Imovie workflow and quality

I have a Sanyo Xacti VPC-e2 video camera. It was a gift. Anyway, I shot some footage indoors with plenty of available light and used a tripod. The quality was sort of soft and not very good and since it's a brand new camera I can't tell if it's b/c of the way I imported the footage. I hooked the SD card reader to my USB port and tried importing directly to imovie. All looked good except that imovie didn't import the 5 clips entirely. For some reason each clip imported but only a 20 seconds of each 2 minute clip. So, I tried copying the files from the SD card to my hardrive and then importing to imovie. This resolved the issue and all the clips were present. I dragged the parts of the clip that I wanted to the project space and was all done. Is there anything that I did that would degrade the quality or it the camera?

I had a Wal-mart special Sanyo. I think it was the HD100. It was very sharp and the HD looked really good but it struggled with lighting and horrible inside with low light. The WB pulled a vacuum.
I am not familiar with your model at all.
--Mickey

Similar Messages

IMovie 11 and quality loss with Sony Handycam DCR-SX33e

Hi folks,
I have a Sony Handycam DCR-SX33e (good one!) and iMovie '11 recognizes it, it's able to import movies directly from the cam, creates events, etc... BUT the quality of the movies within iMovie environment is very very poor (i.e. pixels big like a house!) BUT if I look at the movies using QT (from iMovie events, "reveal in Finder" on a movie), the quality is perfect.
Still, if I make a project and finalize it, the exported movies are horribles.
I notice that the cam works with a DV-PAL resolution (720x576), but iMovie works with wide resolutions.
How can I work with iMovie without losing quality on my movies? Can QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component for Mac OS X help?
Thank you!
Bye

Geriatra,
Don't judge the imported footage in iMovie11 on the clip area and the monitor area. They are not a true representation of the finalized project. What's the best way to judge if the footage is imported properly is to look at the actual footage itself by clicking the clip and then select reveal in finder. Play the footage and see if it matches the original. If you do not want iMovie to optimize the footage, you can deselect this feature and it will simply either copy or move your original footage.
Personally, I don't know if iMovie 6HD helps because your Mac still needs to read MPEG-2 properly which you said are not having any success. Over here on my Macbook, I have no problems working with MPEG-2 converted files and with iMovie 11. Quality is superb. Albeit, I converted those MPEG-2 files using my faster Quad Core Vista 64 machine and posted them later on my RAID network server before being made available for the Mac.
Hope this helps.

Subtitles: FCP or DVDSP? Best workflow and quality?

I have always placed subtitles in FCP. I am now looking at DVDSP instead. This will help I know if I ever need a second language option. But how is the workflow and is the quality good?
For me it seems easier in FCP, because I can make editing decisions while seeing the subtitle. Having to make a locked and final edit and still not have subtitles in place appears more difficult and prone to problems. Anyone find these problems easy to deal with using DVDSP for subtitles?

Jon Braeley wrote:
I am talking about subtitles not captions
Maybe. the function isn't the issue, it's the delivery method that makes the determination. Are you encoding to Line 21, burning the text over the video, or creating a stream of subtitle data? Most DVD players cannot handle Line 21, that's a function of the television set. All DVD players can access up to 32 subtitle streams. If you're burning the subs into the video, it doesn't matter how you play the video.
My question is that if the delivery is to be DVD, why do some users still create subtitles in FCP instead of DVDSP?
Subtitling in FCP is still a grim chore. Just seems that DVDSP would be the better option, or does FCP offer much better text quality-format options?
There is no option to burn in "subtitles" in DVDSP. DVD subtitles are streams of text and formatting data, not text image files, although sub streams can display graphics. FCP does not have a utility to export text objects as subtitle data streams in STL, SMI, SML, SON, or SCR formats. You cannot import a QT movie into the subtitle tracks.
So, where you create the subtitles is determined by two things: a) your need for flexibility (for changes or to receive data from another source) and b) your need for quality. Subs created and drawn onto the screen by the DVD player will be fairly high quality. Text that is burned into the video will never be any better than the encoder settings you used for the MPEG2.
bogiesan

