IMovie 11 quality

I have 16mm film transfered via Rank Cintel onto Professional dvcam, 24fps. About as good as NTSC gets. Thinking of using iMovie 11. I've read about half-frame issues with interlaced image., compromising the quality of the image. I think that if it's 24fps then it's progressive, but I'm wondering if that's true.

There is a reduction in quality of the image between iMovie 06 and iMovie 08 through 11.
The difference is the single field processing used by iMovie 11 (for faster editing) and the fact that it throws out every other horizontal line.
Final Cut Express and Adobe Premiere Elements 9 will give full quality but are more complicated to use.
In my opinion iMovie 06 with iDVD 09 or iDVD 11 is way to go.
Your workflow is editing DV clips and making DVDs, iMovie '06 is better suited. Your movie will arrive at iDVD in DV format, which is an ideal match for making a DVD: same resolution, same pixels, aspect ratio, and original quality.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 09/11 is a 100% "lossless" combination and my DVD's look like they came from Hollywood!

Similar Messages

How to keep the original imovie quality as much as possible?

I've completed an iMovie project which lasts a few minutes short of one hour. The size of the iMovie project is 12Gig.
I want to burn this to a dual layered DVD using iDVD, and at the same time maintain as little compression as possible, keeping the quality has high as possible.
What is the best way to do this? Because when I export the iMovie file to iDVD using the create iDVD Project, and set my iDVD prefs to "Best Quality", and my "Media Type" to 8Gig (Double Layer) I end up with an iDVD project file of 3.39Gig.
How is it possible to create a DVD from the 12Gig iMovie file which, when compressed, will be larger than 3Gig, so as to use most of the disk space on an 8Gig disk.
It seems that the only two encoded settings I can alter are for "Best Quality" and "Best Performance". I was hoping to get at least 6-7Gig, thereby only compressing the original movie by half, instead it's compressed it down to a quarter of the original size. Judging the original movie against the DVD version on a TV screen reveals a noticeable amount of quality loss. Is there anything that I can do to force iDVD to not compress the file this much??
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

I was hoping to get at least 6-7Gig, thereby only compressing the original movie by half, instead it's compressed it down to a quarter of the original size. Judging the original movie against the DVD version on a TV screen reveals a noticeable amount of quality loss. Is there anything that I can do to force iDVD to not compress the file this much??
Sorry, the video content must be compressed to a certain level to be playable in DVD players - it's a matter of the bit-rate that DVD players can handle.
iDVD's 'Best Performance' produces a disk with about as high a bit-rate that players can handle. Because MPG-2 compression works on frame to frame differences, to maximize your DVD quality do things like place your camera on a tripod and make sure there is plenty of light.

IMovies Quality problems..

Hi All.. Looking for some help -
Started to use iMovie to create a slideshow of pics and the various effects available but seem to be having some quality issues when i play back...
when I'm chosing the titles (this is imovie '06) the examples look all crisp and of high quality, the same when I first import a picture. BUT
If i then try and run the slideshow in either the demo box on screen or by making it full screen the quality is rubbish! Straight lines on pictures are all jagged and look bad quality - not at all like the original images, and the beginning title words look rubbish, not at all crisp like they were when I picked that style etc. If I change the colour of the words then on playback there is a white halo round the colour. Basically it looks really bad and poor quality
What am I missing? The fact they come up crisp and nice to begin with then goes crap when i play back is vexing me.. I have the macbook with 2.16 processor. I have tried changing the quality in preferences up and down but no luck.
Sorry for the long message and if this is a stupid question but I can't find the info in the help section.
I had posted this in the iMovie help forum but it seems very quiet in there..
Thank you for any help!
Sam

Try exporting and seeing how it looks.
I'm no expert in iMovie, as I usually use FCP, but it seems like iMovie doesn't show full quality on it's playback window. Try an export, it may help diagnose the problem.
-benny

Suggestions on burning programs used with iMovie-quality horrible with iDVD

I have read the boards on iDVD and find myself having the same problem. I made an all photo slideshow for my husband to show clients in iMovie. I transfer it to iDVD, burn it (both using best and professional quality) and the pictures look horrible. Pixilated and grainy, not good enough to show clients. So I'm guessing the problem lies with iDVD (because it looks excellent in iMovie) does anyone have a suggestion of a burning program that is more professional quality? Or should I not be using iMovie for this kind of project at all, and do you have suggestions on a slideshow program? Thanks!!

