IMovie + iDVD = VHS

After making a few movies using an AVCHD camcorder and Apple's apps, I conclude that it is not possible to make videos that can remotely be called "high-definition." Using the best quality settings of both apps, the resulting DVDs display so many artifacts that they don't even rise to the level of pre-HD TV, and more closely approximate VHS. While the quality looks fine during the iMovie editing, it seems to collapse during the coding for DVD, so I assume that the problem lies in the way Apple prepares disks for iDVD burning. Even at best quality, iDVD uses less than 2.5 GB of the 4.7 GB available on a DVD. Why? Surely the quality would be greater if iDVD exploited the maximum storage available.
I also have Final Cut Express, but since it is also (I think) dependent on iDVD, I doubt that the results would be better. What would be a better solution? I didn't buy a hi-def camcorder to burn VHS quality movies to DVD.

Sheryl Kingstone wrote:
A few more questions:
1. how are you outputing? are you only outputing to idvd?
2. Have you tried just creating a file that can viewed in QT? How does it look?
3. Have you tried uploading and sharing to your gallery?
1. I import the AVCHD files into iMovie. They look fine on the Mac monitor.
2. I handoff the finished edit at the highest quality to iDVD, and burn at the highest iDVD quality. My last effort was about 39 mins and occupies less than 2.5 GB on a DVD-R.
I don't know what a "gallery" is, so I have not done that. I have not created a QT file.
After 25 years of using Macs I have learned that when there is this much confusion with software use, something is rotten in Denmark. I get much better picture quality shooting with an older mini dv camera and burning a DVD using my component DVD/VHS unit.

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.

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...

Eyetv 250 importing to imovie from vhs tapes

Okay Guys, I need a lot of help.
I am new to mac and I love it. I used to use Pinnacle Studio 10. I have a lot of old camcorder tapes which through the use of a tape adapter I am able to play camcorder tapes in the VCR. Then connect the VCR to elgato eye tv. I use the eye tv VHS assistant and play my movie into elgato.
I want to encode these movies and ultimatly put them on DVD.
So after I did the import I tried to drag the file into IMOVIE.
I got this message..
The file could not be imported: The file “MacBook/Volumes/backup drive/EyeTV Archive/My VHS Tape - 9/10/06 9_21 PM.eyetv” can’t be imported; QuickTime couldn’t parse it: -43
I realized that the problem is the format that was imported was not compatible with imovie. I did more research and realized I that i could export the file to another format. There are several options, MPEG 4, Imovie, IDVD, etc.
What setting do I use to export the files? Also I want to combine several different sections of video. Can I do this. How can I export the section as a clip and drag the clip into imovie.
Any advice would be great.

I just imported my first clip into iMovie today and it was captured from a Hi-8 Camcorder using Eyetv250. I used eyetv2 software's export option and chose "iMovie HD" as the format. I only did this because I thought I had to, knowing that it was going to be imported in iMovie HD6. This however created a 13+gig file from what was originally a 2.5gig file ! So , I don't think that was the right choice. I am going to go back and export using the Quicktime Movie setting toward the bottom of the export format option list (within eyetv2). That setting will produce a video export of the same size as the original.
Another thing I am going to try is to go into the "package" ( a package is basically a folder ) that is created by eyetv2 and try dropping the quicktime file directly into iMovie and see if it will import that way. If you go to the folder where your .eyetv file is placed (Eyetv archive) and right click on that .eyetv file you can choose to "show package contents". When you do that you will find a number of files, including a .mpg file which I assume contains the actual video footage which I would think iMovie can import directly. I'll come back here and post what happens but go ahead and try it.
Mac Mini Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Multiple Libraries using iMovie/iDVD

When you create multiple libraries in iTunes,
How does it work when selecting music
when working in iMovie, iDVD?
Does the Music interface show the two libraries
in these programs?

Does the Music interface show the two libraries
in these programs?
Unfortunately not. They only show the last used or active library.
Note that iTunes 7 is a recent release and iMovie, iDVD and iPhoto probably don't know (yet) that iTunes can have more libraries.
M

Lost iMovie & iDVD on OSX 10.4 upgrade

I upgraded from OSX10.1.5 to OSX10.4 (erase & install). I have reinstalled iPhoto as it came on a disc with my Mac, as did Appleworks6 (on Applications disc), and iTunes as it is available from Apple as a download. But iMovie and iDVD are buried somewhere on one of the six Software Restore discs that originally came with my Mac.
How can I restore my copies of iMovie & iDVD?

I recently upgraded from OSX10.1. to OSX10.4 (erase & install) as related by Ken Grace and have a similar experience that I no longer have i-movie 2. I thought I had saved it but it seems I only saved the alias. Apple personnel recommended I reinstall original OS9 disc which I did but no result. I read the solution proposed to download 'Pacifist ' but cannot understand how I cannot reinstall i-movie* if I have the original discs ? ie how did I get it when I first started..Unlike Ken I have only three restore discs which came with my MAC.. I am prepared to do a complete reinstall of everything if it would help.
* I need I Movie 2 for earlier projects which will not run properly on I-Movie 3 which came with Panther or on I-Movie 5 which I purchased with I-Life.