AVCHD workflow and quality loss

I have been trying to establish a workflow with imovie and my Canon HF100 to make a BD with menus. I tried the Canon program on windows that edits AVCHD natively, and it is miserable. I still keep parallels around just in case I decide to use the Canon program again, but I probably need to move on for the power of iMovie and FCE. I absolutely love the new iMovie for really quick edits and I have FCE on hand for the advanced stuff.
The reality is that using iMovie entails quality change. I have been spending weeks looking over clips on my PS3 and 52" panny plasma to decide which workflow to chose. I am sharing my experience for anyone who cares and please comment.
I have taken screen shots, because they are easier to show differences, but the missing comparison would be MPEG compression noise, which I will comment on. The lighting and backgrounds were chosen to show the differences more clearly. I watched many more video clips than Im showing, but the findings are all pretty consistent between clips.
http://picasaweb.google.com/robanderi/CanonHF100AVCHD17mbpsIMovieComparison#
A. The 1st set of cat pictures were done to test the workflow AVCHD -->import to AIC -->export to mp4 18mbps --> Burn Blu-ray disc using Toast 18mbps. I think the end product is ~8% inferior due to a what you can see in the pictures (brightening, maybe a loss of detail and more ...green?) PLUS this test had the largest increase in MPEG compression noise during playback.
B. The second set of pictures shows: AVCHD --> import to AIC --> export to AIC --> Burn Blu-ray 18mbps. The changes seem to be similar to the first test, but the MPEG compression noise was not as bad after the conversion. I would call this 5% inferior. Whatever percentage YOU give test A, I would say B will always be slightly worse by a tiny margin factoring in the MPEG noise.
C. Same as B.
D. Adding an h.264 conversion to another h.264 conversion changes the picture ever so slightly as I mentioned before, but you cannot see the MPEG noise that is the biggest deal.
E. Importing the media from AVCHD to AIC in Imovie seems to not be that big of a deal, except the picture darkens slightly resulting in the loss of information upon subsequent conversions.
CONVERSION TIME: Doing TWO h.264 conversions takes longer than going from AIC --> AIC then AIC --> mp4.
SPACE: Option B consumes massive space, because then you have TWO collections of AIC's plus space for the end video. My hour video thus needed 110GB! 50 + 50 + 10.
END RESULT: Option A: you can keep the best copy for viewing on the computer and have a BD. Takes longer, but you get two products. BD is not as good. Option B: Faster and better BD, but you really only have a BD and no copy for the computer (unless you fish out the .mts files). You would have to convert the iMovie again for a computer copy.
The last option is to eliminate the double conversion and just not have a BD with a menu. Will a regular BD player play a straight mp4 file?

AIC is a lossy intermediate codec.
You need to consider moving up to FCP which facilitates pro res HQ conversions.

Inferior quality of slideshow in iMovie 08 and iDVD 08

I created two separate slideshows in iMovie 08 and then, I imported them both to an iDVD 08 project as two different chapters. After burning the disk (once in iDVD and once in Toast 8 Ti, I see three problems in both versions.
First, the opening text that plays automatically when the disk is inserted into the player is hopelessly unsharp. I created that text in Photoshop and saved it as JPEG.
Secondly, all images are way too light on my flat-screen TV (in comparison to my calibrated Cinema HD monitor).
Finally, in my first chapter - and only in the first chapter - I see "rogue" pixels missing and/or flying around on the screen and sound that is randomly broken and sometimes missing for several seconds.
I started thinking that something might be wrong with my SuperDrive, but when I play back either one of those two versions of disks on my Mac (G5), there's absolutely nothing wrong. Both image and sound are flawless. That also precludes the possibility of a faulty blank DVD disks, faulty coding or inappropriate speed of recording... Doesn't it?
I would appreciate any suggestions that would help me get rid of those problems.

I can't say that I've ever tried using an export from keynote as the source video for an imovie project and in this respect you have given me useful information in regard to the fact that keynote exports can be imported into imovie.
Without having too much knowledge in this area, may I suggest that you try to preserve the format of your keynote export in your workflow throughout imovie.
If you are not too sure about what this involves, open your keynote export in quicktime, open the inspector window and tell us what format your .mov is in and we will do our best to suggest a workflow in imovie for you.

