IMovie degrades quality

I'm new to iMovie 9.0.4 and have a Olympus camera that shoots1080i video. iMovie 9.0.4 seems to only allow me to import and export at 720p and the quality is much worse than the original. So bad I would not ever consider making a movie and posting it to Youtube. Does iMovie '11 preserve quality any better?
Or does one need to use an expensive program like Final Cut Pro to preserve quality?

Hi - thanks for letting us know that you've resolved the quality problem, and sorry that none of us got back to you earlier. But just for the benefit of other users, are you able to share the method you used originally, compared to the method that worked for you? It may give us a better understanding of why some methods work better than others.
I get very good results importing 1080i AVCHD clips at either the Large size (960 x 540) or Full (1920 x 1080), then exporting using Share > Media Browser or Share > Export Movie, at the Large, HD 720p or HD 1080p size (subject to the import size).
iMovie '11 is actually version 9, the latest update being 9.0.8. As you appear to be on iMovie '11 version 9.0.4 it would be worth updating - unless of course Snow Leopard doesn't work with versions later than 9.0.4 (your profile shows you are using Mac OS X 10.6.8). Note that iMovie '09 is version 8, the last update being 8.0.6 - all very confusing!
John

Similar Messages

IMovie image quality

Hi,
at http://www.prgomet.net/iMoveIQ.png you can see what I talk about.
I shoot using Canon 5D Mk2, those are h264 40mbit mov files. When I import them iMovie makes great looking AIC encoded mov files and puts them in events. That AIC made by iMovie is great and almost like original.
BUT! when I look at it in events or on timeline it look like it has 6bit (or less) colors, also when I export it it looks as bad. I do not understand why is that so. I mean iMovie makes for itself great looking AIC file to work with, but somehow in viewing and exporting it degrades quality a lot.
On linked image you can see AIC file that is source for iMovie, original Canon source, and how that same shot looks in iMovie event/timeline and when exported.
Does anyone has similar problem?
Thank you!
ez

now I see on timeline that stills (photos from iPhoto) are also very low on quality .. same problem .. like jpeg on 30% quality ..
i deleted source video file .. and iMovie still shows it on timeline .. I presume iMovie has some kind of thumbnail video .. I get the feeling that iMovie uses that thumbnails to preview, edit and export, and not AIC imported ..
what else ..

6.01 Degraded Quality Of Files Compared To Adobe Reader

I have a wide format scanner, an HP Designjet 4200(815mfp), that can save scans in .pdf format. When I click on the properties tab of one of these .pdf's, this is the info: Application: CTX PDF Producer: PDFlib 4.0.3(Win32) PDF Version: 1.3. I am using Photoshop 6.01(6.0 with patch installed, provided by Adobe as ps601up.exe) running under Windows 2000.
When I open one of these .pdf files with Photoshop a message appears at the bottom of the screen while the file loads, "rasterizing file" as the file loads. The image that then appears on the pc's monitor is greatly degraded from the scanned image, lines and text are jagged and blurry; and even if I make no edits whatsoever and print it immediately from Photoshop the quality of the printed image is horrible, as if the resolution has vastly declined. If I open the same .pdf file with Reader, the image appears in the high quality that it ought to, and Reader prints it in high quality as well. I am definitely in Photoshop not Imageready when this happens, and it is not affected by any change I make to the resolution in the "Rasterize Generic PDF Format" box that appears whenever I first open one of these files.
Any help will be greatly appreciated, as the degraded quality of these images presented by Photoshop literally makes them unusable.

I am replying to Mr. McCahill's & Mr. Levine's posts as one, since they address similar issues. I am constrained to use Windows 2000, as that is the system used by our LAN. So newer versions of Photoshop are not an option. The computer I'm using is a 2.80 GHz Pentium 4 with over 1 gigabyte of RAM. The fixed points of my problems are the computer, operating system, and scanner(along with its software, which dictates the type of .pdf file it can generate; it can also save scans as .tif files or .cal files; for reasons that would be much too lengthy & off-topic here, .jpg is not an option even though it can save as those as well). I'm limited to software solutions, and I
don't think this PC is really a big contributor to any of my woes.

