Issues importing .mov at full quality

I have been using iMovie09 to edit video screen captures, imported as .mov files (1280x720) captured with a screen-capture software (iShowU). I've been importing them with the "Optimized" option set at "Full - Original Size" many, many times, and never had any issues. Now suddenly, I go to import the same exact .mov clips that worked fine previously, using the same exact import settings, and the video that's imported has horrible quality.
Granted, when I import at full size, there is a message telling me "Selecting Full on this computer may result in degraded video playback", but it's always been just fine until today. Might there be some maximum cache size somewhere that's hit it's limit? Other thoughts?
Thanks!

Hi, I am in a similar position with a Sony HDR-CX7. I shot at 1080i and am now trying to work out a good workflow to retain maximum quality for 720p output (not DVD or BluRay etc).
From my research, in general iMovie (after v6 at least) is not a good friend to interlaced source material. It appears that generally it is going to just dump a field of the interlaced source material to get to a progressive intermediate codec that the editing is done on. This is why I have been going with the "large" (30fps, 540p) option, as at least their shouldn't be artifacts, just some lost detail.
I have not experimented with the "full" import option to compare though, I would be very interested to hear from others who have and can give some facts about what is going on.
Overall I am disappointed that Apple have chosen to hobble their handling of interlaces source material in their consumer level products, given that iMovie 6 did a good job with it and a lot of consumer level camcorders still require it.

Similar Messages

Problem exporting my 16x9 movie to full quality 16x9

My project was imported using 16x9, 1080i. I've done this many times. I recently added a new external hard drive. I went to export at "full quality" and the movie is compressed to 4x3. The project was def imported as a 16x9 full hd file. I may have accidently switched something off. What should I do to correct this?

Yes, but I was using another version of Quicktime.

Exporting to iDVD vs. full quality QT movie

Is there any difference in quality if you export your movie to a Quicktime movie at full quality then bring that into iDVD, versus exporting the movie directly to iDVD? I've been making the QT movies and then bringing those into iDVD. I suspect you get the same thing either way, but would like to know if there is any difference.

No, there is no quality loss. I do that all the time, especially if my original movie is lengthy or complicated because the audio begins to distort. I put the new quicktime movie into a new iMovie and use that for iDVD. I also like to place my chapter markers on transitions, and with the quicktime movie, that is not a problem.

Video freezes when exporting to Full Quality

[Background: I've been working on a video project in iMovie HD that I'm doing in pieces - exporting each section of the video at full quality when it's done, so that later I can put them all together in a new project.]
Lately I've been having major problems exporting to full quality Quicktime files. The exported video freezes a few frames in, though the audio continues to play normally. This does not happen if I save it to a smaller quality, say, Web Streaming.
I'm having trouble seeing a pattern in how/why/when this happens, too. I have successfully exported movies to full quality both before and after movies that export incorrectly. The first project that had this happen, I decided to reassemble bit by bit to find out if something specific was causing the problem. Turns out that Full Quality exporting started having this problem if I had added titles. After jumping through something like 50 hoops - exporting little pieces, reimporting, exporting just the titles, etc., etc - I managed to work around the issue. Bit of a headache but all seemed to be well.
BUT, the frozen video problem soon happened again. The next time I had this trouble exporting, there were no titles in the project at all, and the problem instead occurred once I added music. So there does not seem to be a pattern within iMovie itself. This makes me think it's either a Quicktime problem or something to do with my computer itself. I have 2GB of memory, 37GB of space left on my hard drive, and I'm running Quicktime 7.4.1 and iMovie HD 6.0.4.
Please help! I'm on a bit of a deadline, too. This is driving me crazy!

Thanks Matt. I am in the same boat as many people have obviously been in - trying to burn a DVD to a film fest deadline of tomorrow, and after 4 hours of trying to make a disk image, getting 'error during burn'.
I have one question.
a) In imovie, I clicked the 'create iDVD' button to create this project - which has problems burning.
b) Now if I simply try to drag that .mov file into the iDVD pane as you suggest, is that identical to what I have done in a) - in that we're operating with the same basic animal. Of so
c) I should try the process of exporting to .dv, reimporting to new imovie, redoing chapter markers and THEN dragging the package .mov to the iDVD pane - hoping that chapter markers are preserved.
Oh ... someone said one should try to save the .mov as a sel contained file. is that necessary?
Thank you for sitting in front of you Mac!

