IMovie project quality.

IDVD quality. I have a large project to edit and burn to DVD. This project (daughters field trip) includes over an hour of video to edit and over one hundred photos to include in a slide show. I want to use iMovie 08, But I also want to have chapters and a separate slide show. I tried the workaround that I read about on this forum. I published my project to the media browser, opened it in Garage band and gave it chapters. Shared it with iDVD and added a slide show, then burned to disk. I was very excited that I could have my cake and eat it too! Then I played the DVD on my TV, the quality was terrible. I tested some of the same video using iMovie HD and iMovie 08. Both had better results. So my question is, do I give up quality by publishing to garage band and then sharing to iDVD?

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1414385&tstart=45

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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

Creating DVD's from imovie projects: quality issues

Currently have a HD project created in imovie, when burn to a DVD, using the best quality setting there is still a very noticeable decrease in quality compared to viewing in imovie. Any suggestions on maintaining the HD video quality

You need to use Toast to burn HD DVDs. iDVD cannot do this.
See this thread for more info: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10037719&#10037719

Convert photo in iphoto to put into iMovie project without affecting quality

Hi, hope someone can help. I am trying to put a photo from iPhoto into an iMovie project, but no matter what pixel change i try, whenever i put it into the iMovie project I get black bars each side of the photo and the photo doesn't fill up the full movie screen. Does anyone know if there's a way to do this without affecting the quality of the photo?

This happens because the image is a different aspect ratio from the movie, so make sure that you're cropping to the same dimensions.

Low quality of burned DVD even if I drag&drop iMovie project into iDVD

Hi all,
I've a iMovie HD project that I want to burn via iDVD (7.0.4).
If I click "Share with iDVD" the quality of the resultung video (which is burned to DVD) is rather poor. As I've read within this discussions, the preferred way is to close iMovie and "drag and drop" the iMovie project into iDVD.
With this way, iDVD (instead of iMovie) will render the movie, which should give a video with far more quality.
Unfortunately, the burned DVD with the "drag and drop" method has the same low quality as the video with "Share with iDVD".
I've done a little research and noticed that the "shared movie" for iDVD (iMovie project->Show package Contents->Shared Movies->iDVD) for a 1:10 video has a filesize of only 32kb!
Is there any way to set the "export" parameters for this "shared movie" (it is a quicktime file)?
The quality of the completed DVD is acceptable if I export the iMovie project to "DV stream" an import this stream into iDVD. But in this case I lose all my chapter markers of the movie ..
Is there any way to export the movie from iMovie HD and keep all the chapter markers for iDVD?
Importing the iMovie HD project into iMovie 08/09 is not an option, as I lose the chapter markers also ..
Thanks in advice,
Kind regards.

Hi,
the iMovie project was created as "DV" project and I imported DV PAL clips. The iDVD preferences are also PAL (25fps) and the quality setting is "professional quality".
I've also tried the setting "best performance" within iDVD (as suggested within this forum), but with the same poor result.
I can see within the iDVD "project info" that iDVD will use "mymovie.mov" within the "Shared Movies->iDVD" of the iMovie project (Show package contents).
As this converted movie is of low quality, I think this is the root of evil.
If I export the movie from iMovie with "Export as DV stream" and import this converted movie into iDVD the quality is ok - but I lose the chapter markers ..
Is there any way to keep the chapter markers?
Kind regards.