When i import a video into iMovie the quality gets very ******,but when its not in iMovie it looks awesome

when i import a video into iMovie the quality gets very ******,but when its not in iMovie it looks awesome, please help

Exact same problem

Photo To Movie and iMovie: Poor quality movies

I am using Photo To Movie, iMovie as well as Keynote.
I am finding that when I burn PTM to movie either Quicktime or iMovie the quality is very bad, in particular on slides that have colors and text on them; these are distorted, while the actual photos are grainy.
I export (Make Movie) from PTM to Quicktime - DV(NTSC), High quality, 720x480, 29.97 fps, 16 bit stereo, 48,000 hz.
All photos are high quality ranging from 2 to 4 megs.
Any idea what could be the matter?
Thanks,
Tek

Thanks.
Didn't think of that because I'm new at using QT in this capacity.
It's always so simple.
Hope that's the problem.

FCE Vs iMovie. Quality Difference?

hello there.
i'm just wondering whether such emphasised phrases as "high quality effects/transitions/rendering/etc" in the FCE manual or general description mean that, for instance, iMovie's quality, as far as rendering, effects and transitions are concerned, is worse. am i correct in understanding so?..
the problem i am facing is that, although i'm in the middle of switching to FCE from iMovie for doing all/most of my video work, i still find that i've got much-much more effects and transitions in iMovie than in FCE, due to having 7 of the 10 Slick-GeeThree packages. so what i'm thinking is that i could share the work between the two applications, using the best features of each to the benefit of my projects.
however... the thought that suddenly occurred to me was - would the quality of my video footage suffer in iMovie? or has iMovie got the same quality parameters as FCE?

thanks for your replies.
i don't think i'll be having any problems with audio, as most of my projects are music videos, which means i won't be using the sound of the original footage: the soundtrack is added separately.
as for the quality of some effects. yes, that's exactly what i meant. the captured video looks great in iMovie. but as soon as i add such effects as colour correction, for instance, or saturation, the sharpness of the picture disappears and it starts to look edgy. for example, if it's a human face, the original oval curve of a cheek or a chin will look slightly saw-edged, i.e. i can spot square pixels...
which is why i thought that perhaps the "high quality" bit in the FCE official description meant that i won't be encountering similar problems in FInal Cut?

Will importing iMovie 08 project into iMovie HD 6 degrade quality?

Hello,
Didn't find this in previous posts, so here goes...
I worked on a few projects in iMovie 08 before learning that iMovie HD 6 had better picture quality, features, etc for my needs.
I want to combine footage from iMovie 08 and iMovie HD 6 to send to iDVD to make 1 dvd movie.
Can iDVD handle footage from multiple projects in different iMovie versions, or do I need to have everything in one version of iMovie first? If I import the 08 clips into HD 6, will it degrade the picture further? I no longer have some of the miniDV tapes the footage was recorded on.
AND, if I do import 08 footage into HD 6, how do I do this to preserve the best quality I can?

Thanks.
What is the best video compression type to use for this purpose? I have it set to MPEG-4 right now, with same frame rate as original. I don't know a lot about compression types, but would DV/DVCPRO-NTSC work or be any better?
What about audio settings? It is currently set to 16 bit, 48 KHz, Linear PCM... the audio wasn't great from the source (internal camera mic), but I'd like to preserve what is there!

Share iMovie Full Quality lost option

I'm trying to share an iMovie project to iDVD and full quality is not an option. I chose share: Media Browser, Large. All my text is now blurry in iDVD and my photo quality is real fuzzy. How do I get the quality I have in iMovie into iDvd? I see no options. Help!

Another thing is that you must get your video into your project in a Loss Less format. IMove 8 defaults to an .mp4 which is a compressed format. I don't know how to set it to dv or a Loss Less format like in IMovie 6. I would hope there is a way, please post if you find out. Unless you Project is created with a Loss Less / dv format professional or not you DVD will be degraded.