IMovie 10 and DV Video Quality

Does anyone know how iMovie handles DV? Previous versions used Single Field Processing, which threw away every other line of the video. This resulted in very degraded video quality upon export, especially if exporting to a DVD.
I doubt very seriously that this was fixed in the new iMovie, but it’s worth asking.

Some additional info.
A 1920x1080 black and white test image was created. The image consists of 120x120 pixel squares. The first two squares in each direction contain 60 black and 60 white lines, i.e. lines with a width of one pixel. The next two squares contain 30 black and 30 white lines, i.e. lines with a width of two pixels. The source image is located here: http://i.imgur.com/AFkrw6L.png
This image was copied 200 times into a numbered sequence. The image sequence was made into a short movie using QuickTime Pro 7. Two versions of that movie were exported: a 25p and a 50i (interlaced) version. Both short movies were imported in iMovie 9.0.9 and iMovie 10.0.1. A text effect was added to add some movement to the movies. The movies were exported to 1080p format via the Share option in iMovie. iMovie 9 exports to .mov files, iMovie 10 exports to .mp4 files.
What can be seen from these 4 exported movies? Both iMovie 9 and iMovie 10 handle progressive video without dropping lines. The full resolution is preserved. iMovie 10 also handles interlaced video without dropping lines. But iMovie 9 (=iMovie '11) and older (since iMovie '8) do not handle interlaced video correctly. Half of the horizontal lines are discarded ("single-field processing"). Also in the horizontal direction resolution is lost; each pair of two horizontal pixels is averaged. Thus a scaled down resolution of 960x540 pixels is used for processing interlaced video in iMovie 9 (and older). This can be seen in the iMovie 9.0.9 50i Test movie. The upper left square is white; the black lines are discarded! The second square is gray; horizontally each pair of two pixels is averaged.

Workflow and settings for best quality .png export

I need to export a vector image to a .png for use on Retina display devices. What is the workflow and settings for exporting that results in the best possible quality .png image?

The workflow I used to produce the previously posted image on a WIndows 7 PC:
File>Export>Set "Save As" type to PNG
Upon pressing the "Save" button a PNG Options window will appear.
Resolution: Screen (72 ppi)
Anti-Aliasing: Type Optimized (Hinting)
I contacted Adobe support and they told me that the only way to export .png is via "Export" or "Save For Web".
"Save For Web" is designed to compress and I wanted to avoid that to ensure retina display quality.
I chose 72 ppi instead of a higher setting (support suggested I use 300 ppi) because Apple retina displays do not recognize ppi above 72.
The Anti-Aliasing setting was my default and I read somewhere that this was the best for getting crisp edges on retina displays (Sorry, I cant recall the source)
My concerns are that the export and anti-aliasing make larger files and I'm not convinced they are noticably better quality than "Save For Web".
Also, it's worth noting that the support was clearly reading from a reference guide. It was not a "real" expert that could explain the best workflow.

Difference between workflow engine and quality assurance system

Hi,
please let me know the difference between workflow engine and quality assurance system.

Hi,
please let me know the difference between workflow engine and quality assurance system in TMS.

Quality difference between Imovie 05 and 08.

Ihave a ordinary Sony handycam DV camera(DCR-HC39E).I have made some films with Imovie 05 and they were ok, but not as good as plugging directly from the camcorder in to the mac or a TV. Why so, isn´t digital digital. I bought the Ilife 08 hoping that the quality was better, but when i made the same film with 08 it was much more "blurry" than 05. I was realy dissapointed. Do I do something wrong or should I downgrade ?

