by Lightroom) in an image until it is exported.  This means you can make an adjustment, change it again and again, but no quality is lost as it would be with Photoshp.  This is reported in Outdoor Photographer.
    My impression is there is no lost of image quality in Photoshop if you are working on a layer copy of the Background.  Photoshop tries to prevent degradation of the original image by requiring it be copied  or otherwise freed before the background can be changed.
    Image quality can be lost in downstream layers through processes such as changing image size. 
    Is my statement correct about loss of image quality and the 'analyst' from Outdoor Photographer misstating things?

    Hi Vince.
    I am just learning my way around Photoshp.  I have spent 18 months learning how to start and to stop it.
    Good point. But if we peg the learning curve of Ps at 10, Lr comes in around 2 or 3. Like learning to drive a car as opposed to learning to fly a jet.
    Smart Objects would make PS more re-editable.
    True, but still no match for Lr or Ps RAW.
    I have never before seens a comment that extensive work on an image in PS would deteriorate the quality of the image.
    Extensive work will do what the user asks it to do. In the first 18 months I had Ps, I asked it to do lots of things that I now realize deteriorated my images. Forever.
    Regarding LR, I have created for me a workflow that requires PS.
    So did everyone before Lr came out. And yet, Ps users by the thousands, if not millions, have adopted Lr. Many if not most with a greater time investment in Ps than 18 months. I dropped my Ps centric flo the moment I realized what Lr could do. I had been using Ps pretty heavily for about 5 years by that time.
    I feel LR works best for experienced photographers who are shoooting a lot of pictures.
    While it's true that experienced photographers might realize more benifit, maybe not. It works great for everyone.
    That person has good images, images that need little editing, to start the output process.
    This is not true in the sense that the majority of Lr users are mediocre photographers at best. For the simple fact that most photographers (even "pros") are mediocre at best. And Lr was conceived with these folks in mind. It has the true "pro" stuff, but in an amateur friendly environment. Judging by the images and questions posted on photo and Lr forums, there are many, many, low level photographers using it.
    I am an inexperienced photographer shooting just a few pictures.  So I put a lot of effort into getting a good print from my mediocre shots.
    You obviously care about your images. Care more when you are shooting them. This is boiler plate advice. Time spent mastering your camera will pay off better dividends than learning to fix bad photos. This was true before the digital age, and it's just as true now. Ultimately, no matter how hard you massage it in Ps, Lr, or any other app, the quality of your final image will be a function of the quality of the original pixels you captured with you camera.
    So far as masks and all the rest, Lr has an Local Area Adjustment Brush which does just that. You paint the mask, complete with any number or combination of adjustments, with a brush. The mask and the adjustments to it can be easily changed later. A good spot removal tool. A great red eye tool.
    File size isn't a huge factor these days, but it still counts. Instead of layers and the pixel data for each of them as in Ps, Lr has the pixel data once, and a sidecar file with the adjustments settings in a much smaller file. Not a big deal for storage, but when rendering, maybe a bigger deal. Lr also pre-renders previews at various sizes (you can program this, plus how long it keeps them). I could go on and on (and I have).
    Bottom line, it's a great tool for anyone who takes photos. For the price, it's a no brainer for $150. If you have the $150. Not true for many of us these days.
    Anyway, Vince,  I hope you don't think I'm picking on you. I answered you in detail because you made such good points. And the answers might be of general interest.
    Peace,
    Lee

  • Best quality settings for transfer from comp to itunes library

    What settings should I use to have the best quality sound when transfering from my computer to itunes?

    Do you mean from CD to iTunes? Because if the songs are already on your computer, they probably don't need to be converted again. If you do mean from CD to iTunes, the answer is "whatever sounds best to you." I'm not trying to be flip. It's just that there's a wide range of preference. It's going to be affected by where you listen and the background noise, your headphones, your speakers, how good your hearing is and so on. I generally recommend that you rip the same track in a number of different bit rates in both AAC and mp3 and see what sounds best to you and (if space is an issue) what provideds the best compromise between good sound and small file size. Personally, I use 192 aac VBR. Sounds good on my iPods and on my JBL Creature speakers. I don't have a stereo.

  • I transferred home movies from VHS to DVD. How do I import the data into imovie.

    I transferred home movies from VHS to DVD. I can open the data using the DVD Player but I cannot import data into imovie.  Any ideas?

    Another option is to download the free app MPEG Streamclip from Squared 5 here:
    http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
    After loading the DVD on your Mac, drag the icon onto Streamclip's window. From the menu choose File>Export to QuickTime then for Compression select the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). Adjust the quality slider from 50% to about 75% - that should give good quality at a reasonable file size. Leave other settings as they are and click on Make Movie. From the next box, choose a name for the file (it will be a .mov file) and a save location (say Desktop).
    The saved .mov file can now be imported to an Event and edited if desired in iMovie.
    Note that you may be asked to instal a file from Apple. It's named QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component for Mac OS X. It's priced at US$19.99 and is available from the US Apple Store here:
    http://store.apple.com/us/product/D2187Z/A?
    John
    Message was edited by: John Cogdell

Maybe you are looking for