Imovie HD 6 & AIC or ProRES442? best quality help?

Hello I have been using Imovie HD 6 ever since it first appeared.
I capture video using HDV 1080i 30p via miniDV then import via imovie HD 6.
1. Is the AIC offer the best picture resolution?
2. Does pro RES442 offer better picture resolution ( less artifacts) ?
I am looking for information regarding the pros and cons especially with resolution between AIC and prores442?
For example, if I import using say FCP and use prores442 edit then> DVD will it have better picture quality even if putting it on DVD?
3. Also if one was to use FCP and prores 442> can you then go to iDVD?
please advise on the codec differences and similarities?
In addition if one had the choice which one would give the best picture quality for final result if one was to put to DVD?
thanks for everyones support

iDVD can only create standard definition format so it makes no sense to send it an HD file.

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IMovie '08 option to make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08

Which iMovie '08 option will make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08?
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Which iMovie '08 option will make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08?
1. Share-Media Browser-Large-Publish
2. Share-Export Using Quicktime
3. Or can you use an unpublished iMove in iDVD?
As always, this depends on a number of factors which you failed to cover in your original question.
1) If you source files are SD, other than an increased loss of time in converting you gain nothing in scaling the files up in iMovie '08 only to scale them back down in iDVD. On the other hand, if your source files are HD, then you will likely see a marginal increase in quality which may or may not be worth the price of increased processing time. In this latter case, you are allowing the MPEG-2 compressor to get the most it can out of your file at the P- and B-frame level.
2) Export using QT allows you to customize your output with regard to both compression format and settings. For instance, you can use a codec with extremely high data rate (e.g., VGA dimensions with DV at 28.5-57.0 Mpbs, AIC at 18.0-22.0 Mbps, or even unlimited H.264/AAC at 16.0-20.0 Mbps). High video data rates generally translate to less lost quality during the re-compression process. Thus, if the intermediate file produced by iMovie '08 and passed on to iDVD retains more of its original quality, the MPEG-2 compressor can get more quality out of the final conversion as stated above.
3) Since no physical file actually exists until the project (simply a set of instructions detailing how the final file will be created) is published, there is nothing to be physically sent to iDVD. basically you must create a physical file from the project in order to do anything at all whether sending it to a gallery, iTunes, YouTube, iDVD, etc.

I can't make a video.avi with best quality in Imovie 11

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Apologizes for my poor english

While we all have MacBooks in this forum not all of us use iMovie. There's a iMovie Support Community where everybody uses iMovie. You should also post this question there. https://discussions.apple.com/community/ilife/imovie

Best Quality Export Settings in MPEG Streamclip to Edit HD Video in iMovie

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Use Apple Intermediate Codec for best quality and best editing performance.
If you have Final Cut Pro installed, you may have additional good options like ProRes 422.

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1. should I have begun the iMovie in DV format and not HD?
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Hi Matt - do you have Final Cut Express HD or Final Cut Pro HD? Because if you do you need to read the following link:
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Hallo!
I have just finished a movie in iMovie HD 5, and now I am wondering how can I get the best possible quality when converting this project into a movie and then making a DVD?
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2. When using "custom settings" - which option now? QT movie, MPEG-4?
3. If QT movie - which codec works best? DV, H.264?
3. With the QT movie finished, which program yields the best quality? iDVD, DVD Studio Pro? Toast?
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Hi Alex,
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iM works with dv, a dvd has finally mpeg2 - any "inbetween conversion" means loss of quality!
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Best Quality for .avi movies in iMovie HD?

Hello:
I recently had a number of old 8mm and Super8 movies converted to .avi files. The quality is pretty good and I want to create some DVD movies and I was want some suggestions on the best quality settings when exporting either to iDVD or Toast. I created a small sample movie and exported to a DV file with the highest settings and it plays well on my computer DVD player, but plays in slow motion on my home DVD player. Is it possible that my home DVD player is simply having a hard time decoding the DVD and it looks slow? Is there a way around this via the encoding settings?
Thanks,
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Toast and iMovie do the same thing but iMovie can't convert to MPEG-2.
DV Stream (.dv) is the format used in iMovie and it allows editing. MPEG-2 is solely a playback method and it doesn't allow editing (without converting first).
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If they don't need any editing in iMovie your can just bring them into iDVD, or Toast, (they convert) and then burn the DVD (converted again to MPEG-2).
Try a new "home DVD" box. There is probably something wrong with yours. About $35.

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I have created a 7 minute long iMovie slideshow project in iMovie '08 that I want to burn in the best quality possible to a DVD so I can play it on a PC and and on a regular DVD player connected to a TV. How can I do that? I tried exporting it in iMovie under SHARE > EXPORT MOVIE, then burnt that to a disk, but the quality of the pictures was very poor on the disk playback. How can I keep or get as close as I can to the original quality when creating a DVD? Thank you.