Hi
iMovie'08 is something else than iMovie 1 to 6 and should have been named properly.
If You got iLife'08 then You are entitled to download iMovie HD 6 (6.0.4) which
is Great.
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html
If You copy/export Your movie back to Camera and a new miniDV tape You'll get
a quality which I can't differ from original.
DVDs - are hard compacted eg 25Gb down to 4.2Gb => There is a loss and depending
on how this encoding is done this quality vary from worse to better.
I use Verbatim DVDs
I use DVD-R disks
I burn at x1 speed (can be set in iDVD08)
I use Pro-encoding in iDVD08
I sequre at least 25Gb free space on internal hard disk (important)
This gives me a result I can stand for.
Yours Bengt W

Export QuickTime file with new audio and maintain the file size and quality as the original.

I shot some footage for a client yesterday and ran into an issue. To make a long story short I have QuickTime mov files shot with my Panasonic GH4 that have a buzzing sound in the audio track. I have clean audio from a recorder that can be sync'd. Is there a way for me to do this for the client and deliver them as the same QuickTime file but with the clean audio and keep the file size close to the original and not have quality loss in the image?
If so I will probably put all of the spanned clips together from each interview and sync the audio before delivery. I am just not sure which codec will give the client the same quality footage compared to the originals and not have a massive difference in the overall file size. They did request that they be Quicktime MOV files though so that is a must.
I don't see this as an option in the codecs in the export settings in PP, but is there a way to export as ProRes or another MAC native codec that will save them from having to convert it on their end? I am on a PC with Adobe CS5.5 so I am not too familiar with MACs, but from what I understand they would need to convert the files if I sent them straight out of the camera.
I found some related search results for this but they pertained to "Best quality" for export. I am not sure how the varying options work but I don't want to create files that are considerably larger, just not less quality.
If anyone has experience with this it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Cole

Here's the workflow: I imported the video footage into iMovie '08 and did my edits. Then I exported it (share) to my desktop with compression set @ 740 X 480. Then I used QuickTime Pro to fix the audio track. The file plays perfectly with both audio tracks working. It's a QuickTime file (.mov).
I hope this jars any replies as to why the file when uploaded to my iWeb gallery drops the second audio track.
Hmm,
Jack

Disapointed in iMovie 11 and iDVD

I have done a lot of home movie work in the past on Windows with Sony Vegas - capture from MiniDV camera, edit, burn DVD and been very pleased with the results.
I am just switching to Mac, and expected the results to be at least as good as they were before. After making my first disk, I am not impressed at all - and I'm not sure where the problem occurred.
My first project might have been doomed from the beginning - because of a mixture of video types I was working with.
I had several clips that were recorded on MiniDV, captured via firewire as DV-AVI into Windows, then these files were copied to the Mac (I had been saving the video until I got my new Mac since I wanted to edit on it) - there were several other clips that were recorded on an iPhone 4, then imported directly into the Mac with iMovie.
I did not try to mix the HD video from the iPhone with the SD video from the MiniDV camera into the same video - but I did try to put them both on the same DVD as separate clips)
Make each video event as a separate video - then close iMovie, open iDVD, and pull the completed clips in - I didn't "export to iDVD" or whatever the term is.
The DVDs I used to make on the Windows box look NOTICEABLY better than the DVD that came out of the Mac. Is the weak link in iMovie, iDVD, or somewhere else? Is the problem that I tried to mix HD and non HD onto the same DVD?