Maximise DVD quality from completed iMovie project

I recently completed an iMovie project of my son's wedding shot on my new JVC Everio video camera. All footage successfully downloaded in Full Quality into iMovie. I did all edits on iMovie. All seemed great ......and so very excitedly, I exported it straight to iDVD.
But then, I noticed that the movie size (right clicking the completed idvdproj /Show Package Contents/Resources/imovie) is now a measely 960 x 540.
Was there something else I should have clicked somewhere to stop the movie quality being the 960 x 540 - perhaps exporting it as a QuickTime at original quality 1280 x 720 or whatever it was from the camera. Is there a max that a DVD resolution dimension has to be? Or is the 960 x 540 as good as it gets for a DVD? Suggestions gratefully appreciated if I have missed a step somewhere along the way. Should I have exported it as HD720 or 1080 through QuickTime Export and not sending it through iDVD? But instead wait until the QT Export is done and then dump it into a new iDVD? All guesswork here. Im not sure so thought Id ask suggestions.
My son has an LCD LED television (1080p) and I would love to be able to present him his wedding dvd that looks as good as possible on his television (1080p).
Kind regards
Joe

Hi
Other things that degrade Quality when going to iDVD are
• Use of iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 - Use iMovie up to HD6 or FinalCut any version instead as they keep full interlaced picture (not discarding every second line)
• Never use "Share to iDVD" within iMovie (as iMovie renders badly) - BUT use "Share to Media Browser" and as Large (not HD) then in iDVD import from it's Media Browser.
Yours Bengt W

Exported mp4 movie bad quality, deleted imovie project! Help!

Hello,
My girlfrien exported an iMovie project using Quicktime in mp4 format, but forgot to check the quality. Now the quality is extremely poor and this has happened to all her videos. She deleted the original projects, including the iMovie clips. All the movies were exported to an external HD and there is no sign of the original files in the computer.
Anyway you can compress/decompress the video back in order to gain good quality again?
Best

Sorry, but unless you can get the original files there's no way to recover the quality. I would recommend saving your video files to Blu-ray for archiving. Blu-ray encoding is a relatively cheap format and easy to encode.

Is there quality difference between iMovie project and QT shared file?

I have several scenes that I want to piece together. Each scene was edited and saved as a separate iMovie project. I also "shared" each of the edited scenes to create full quality QuickTime files. I now want to compile the scenes to create a short film (actually an actor's demo reel). My reason for importing the QT files would be to have simpler uncut scenes as opposed to importing each of the iMovie projects, which would result in hundreds of tiny clips. It just seems like the fewer scenes/clips the easier it will be to make transitions, etc. But, will I lose quality (video or audio) by using the QuickTime files instead of the iMovie projects? Thanks.

it just looked lower quality in the QuickTime Player.
probably just my mind. thanks for the assurance.
Don't worry; your mind (and your eyes) are okay. What you see is normal.
By default, a Full Quality movie does not look beautiful. Playback quality is reduced, making it easier for your Mac to play the movie. But if you have QuickTime Pro you can adjust the movie's playback settings to see all the quality that's there. Even then it will appear to be "stretched". That's normal too.
Full Quality means it contains all the data of the source material with no loss of quality, not that it delivers great playback quality. A Full Quality movie is not intended for playing movies, and it's too large to share. Its sole purpose is to preserve the quality of the video/audio, letting you copy it from place to place with no loss of quality.
Actually, when you use QT Pro to adjust the playback settings of a Full Quality movie, it actually looks BETTER than iMovie's own display. iMovie never shows you all the quality that's there. (One of the benefits of having QuickTime Pro.)
Karl

Hi all, my first time on. I shared my imovie project to Media Browser. Fine. Then after it downloaded it 'disappeared.' Where did it go? Having found it, how do I then share it with idvd? I am told the image quality will be much better this route.

Hi all, my first time on. I shared my imovie project to Media Browser. Fine. Then after it downloaded it 'disappeared.' Where did it go? Having found it, how do I then share it with idvd? I am told the image quality will be much better this route.

