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

Similar Messages

IMovie SlideShow Project to IDVD?

I am very new to IDVD. I have ILife'11 to be delivered and installed, sometime soon. When IDVD is installed, I envision a simple click and drag or share option to transfer my IMovie Slideshow to IDVD. Right? My project in IMovie is very large (834 clips) with transitions and audio. I like what was created in IMovie and would like to see this on a DVD for sharing with others. Will the content created in IMovie be transferred over to IDVD? Would I select the Magic DVD portion of the IDVD menu, to create the DVD? If you create a new project and import a large amount of photos to an IDVD slideshow, how do you then accomplish attaching audio to a large number of photos? Is the process, similar to IMovie audio? Thanks.

From iMovie 9 and earlier select the Share ➙ Media Browser menu option.
Open your iDVD project, go to the Media Browser/Movies pane and drag the movie into your menu window being careful to avoid any drop zones that may be there.
For iMovie 10 export the movie out of iMovie with Size = 480p and manually drag the file into your iDVD menu window.
To add audo to an iDVD slideshow of stills first create a playlist in iTunes of the tracks you want to use. In the slideshow window go to the Media/Audio pane at the right, find the playlist and drag it into the audio bin at the bottom.
Follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:
Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.
To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.
Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.
OT

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.

Size Of iMovie When Exporting To iDVD

I am in the process of creating a movie in iMovie 6.0.3 and it states that the iMovie size is 9.16 GB on disk. iMovie says that the duration of the movie is 45:02:21.
Will this size movie compress when I export it to iDVD? I know a DVD single layer will only hold 4.7 GB, so will this movie be able to burned on to a single layer DVD? I hate to continue working on this movie creation, IF it's not possible to put it on to ONE DVD.
I also have a slideshow that I want to burn on to the same DVD, so that will add gigs too.

Hello OldGal,
iDVD is not concerned with the physical size of your (uncompressed) movie, but only with it's length.
A Single-Layer DVD can hold up to 120 min of (compressed) MPEG-2 video, including menus. Make sure you switch from "Best Performance" to "Best Quality" in iDVD Preferences if the combined movies/slideshows exceed 60 min. in length.
hope this helps
mish

Imovie HD exporting to retain best quality

Hi, I am using iMovie HD 6 and I have built several projects of montage stills to music... I selected the 1080i format and now want to export to retain the best quality and burn these to dvd's for multiple people.
1. should I have begun the iMovie in DV format and not HD?
2. what is the best way to retain the most quality? I shared one clip to quicktime in "full quality" and that looks ok, but some of the moves have "shudder" to them and it has some loss of quality. This is a bummer since it is so smooth in iMovie!
3. I have multiple projects and want to build them into one dvd. (I did this just to work on the different elements of the school year which is what this project is about. I have beginning of year, halloween, christmas, etc.) An apple tech told me to send them all to quicktime and then import those individual pieces to iDVD for the final work. Any suggestions would be great!

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:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93804

Can't view imovie after exporting to idvd

After I exported/shared my iMovie with iDVD, I am unable to view the movie. I can hear the audio and see the first still picture of the movie, but all the video clips are black. What should I do?

I can't run iMovie '08, fortunately, so I'm not of much help to you...
Have you updated your computer recently?

IPhoto Slideshow exported to iDVD

I just created a slideshow in iPhoto, then sent it to iDVD. It indicated that it was sending all images to iDVD (took a long time sending it and I could see the progess). iDVD launched, and I can't find the imported slideshow.

When you "Send to iDVD" , iPhoto usually builds a quicktime movie (mov) that it places in your Home folder in the "Movies" folder. Look there.
And one "unix" glitch has caught me a few times here...... if you have a slideshow with a "." at the beginning of the slideshow name, the mov file it makes will also start with a "." This makes it invisible (unix thinks all files that start with a "." are for the system only) , and then iDVD can't find it.
Rename your slideshow to something else, and try again. It may also help to open iDVD 1st, and close the current project that opens, before using the "Send to iDVD" command.
John B.
G5dual2GHz, MacBookPro 2GHz, 550TiBook, 9600>G3Upgraded Mac OS X (10.4.7) 1TB+ Storage

Audio sync problem once burned. Everything great in iMovie, once exported to iDVD and burned audio is 20 minutes out of sync.

