IMovie -- iDVD terrible quality

I have a miniDVD created from an 8mm movie by a professional service - the quality is near the original. After creating a project in iMovie 11 and playing it full screen on an iMac 27, the quality is still acceptable.
Then I share it to iDVD. The result in terrible - the movie is like a zoomed presentation of an iPhone video. What am I doing wrong?

I tested both and must say that THERE IS NO Difference. I compared a specific clip captured by both and the results are exactly the same (copied from Movie inspector in QT)
The problem is not the Capture - BUT Delivery to iDVD
DVD disks is as Standard - SD-video quality (as on old TVs at it's best) AND interlaced.
Only iMovie up to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers this.
iM'08, 09, 11 Don't - they discard every second line resulting in a less sharp result from iDVD.
Result - just raw in and out - is SAME - iMovie HD6 or FinalCut = As Good as can be when dealing
with SD-video and DVDs. (iDVD can not do HD-video on DVDs at all)
To get HD - You need Roxio Toast™ + BD-component and BD-burner/disks + BD-Player !
To get same quality as from Camera - NO - DVDs can't deliver - they are compacted into a .mpeg2 format
that has to lose quality to be able to squees in up to 2 hour video on a 4.7Gb SL DVD disk.
Best option possibly is
High Quality SD-video Camera ---> iMovie HD6 ---> BACK TO Camera ! Now the loss is near to nill.
There are NO - Back to Camera function in iM'08 or 09 or 11 - *A GREAT MISTAKE* !
Yours Bengt W

Similar Messages

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.

Poor quality iphotos in iMovie / iDVD

Hi,
I am very frustrated, I have always had good quality DVD movies out of IMovie. Following an upgrade of Mac I now have HD iMovie. When I import still photos (of high quality) the iMovie degrades the quality on the screen. I perserved in the hope the final quality DVD (having dropped the finished product into iDVD) would be better. How wrong I was!. Why has the quality deteriorated soooooo badly?
(the only thing I know I did wrong when I started up the iMovie for the first time was select NTSC as opposed to PAL but this can be corrected as the process continues can't it?)
Any views?

(the only thing I know I did wrong when I started up the iMovie for the first
time was select NTSC as opposed to PAL but this can be corrected as the
process continues can't it?)
If your iMovie project is NTSC but it should be PAL then Yes, that can cause image problems. Try creating a PAL project to see if that works better.
If not, there are many topics here discussing image quality. Here are a few:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3088918&#3088918
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3254897&#3254897
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3390925&#3390925
Karl

IDVD Burn Quality (Cam iMovie '11 iDVD disc

I'm planning on buying a Canon HF21. During my research I found that the HD camcorder>iMovie>iDVD>Burnt DVD produced a very undesirable, low quality disc when played on a DVD player on an HD TV.
During my research I found plenty of other threads on other sites asking questions regarding quality, but have resulted in a "you can't get BluRay ..." tangent.
I do have a BluRay player and I understand that it takes special software/equipment to "burn-your-own" BluRay. I can play regular DVDs on it and use the built in "up-convert" to improve the quality a little.
I guess the "simple question" is: Can iDVD or another software package burn an SD DVD that is comparable in quality to one that is commercially produced? Again, I'm not looking for a BluRay solution, just a burned disc that doesn't lose quality due to compression, etc.
It seems, according to the other threads, the "weak link" is iDVD. I have just upgraded to iLife '11 if that makes a difference. So, iDVD will work by doing xxxx? or I need to get DVD burning software yyyy?
Thanks in advance.

You seem to have double posted this information.
I will repeat what I told you in the other thread:
Can iDVD or another software package burn an SD DVD that is comparable in quality to one that is commercially produced?
Sure - or very close to it. The limiting factor ISN'T iDVD, it's the video content used. In general, commercial DVDs use very high quality video - well lit. great focus, tripod. etc. It is also carefully processed during encoding.
It seems the "weak link" is iDVD.
DVDs are only standard definition devices as mentioned here many times. It is more likely that iMovie is the weak link in HD video production. MANY people still use iMovie 6 HD because it is the last version that doesn't have interlacing issues with HD content. It you want to know more, check out all the comments in the iMovie forums. There are things you can do in iMovie to make things better - but I want you to understand that iDVD ISN'T the weak link.