"..One more question: You remember the spider that lived.." ..Sorry; 'Blade Runner' on the brain..
"..Can you tell me how I import into iDVD? Right now, I have selected share to iDVD in iMovie. How do I get the project into iDVD without sharing it?.."
Same as with any Mac program: you start by specifying the existing File which you want to use - in this case a movie or video - and you think what you want to do with it; in this case you want to import it into iDVD.
So in iDVD's top-line Menu, click on File, then Import, then Video... and choose the project which you were just editing:
If you were using iMovie '09 or iMovie '08, just navigate to your 'Movies' folder, and then the 'iMovie Projects' folder within that, and choose your recently-edited movie:
If you were editing with an earlier version of iMovie, just go to your 'Movies' folder and choose the movie you want.
(P.S: Just to come back to the question which Karsten asked you, above: "are both apps, iM and iDVD set to same framerate?"
iMovie and iDVD default to (will automatically be set at) NTSC 30 frames per second. For anyone in the States, that's exactly what you want. As you're in New Jersey (I assume) you won't need to make any adjustments. For anyone in European 'PAL-land' doing this, they'd first have to set iDVD's Preferences to PAL 25fps so that the frame rate in iDVD matches the frame rate of a PAL video, and then start a new iDVD project with that new 25 fps frame rate. You would NOT want to import, say, a 25fps movie into a 30fps iDVD project - or vice versa - as everything would stutter.)

IMovie Quality Playback

I have made several iMovies and the quality is terrible. My pictures are 5 Megapixel or 2580 x 1950 when I drag them to the time line and play back full screen on my 20 inch Mac Cinema Display; all the curved or diagonal edges of people and objects are saw toothed. I have my monitor set at its highest resolution 1680 x 1050 resolution. The pictures are worse than those I view on the internet. They seem to be enlarged 72 ppi photos.
We have a group that meets each month to show travel slide shows. Most presenters use their camera slide show software to show their slides and they are superior to iMovie. I chose iMovie because I could insert video clips to play in sequence with the related slides. When I burn them to iDVD they look the same as they did in iMovie. This works great except for the Jagged or saw tooth edges. Most other presenters use Windows laptops and their shows are of better quality and they can add picture info at the bottom margin of the picture. I might try Keynote but when I open PowerPoint presentations in keynote I lose the sound and I have not found a way to import a folder of sides.
iPhoto slide shows keep picture quality and look great on screen but it will not play QuickTime movies
when I add a movie the show will not play it will import it in sequence be the slide show will not startup.
Any ideas other than camera software or iPhoto to create a reasonable quality slide show without spending a fortune on professional software.
Any suggestions would be appreciated
Dick

Hi
Did Your movie look OK when it was edited PRIOR You tried to do the DVD ?
My main guess is that You used "Share/Export to iDVD" from within iMovie and
probably not used Ken Burns project.
If so - then Your movie will look bad too. If You open iMovie and try to play it.
There is a problem with photos in iMovie due to how (bad) iMovie renders.
I do (or rather don't)
• I don't use Ken Burns Effect at all on any photos
• I DON'T use "Export/Share to iDVD" function in iMovie
I do
• Import my photos and edit them with my music and voice-over
• CLOSE iMovie (Don't try Share to iDVD - though it will harm the project)
• OPEN iDVD and either import the movie project (or just drop it into) iDVD
Now iDVD will do the rendering and so much better.
Alt. is to in iMovie use Ken Burns effect (on all photos - I think/guess)
• This is a way I don't have adopted - at all.
IF You have Used Share/Export to iDVD - Then
• You'll have to RE-Import the photos to Your iMovie project
• Re-edit them into Your SlideShow. The old ones is harmed and have to be exchanged.
• Now try again.
The amount of material is NOT the problem - my kill of Vacation movie made in iMovie
was >> 5 hour movie and >> 500 photos to a duration of more than 6h 20min
No not to DVD - but out to a VHS-tape in LP-mode.
The only thing of importance when dealing with Mammoth-projects are
• free space on internal boot hard disk >> 25Gb recommended
• space for material and movie on any FireWire Mac OS Extended formatted hard disk
eg my >>6hour project needed >> 200Gb free space + 25Gb
This was 4x3 standard TV-video (miniDV tape)
IF 1920x1080 HD then You'll need to multiply with about 5 at least.
Yours Bengt W

How is it possible to improve iMovie quality in black areas?

