IPhoto stills looking bad in iMovie

I've created a slide show from iPhoto in Imovie as I wanted to add titles, transitions, music etc.
When I exported the movie to iDVD I got very pixelly low-res images - rubbish! I suspect that the pictures have been downsized in the export process. How do I overcome this?

I tried all sorts of wriggles on this, but got no further. Firstly iDVD (v.4) didn't want to recognise the iMovie file (also v.4) thru importing nor thru dropping the icon into iDVD. It told me the movie was not in a recognised file format, even though it was simply a saved iMovie. I tried using the iDVD Customize drawer to select the movie, and got a movie I could preview in iDVD, but it had no start button, so couldn't be burned.
Later I wasable to get the original file recognised so it could be imported into iDVD, but after burnig the results were no better than the original.
On some attempts I got a message to say there was unrendered content, so I clicked the "Render & Proceed" button. It briefly displayed the file name of the first still image, then went straight to burn in the poor quality.
So it seems the problem is related to rendering the stills so they look nice in video.
Anyone got any ideas?

Similar Messages

DVD menu test still looks bad.

OK - I have finally got to the point where the text (created in DVD Studio as buttons) looks great on TV monitors and full resolution playback on my mac. However, when I blow it up to full screen - the text completely falls apart. I am using Helvetica 65 light, 18 pts., medium grey. I've gone into the preferences ad set the DVD bitrate to the highest it can go (7.6 average/9 maximum.) This might have helped a little, but not much. Is there a way to boost the menu resolution?
This is our demo DVD, and we need to use it full screen for presentations.
Thanks for any help,
Tony

Actually - most of the clips on the demo are film... I'm more concern with the menu text. How do the Hollywood guys make the menus (text specifically) look so **** good? I'm guessing a lot has to do with much higher end DVD gear, but is there something that can be done on this level of production? (I don't have the same issue with layered DVD menus - done in Photoshop. They still look worse full screen... but those are acceptable.) My menu is a graphic with a very faint, moving video (16mm film) as a background. The image is fine... the text looks like it was made out of cheese.
Thoughts?

MY JPEG STILLS LOOK AWFUL!

OK, Here's my deal...
I am editing a photo-slide show for a photographer who has taken very high resolution photos and given them to me as JPEGS.
After spending days composing an edit with key-frames (a la ken burns effect), I exported it only to learn that JPEG look horrible (the photos have lost so much quality and look pixelated and fuzzy).
I tried to change one of the jpegs into a TIFF with an NTSC color filter in Photoshop, and then brought into final cut, but it still looks bad! Even with the de-interlacing filter...
Anyone know what to do? I'm on a very tight deadline and I will send flowers to anyone who can figure this out for me...
THANKS!!

I am editing a photo-slide show for a photographer who has taken very high resolution photos and given them to me as JPEGS. < </div>
Bad idea. Let him do his own video stuff.
"High rez" is meangless in video. He's probably given you jpgs that are 3k pixels and you have to scale them down to fit the video window or make them small enough to move around. FCP's scaling algorithm totally blows. Use Motion which has a different GPU-empowered engine.
After spending days composing an edit with key-frames (a la ken burns effect), I exported it only to learn that JPEG look horrible (the photos have lost so much quality and look pixelated and fuzzy).< </div>
Exported to what? Where are you viewing this file? Of course they look bad. You've reduced the original's 3,000 by 3,000 pixels to less than 500 by 800. And you have moved them from a progressive display system to an interlaced video format.
I tried to change one of the jpegs into a TIFF with an NTSC color filter in Photoshop, and then brought into final cut, but it still looks bad! Even with the de-interlacing filter... <</div>
Deinterlacing cannot be applied to a non-interlaced item. Still images are not interlaced. Your video sequence is interlaced, assuming you're working in anything that is NTSC. But if you deinterlace the sequence when you render and then export, you will simply throw away more pixels (every other line is discarded) or you will blur the image more (by blending the fields) which will make horizontal moves show comb artifacts on any distinct edges. Then you'll be posting again.
You have two choices:
1. Accept the output and chalk it up to experience
2. Take the project into Motion (you'll need a few days to learn how to use Motion, it's not as easy as Apple wants you believe)
Wait, you have three choices:
1 and 2 above and 3. Familiarize yourself with the concept of anit-aliasing and add a bit of blur to the final rendered movie. It will actually make it look better.
ONe more--1, 2, or 3 and 4. Get a simple dedicated application like FotoMagico and let it do the heavy lifting for you.
bogiesan
Message was edited by: David Bogie Chq-1