IMovie project quality poor in iDVD export

I'm having problems with the quality of iMovie projects exported to iDVD. The final dvd looks very pixelated, however, when I export the same project to iTunes and view the video on same TV, the video looks perfect...clear as a bell, when great definition.
Here's what I'm doing...
Video imported from my HD camera at Large 960x540,Optimize setting.
Clips moved from Events to Projects.
No major edits made in Projects outside of a trim or two.
Project 'Finalized.'
Project sent to iDVD via Share > iDVD.
Am I missing something? I've even tried omitting step 4 above...not finalizing. Same DVD result. The video looks perfect on my screen in both iMovie and iDVD as I work on it. Only experiencing problem with final DVD output.
I'm using iMovie 11 (v9.0.4), iDVD (v7.1.2).
This is the first time that I've used iMovie 11 to create my video before sending to iDVD. In the past, I've used iMovie HD and never had a problem with iDVD output.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi
There are lot's of thought's about this - read as much as You want of my notes.
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.
DO not use - "Share to iDVD" in any iMovie version !
iMä'08 to 11 - "Share to Media Browser" and as LARGE or Medium - NOT HD or other resolutions as this too degrades the final DVD.
3. I use Apple Disk Util tool (or 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

IMovie capture quality better than anything FCP can offer for consumer DV?

As a newbie to FCP, I have not found Capture, sequence, and export settings that is equal to or better than what iMovie 08 can create. Prior to this, I've been using iMovie 08 which is extremely user friendly. Just plug in the fire wire connections and it auto detects only one setting for DV. I am not sure what format it captures in but it does a good job. When I export out of iMovie 08 I use "using Quicktime" and choose the Uncompressed 8-bit NTSC method. The result is a decent, non-interlaced looking .mov file.
The first time I tried to capture with FCP I chose the easy setup, where I would capture in the NTSC DV, sequence would be NTSC DV and export using the current settings in quicktime. The result was an interlaced and lowered quality vid.
I have also tried the following combinations with no success with quality comparisons w/ iMovie 08:
capt: NTSC dv, seq: NTSC DV, progressive exp: Uncompressed 8-bit
capt: Uncompressed 8-bit, seq: Uncompressed 8-Bit exp: Uncompressed 8-bit
This last one came close, but still iMovie 08 was better.
My assumption is that FCP would contain the settings to duplicate or even out perform iMovie's export quality for consumer video dv. I viewed iMovie as little brother and FCP as big brother. Shouldn't FCP produce equal to or better quality than iMovie 08? And what are the settings for this?
Thanks

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.
I understand what you are saying about "getting quality back" on export. My initial question was comparing the quality of an iMovie 08 export vs. FCP export and having the problem of a lowered output from the FCP export.
If anyone has the time, would they try a short experiment:
1. From your DV source, camera or deck connect to your computer
Capture a short clip via iMovie 08 a short clip in standard 4:3.
Export using Quicktime, Uncompressed 8-bit setting
2. From your DV source, camera or deck, connect to your computer.
Capture the same short clip to FCP using Easy set up for NTSC DV. Export with current settings.
3. Compare the two.

IMovie 9 quality problem, investigation

I'm really confused where the iMovie image problem is coming from. As with most of Apple's data files you can right click on any iMovie project to check out whats inside and strange enough it stores movies and images in full quality.
I have tried to render the same photo in iMovie 5 HD, iMovie 9, FinalCut Pro 7 and PulpMotion and only iMovie 9 displays the weird posterization in dark gradient areas. It also seems to have a problem with the colours.
So now what? iMovie 9 has fun themes, is very easy to use, great features but I can't get decent results with still photos. Other applications and versions do great export but miss features or are cumbersome to use. Anyone got any suggestions?

I never said iMovie stores what it exports in the file. I'm trying to troubleshoot so was trying to eliminate causes for the bad image quality. Seeing the imported images are still of good quality inside the iMovie project file there is no problem with the importer.
I have just done my test again, created a 1280 x 720 file from a high res photo, imported that straight into iMovie 9 and Final Cut Express. Then exported from both the projects, both with highest setting and both 1280 x 720 and no video effects. I should get the same image. I do in Final Cut Express but not in iMovie 9, there is a world of difference.
You tell me how I can avoid this?

Protechnius into iMovie image quality problems

We created a bmp animation with audio in Protechnius - it's a 90 MB AVI file. Play it with Media Player or QT (not QTPro) and it looks and sounds great. Music was longer than movie, so imported it into iMovie to clip it. When 'share' it to QT movie, looks awful no matter what we do. After reading several Posts, I realize that the computer monitor isn't as good as a TV monitor, but I don't understand why it looks great in Media Player and QT before iMovie, but awful after iMovie. Appreciate any help - the project's due tomorrow...of course.
Oh, btw, this is never going to be played on anything but a computer. I'm not trying to make a DVD-quality movie; I'm trying to make a computer-screen quality movie with clear, sharp images - like what you see on quality websites. It needs to be small enough to email...
Kristina

AVI is just a container, much like a MOV. You never know what is actually inside this container.
When importing into iMovie, it's always converted to DV, which has a fixed resolution. Then share to QT movie and the movie is converted again. You have lost quality twice.
Try QT Pro instead. There you can crop the audio without quality loss.