The movie looks fine in preview, but there are a lot of compression artifacts in dark areas when exporting it (720p)

I was putting together different videos already recorded so I couldn't improve the quality of the sources... Manual export with setting bitrate to 5mbs helped a little, even though the output video is still not as good as the preview video. I guess that's the best iMovie can do for now...

IMovie quality degraded from input quality

Hey out there,
Can anyone help me? I have great quality video that's been input into iMovie, but when I am playing back in the application, it looks grainy, pixelated, and just gross. Even the title pages look good when I make them, when I play them back they're crap.
Help?

What are the playback settings in iMovie Preferences? I don't have the older version anymore but I recall it has similar settings for playback that the newer versions have. You can set it for smooth playback which corresponds to a lower quality image. Highest quality settings can cause jumpy playback if your computer is not so fast but the images look better.
Another thing to keep in mind is DV video generally looks worse on a computer monitor as compared to a TV. Its especially noticable with titling because when you create the titles they look high resolution but after iMovie renders them to the DV format, the resolution is reduced. This is perfectly normal. You'll find that if you export the video back to the camcorder or DVD, the quality will appear much better when played connected to a TV.

IMovie Quality

What would be the best export settings for an iMovie movie for use in DVD-SP? I am looking at around 20 movies ranging from 3-10min each. I recently switched from CD based distribution to DVD and would obviously like to utilize the DVD's capacity but would just like to know a ballpark figure for size/other settings from within iMovie.

You may be better off just compressing it into an MPEG-2 from iMovie and avoid the intermediate step and recompression/export.
Not sure which version you have of iMovie, but go to Share.
Then select expert and the dialog will pop up for Save File As...
On the bottom select Export: MPEG2, then you can try one of the default settings (use 2 Pass selection) to see if that works for you, very often that can provide decent results
If not decent results, click on Option and In the quality Tab set it for 2 Pass and use a higher minimum rate and max rate (note some footage may look better with one pass)
then aPac/Dolby the resulting AIF file from the MPEG2 export.
Note that the lower the rate you use for the MPEG2, the less chance of having playback issues occur when burning DVDs from your computer when played on DVD players. There is usually not a remarkable jump in encoding quality based on the source footage from let's say 5 to 6. (In fact bitVice, a 3rd party encoder, defaults to 4.5 because that seems to be the settings where quality and size of the final MPEG2 seems to work the best.)
Definately run a test or two though

Low quality when exporting.

I have a movie recorded in HD720p by iPhone 4.
I imported it into iMovie 11 (edited, etc.), and after I export in HD. Unfortunately, movie quality is very bad.
Screenshot from iMovie - quality is fine:
http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/3251/36192067.jpg
Here are exported using QuickTime - 720p, mp4 - really ugly effect
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1614/72690083.jpg
And the last attempt to export using the "share" -> Export Movie -> 960x540, m4v (HD is unavailable - I don't know why...)
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/2364/nrmor.jpg
How do I export the movie in original resolution and without loss of quality?
I'm sorry for my "English" mistake

You might try to do some custom exports. Here is a so so video I made about just that using another version of the H.264 codec. http://bit.ly/aw9dVh
I have a phone that shoots "720p" too but I would in NO WAY compare the output of my phone to what my "real" camera can do. So in short... Don't expect better quality to what you see in iMovie preview.