Imovie Slideshow export to IDVD bad quality

I have a 7 minute slide show that I made in IMOVIE 11 with music. It looks great in IMOVIE, but when I exported as a QT movie and burned it on a DVD via IDVD since I wanted to loop it, it looks awful! Everything is blurry, photos and text. Photos were scanned in HI res of 300 dpi, so that is not the issue. Suggestions would be great as this is for a big local anniversary celebration. Thanks!!

Well I just had great success in figuring out this problem for myself. This is what I did... I totally bypassed iMovie/IDVD. I saved my iMOVIE project to my external hard drive, and it saved as a .m4v,. Then I opened IDVD, and imported this .m4v into the area when you are setting up Themes etc. This particular project, I wanted to use the "loop" feature in the advanced tab, so I had to go to IDVD map. I previewed the project on a full computer screen and it looked great. I burned it, and I played it on my TV, it looked 500% better than the garbage, Imovie/IDVD import was going to give me. When you work so many hours on a project, tweaking photos, syncing music and then you go to burn a DVD and it looks like a 1950's scanner did the work, it's really depressing. I was thrilled with the outcome on this. I did play it back on a Wide screen HD tv, and all the photos and text, looked sharp and clear, thank goodness

I burned my first iDVD andpicture quality is not good. Originals are excellent. My photos are shot in raw or jpeg, both are not sharp when I view my DVD. I viewed it on my 1080 dpi tv and my new apple computer.

I burned my first iDVD andpicture quality is not good. Originals are excellent. My photos are shot in raw or jpeg, both are not sharp when I view my DVD. I viewed it on my 1080 dpi tv and my new apple computer.

There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, iMovie or iDVD and some limit the number of photos you can use (iDVD has a 99 chapter (slide) limitation).
If what you want is what I want, namely to be able to use high resolution photos (even 300 dpi tiff files), to pan and zoom individual photos, use a variety of transitions, to add and edit music or commentary, place text exactly where you want it, and to end up with a DVD that looks good on both your Mac and a TV - in other words end up with and end result that does not look like an old fashioned slide show from a projector - you may be interested in how I do it. You don't have to do it my way, but the following may be food for thought!
Firstly you need proper software to assemble the photos, decide on the duration of each, the transitions you want to use, and how to pan and zoom individual photos where required, and add proper titles. For this I use Photo to Movie. You can read about what it can do on their website:
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
(Other users here use the alternative FotoMagico: http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/homevspro/ which you may prefer - I have no experience with it.)
Neither of these are freeware, but are worth the investment if you are going to do a lot of slide shows. Read about them in detail, then decide which one you feel is best suited to your needs.
Once you have timed and arranged and manipulated the photos to your liking in Photo to Movie, it exports the file to iMovie as a DV stream. You can add music in Photo to Movie, but I prefer doing this in iMovie where it is easier to edit. You can now further edit the slide show in iMovie just as you would a movie, including adding other video clips, then send it to iDVD 7, or Toast, for burning.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how professional the results can be!
To simply create a slide show in iDVD 7 onwards from images in iPhoto or stored in other places on your hard disk or a connected server, look here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1089

The SOLUTION to bad iDVD Photo Quality

I have been a fairly silent member of this forum for a long time now, and have seen many supposed "solutions" with the known issue of how iDVD compresses, and ultimately destroys, image quality in DVDs. Granted, much of this compression is normal, considering a full-quality photo from iPhoto looks quite different after being smashed into the standard NTSC 720x480 format of a DVD and compressed to a variation of MPEG-2. That being said, this workaround has been well-tested, and will give you a very high quality slideshow that you can play on your TV. (take note that low quality TV will come into play in making the final product look bad, not the slideshow itself!)
NOTE: I only tested this in iPhoto 6/iDVD 6 on a 10.4.8 PowerMac G5. I would love to get confirmation it works on Intel Macs and other machines.
1. Select an album or group of pictures in iPhoto
2. Go to File > Export and click the Quicktime tab
3. You will have several options...
- Width/Height: Defaults to 640x480 (4x6 image). This will result in about 100kb per image file, which gives you over 90 pictures for a 10 MB slideshow that you can e-mail to your friends.
- Display image for: Obviously controls how long each image is displayed in the slideshow.
- Background: Can be an image or a color. This is what you will see as a border if the slideshow image is smaller than the window.
- Music: This is actually kinda complicated. What is the "currently selected music?" When you select an album and press the "Play" button to do a quick slideshow, there is a tab for Music. Whatever is selected here will be added to the slideshow when you export it.
4. Click 'Export', choose the filename and location, and then save it.
The resulting Quicktime file will be quite small, while still retaining the quality of your images. It uses a default crossdissolve transition that can't be changed. It keeps this quality when you drag the Quicktime file into iDVD and burn a disk/save a disk image.
Downsides...
- no ken burns
- can't use different transitions
- no other advanced slideshow options
But it gets the job done! If you're wondering why this works while other methods don't, it's all in the .Mov container that's created. If you open the file in Quicktime and got to Window > Show Movie Info, you will see that it lists each JPEG within the package, along with a transition component. It doesn't compress the images into a video file, but rather references the original images within the .Mov package! Cool huh?
Let me know if this works for you guys. I've offered this advice to many people with good results, which is why I'm posting it here.
smi1ey =)