Still images used in iMovie ('09) look bad, poor quality

I'm curious why my photos look poor in iMovie? Is this just a lo-res rendering that I'm seeing on screen, or is this really how they're going to look? I'm using the photo browser in iMovie and selecting photos from both iPhoto and Aperture, just as suggested in iMovie...i'm not using some weird import method. The photos I'm using were shot with a 5D Mark II, so no slouch in photographic capabilities. All are of proper exposure and, on screen in Aperture for instance, they look amazing. But in iMovie, there is banding and pixelation, particularly when dealing with dark, rich colors, and especially black. When those colors show on screen, they look like there were taken with a terrible camera at a low resolution. Is this just a lo-res on-screen render? Or is this how it's going to look when I export this to iDVD and play it on my television?

I too made a very similar post last week and had no responses. It is a software problem I believe, there is no doubt about that. I showed this problem to some apple guys at a tradeshow. They used my pics on their computers with the same result. They could not provide an answer. they said they would raise it with apple techs.
The issue was eveident when i purchased my mac book pro with leopard and now with snow leopard. I have made some DVD's and the issues present on the TV screen as well.
imovie imports, compresses these pics too much and the result is poor on a lot of images. I'm not sure imovie can handle the amount of colour, or isn't equipped to do so. Pixelation and gradations, particulary similar colours. Skies, sunsets etc are the biggest offenders Whatever the case it is a big dissapointment. iphoto to a quicktime movie is fine quality wise but has its limitations with adding transitions, titles, music etc.
Please apple, lets have a fix. imovie06HD was fantastic - what went wrong here?

Subject : Slideshow looks bad Hello guys I have a project in my Final Cut just about done. I want to add my slideshow as part of the project and burn it to DVD. In my slideshow, there are some stills from the movie clips and some downloaded from the i

Subject : Slideshow looks bad
Hello guys
I have a project in my Final Cut just about done. I want to add my slideshow as part ofthe project and burn it to DVD. Inmy slideshow, there are some stills from the movie clips and some downloadedfrom the internet but they all look blur when playback and even worse if Iapply Ken Burn to it. Pleasesome one can tell my how to do it right or it can’t be done because thedownload quality and stills from the clip are not suitable or slideshow. Thank you
PSC

Thank you Ross.
The entire DVD containing Quick Time movies (Final CutExpress project) and slideshow was done in iPhoto. The Final Cut project was rendered prior to export to QT, the slideshow was sent to iDVD withoutrendering. The slideshow with most of the pictures from my still camera incombination with stills from movie clips and some downloaded from the Internet.After burning, the movie playback is perfect but the slideshow is not. The slideshow containing 3 differentkinds of pictures; those from my still camera looks OK; the stills from themovie clips and from the Internet are not. I don’t have much knowledge in this game, but I think NTSCwith frame size 720x480, and the downloaded picture Item Property shows most ofthem are between 400 to 500 x 300 to 600, may be both of them are not suitablefor TV screen while the stills from my still camera looks OK because they are2048x1536. Please enlightenme. Once again, thank you so much,I really appreciate the time you offered.
psc

New problem of photos looking "splotchy" in imovie but not in iphoto?

I've made a bunch of home movies in imovie 08 but on my most recent one I have a new problem.
I noticed a number of photos have what I call a "splotchy" or "granular" look to them. Yet, when I view the same photos in iphoto, they look fine. I notice most of the "splotch" takes place in darker colors, especially blues and such. For example, I was in a photo wearing a navy blue shirt. The stomach to the arm of the shirt looked like I had an enormous sweat stain even though nothing was there in reality. The picture looks fine in iphoto.
On my camera, I did make one change. I maxed out the pixel count to the highest that my picture allows rather than the one below it. I think the compression is set to the maximum allowed. Not sure if this would impact it.
When I expert, I use expert settings to go to quicktime.
Any thoughts as I'd like to avoid this in the future and possibly convert this movie again to avoid the splotches, if possible.
Thanks.

Apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Since only one option can be run at a time start with Option #3, followed by #4 and then #1 as needed.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 - click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option.
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

IPhoto after upgrade still looks like the old one

So yea the thing is. after i upgraded iphoto to newest in Mavericks
it still looks the same. shouldent it be black now ?
mine is gray and looks like the one in Lion 10.7

Click on the full screen button in the upper right hand corner of iPhoto and you'll see what was shown in the Keynote address on the new MacBook Air. That was the full screen mode.
OT

Adding iPhoto stills to iMovie, Adding iPhoto stills to iMovie

Working with the new versions of iMovie, iPhoto - when I select a photo from iPhoto library (in iMovie) and drag it too the time-line - i get a circle with a slash mark icon - and it won't allow me to add the photo. When I select a photo from Aperture, it adds that one without objecting. What's wrong with my iPhoto library that's making iMovie reject its photos?

5,500 images is a bit over the top for an iMovie project.
QuickTime Player 7 Pro ($30) can import a folder of sequentially named files at various frame rates and can do it in just a few seconds.

TS4213 Why can't iPhoto, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iTunes Library files and Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iPhoto Library files now that I upgraded to '11?

Why can't iPhoto, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iTunes Library files and Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iPhoto Library files now that I upgraded to '11?
Examples of what is going on:
1. In Pages, Numbers & Keynote, when I go to the media browser the Audio section reads "Open iTunes to populate this list" even after iTunes has been opened, .xml file has been replaced/repaired, etc AND Photo section reads "Open iPhoto to see photos from your iPhoto Library in this list" even after iPhoto Library has been replaced and new default library created.
2. In iMovie, similar thing ... when I go to add photos or music to a movie the iTunes files aren't present and the iPhoto photos are missing with similar messages as in #1.
3. In iPhoto, similar thing ... when I go to add music to a slideshow it says to "Open iTunes to populate this list".
It is shocking to me that Apple would let something as simple as a pathway link to associated library files get this messed up on an upgrade, but what's even more surprising is that with the number of people who seem to be having this particular issue (and I can tell from all the research that I've done for weeks online that there are a lot of them) that there doesn't seem to be a single clear answer to fixing it anywhere on these community support forums. Most of what I've seen is rehashed advice from outdated issues. What I need is a simple answer to how do we get these programs to look for the correct location of the photo and music files because I sure can't seem to find any logical place to do that through the programs' preferences files or the system preferences window?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. Here's the details on the software/hardware:
MacBook Pro
Mac OS X
Version 10.7.5
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
iTunes 11.0.4 (4)
iPhoto '11 9.4.3 (720.91)
iMovie '11 9.0.9 (1795)
Keynote '09 5.3 (1170)
Pages '09 4.3 (1048)
Numbers '09 2.3 (554)

I have the same problem on a new MacBook Pro. I have not been able to access the iTunes library from iPhoto since I got this computer. I looked in the Preferences file and deleted the com.apple.iApps.plist but there was no com.apple.iApps.lockfile so I just deleted the iAPPs.plist and rebooted the computer. Still no iTunes available in iPhoto.
All my music is in iTunes and plays. After reading the above I brought up Pages and I was able to access music and insert a track into a document.
Do you have any suggestions.

DV clips look bad, good when converted to H.264 in QuickTime and reimported

Still a problem after 7.0.1:
DV camera -> iMovie 08 -> looks bad when playing and exporting/sharing
DV camera -> iMovie 08 -> "reveal in finder" -> clip opened in QuickTime -> looks good -> export as H.264 -> re-import to iMovie 08 -> looks good when playing and exporting/sharing.
In plain words: Importing DV clips from my DV camera into iMovie gives bad results when playing and exporting/sharing. Have tried everything, but the clips look blurry and not sharp at all. The actual DV clip in the events folder looks sharp and clear.
If I take the very same DV clip from the events folder ("reveal in finder"), open it in QuickTime, export it as H.264 and then re-import to iMovie 08, it looks brilliant, retaining the quality the DV clip in the events folder has.
Why can't the DV clips look good in the first place? What is it that iMovie 08 does to these poor clips? Some have suggested re-encoding, re-rendering and so on, but if I do just that in QuickTime and re-import it to iMovie 08, it still looks razor sharp and crystal clear. No reason that iMovie 08 shouldn't handle the DV file in the same manner.
Some have suggested that this is because iMovie 08 internally re-encodes to AIM or H.264, enabling edits with different kinds of formats, but if I do this myself in QuickTime before importing to iMovie 08, the problem isn't there!
If this is difficult to achieve, why not add the option of importing from a DV camera as H.264 and not DV? That would make my day!
(I have posted this to Apple using the feedback menu item in iMovie 08.)
(Background here in these threads:)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1088568
Sample clips in Apple TV format here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5173005