I wont try to tell you what the real difference is between the sharing, cause I (really) dont know, but I can tell you how the programs handle it differently.When you share directly to iDVD, it does it (makes the DVD from the iMovei project) in one step. I suspect the movie version it makes (renders) to compress from the iMovie project just isnt as good as when you share to media browser first, Sharing to media browser makes a movie that resides in the project's file (you have to right click the specific iMovie project to see it, then "show package content" where it will be in a folder called "movies". When you "Share to media browser" it makes a version of the size you specify based on your needs, iPod (small) or larger, say for a DVD, or if you upload a movie to your iDisk or YOuTube, again iMovie has to make these movies first, they are all in this folder within the project, (iDVD does not leave a rendered movie in that folder). Anyway, you share to Media Browser and pick the highest level you can, and make sure you pick the highest iDVD quality in the preferences of iDVD ("Professional"; i think they call it), and you get a decent DVD (Assuming your movie clips were high quality to start with) remember that DVD IS compression, so you dont want to lose more than you have to in the compression) , DVD is standard definition and so you will lose HD in that process too.
But I compared this "share to"work flow MANY times in the past and the quality of share to iDVD was pretty bad and the other way was pretty good, CLEARLY different, tested several times (This was pre iLife 11, but was with iLife 09, i doubt it got "Fixed") . So it you dont like what Share to iDVD looks like, try the other way. Let me know. dont want to give bad info here. I should do the trial again for the umteenth time, but I did it maybe 6 times before and it was obviously different, intolerable with one way, fine with the other.
THe odd thing to me is that, assuming I am right (and i was 100%, 6 months ago) WHy Apple got it wrong. If you remember the whole idea of iMAcs and "i" anything (Imac was the first, then i apps and iPods iTV, pad...) was "for the rest of us", easy , default presets were always perfect, no work arounds, and it is a MEDIA company; Make it easy and automatic to make the best DVD you can give us! Bizarre.
I have been sharing to my iDisk and more to YouTube lately, and that stuff looks pretty darn good, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that you are generally watching them on a small screen.
Check out this if you can stomach 3.5 minutes of 7th grade basketball game: you can guess which one my kid is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ykk9tlvpc
In the end this is what i want to do, share stuff of my family, and keep the original source files for whatever my needs are, burn an occasional DVD. I'm a regular guy, my camera is a consumer model HD camera, I spend too much time on my computer, gotta keep it simple and fast, and dont get carried away. The whole Blue Ray discussions make my head spin even more, do you import at Full or Large (I think those are the 2 options Full is Full HD, file 3 times as large) realzing that you really cannot easily burn a Blue ray (HD) version anyway, or if you do using other software like Toast, are limited to 20 minutes. I tried both using HD source clips and couldnt tell the difference, wasnt worth the 3X extra HD space the event clips took up, and they will fill up your HD fast)] as it is I have all my childhood and my kids childhood source clips on an external 1 TB HD...]
The limit of Youtube I think is 10 minutes, for years I have made sports highlight movie montanges of entire kids season that last 30-50 minutes (Yikes) , and I dont think YouTube will accept those, but my iDisk will and I can send friends (trying not to alienate them) the link for that to watch.
But the point is that in the old days you would burn a DVD (that by definition, no pun intended) lost definition from compression. But most things you make a DVD for to share, nobody looks at more than once or twice anyway. SO upload it , let people watch, AND back up back up back up your iMovie events and projects and iPhoto and iTunes so that your project will always be there and maybe even KEEP THAT final product HIGH QUALITY MOVIE THAT MEDIA BROWSER MADE somewhere else as a computer file. That is like storing it as a DVD, just as a pre-compressed better quality.
Sorry, to opine endlessly, rereading your original post you know what you are doing, but try the other workflow, it it isnt a better DVD I'll retry it in iLife 11 too. blank DVDs are cheap, it just takes time to make and burn them.
I read in a recent post from Appleman (the man) on this and he made an excellent analogy , some people spend $10,000 for a audio speaker and have amps with tubes and solid state electronics and $5000 turntables and vinyl (I am adding to his statement a bit a bit) and others just listen on $150 iPods with highly compressed versions of the songs, and are 100% happy. He is so right. We are not MGM studios. We are looking at memories to enrich our lives. Check this one out, super 8 tape from the early 60s, converted to digital files by a company we sent away to (we have hours of this stuff), and the source is awful, dark, grainy, silent (I added the sound as a side effect), it looks awful, but to see this rebirths me, the quality is irrelevant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG7wmBEb6YQ
Finally I do have FCP, but I really dont want to go there to learn it and use it for possible improved quality, iMOvie is so easy to make real slick projects. I waste enough time, I'd be divorced if I started FCP. Again it gets back to just how important is it to look perfect as opposed to Real good, for personal stuff.
This iMovie 6 v 11 (read other threads in the last week of this forum, egads) argument is tiresome to me, lots written these days. I believe what they say that earleir version of imovie import a better version from your camera, but iMovie 6 has almost none of the slick things you can do with iMovie 11. I was even going to experiment as i still all the old iMovie versions, but iMovie 6 wont import from my camera, kinda funny really.
no more, sry
roger
Message was edited by: rrodby
Message was edited by: rrodby
Message was edited by: rrodby