Smiley,
What you suggest isn't really a SOLUTION to bad iDVD photo quality, because you aren't creating a DVD that can be played back with a DVD player.
You are simply suggesting an alternate approach for distributing slideshows which requires the receiver have a computer. iPhoto/iMovie give you several options on prepairing slideshows/movie for various methods of distribution (CD, email, etc).
Some DVD players will also play jpg files from a CD or DVD and that avoids the mpg-2 compression quality loss, but a TV set image is still a TV set image.
which gives you over 90 pictures for a 10 MB slideshow
A lot of email programs aren't happy with a file that size, and of course, since you have created a QuickTime movie, your PC friends will also need to install QuickTime. The Flip4Mac Studio application will let you convert your QuickTime movie to a WMV movie for those with PCs.
I'm glad you found an approach that you are happy with.
If you open the file in Quicktime and got to Window > Show Movie Info, you will see that it lists each JPEG within the package, along with a transition component. It doesn't compress the images into a video file, but rather references the original images within the .Mov package
BTW, there are several different CODECs that can be used in the .MOV file container - Photo JPEG is just one.
QuickTime Pro offers more saving options than the standard version, so I recommend you invest in QuickTime Pro. You will be able to create your slideshow directly in QuickTime Pro.
F Shippey

When I drag photos into iMovie, the image quality is degraded. Can I somehow prevent the degradation?

When I drag photos into iMovie, the image quality is degraded. Can I somehow prevent the degradation?

Hi
A very common origin to jumpy picture is
• Recorded material in one frame rate e.g. 29.97fps (NTSC) and iDVD set to do a 25fps (PAL) project - OR the other way around.
It delivers a DVD but a very bad one.
I do convert all my material to same fps as the DVD I want to do (e.g. PAL) - before any editing etc.
I use JES_Deinterlacer or Compressor to do this and the result is so much better.
JES_Deinterlacer is free on Internet and makes a Great job - Professional alternatives comes at an astronomical cost and the quality is not hardly no better.
Yours Bengt W

IMovie/iDVD vs Adobe Premiere Elements Comparison Question

Has anyone used Adobe Premiere Elements and iMovie/iDVD to be able to make an objective comparison? It appears APE has the same feature content as iMovie/iDVD.
How well does APE run on your typical Core 2 Duo Windows laptop (1.6mhz)?
Just curious.
14" 1.2mhz iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 1.25m ram, Superdrive

Okay, so here's my settings for my project...
To begin with, my output is to a WD HDTV Plus which needs a H.264 1920X1080i30 file.
The source footage is SONY AVCHD 1080i60.
My Import Prefs:
AVCHD: Apple ProRes422
AC-3 Audio: Plain Stereo
RT:
Both Dynamic Playbacks
Unlimited RT
Exported using QuickTime Conversion:
Compression: H.264
Frames:
Current
Key Frames:
Every 24
Compressor Quality: Best
Data Rate: Automatic
When it gets played back, still elements look "HD" but moving objects are jittered....HELP!
thanks
Marshall

Imovie - idvd 5

I have just recently switched from windows to the mac mainly on the fact cos the Imovie/Idvd in ilife 05.
But, when i create a movie in "I movie" the click the "idvd" button to encode it over to "idvd", the "idvd" screen comes up fine with the new movie in there but in the status box it just dont decode at all???
Sorry for being so simple, but i am trying to get my head around all this!
Please help

but in the status box it just dont decode at all???
Hi Grant,
iDVD has 2 encoder modes: "Best Performance" has an option to encode it in background, given time you movie will eventually encoded. The other mode, "Best Quality" will only start encoding when you "burn" or "save as disk image" your project. Encoding takes a lot of times and processor power, it does not complete in a flash.