Hi
I do
• In iMovie - select a project
• Share to Media Browser and as Large (not HD or other res.)
• Close iMovie
• Open iDVD and select to start a New iDVD Project
• Import movie - from Media button - down to the right - and here from Movies
Yours Bengt W

Importing imovie project into Final Cut Pro

Hello I need help getting my HD imovie project into final cut pro. I recored the project in 24p and it's already imported into imovie. What is the best way to get it into Final Cut Pro so that I can edit it further without sacrificing the quality.
Another problem is that I have heard that imovie compresses the video and totally ruins the quality. Is this true? And is this reversible in any way? I have already recorded over all the clips for this project on my camcorder. How screwed am I?
-Michael

First thing to do is find your original clips that you captured in IMovie. I don't have much experience in IMovie, but see if you can select a clip and control click and choose reveal in finder. If that works, open one of these clips in quicktime player and hit command-i and let us know the format of the clip.
Kind of doubt you'll be able to actually import your project into fcp, but you should be able to recreate it in fcp without too much difficulty.
Let us know what camera you shot and captured from. That may be of some help.
Hopefully someone with more experience in IMovie will speak up, but hopefully this will get us started.
Message was edited by: Michael Grenadier

How do you import multiple iMovie projects into one iDVD project?

Hi.
I'm 17, and am trying to create a DVD of when the family went on a cruise. For different places/days, I've created different iMovie projects.
But, when I want to export to iDVD, it only lets me put one iMovie project into one iDVD project?
I've tried dragging the actual iMovie project files into iDVD but that doesn't work.
I know I could export to QuickTime and then drag it into iDVD, but it seems exporting just to iDVD is much quicker, and the quality is better.
Anyone know how I can do this?
cheers
+P.S. If it helps, it's iMovie '11 with iDVD '09.+

That is not true. You can use them all in one DVD. I have just created my first DVD which has a trailer, a movie with chapters and several different slide shows.
All you have to do is save each project to Media Browser. (Choose Share in toolbar). Open iDVD and choose your theme or no theme. On the right will be all your options such as audio, media photo's etc. Choose your various video's/projects etc and just drag and drop which ones you want to the page and they will automatically put themselves there with the given name of each video/project.

Unable to Export iMovie project in everyway I have attempted for the past 2 weeks. Please Help! Due date coming up!

I've unable to Export iMovie project in everyway I have attempted for the past 2 weeks.I have a late 2012 iMac with 8gb of RAM and 700 gb of free space on the hard drive. The video I am trying to export is 48 mins long with most of the source footage from a NIkon D3100 and several other cammcorders. I've been exporting with Apple Intermediate codec because that was the only one that has work so far but it only worked once and since then I have had to make changes to the project and now I'm unable to get it to work. For all Quicktime exports in H.264 or AIC (my prefered format for this export since I figured it'd offer the highest quality when I import it into Encore for making a dvd out of it) Which just stops exporting in the last few minutes without explination as to why or it crashes and quits. It either leaves a partial file or nothing at all. When I do "export movie" I get a "not enough memory Heap zone error"
I don't know what to do any help would be greatly appreciated!
By the way I happen to have Adobe CS6 Production Premium but didn't know how to use it as well when starting the project and now really regret not using it because it appears to be 10x more stable and capable of handling all the tasks I want it to do.

Hi
Error -108 memFullErr Ran out of memory [not enough room in heap zone]
Turn off - TimeMachine usually works - re-try.
(the Application down in the Dock - not the Device)
But this can mean many thing's - My first thought is
Free Space on Start-Up hard disk. How much ? (other disks do not count)
AppleMan1958
Are your event clips in h.264? If so, you can solve this by Right clicking on your Event Name and choose "Optimize Media". You can choose Full for 1080P or Large for 960P according to your preference.
After you have optimized your Event, you should be able to Share with no problem.
Lennart Thelander
-108 mean you are running out of (free) RAM.
Try restarting the computer just prior to sharing. That frees up RAM.
from mynameisearl
Final Entry
Ok - after much cutting, trial and error and days of work I have never really established a root cause for the -108 error. Nothing I did resolved the issue to the orginal project.
The only work around I have found is to split the Original Project into two.
What I found was that anything around the 60 mins mark and above just failed to render in HD and showed the -108 error.
What worked for me was creating two project files - one around 57mins long - the other a part 2 - around 17 mins long. All using exactly the same source clips, photo's, music and transitions as the orginal.
This now works. I guess having it split in two makes it a little easier to work with as I wont have to keep rendering the first part which does not change but really wish Apple would throw some light on this.
Anyway - I hope all of the above at least proves useful for others.
Good Luck