Options for Full Quality Exports

If I export from FCP>Export>Quicktime movie and make it a self-contained movie is that in full quality?
Are there any other ways to export my movie in full quality. File size is not an issue?
Thanks for your help.

when I do a "mixdown" of a spot or something I always pick "Current Settings" from the pulldown menu in the export dialog box. That way the video is being output in the same format it came in as. I haven't noticed any quality reduction in anything exported that way.
G5 1.8Ghz SP / 2GB RAM / 160 & 250 GB drives Mac OS X (10.3.9) Final Cut Pro HD

Exporting full quality

Everytime I export my movie using Full Quality DV the end result is not as crisp as the original. I even exported a clip with no edits and the exported clip doesn't look as good.
Is this loss of quality what I'm supposed to expect everytime I export my movies? Remember I'm always exporting using "Full Quality" option.
Thanks for the help.

Hi guys,
thanks for the replies. I recorded the clip with iMovie and opened the package and extracted the dv clip to use with Pro-Tools. Once in Pro-Tools I realized that the video was not complete so I went back to iMovie, completed the video and created a new quicktime file at "Full Quality".
Once I imported this new clip back in Pro-Tools the video was not as crisp as the original. I didn't do any edits other than to put clip 1 right next to clip 2 and export at full quality. Just wondering if this is normal for iMovie.
Thanks!
--carlos

Export Full Quality Preset in iMovie 09?

Does iMovie 09 have a way to export movie in full quality? Can DV source be exported as DV?

If you choose Share --> Export using QuickTime... you can export as DV, as well as a number of other formats, and choose the settings for your export. There is no "Export Full Quality" preset in iMovie '09.

Saving movies in good quality and small filesize.

As far as i can tell the only formats you can save a movie in imovie hd are either huge in filesize or really bad in quality. The solution i've come up with is to "share" the movie in full quality, which with an 8 min video makes a file bigger than 1gb. I take that file and convert it to mp4 with a program called MoviePod( find on versiontracker.com), and then i have a file of about 40mb which actually looks good even if i view it in fullscreen on my "15. Anybody have any other tips about this stuff, or have actually figured out how to get decent file sizes directly from imovie hd? By the way, are the more advanced video-editing programs from Apple any more flexible when it comes to this?
cheers.

By the way, are the more advanced video-editing programs from Apple any more flexible when it comes to this?
those and iMovie rely mostly on the Quciktime engine, which cares for all kind of media on a Mac system...
share
Quicktime
Expert Settings
.. hit button...
you're confronted to this dialog:
it offers in the drop-down menu all QTrelated codecs, plus many of them offer "options" (size, bitrates, fps, ...)
e.g. using 320x240, motionjpeg, 75% quality, 15fps will reduce your file size dramatically by keeping an acceptable quality (video+grafics)...
.. and you'll find a mpeg4 codec too..
but as you, I prefer the mpeg4 algorithm used in a 3rd party app, iSquint (relies on open source ffmpeg)
or, you use the mpeg4 encoder as part of the 3ivx project.....
Compressor, part of FCP/DVDSPsuite allows much more, elaborated options.. but =>$$$$

Problems importing movies after update

Anyone having issues importing movies into iTunes after the current update?

Have not heard of that problem, but try resettingthe SMC
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Full Quality Movies Issue

Is there a way to export a full quality movie in .mov format instead of .dv?
I need to upload it but my video uploading website doesn't accept dv files. And I need the file in full quality.

Yes, just export as QuickTime in a .mov wrapper with the DV codec and take care to use the correct resolution, DV-codec subtype, audio sampling rate, and aspect ratio. Then the quality will be the same as in a plain .dv stream (that forces those settings to the correct values).
...but DV is BIG, about 200 MB/minute. Do you really want to upload that??
H.264 would be a good quality and a more compressed format.

Is it possible to burn a movie in full HD quality?

Is it possible to burn a movie in full HD quality?

