Large vs. Medium format for 4:3 movies?

I've never noticed much difference in the comparisons between large and medium formats when shown on a TV set. The reference I have states that large gives better results and should be used but it takes longer and gives a larger file on completion. Am I missing something?
Also is there any difference in the result between using Share>Media Browser and Share>Export Movie, when the same options are chosen for both? I know that the latter provides an accessible movie file in a named folder, and the former puts it in a package somewhere.

hey there tinoman,
in iMovie Pref's., uncheck Automatic Pillarboxing & Letterboxing. also set your iMovie projects for 4:3 aspect ratio.
good luck.

Similar Messages

What is the best video format for 50+ year movie storage?

Objective: In what video format should I store my family movies on an external drive? I want these family movies to be viewable by future generations in 50 - 70 years, so what video format / type is recommended?
Background: I have an iMac, OS X 10.7.5. I use IMovie '11, version 9.0.8. My iMac has an internal DVD player and burner and iDVD is installed.
I have dozens of family movies (total 80+ hours) dating back nearly 70 years. All these films have been digitized and I have imported many of them into iMove as events, then I edit them with title pages, transitions, music, etc. When a "project" is completed (Between 1.5 - 2.0 hours or less) I share the project to iDVD where I burn it to a DVD. Within iMovie I save each of these projects (on the internal Mac HD, which consumes very little space) and on an external drive I save for each project:
- a disc image (DVD.img) whose size is about 4.5 GB
- a copy of the iMovie project, whose size is about 60 MB (the original project is in iMovie, in the Mac internal drive)
- the original digitized raw movies imported into iMovie as events and are formatted as .mov (these are large size at 8 GB - 20 GB each)
- the finalized and fully edited iDVD which is formatted as DVD.dvdproj (these are very large size at 20 - 24 GB each)
As you can see with all these disc images, projects, events and DVD projects stored on my external drive I am at nearly 1 TB of storage, on my way to 1.75 before I comple editing all movies.
While I manage pretty well the editing my movies within iMovie, and how to create an iDVD project and then burn a DVD, I have no understanding of the technical aspects of the multitude of different movie formats in the market nor of Quick Time and its format.
I am told that DVDs will only last 10 - 15 years and then begin to deteriorate. And iMovie '11 won't be arond 50 years from now. Nor will the current / recent versions of iDVD. Thus, for posterity:
1. In what format should I store my family movies on an external drive so they can be viewed by family members 50 - 70 years from now? (best chance for viewing, since we don't know what formats they will have then)
2. How do I convert from what I have (disc image, iMovie project, DVD project) to your recommended format?
Thank you,
HDP

There is no such format for movies or even Photographs. Frankly we can't guarantee the persistence of any format past the next 10 years, not to mind 50 - 70.
Codecs are being improved and created all the time, and this process will continue. In 50 years time we may still have .mov and .avi files, but the codecs that create the movies within will have changed.
One thing is reasonably sure: DVD will be as deader than floppy disks are now. Ditto Blue Ray. They're on the way out now, and in 10 years they'll be curiosities.
So, what's the solution:
Best I can suggest is to keep your movies on volatile media like Hard Disks (with back ups on other disks, or course). Progress will be evolutionary - as new formats come along there will be the option to migrate older data to these newer formats, and that's the trick. As always, when it comes to migration, the more data available the better the likely result, so keeping your movies in the least compressed versions possible seems a good approach.
That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee someplaces, but nowhere fashionable.
Regards
TD

Best file format for 8mm home movie conversion

Hi there,
I'm about to get some old 'standard' 8mm home movies from the 60s & 70s converted to DVD as a Christmas gift for my mum.
The transfer company will also supply the footage as files to view/edit on my mac at a later date. I'm a complete iMovie novice so my question is, which file format should I choose?
They're offering AVI, MPEG 4, WMV, .MOV or Pro Res files.
Many thanks in advance for your help...
Jon Howard
PS I'm running iMovie '08 (7.1.4) & OS X 10.6.8 on an intel 13" macbook in the UK (PAL area).