My movie is a wedding, so it's 1 hr 35 min long. I've used 3 songs from iTunes and no other outside audio. I've tried the following already:
Changing the encoding settings from Best Performance to Professional Quality. (becuase an error came up saying movie is too long, change encoder setting)
Changing the Single-Layer Disc to Double-Layer Disc.
Splitting the video into 2 parts to make it shorter.
Getting rid of the noise reduction on a few of the clips.
Optimize--Full.
I get things that say 'error -41' etc. but I googled this and nothing came up as to what that error code means.
Is the amount of free space I have on my Mac a possible problem as well? I have 40 GB available. I tried moving all of the rejected clips to the trash and an error came up saying not enough space to delete.
Can I uninstall '11 and go back to using '09??

Hi
Error -41 mFulErr Memory full (open) or file won't fit (load)
So if You've really got 40Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk - Others DO NOT count as neither iDVD or Mac OS can use space there for it's temp files.
Then I would close down Mac even disconnect Mains - Then re-start it and see if it got's it's memory right.
Else
• Audio from iTunes - use to give me problems - so I do - in iTunes
• collect the needed audio into a new PlayList
• Burn this out as an Audio-CD (.aiff) - NOT .mp3
• Use thge files on this CD in movie projects
Works for me.
Yours Bengt W

Sound track from imovie not exporting to idvd

I set an audio track to video and photos in imovie from the ilife sound samples in the media section. When I send the movie to idvd, the video encodes but then idvd freezes at the encode audio part. The burn wheel stops turning, the scroll bar stops and then the rainbow pin wheel shows up. I have to force quit and the dvd does not burn to disc. What can I do to encode audio and complete the butn to disc?

Hello, songthief!
Welcome to the discussions!
What format was the commercial CD song? Did it play in iMovie?
You might want to re-record it to get it into a form that iDVD will burn. You can do this several ways. Here are two suggestions:
1. Import the song into iTunes, then burn it to a CD. Reimport the song from the CD back into iTunes in AIFF, then import it into your iMovie.
2. Record the song using WireTap Pro and import the AIC file that it creates into your imovie.
Also, one more tip:
Don't send your iMovie to iDVD from WITHIN your iMovie. Close your finished iMovie, open iDVD, create your project and then drag/drop your iMovie into iDVD's main screen. You will find your movie in 'Media' ->'Movies.' This prevents double rendering of your clips, 'jaggies' in your final burned DVD and other problems.

IMovie 2 export problem

I'm trying to convert a friend's VHS tape to a DVD. The tape is in bad shape but there is enough still intact to make my attempt to preserve it worth my time.
I've successfully digitized the original video into iMovie. The individual clips of the 45 minutes I recorded play successfully while I view them via iMovie's timeline.
So far so good.
Next I exported the movie choosing "Export for iDVD" from the Export menu option.
iMovie created a .MOV file for me that looks fine from the information Finder can give me.
So I double-clicked on the .MOV file to verify that the contents of the file were OK too.
After a few seconds (ranging from 5 to 43 based on multiple tries), the movie stops playing and my Mac freezes - except for the mouse. I can move the cursor around the screen but everything else in th UI is unresponsive.
Any suggestions on what I can do to get iMovie to create a .MOV file that "works"?
Gary

What usually works for me is to export the iMovie as Quicktime, Full Quality. I usually specify to have it created on my desktop so I can find it, and I give it the same name as the original iMovie, but append QT to the name.
This gives a single clip movie. You will need to quit your iMovie, and then create a new iMovie project. Be sure to name it so that you know it is the second version. Drag this qt clip into it. Be patient. It can take time in iM2. In later versions, you can have more than one iMovie project open at the same time, but not in iM2.
After you have the qt version in a new movie project, check to see that it plays properly. If you had chapter markers in the original iMovie, you will need to make them again. Also, check the end of the movie....sometimes the qt version will have some 'snow' for several seconds at the end. You probably want to move the cursor to the spot just before that starts and crop off the unwanted end. Close iMovie.
Next, open iDVD and create a new project. Instead of sending your iMovie by 'exporting to iDVD' just drag it into iDVD's main screen.
You should now see your movie in iDVD, and can burn your project.
Good luck.
Post back if the above does not help.