Degraded quality of photo printing book in Aperture 3

Hi,
I've isolated an issue in the print book function of Aperture 3 that drove me crazy in the last ten days:
I've created a custom size book to deliver to a local print service via "save as pdf" function, but something gone wrong because the quality of the pdf isn't good as the original photos.
After days of trials I've found where the problem rises up, so I'll try to explain step by step below:
I've identified one critical photos that well shows the problem and I've "printed to pdf" from the normal print photo function of Aperture and the results was correct:
So I've created a book and put that photo in a page and I've "print to pdf" the book. The results was degraded like you can see below (look at the dark areas that have lost every details):
I've done the same operation in iPhoto, the "non Pro" minor App, and in a paradoxical way the iPhoto results PDF was perfect!
I've also noticed that the preview image of the print dialog box of Aperture shows the defect unlike the dialog box of iPhoto:
Aperture:
iPhoto:
So finally seems that something in the print engine of books in Aperture is broken and ruins the photos "before" are printed, and apparently no setting seems to help.
I've done this tials on a MacPro Lion 10.7.5 ad Aperture 3.4.3, MacBook Pro Lion 10.7.5 ad Aperture 3.4.3 and MacPro Snow Leopard with aperture 3.1 and 3.2 always with the same results.
you can download the generated PDF here:
pdf Aperture Photo:
http://temp.paolorossi.me/ApertureImagePrint.pdf
pdf Aperture book:
http://temp.paolorossi.me/ApertureBookPrint.pdf
pdf iPhoto book:
http://temp.paolorossi.me/iPhotoBook.pdf

I've done another test:
I've created a sample image with 4 colour faded bars with values from 0 to 128 for RGB and gray then I've putted on a page in Aperture book and iPhoto book then I've printed on PDF.
Below you can see the results: iPhoto is good whereas Aperture is ruined.
iPhoto results:
Aperture results:
I've also noticed the Aperture results is influenced by the color profile chosed on the selector in the box, but no profile at all gives a good job , every profile returns a weird custom defect, also with "no profile" choice.

IMovie HD Quality: Does iMovie compress by default?

Helping a friend out making a movie via iMovie, using clips from a fairly decent quality digital movie (Quicktime format).
She's on a pre-intel G5 iMac.
The issue: it appears that iMovie is compressing or lowering the quality of the clips we're importing. Our method of importing is click-and-drag.
Questions: Is there a method of setting iMovie's default to import clips and retain the same quality (High Definition is preferred).
Is there a different way to import clips (e.g. an "Import" option in iMovie, instead of click-and-drag?)
The ultimate goal of the final exported movie is to be the best/highest definition/quality. It's not to be emailed around, or to be loaded to a website. The "clients" merely intend to watch it on a big-screen TV.

iMovie doesn't care if your "drag" or "import" your source files.
When viewed during editing you may not see they "high quality" but your source files are not "compressed" just to be used (or edited) in iMovie.
But iMovie does do some "voodoo" when playing these files back and they are only to insure proper viewing and do not compare to the final "project" files.
"High Definition" will only happen if your source files were captured on an HD device. SD (Standard Definition) video will not be "improved" by using iMovie HD.
If your friend is using an HD camera then the files will remain HD until "exported". Since HD playback devices (HD DVD) are not in common use it may be that your files will become SD at export to iDVD.

Imovie HD Quality

I have created my movie and the main portion is jpeg they are all 250 DPI yet they apear soft in the view window. I have exported to idvd only to find end result on TV also soft & pixilated. I would appreciate any advise on getting the highest quality movie from imovie HD

The problem is, you are using still images in a video application. A technical explanation of that is not my forte here, suffice it to say DPI has nothing to do with it and you always lose quality on photos used in iMovie. You should use iPhoto to create your slideshow.
Forest

IMovie degrades quality

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