Export option for highest quality posting to Google video and YouTube

I'm trying to figure out what the best export options are for posting video on Google Video and YouTube. My primary interest is skiing video with quick actions. Here are the 5 options I tried on my iMovie HD 6, the latest and the greatest:
MPEG4, LAN
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2913246368993273712
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL6RHKXydhQ
MPEG4, LAN, High Quality
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1920438333553484589
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0myAYyBx0k
Quicktime, LAN, 320x240, Deinterlace
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2101048758986639008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rExhbmBksVs
Quicktime, LAN
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8289794703671829891
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-nwmyJ-y_g
Quicktime, LAN, Deinterlace
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1116022416411494165
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4Wch75hTzs
You can get the whole list on each site with following URL
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=imovie-quality-comparison
http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=C0D08A3D961234E4
Each video has cross reference URL in the description which link to the same video posted on other site.
Currently my choice is "Quicktime, LAN, Deinterlace" on Google Video. Only thing I don't like is doubling of image for fast moving part, which somehow disappears if I reduce the size to 320x200, but then it is too blurry when displayed in full screen.
None is usable on YouTube. They look horrible, but there are much better quality videos on YouTube.
Since there are so many knobs to play around on each option, I'm at loss what to play around with. I did quick things like increasing the size to 720x480 or increasing the frame rate, but surprisingly, none seems to make any difference when filtered through their encoder.
I like to solicit suggestions on what option to try. I'll export the same video with that options, upload it to both sites and we can take a look.
eMac & iBook Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi — I also found you via Slashdot. You've gone to a good amount of effort to solve this scientifically.
I'm just here to say: Face it, you need to go past the built-in options. Here's what you need to know:
1. YouTube is 320x240 (or 320 by anything lower, for widescreen). You must scale to that.
2. YouTube is 30fps maximum, so if you already have that, set that. If you have 25 or 24, use that. If you have 50, it looks better with 25 (I've tried).
3. The interlacing choice is purely up to your original video. Does it have 480 lines or 576 lines? And if so, does it have fluid "live camera" motion, unlike film? If your answer is yes to both, then you have interlacing. Since YouTube doesn't do interlacing, you need to remove it.
4. Both YouTube and Google Video have a problem with the (seemingly open, standard) MP4 format. We think it's because of the VLC software they used. Anyway, use a QuickTime MOV file for the wrapping container, so export to QuickTime Movie (not MPEG-4). But use the H.264 codec. It's good.
OK, that's it. It's your pretty complete, simple guide to making good YouTube videos.
Don't forget to use a tripod and external microphones, and lay off using the zoom too much. That's my other advice, for earlier in the process. Now you've learnt everything technical The rest is only down to viral marketing and you can learn all that by example out on YouTube.
CK.

Loss of video quality when exporting animation

I'm using the animation software Toonboom to make 2D hand drawn animation and I want to edit my scenes together in imovie. I export my clips out of Toonboom as Quicktime movies, and have no problem with getting them in imovie or editing them, it's the exporting that's causing the problem. I want to export them with the best possible quality so that the finished movie can be burnt on a DVD for TV viewing, so I export using the full qualty option, but every time I export it there is a noticable loss of quality. When I export the scenes out of Toonboom, the quality is perfect, so I don't want to lose my image quality. I've tried different compression options, and even have selected NO compression and have set it to the 'best' quality option, but the final export is always pixely, paler, or the black outline gets a ghost. Does anyone have any experience with editing and exporting 2D hand drawn animation in imovie 4 and what would be the best compression options. This is very frustrating, after putting a lot of work into it, to get a poor image quality because of this... Thanks a lot.

Hi, thanks for your response. I tried creating a new imovie project to test what you said, but when I try to drop the imovie file with the star on it into iDVD I get a message telling me that it's an unsupported file type. Just out of curiosity I dropped a really crappy looking dv video file exported from imovie into iDVD and it really did improve the quality!
What if I draw directly into the animation software using a graphics tablet, that way the images aren't scanned. Backgrounds can be painted in painting software, but they are of course, with the exception of a few camera pans, just still images. I wonder, is the poor imovie quality a result of the fact that it is outlines and solid colors instead of live action video? Kind of like when you turn a still drawn image into a JPEG file you get pixels in the colored areas.
Thanks for mentioning about the "pixelated disk", too. It really ***** to burn a disk and then find out it's wasted because the video looks so bad.~_~
~amamiMU

Import .VOB files into iMovie?

I have copied footage from my camera (don't have that tapes anymore!) to a DVD. Now I want to import the files into iMovie to edit and so but iMovie doesn't recognize the file-formats on my DVD: .VOB
Can anyone tell me how I can convert these files so I can import them?
Thank you very much...
Marcha
MacMini Mac OS X (10.4)

Ok I was right, the stretching is coming from importing it directly into imovies folder. Unfortunately when I drag the dv file into imovies the quality was not as good as HB.
Now trying the crop method directly into imovies to see if that fixes the stretching as the picture quality seemed much better, if that don't work I'll save it to my desktop using HB at 100% quality as that seems to be the best and then drag it into imovies quality.
How, if it was you, would you convert the files back to mpeg2? Is there a free converter as I don't have QT pro? Will SC do it in good quality?
I also thought (hate to use the pc word) but I may store the file in my external hard drive as a quicktime or divx or another format (what will give me the best quality from the other formats) and then do the conversion to mpeg2. Then use something like dvdshrink to make the file dvd size
Gees what a bummer man! Just as well I have 2 weeks off work. Not quite the way I was hoping to spend it though!

