IMovie Capture Quality

Hi there I was trying to find out why I could not export an iMovie to iDVD at 720 x 480 - the standard resolution for MiniDV and for DVD players. I started looking at the files that iMovie imported and I realized that they original files (stored on my hard disk) were only imported at 640 x 480. Why is this happening???? I import the same files into FCP and they are stored at their proper resolution 720 x 480? Does anybody have any ideas as to what's going on here? Why does iMovie import at a lower quality than DV??

Why is this happening?
To add to what Karl has said, your DV files are encoded to a 720 x 480 NTSC matrix "standard" and flagged as to whether the content is actually 4:3 or 16:9. This is historically due to the evolution of DV as the "crossover" between analog and digital content. The difference between 720 x 480 and 640 x 480 is in the shape of the pixel used for display. An analog TV employs a "rectangular" pixel while monitors and HD devices use a "square" pixel. In this way, the display maintains its proper aspect ratio no matter which class of device is used for playback.

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    Thank you for clearing up my confusion. How is my export from iMovie 08, using "Uncompressed 8-bit" coming out progressive (I see no interlaced, odd/even scan lines)? Is this export dropping lines/information? If so, uncompressed is not an appropriate name for the export.
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