Exporting iMovie/iDVD project for PC friend to edit

I recently posted a question about how to take an iMovie/iDVD project and export the files so that a PC user could take the project and edit on his PC using a video editor. It was suggested that I share the iMovie project to QuickTime and then burn on to a CD. This sounded good at first but then I did some research and saw that sharing to QuickTime means that the quality will be lost (saving to CD setting) and will only be something like 320 x 240. Plus, it takes forever. Even longer if I set it to full quality but by that point, the file wouldn't fit on a CD anyway.
I did see that I could save the movie back to a mini DV tape and then give that to the PC person so that they could just bring it into their computer via their camcorder. But what if that person doesn't have a digital camcorder?
For the project in question, I've been asked to take some VHS tapes and convert them to digital. I've done so using a digital converter. They want a DVD of what was on the tapes, which I've done, but they also want the files so that they can later edit to their tastes on their own time on their PC and then later create a DVD. Given the above, what would be the best way to do this? Isn't there something in the movie project files that I can dump to disk?

a) consider the usage of an ext. harddrive...
b) in iM's "share" dialog, you find the option "selected clips only"; so, select a few clips you like to export, check that box, done... you can "split" your clips at any point to create segments of approbiate size by hitting apple-t at any position in timeline..
c) share/Quicktime/expert options/click "share"/ offers you a dropdown menu, where you can choose the "avi" container...
(your User Interface is for sure english!)
you can click options, and choose the dv codec (which is your project's native video codec)... no loss of quality, and probably compatible for your friend..
d) a dataDVD-r fits ~20min of dv video... 4 disks?
e) using Disk Utility, make sure, you use a PC-compatible disk format....
f) Plan B) export your project back to tape, give your friend the miniDV...

16:9 iMovie/iDVD stretched on Widescreen TV

I have already posted a question regarding poor quality of my iMovie/iDVD project when played on my Sony 52" LCD HDTV. This question has to do with aspect ratio. I created my video (all photos, transitions, titles, background music). I cropped all photos to 16:9 aspect ratio in Photoshop prior to loading them into iMovie. I set my settings to Widescreen in iDVD prior to burning. When played on my Sony TV, however, the photos are shown with letterbox black on top and bottom and they are stretched.
I also wanted to create a DVD for a family member who has a standard TV. So I took the same iDVD project and changed the setting to Standard 4:3 prior to burning. When played on that TV, the photos are all "clipped". I thought that iDVD would adjust the viewing so that the photos would be shown in full view with the black boxes on the sides.
Am I using the settings incorrectly?
Thanks, Nancy

Thanks for the info. I downloaded myDVDedit and learned that my movie had been created with the setting "16:9 auto pan and scan and letterbox". I changed it to "16:9" and now it plays on my standard def. TV just fine (with letterbox). But I am very confused with the settings in myDVDedit. So I created 4 DVD's using the various settings to see what they would look like on my Sony 52" HDTV.
1. 16:9 - video plays with letterbox top and bottom
2. 16:9 auto letterbox - video plays with letterbox top and bottom
3. 16:9 auto pan and scan - video fills the entire screen but sides are clipped
4. 16:9 auto pan and scan and letterbox - video plays with letterbox top and bottom
Here's my question:
If all of my photos in my movie (created in iMovie) have been cropped to a 16:9 ratio, why can't I get a 16:9 setting where the entire widescreen TV (16:9 ratio) is filled with the photo - without any letterbox or any side clipping? Because of the letterbox the actual aspect ratio of the photos change from 1.77 (16:9) to 2.39 (16:6.7) causing slight stretching/distortion.
I hope this all makes sense and you can give me a little more insight into this.
Thanks again, Nancy