Poor quality of imported photos. Less colours/colors ? [Examples]

Hi,
I'm making project in iMovie'09
I'm mixing movies with photos in my project.
But in my iMovie project - pictures are poor quality.
iMovie probably use less colors what you can see on dark parts of photos and movies.
I read somewhere that it can be only in iMovie preview - when iMovie use worse quality movies for
faster running. So I exported my movie to different formats to check how it will look like.
I exported it to BIG, "HD" formats, and also using QuickTime with H.263 compression and without compression at all ( 20 seconds file takes over 800 MB !!!), but the result was almost the same.
Here you can see some examples:
http://pokazywarka.pl/imovie-quality/
The same problem is according to movies - you can see similar bad quality on darker parts of imported movies... Movies in original looks fine.
Any idea how to solve this problem and improve quality of pictures?
Best regards,
Patrick

I too am having a problem. Mine's not even a picture with huge quality or something, just a an SD video in 16:9. The input format is Apple MPEG-2 SD Camcorder Video, 704 x 480 (834 x 480), Millions. I've exported to dozens of options with a share to media browser, iTunes, export movie, Quick time, etc. and every time I get color bands that aren't in the original. I thought I'd maybe fix the problem by using the "optimize video" feature which converts the file to Apple Intermediate Codec, 704 x 480 (834 x 480), Millions. Still, this video (when selecting reveal in finder) looks great, no banding. Again I export, even export to 16:9 DV (no compression right?) and the banding appears. Everything looks good until I get to that export stage. I don't expect perfection, but if iMovie can handle HD movies I would expect SD to come out looking basically like it went in. Please help.
Original:
Exported:

IMovie to regular DVD player

Hello,
I have a question about iMovie 08. I have two imovies that I want to transfer to a DVD disc for my mother in law. She doesn't have a computer so it needs to be done to be readable in a regular dvd player.
I read some posts about a similar questions but there wasn't any specific answer about the steps to take.
Thank you very much for any help.

Hi,
I just recently learned about the details on the iMovie quality issues with versions after iMovie6. I had been upset with the quality of some major personal projects, like family graduations and dance recitals, etc. where quality does matter greatly.
Now, I have many more projects I am waiting on, to work out quality issues. I tried one with going back to using iMovie6, then clicking on export to iDVD9. Does not work like it used to-iDvd comes up as if I just opened it without any connection to a project- it is the opening screen for do I want a new project open an existing, do a onestep, etc.
Starting a new project and importing the imovie6 DV files was OK for quality, but didn't keep any of my editing!
Suggestions? I have read in this and other threads to use imovie6 so I don't have to buy FCExpress and go through that learning curve, but...
Thanks, sorry to be long, thought being so specific would hopefully help.
Raydanz

-108 error while exporting a movie

Hello,
when i export a project from iMovie (quality is Full HD 1080p) i got a error
"error -108 iMemFullErr or memFullErr: Not enough room in heap zone"
got 90 gb free on my harddisk.
does anyone know whats the problem with that?
greedings

Hi
Error -108 memFullErr Ran out of memory [not enough room in heap zone]
Turn off - TimeMachine usually works - re-try. (the application down in the Dock - not the device)
But this can mean many thing's - My first thought is
• Free Space on Start-Up hard disk. How much ? (other disks do not count)
To optimise movie - might also help (I think I've read)
Yours Bengt W

HELP HELP...Question with some differences between 8 and 6

We made a dvd in idvd and love the revolutions main menu. We love it so much that we wanted render to its own looping movie. ie: reflections in the earlier imovie and idvd could be used as the dvd menu in idvd or you could use it as a movie title or credits and drop pics onto it from imovie. Can we find something similar for the revolutions idvd 8 menu for imovie or export the looping menu from idvd 8 somehow? THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. We are on a time crunch.

Hi
The sofisticated way - NO not knowing
In time cramp: Paper and clip way:
• Do Your menu in iDVD as it should roll in iMovie
• Burn out to a DVD disk
• One way or another get it into iMovie:
a. DVD-player and Camera onto a new miniDV tape -> import into iMovie
b. Back enginer the DVD with eg Roxio Toast™ to streamingDV and import this into iMovie
∆ Quality about the same - can't see the differences
This will get Your project done even though it was clumsy. You can't see it on the result.
Yours Bengt W

IMovie 11 quality

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