iMovie '08 stores rendered projects in H.264 form. This happens when you render to the Media Browser. The rendered file(s) (you can have several different sizes) are in the iMovie '08 project package. The original flies in your Events folders stay in whatever format they were in.
Yes, the movies exported to the Media Browser use the H.264 format, the same as iMovie HD 5/6 did when we exported using the presets Email, Web, Web Streaming and CD-ROM. They were all H.264 too. Apple is obviously putting the (powerful) H.264 to good use to prepare movies for Web pages and other purposes.
As you know, the Full Quality export in 5/6 was to the project's native format, which varied according to the type of project. For DV projects, that was DV video. Everything was converted to DV when imported into the project, and to preserve the original quality we could export to a Full Quality DV movie.
There is nothing like that in iMovie 7, at least that I've seen. As you said, nothing is converted to a "native format" when imported to the project. (Still images are added to the project's single Apple Photo - JPEG "Still Images" movie, which is a nice twist.)
So I think of iMovie 7 as having no "native" format, but a nicely-designed path for using H.264 as the delivery format. The Media Browser — a virtual library of movies with no shared place — is a nice invention.
When I export slideshow movies in DV format out of FotoMagico I always select 'Best' and it DOES make a difference in iDVD.
I think of iMovie 7's problem with DV as more profoundly flawed. Exporting ANY DV video that's in the project to DV or ANY OTHER format is messed up. It's the handling of the DV inside iMovie that's messed up, not just the export to DV.
My guess is — and it's only a guess — that FotoMagico's Best setting adjusts the content of the image delivered for iDVD. Put another way, it prepares an image that works best with iDVD's own encoding algorithms.
One long-standing diappointment I've had with iLife is that Apple has never coordinated the image it prepares for iDVD with what(ever) iDVD does best. It's as if the programmers never talk to each other. iMovie engineers have never asked the iDVD engineers how best to deliver the image to deliver the best quality on the DVD.
Given Apple's emphasis on H.264, one would think that iDVD would be written to embrace any H.264 video and deliver great quality on the DVD. It doesn't. And with iLife '08 it doesn't even embrace iMovie's own DV exports!
I suppose Blu-Ray will change all that, but for now we're stuck with a version of iLife that can't deliver a quality DVD of our home movies.
Karl

DVDs I burn look like crap. Quality is horrible, but looks great in iMovie.

So I have a few movies I have put together in iMovie. One was imported using an HD camera, one from MiniDV. I have made edited movies of this footage, some adding text and what not, and some just raw footage. When I have exported these movies to YouTube or just Quicktime files to be emailed or posted on the web, they look great, like normal. When I burn them to DVD using iDVD, when played back on the regular TV or on another computer, the footage looks like crap, even though the animated menus look great.
I export the movie using the Media Browser, in Large format, and load them into iDVD that way. When I play the file in iDVD, it still looks great. The only time it looks bad is when the DVD is burned. The footage looks as though it has a "slow shutter" effect on it. The quality is crap, and the footage looks like it's gone through generation loss, uploaded to YouTube then re-burned to a DVD.
Why is this happening?

I also have this problem and am trying to find a solution.
I shoot 1080i on a sony hd cam (minidv), then import and edit in FC Express using the apple intermediate codec 1080i60 and export to QT as a NON-independent file using same settings. The final movie file is 1920x1080 which is dragged into iDVD '08 and burned at "professional quality".
When I burn to dvd and play on my flatscreen in an sd dvd player, it looks like crap, even down to large pixelations around the text. I know not to expect HD but the SD should look better than this.
Now, when I play this in my macbook's dvd player, it looks better than the tv. But this is played at actual size which is only about 1/4 of my screen whose resolution is 1920x1200. I will select the "actual size" mode on the dvd controls. So why is iDVD making a 1080 movie to a ~400 movie?
ANy suggestions are appreciated and if anyone knows if DVD Studio Pro will solve this.
Aloha:
-Charlie-

Still photos incorporated into imovie

i have reg photos that i want in a movie project along with video. is this possible to import still photos? if so how please.