HELP!!! - failures with a specific iMovie - iDVD save/burn attempts

I've successfully burned multiple iMovie/iDVD discs without problem, but I've got 1 movie that repeatedly fails with strange errors.
I've optimized the startup drive, the directory of the startup drive and there's 20G free on that drive (and 80+ on the video drive). I also deleted the old plist for iDVD, and ran Cocktail to clear the caches, rebuild permissions, etc.
I tried this with both the iDVD preferences set for 'Best Quality' and then 'Best Performance' (no difference).
I took the original (created in iMovie 4.x), when it failed repeatedly, I recreated it from scratch in iMovie 5.02... no difference.
When I tried to burn it (multiple times), it came back with 'Burn Complete, Found Errors During Burn' (irony here, it hadn't burned ANYTHING, the disc was untouched). Click on error details, and it says 'error #1'.
It had completed rendering the movie.
I also tried saving the iDVD file as a disk image, and it also failed, with a different error (can't screeen capture the dialogs!)... something to the effect that it couldn't initialize the tracks (it had completely finished rendering the movie).
I had seen some mention of a problem with background audio on the DVD Menu, so I also tried it with that removed. No joy.
Any ideas??? I'm desperate and frustrated... I really want to burn this thing for a Christmas surprise.
There's nothing remarkable about the iMovie, it is basically 1 piece, with Multiple Centered Titling on the intro, about 45 minutes long.
1.4 Ghz Sawtooth, 1.5G RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Pioneer A108 Burner
1.4 Ghz Sawtooth, 1.5G RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Pioneer A108 Burner

Hi Simon,
If you'll read further back into the thread, you'll find that I've covered all known bases with this problem
I am indeed running the most current version, kept on scaling the size of the project smaller, I deleted the plist file for iDVD, ran Cocktail on the disk, etc. etc. etc.
I am now recreating the whole $%^&* thing from scratch again, and I'm crossing my fingers. One thing is for certain, it's NOT an issue of free disk space on the startup drive! This error occurs whether saving to disc image or actually burning the disc.
I was fortunate enough to check the system as it was in the last phases of encoding (audio at that point, and it failed at the end of the audio) and that's when I got the error.
This problem is specific to iDVD, Toast 6.x and now 7.x work just fine.
This is starting to become painfully embarassing to this MacEvangelist
I wonder if DVD Studio Pro ever does this?
Regards,
Bruce

IMovie, iDVD storage space issues

I have transferred many clips from my cam-corder to iMac. I am now nearly exhausted for storage space. Am open to any suggestions for strategies that will recapture additional storage capacity on this machine. I thought of simply dumping the relevant video clips to the Trash Can after creating a disc (via iDVD); with the intent to subsequently bring the video back into iMovie from that very same disc so that I can fine tune the product with editing of themes; text; graphics; music etc. In other words, shuffle the product back and forth between disc and machine as my editing interests dictate. Don't know if these tasks can be accomplished as I have described. Surely there must be other strategies out there that I can explore to save valuable space on this machine???
Message was edited by: SandyBill

If you want to re-edit iMovie projects in the future, you will have to save the entire project & associated clips. While burning the clips to data DVDs sounds inexpensive & appealing, it is very time consuming, as each data DVD only holds about 20 minutes of captured clips and you're stuck with burn times, which are much slower than copying the files to an external firewire drive
So, it's time for a good external firewire hard drive (take a look at the Lacie d2 Extreme drives, for example).
And while it is technically possible to re-import video from a playable DVD such as ones you burn with iDVD, there is a significant loss of quality when you do the back conversion. Plus, you won't be able to 'shuffle the product back and forth between disc and machine as my editing interests dictate' because your editing commands are not preserved forward when you go from iMovie > iDVD > playable DVD. If you want to do that, you need to preserve your full iMovie project and associated video clips and other source media files.

IDVD low quality slideshow

Hi There,
I start a new project slideshow of a wedding I shot with my Canon DSLR and decide to make a slideshow DVD with iDVD. I shoot my pictures in RAW and convert them to JPEG in Adobe PS the RAW image is 24MB each and when convert to JPEG they go to 7.9MB. The Issue is I make the presentation and it looks fabulous in my iMAC but when i view the final product in my dvd player the photo's looks out of focus like if the convertion decrease the quality a lot,also i burn the disc in professional quality and Best performance with the same results,i little lagy using Best performance. Anything else i should try? Any advice?
Mike

Hi
And here is my "un-sorted collection of thoughts about DVD-Quality" read if You can take it - It's long !
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.
3. I use 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 -- iDVD terrible quality

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