Imovie 10 export problem

Bonjour,
J'ai fait un projet avec mix video et photo et musique mais quand j'essaye de l'exporter imovie plante
quelqu'un aurait il une solution
Merci

What usually works for me is to export the iMovie as Quicktime, Full Quality. I usually specify to have it created on my desktop so I can find it, and I give it the same name as the original iMovie, but append QT to the name.
This gives a single clip movie. You will need to quit your iMovie, and then create a new iMovie project. Be sure to name it so that you know it is the second version. Drag this qt clip into it. Be patient. It can take time in iM2. In later versions, you can have more than one iMovie project open at the same time, but not in iM2.
After you have the qt version in a new movie project, check to see that it plays properly. If you had chapter markers in the original iMovie, you will need to make them again. Also, check the end of the movie....sometimes the qt version will have some 'snow' for several seconds at the end. You probably want to move the cursor to the spot just before that starts and crop off the unwanted end. Close iMovie.
Next, open iDVD and create a new project. Instead of sending your iMovie by 'exporting to iDVD' just drag it into iDVD's main screen.
You should now see your movie in iDVD, and can burn your project.
Good luck.
Post back if the above does not help.

Why does my photo slideshow quality deteriorate when exported to iDVD?

I have a client whose photos look great in iPhoto & iMovie, but look all pixelated when exported to iDVD. I've tried making a slideshow directly with iDVD, but the photos still look worse than they did in the iPhoto slideshow.
The size of the photos is pretty large (as big as 5233 x 3546), which I'm guessing might be part of the problem, so I tried exporting them from iPhoto with a limitation of 720 x 540, but they still look bad. I expect a decrease in quality once I burn the DVD, but these look bad even in the DVD preview.
Any ideas?

All DVD slideshows are defaulted to 640 x 480 pixels. That's the standard. As long as the photos are in the 4:3 dimension ratio you can leave them at their fullest size. You can try using the Pro Quailty encoding to get better quality images. IMO the best image quality is obtained by creating the slideshow in iDVD from still photos. You don't get the Ken Burns effect, but in my opinion it's a bit over used too many time.
If you are creating your slideshow in iMovie then try the following.
1 - when your slideshow is how you want it quit iMovie.
2 - open iDVD, create a slideshow and open the slideshow edit mode.
3 - drag the iMovie project file into the slideshow pane on the left. (NOTE: this lets iDVD scale the movie file to the TV safe area when played on CRT TV sets.)
This also lets iDVD do the encoding for the iMovie assets and avoids two compressions, one by iMovie when you export to iDVD and the iDVD encoding.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.≤br>
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

IPhoto Slideshow Image Quality when export to IDVD

Aloha ... I have two issues that I am having problems with when I export to IDVD. My images look very fuzzy (originals are very high res and print quality images} when exported to iDVD and a DVD is made. Also in the show my vertical images look fine and fill the screen yet on iDVD they are made shorter/squatier and upper and lower parts of the original image are lost. The format is wide screen as is the show. I am using a LCD wide screen TV if that helps. Any ideas out there?

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Are you cropping your photos to the 16:9 ratio before creating the widescreen slideshow in iPhoto and exporting them to iDVD for a widescreen project? Most digital camera images are in the 4:3 size ratio and don't convert well to the widescreen. Also check the aspect ratio that you're playing the dvd in as that can have an effect on how the slideshow looks.
Also remember that the images going to iDVD will be reduced to 640 x 480 (normal TV) and slightly larger for the widescreen version. So the pixel dimensions of the original image are not that relevant.
Happy Holidays
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

My exported 2015 iMovie file has bad quality.

Hello.
I just got a new MacBook pro, OS X Yosemite 10.10.3. Using iMovie 10.0.7 (the latest version to my knowledge.)
I realize that this question has been beaten to death all over the internet, but I haven't made any headway STILL. I just completed an edit that looks AMAZING in iMovie, and when I export it, the file is very distorted. I'm exporting at the highest quality (1080p) and the file ends up being 8GB (8 minute movie) which I would think a big file like that would produce good quality.
I'm stuck. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Here's the upload (notice the distortion and grainy-ness during motion, again looks AMAZING in iMovie.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeQ85ybI_II
Mike

iMovie file has bad quality.
hmmm, really?
I pick up a scene ...
<click for fullsize>
This is a 'killer' for any encoder! Those ultra-soft gradient in the sky shows no banding!
Not to say: superb! Compare to a less encoded version:
<click for fullsize>
you see? THAT is bad quality! Tons of banding in the sky...
... post a scene, which doesn't fullfill your standards …
btw: what camera in use? settings? a GoPro I assume, those 'cinema' settings?
PS: you let YT play it in as 720/1080? ....

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

Imovie Slideshow export to IDVD bad quality

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