Use Share/Export to Media Browser/Large.
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I am getting news footage sent to me on a disc to use in an iMovie project. They can send me the files in just about any format. What format should I ask for to provide the best quality video? Are there common formats that do not work with iMovie? File size in not a concern. Project is 24 FPS- Cinema Widescreen 16:9 but I can change this if this limits the quality of the news footage.

Hi
One missing piece !
What is the end-user quality You want to get ?
• e-mail document
• DVD disk
• Up-load to You-tube - and what quality
• HD to PlayStation3 to be viewed on HD-TV
Yours Bengt W

IMovie to iDVD: Error: Need to change to Best quality

I think this must be a bug in iLife 06, create a project in iMovie 6, it will be less then 2 hours long but longer then one hour. Share out to iDVD and you get an error that the files are too large and you should change to Best Quality. Change is made to Best quality but the error still returns, there is no way to get rid of this error with the current iDVD project. Solution: Export the iMovie project (I always use Full Quality) and then drag into the iDVD theme of your choice and it will burn. This happens on my Macs at home and all of the Macs I manage at the university with iLife 06. Has anyone else seen this problem?

But you didn't say you made the change in both places. This needed to be done by someone a couple of days ago.
You can also try this, but you'll have to reset Prefs:
This frequently helps solve some problems. Quit iDVD. Search for the file named com.apple.iDVD.plist and trash it. (A new one will be created next launch of iDVD.) Or look in: User/Library/Preferences. This may solve project loading errors too. Restart and use Disk Utility to Repair Permissions.

Best quality for SD movie into iDVD

I just finished creating a movie in iMovie '09. It was originally recorded with a Sony 8mm camera and passed through a Sony DV camera into my MacBook.
I've added the titles, transitions, chapter marks, etc. The movie is about 50 minutes long.
What is the best way to get it into iDVD and retain the best quality possible?
Should I "share to iDVD" or export as a QuickTime movie and then drag that into iDVD? Which settings would be the best for that choice?

You can actually convert them AFTER you've moved them in. When you captured them from the camera, they were saved into DV format. You can use mpegstreamclip (free download) to convert the DV clips into AIC or M-JPEG. If you do it correctly, the next time you start iMovie it will import the AIC-based clips in as well. Then, when iMovie reads them into your project and eventually renders the final movie, it will handle rendering better with AIC or M-JPEG clips as the source material.
I understand needing to work with what you have; it is a pain to go and replace each clip, clip by clip, with new clips. However, I have very little experience with DV. I've been using mpeg clips from a HDD camcorder for over a year and have only just started using DV as I am now also shooting with a higher-end DV camera for church projects.
I wish I could give you advice on how to export your project so iDVD can make the best DVD from it, but all of my work to date has been exported into movie files and played onto a HD TV through a laptop using QT or presentation software.

Help understanding workflow for best quality.

Greetings.
I've read countless hours on this forum in the effort to understand this extremely complicated subject of getting my video out of my camera and onto a DVD in the best quality possible, and I'm still a little confused.
I'm not recording anything that is particularly high-action, but rather weddings, funerals, (yeah, I know), children's school programs, and my next big project is a seminar with keynote speaker.
I have three Sony HDR SR-11 cameras, which clearly record video as ACHDV and the video signal is 1080/60i (NTSC). I could also record in SD with an MPEG2 file.
I understand the a DVD is only SD at best, and am recording in HD since I have room for the files, and someday we might have better options for the video than we have now.
I started using iMovie, and have iMovie 11, and just love how easy and slick it is to make impressive looking stuff.
Once I import into iDVD to make the cool menus, I use "professional" encoding. I am about to produce a longer video than will fit on a single layer disk, and will be burning to a dual-layer DVD.
I own a copy of FCE, but was overwhelmed when I first started to use it, and on a time crunch for that project, reverted back to iMovie.
How I record events is to set up three cameras from different perspectives and then create a movie from the best angles, switching back and forth. This is a little cumbersome in iMovie, but I've had no trouble except for the date stamp disappearing and having to fix that on my most recent project. (once the date stamp is gone...it's hard to figure out where the clips are that you need for the next minute or two at a time).
I'm about to embark on an effort to market my work professionally, and am clearly working with amateur equipment, and without the time or resources to start all over with a $50K investment, would like to squeak by on what I have, and need to get the best quality possible out of it. Without any question, my market requires the movies to be on DVDs.
I'm most confused by interlacing/deinterlacing issue. I understand what the two are, but not what to do about it, if anything. I notice there is a button to check "deinterlace" in iMovie, and wonder why it's there and if it works and if I should be using it.
What would my specific advantages be, if any, to learning FCE? If a huge difference could be made, I would take the time to learn FCE, and I could lay out another couple hundred bucks for other software, if you had some to recommend that would greatly surpass what I'm doing, in place of iDVD or another intermediary I should be using.
I've been exporting with QT, using the following settings:
Video:
Compression: H.264
Quality: High
Key frame:24
Frame reordering: yes
Encoding: multi-pass
Dimensions: 960x540
Sound:
Format: Integer (Little Endian)
Sample: 44.1 kHz
Sample: 16-bit
Channels: Stereo
Then create menus in iDVD and burn to DVD.
Could you please give me feedback on my process, and try to answer my questions and clear up my confusion? I'd appreciate it so much!
Karen