IMovie, iDVD

I've been working with iMovie 5 & iDVD 5 for a little while now and I've noticed some serious problems. I had initially downloaded an analog video into my computer, using Pinaccle Studio's video transfer device. At first I was pretty excited with some of the new features that came with OS X Tiger. That excitement quickly faded when I tried to modify an existing project. iDVD suggested that I delete my encoded assets if I was still working on an existing project and wanted to make another DVD of that project, while keeping the original iMovie project. I tried doing what is suggested, but it doesn't work. I found the only way to make iDVD work again was to delete the entire iDVD project and start over. Additionally, many of the options don't work properly in iDVD, like some of the settings, or modifying the "project tree" images. Another problem I've had is, whenever I re-export an existing project from iMovie to iDVD, problems with the encoding processes happens and the DVD doesn't get encoded properly and aspects of the program don't happen the way they are supposed to. For example, I'm still working on a video that I filmed. When I sent it to iDVD for the second time, "after" deleting the encoded assets, the next DVD I burned, didn't work correctly. Specifically, the chapter markers that I embedded and inserted into my iMovie project while editing. When I took the DVD from my computer and tried it on my dvd player, the movie played fine, but I couldn't use any of the chapters, even though they were there where I marked them. Still another problem that I have, is not being able to burn a DVD project that's over 60 minutes in length. My project was only over by 12.18 seconds, but problems across the board started happening with iDVD.
Other problems include ghosting. Some parts of my video that I had edited and deleted, keeps showing up, but I'm not able to get rid of them because even though I can see the image of the deleted footage, I can't get rid of it because iMovie doesn't see or, recognize the image. Additional problems include, not being able to delete an entire project when I'm finished with it. When I bought and upgraded to OS X Tiger, it did not come with iMovie, or,iDVD. I had to purchase a separate program disk, "iLife 5" to get these programs. I've read your forums and everything that is suggested has already been tried, but to no avail. It would have been better if Apple had included an additional step and option selct, to delete footage completely and another option of deleting an entire project, instead of having to search the entire hard drive for the project and to find all of the accompanying folders and documents created by iMovie & iDVD. That's fine if you're an avid worker of these programs and you're a computer wiz and expert. But for the common everyday person, it's just too much. I see from many of the posts on the discussion forum, that I'm not the only one who feels this way and that many other people also have the same frustrations that I'm dealing with now. What if anything, does Apple plan on doing about many of these problems and issues? We as apple users, are spending huge amounts of money on products that clearly have serious problems and issues that need to be addressed, resolved and fixed.
Froglips, from Alaska

froglips,
Sorry to read of your frustrations both here and in other posts.
Though it doesn't help you to hear it, I can say that I am happily using iMovie and iDVD. Both working "as advertised". I say this simply as a way of offering you hope and to tell you you've come to the right place.
You raise a number of issues in your post and, frankly, it's a bit hard to follow.
It might be easier for myself and others to help you if you post one question at a time.
One last thing, these are user to user discussions for technical issues. Apple will not respond here to questions directed at them.
Matt

Using purchased music with imovie/idvd

Apologies if this has been answered...these threads get too long to look back and back. Haven't used imovie/ idvd much since 2003-4-- so the copy protection measures on the latest version look very restrictive. Do I have this right: I make a slide show or movie via imovie-- I use music from a song purchased via the itunes store, I burn the slide show/movie to a dvd/ I give the dvd to 6 relatives, i.e. not for commercial use... and could it be that the dvd will not play with music unless I authorize their computers? In other words what exactly does that message mean than pops up that says the file won't play the music on another computer, unless it's authorized. Will it play on a burnt dvd, played on a TV?

I burn the slide show/movie to a dvd/ I give the dvd to 6 relatives, i.e. not for commercial use...
It's not legal, even though you're not charging for the DVD (copyright laws apply even when there's no commercial gain involved, hence the many suits the RIAA has filed against people sharing via Limewire and other P2P networks). Music you purchase, whether from the iTunes Store or via CD, is for your personal use and cannot be given away. If you want to create a video or slide show that you're going to give away, either obtain royalty-free music - there are a number of web sites where you can obtain such tracks - or create your own using GarageBand or a similar music creation package.

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.

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.

IMovie/iDVD projects

I've made a handful of iMovie/iDVD projects for family members. Right now they are taking up space on my hard drive. While I doubt I will go back to them, I would like the ability to work with them again. Can I take one of the DVDs that I created and just reload the iMovie/iDVD and add thing/make edits at a later date?

.. another option is, to use a back-up software as Toast 7/8, which allows socalled 'spanning'...
choose Data, drag iM project into Toast.. it will ask you to insert DVDs.. and more DVDs.. as tilman stated, an iM project contains 13GB per hour project length plus the many hours you have imported...
you need Toast to re-import such a disk collection, to re-assemble the many files of an iM project...
.. it is mostly recommended to spend 100$ for some external, firewire connected harddrive (format to hfs BEFORE use...) ... then, it's simply drag'n drop ...

IMovie, iDVD and iTunes authorization.

I've purchased several songs on iTunes and authorized them for use on my Mac. I can play the songs from my iTunes music library. However, if I try to use the songs in an iMovie or iDVD project, I'm continually prompted to authorize use, over and over... Consequently, I can't burn my iDVD project using the songs I purchased from iTunes. When I burn my DVD, I get all of the video and audio except the songs I purchased/authorized from iTunes. Any suggestions? l tried iTunes customer support...no help there. I'm trying to complete a DVD video project for someone this weekend. THANKS!!!

Thanks for the tips...really helped. I also found the following info from Kallie at iTunes support contact helpful.
Run Software Update and apply available updates, including Compatibility Update for QuickTime 7.4. Restart the computer after applying the updates. If that does not resolve the issue, follow normal troubleshooting for this symptom such as:
1) Check to see if the track plays in iTunes and QuickTime Player.
2) Check for non-Apple plugins in /Library/QuickTime/ and ~/Library/QuickTime/.
3) Try reimporting the track into your iMovie, iDVD or iPhoto project.
4) Check to see if the track works in a new project.
5) Check to see if the existing project works for a new user on the same computer.
Thanks so much Klaus1 for you CD tip...it really saved my _ _ _! Finished my video on schedule, YES!
Contiued Success! LK

IMovie + iDVD = VHS

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