HI -
Are your still photos loaded in iPhoto?
If so, in iMovie, click on the button that looks like a camera on the left hand center side of the iMovie window:
!http://www.spotsbeforeyoureyes.com/iMovieFindPics.jpg!
The will allow you to access and use all your photos from IPhoto in your project. Just click on the photo you want to use and drag it to the project, you should be good to go.
Hope this helps.

When I first turned on iMovie all videos from iPhoto automatically were found. Now I have more videos on iphoto, how do I get iMovie to find the new ones?

When I first turned on iMovie all videos from iPhoto automatically were found. Now I have more videos on iphoto, how do I get iMovie to find the new ones?

jtcollins wrote:
if iMovie is open, connect your iPhone to comp. iMovie '11 will now find your phone and look for videos as it would if camera was connected
(Underline is my emphasis)
Hi jt - Alex was actually referring to video clips in iPhoto not appearing in the item "iPhoto Videos" in the Events Library in iMovie - thanks for your post though (the 2 words are very similar).
John

I made an iMovie, 6.0.3 using music from iTunes and photos from the Internet. It looked fine on iMovie, but when I uploaded it to youtube,some of the photo near the beginning was corrupted.What steps should I take to export iMovie for youtube?

I made an iMovie, 6.0.3 using music from iTunes and photos from the Internet. It looked fine on iMovie, but when I uploaded it to youtube, some of the photo near the beginning were corrupted on youtube. I tried a different photo, and the corruption took place at the same moment of the video. How do I prepare the video for export to get it ready for youtube? I wasn't sure whether to clik web or web streaming. Am I supposed to clik Quick Time after I clik Share?

I unfortunately cannot remember where I got the 'trrndlines' plugin... I assume that it must have been from CFX (as it is located under /Users/Dom/Library/iMovie/Plug-ins/cfx/XXXtrrndlines.bundle).
As for what it does, I also do not know, as I do not think I ever used it in my previous video projects.
At this stage, I think I just need to uninstall it so that iMovie doesnt try to use it.
Do you know how to uninstall a CFX plugin in iMovie?
NOTE: I have re-installed iMovie 6.0.4 (instead of iMovie 6.0.3), but still encounter the same issue.

Poor still photo quality in iMovie 10

Does anyone know how to improve the quality of still photos imported from iphoto to imovie 10. They are fine in iphoto but
become blurry in imovie 10

There is a > Discussion > iMovie > iMovie HD6 going on into which I entered. I posted the following earlier today. I am the entrant with trhe Japanese doll in red, can't miss it.
Have you a set prescription that you use when beginning the Burn to Disc from iDVD. That's where my problem is.
Please read the following and send help soon . . . potis
"My rendering is from iPhoto to FotoMagico. There the album is assembled with all of FoMo's attributes. I find it very user friendly. The blurring of a photo in iPhoto with the Blur adjustment does blur alright and it my instances I get a perceptible lightening of the image. Useable, but not the original. —Cut to the finish. Beautiful rendering in FoMo, so sent to iDVD the 130 photos and music. Beautiful in iMac playback in iDVD. Cannot complain a wink. Burn disc. Play disc, and there are the jaggies on the two buildings, one a church with lots of green and white marble on the facade, the other the Ponte Vechicco shimmering as in a desert as the zoom moves out. The jaggies appear on any horizontal or vertical shape, especially buildings (as noted elsewhere in this forum).
My logic says that if the project plays very well in iDVD and wavers in a DVD burnt from iDVD, that the wavies are introduced in the burn process. I tried recording at Slideshow settings of HD 720p as suggested. No help there.
Another suggestion has been that the digital cameras are ahead of the iMac Dual Core capabilities. I don't know about that. My Pentax SLR does load them in.
For the moment I am eliminating the two dramatic zooms because they are distracting and waiting for a solution which will have to take form outside of my meager experience.
Thanks muchas for your reply.
potis
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7) "

IPhoto stills looking bad in iMovie

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for