Does FCE do this with multiple cameras? I'd want to make sure that FCS does it, before I buy it and am stuck with it, especially if FCE will do it and I already have it.
Yes and No
No - Multicamera is a function in FC Pro
Yes - but You do it in a very "Paper-clip" way. Put each Camera on one track ontop of each other
Camera 1 - v-tr 1
Camera 2 - v-tr 2
Camera 3 - v-tr 3
Then schrink the view of each track to 25% with Vireframe and put them into one corner
each (Not the same one)
Move them so that the sync. frame eg a photo flash is on the same time for all three video-tracks.
Now when playing one see the three views in paralell.
THIS demands that all Cameras has a common Sync-point (I use a photo-flash)
AND that no Camera was turned off during uptake.
IT is also important to know if any of the Cameras are sencitive to movements.
My small one is.
So I put mine on tripods !
This recording behaviour is the same if using FinalCut Pro ! Cont. recording and one sync. frame.
Then when playing in FinalCut Express - one use the transparicy tool to make the
Camera visibly that has the best picture.
When done the full movie (by adjusting transparicy - one re-size the Video tracks to 100% and let them fill view.
Now when playback - You see the edited result.
In FC Pro - You set Your Cameras as Multi Camera and set the sync frame. Now it will
in Viewer play (in 25% size) and You just point at the best view trough the movie
and it will assemble in TimeLine. You need not to be especially on target - easily adjusted
with roll-tool (I think) in after hand.
1 hour editing two Cameras takes for me (ME)
• FinalCut Express - about 10 hours
• FinalCut Pro - 2 hours to Capture - 1h15min to edit.
There is a program - CaptureMagic SD (HD) - that let's You copy directly to Your Mac
hard disk - NEED is one FW-port per Camera
(Port is something else than the connectors, My PowerBook G4 has one FW400 and one FW800 connector
BUT ONLY one FW-port - So I need to use a CMA-CIA-card with one FW-connector to get a second FW-port )
This set-up works and I get the material Captured in real-time. Resulting in editing time 1h 15min per hour movie.
Yours Bengt W

Exporting in best Quality

Hi,
I record with 1920*1080 50i (AVCHD). When I finish a project and export it, how can I make sure its at the best Quality? Can I export it as a Quicktime Movie in Full Quality?
What I want to do, is to export the finished cut movie in Full HD Quality and store it on an external HD. But what compression should I use? There are so many possibilities (AIC, H.264 and so on).
Can anyone explain?
P
Message was edited by: Pätschi

That will give you the highest possible quality because it will show no degradation in quality at all. It is fine for storage but the files might be large because they are not compressed.

How to give client best quality of raw footage

So normally I shoot, edit, and burn sporting events for a certain client. However, this thime the just want to pay for the raw footage. Since I've noveer done this before, I'm a little confused. Usually I would export using Quicktime and then drop th quicktime into iDVD or Roxio and then burn a copy. But since they might want someone else to edit the footage, how do I give them the best quality format. I am sticking with burning something to DVD. But last night I was looking at export using quicktime conversion. There were all kinds of options. What would you recommend for exporting? I would assume if I burn it onto a DVD using iDVD, they would have to rip it to edit it. But doesn't puting something on DVD compress the footage? It is shot in SD, but I want to ensure maximium quality. Any suggestions?

It's a Sony miniDV camera. The footage specs are as follows:
Sony:
Frame Size: 720x480
Vid Rate: 29.97 fps
Compressor: DV/DVCPRO-NT
Data Rate : 3.6MB/sec
Aud Rate 48.0 KHz
Aud Format: 16 Bit
Pixel Aspect: NTSC-CCIR601
Field Dominance: Lower(even)
Or at least that's the information I got from FCE. The footage is 3 seperate camera angels with about 75 minutes for each camera. I'm assuming they mean to have someone else edit it, but what program they would be using, I really don't know. When you state "1) an actual copy of the raw footage", do you mean a tape copy? I do not want to give them the original tapes it was recorded onto.
"QuickTime/DV or QuickTime/AIC" I do not know the difference. I refer to myself as the Cole Trickle (Days of Thunder reference) of video editing. I don't know how or why the car works, I just know how to drive it. With video editing, I do not know all the internal knowledge of aspect ratios or what a codec is, but I know how to tell a story and get that feeling onto a TV screen. Yes, I am limited by my own ignorance, but I am a visual learner. I can read it 100 times, but if someone shows me once I have it down.
Aside from the rant, I want to deliver the footage on DVD. Our original agreement was for myself to edit the footage, but I respect the free market. I want to be as profesional as possible when it comes to business. I fell into this client backasswards, and wasn't meaning to create a full time career, but they liked my work and I liked doing it.

Imovie HD 6 & AIC or ProRES442? best quality help?

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