Hi,
I found the solution to this after two days of head scratching and frustration. Here are some of the things I noticed in my investigation of the problem, and the solution:
iDVD does NOT FULLY/CONSISTENTLY support HD or footage that is imported from FCP X -- when it is rendered you will get reduced quality visuals in your DVD.
Using the "create disk image" option to create your DVD has the same end result.
I found my way to success the following way:
Save your original file from FCP X -- note its file size. If it's a .MOV file you will need to recreate and save to your hard drive because you will need am mpeg file. Your original .mov file is now simply a reference.
Use FCP X to create an mpeg version of your footage from its share options.
Once done, note the SIZE of the file -- it should be larger than your original file.
Purchase Toast if you don't have it -- I am not a representative for the company... I just like what works --(or use DVD Studio Pro, if you have it) to create your DVD ~ DO NOT USE iDVD FOR NEXT STEPS ~
Toast screen shot below:
In Toast, select Video, HD DVD and name your file. Note the size of the file in the bottom of the window... it should be the same as the mpeg file... if you notice the file size is smaller (or the same as the original file size) you have a setting wrong.
(Since I used Toast I won't reference DVD Studio Pro here... don't want to make this response longer then needed...).
Once you verify the correct file size, make any other selections/changes you like for your DVD, then burn it.
You should end up with a DVD with the quality you are after.
Good Luck!

Quality issues importing Sony HD into iMovie 8

I have a Sony HD AVCHD camera which uses SD cards. The only method to import the footage is with iMovie 8.
The program advises to use the "large" quality setting, and the footage came out really nicely. The resolution was small, but the quality was fantastic.
However when I selected the "full size" import the quality went terrible Lots of horizontal lines appeared, plus lots of double images when there is lots of movement. The size is good, but quality terrible.
Does anyone have any advice on how to import in both good quality and full size?

Any ideas what might be the problem?
Not really, but I would have persued the matter further by checking the source files manually. If you open your iMovie HD project package, you will find a folder named "Media" inside. This folder contains your "imported" files, as well as, any rendered transitions, titles, and/or special effects currently in use in the project. Any or all of these files may be movied (if you plan to manually "trash" the project) or copied (if you wand to keep the iMovie HD project) to another area of your hard drive where they would be accessable for normal import by iMovie '08. Further, if you want to import the current "assembled" timeline from iMovie HD, you can do the same to the file you will find in the "Shared Movies > iDVD" folder in your project. If such files cannot be imported either, then I would lean towards your have some sort of "problem install" of the application, software conflict problem, or possible problem at the system level.

AVCHD import & getting full quality import...

I've got a Panasonic HDC-TM20. When I look at the playback of the video on the actual camera the video quality looks a lot better than once imported into iMovie '09.
I am importing using the defaults "Full - Original Size", "Split days into events.", and do not "Analyze for stabilization".
Once imported the video looks a bit fuzzy. Here is an example of the video quality once imported:
http://www.youtube.com/user/JustAnotherFamily#p/a/u/0/zhasv9rXfyA
Is there anything that can be done to get the full quality of 1920x1080 AVCHD?
I feel like I'm missing a step in the process of getting full quality video.
Thanks again for any insights.

i also having the same problem.. im using panasonic HDC-SD100.. the video imported shows a bit movie trail as i use it to record skateboard footage(fast movement).

Widescreen DV, full quality export to .mov?

Hi,
I'm working on a short iMovie project in widescreen dv mode, and I'd like to export it in full quality to a .mov file rather than a .dv file. Is this possible?
Thanks!
Macbook Core 2 Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

What does s/he intend to do with the file?
Multiple codec conversions degrade quality (VOB->MP4->DV->?).
If you want minimal quality degradation, you should edit the VOB/MPEG2 file with MPEG Streamclip and convert that to the final codec. Or keep it as MPEG2.
The detour to iMovie loses some quality and you should have converted the VOB directly to DV -- the MP4 step was unneccessary.
iMovie's Full Quality IS .dv! You can make a DV-encoded .mov file, but what's the point? It would be just a wrapper for the same DV thing!

Export a movie,NOT quicktime,FULL quality dv

hello, i'm trying to export a movie as it is.In full quality,DV extension.I want the best quality possible.The quicktime export ruins the titles.please help
thanks

welcome!
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Shane

Issues importing .mov at full quality

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