Need Info on exporting iMovie project to web

Does anyone have any settings suggestions on exporting an iMovie project for optimum web streaming? I have a high def video I'd like to post on a website. I'm looking for fairly good quality, but relatively quick to load. I've tried the "web streaming" quicktime export option in iMovie and am not excited about the quality. I've tried a bunch of "expert" settings, but can't find that happy medium between good resolution and moderate file size.
Any suggestions? I'd like to wind up with a video at about 480 x 270.
Also, I've heard that the H.264 codec is effective, but not a lot of browsers are able to view it. True?
Thanks!

Hello, jtadam,
Welcome to the discussions.
Depending on the number of audio clips and their format, your movie may become stuttery/jerky in playback. There are several threads regarding this, the best is Karl Peterson's. Look here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=534252&tstart=150
The problem is referred to as audio stutter, but some of us find that the audio plays ok, but the video jumps. If your movie were longer, you would probably find that the audio begins to jump as well.
Sharing to quicktime is the best solution I have found. It should playback just fine. You can import it into a new imovie and if it is ok, you can delete the old one. Yes, it can be slow. For one of my complicated longer movies, it took over 6 hours. My short 16min one with only 3 short audio clips added took about 80min. So, be patient.
15 GB of free space is a minimum for working with iMovie. Try to free up 20-25. iMovie uses nondestructive editing so it can quickly gobble up GBs.
Hope this is helpful to you!

What happens to iMovie projects with the demise of MobileMe Gallery?

Will a new "hosting service" be able to pick up, in tact, video productions created on iMovie and published to MobileMe Gallery?
Who might be some potential "hosting services" that could guide me in an orderly and relatively painless transfer of my iMovie projects?
I'm looking for a paid service that can offer a quality presentation of my work...versuses a "just OK" free service.
Please communicate in layman's terms...I'm not particularly tech-savy.

I too am not a techie...but with the assistance of the SmugMug customer support team, I now have a very viable replacment for MobileMe when the Apple service ends in June. All I had to do is go to iDisk where my iMovie projects currently reside and download each project to my computer, creating a file. That file can then be uploaded to SmugMug. As with MobileMe, the publishing process (uploading) takes awhile. A six minute iMovie took about an hour. But once in place, you can either distribute via SmugMug's broådcasting system or you can create a short version of the URL (the site address) and include that in a standard email to family and friends.
When I learned of the demise of MM...I was fearful that would be the end of my iMovie projects. Definitely not so with the discovery of SmugMug! And like I said in the second posting above, the good folks at SmugMug are totally on top of the whole customer support thing...so you won't be out there wondering what to do next.

Can i turn an imovie project into an Mpeg file to work on a Windows System?

Hi is there a way of turning an iMovie production into a standard MPeg format to play on windows operating system???

Once i have created and imovie project i am needing to turn it into an bog standard MPeg that will play within a powerpoint presentation supported by windows media player .mov .avi etc don't work not very techy... The only way i have managed to do this so far is to create a dvd then turn it into MPeg using pinnacle on a windows system but i lose a vast amount of quality
I was saying that if you have the right software you can create MPG, MPEG (MPEG2/MPEG-1, layered audio), M2V/AIFF paired elementary stream clips, VOB (MPEG2/AC3 or MPEG2/PCM), TS MPEG-2 stream files, etc., and you would need decide on which typr of file you wanted. If you want VOB with MPEG2/PCM content, then let iDVD image a file and all you have to do is copy the VOB(s) from the image,

IMovie project quality.

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