Cheap camcorders for fcp - workflow - compatibility - quality

Hello List
I am looking into purchasing a cheap camcorder (under $500), that are compatible with Final Cut Pro. Tape or Card are ok. The important thing is that I can easily edit the footage without having to do any conversion or ripping.
There used to be a supported cameras list for earlier versions of final cut. Is there one for Final Cut Pro 5?
Regarding HD versus SD in the under $500.00 camcorder pricerange, what are people's experiences / opinions regarding workflow and image quality? I understand that with a cheap HD'ish camcorder you'll get more pixels but in an 'inconvenient' delievery format that needs to be converted for FCP. Is the final image quality compareable to an uncompressed miniDV image that is smaller yet not compressed?
What about the workflow, how much of a pain is the additional conversion from mp4 or mpeg4 ( or whatever format these camcorders output ) to a dv quicktime movie?
any advice or receommendations are much appreciated.
Thank you.
Regards
-sk

On an other list one guy recommended this camera:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8661959&type=product&id=1196470790 863
The price is $250.00 which is super cheap! Will my friend be able to log and capture with this camera without any hassle?
Is there a camera compatility list for FCP / FCE and IMovie?
Thank you all for your help so far. I appreciate it.
sk

Movie export size not available/balance between size and quality

Hi,
I imported some film into iMovie 08 from my Canon HD camcorder, at full 1920 x 1080 size. After I finished editing it, I wanted to export the final movie at 960 x 540. This size is not available under the "standard" share options ("large" is 1280 x 720 and "medium" is I can't remember what exact size but smaller than 960 x 540). Similarly, when I go into "Export using QuickTime" and try to create an H.264 movie there, the 960 x 540 option simply isn't available. What gives?
The reason I wanted to use this size was to try to cut down on file size. I exported the movie at 1280 x 720 and got a 380Mb file. So I wanted to try it at 960 x 540 and see what difference that made to the file size and quality. Since I couldn't seem to do it using iMovie, I ended up taking the 1280 x 720 video and using ffmpegx to convert it to 960 x 540. The problem is that I ended up with a file that was, bizarrely, even bigger (384Mb), and that had a thin green line across the bottom of the video.
So, in summary, my three questions are:
1. Why can't I export from iMovie in 960 x 540?
2. Why does my ffmpegx conversion result in an even bigger file?
3. What's the best way for me to get the optimum balance between file size and quality? (For viewing on Apple TV/HD television).
Thanks in advance,
Rob

Another very good 3rd party slideshow application is PhotoPresenter. It has some of the nicest themes I've seen in any slideshow application (including the Apple TV introduction theme) and will export to a variety of sizes up to 720 x 480 which is DV-DVDCPRO - NTSC.
Do you Twango?
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 written 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. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

I imported an hour of video into iMovie HD and cut it down to a 33 sec clip, and emptied the trash. When I save the project, the file size is 20Gb. How can I save just the 33 sec clip?

I imported an hour of video into iMovie HD and cut it down to a 33 sec clip, and emptied the trash. When I save the project, the file size is 20Gb. How can I save just the 33 sec clip?

Non-destructive editing is an important feature of iMovie HD 6.
iMovie preserves the entire copy of every clip you place into your movie in case you change your mind at a later stage.
So, if you have cut out one minute from a 45 minute clip, iMovie will have stored two complete copies of that clip. This is why is helps to set import as 3-5 minute clips rather than one huge chunk. As DV runs at 13GB per hour your project files can get very big.
One workaround is to complete the editing of a section of the movie, then export that to Quicktime: highlight the clip/s, choose Share-Quicktime, turn on Share selected clips only, and choose Full Quality from the pop-ip menu.
Once you have saved the stand-alone clip to your hard drive, you can re-import it into your project using the File/Import command, and delete the original long clip/s from the project.

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

Imovie workflow and quality

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