Pro Res in potentially the best, but you would need Final Cut Pro, not iMovie, to edit it.
It is difficult to advise you without knowing the technology they are using. Are they capturing in High Definition progressive or Standard Definition interlaced?
I found a US company that would scan the 8MM at 1080P. They provided the files in Motion JPEG format. This proved to work great in iMovie.
If they are doing Standard Definition, I would say go for DV if they can. MOV is generally good, but MOV is a container, not a codec, so it depends on what is inside it.
Here is a post where I discussed the results.
Here is a link to the company that did it. http://www.mymovietransfer.com/
Here is a sample of the results. Watch in full screen if you can.

Ideal export format for hdv source movie edited in motion

Until recently, pretty much all completed projects I've done have been exported to NTSC-DV, but now I'm editing in HDV.
My most recent project was done with 1920X1080 HDV source footage editing on a 1280X720 canvas in Motion.
I like to export a web version and then a version of the project for posterity -- ie. the final best-quality (within reasonable final size) version of the movie that I can keep on hand for future uses as yet unknown.
So, my question then is: what's a good final format to export to? Is there any reason to export to HDV just because I've started with HDV?
Thanks.

I use h.264 for a review copy. It will give you a much smaller file size. I think Pro Res is intended to be used as a lossless format to take footage between applications, correct me if I'm wrong. If all you need is a copy to show people, h.264 can give you excellent quality (it's used on Blu-ray discs).

Projector best format for web download movie?

Converting a dxr/stub projector movie into a web download
movie and wondering if there are advantages to one over the other.
They're both protected...
Making one for mac, one for PC.

Can you not make it a Shockwave movie (compress to dcr) -
that way it
should play on both Mac and Win from the same file in the end
user's
browser of choice.

Newbie: What format for I-movie

I had to download and install a program to make my Casio AVI clips compatible with i-movie. What format should I choose, and what format for the whole movie? What will work best on a TV screen?
I tried .mov and .mpeg and .mpeg4 but the clips are unproportional once I get them into i-movie ( they are stretched horizontally).
Where I am going wrong??
Julie

Good question... but it does explain the stretch.
It seems odd that the camcorder does not shoot in a regular format.
They make an iMovie plugin at cf/x, found at http://www.imovieplugins.com that can alter the aspect ratio.
Here is the description:aspect ratio
what is it?
this iMovie plug-in changes the clip's aspect ratio, either enlarging or shrinking the clip. it's primary use is to re-establish the correct aspect ratio after rotating a non-square pixel clip, or after importing footage from a different video format (e.g. 4:3 to HD 16:9, TV, NTSC<-->PAL, 16:9). the plug-in sports pre-sets to convert between the most common video-formats, which can additionally be overriden by hand-tuning +/-50% in both the horizontal and vertical direction.
for parts that have to be enlarged, the plug also provides bi-cubic interpolation.
when should i use it?
use this plug-in whenever you need to adjust/tweak the aspect ratio of a clip (e.g. prior to exporting to another format, after rotating non-square pixel footage, or after importing from another format)
I have used their plug-ins without any difficulty.
This one costs $2.50.
Terri

Best Format for Archiving Video Files

I am importing old VHS and 8mm family videos for my cousin, to both burn them to DVD, and to archive the movies in case he wants to edit them later.
I am planning on purchasing for him, a "write once," external HDD, probably firewire, (though I am open to suggestions), to put both the backup Video TS folders on, as well as the Quicktime movies themselves.
My guess is, the best format for the QT movies would be their original DV-NTSC, but at around 13GB an hour, this can add up pretty fast.
The h264 .mov codec looks great, takes forever to render, and it seems the file size difference to DV-NTSC is nominal at best.
Obviously the future is some kind of HD, so these movies will never look great years from now, but I want them to be preserved for him at the best quality possible, at the smallest file size, if it will not compromise the quality too much.
I know I can render them significantly smaller as h264 .mp4 files, or as DIVX, (which also takes a long time), but I imagine they are of significantly reduced quality that would be visible in future video editing he might do.
If DV-NTSC is the only way to go, so be it. But if not, then any suggestions for what other format I could use to save these QT files, without visible loss of quality is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all the advice. And I mean everyone.
Here is my latest dilemma.
Though 15 years old, the original Vhs's play beautifully. Aside from some (expected) glitches in the beginning or end of some of the shots, the video has not degraded appreciably. This is great news, as my cousin wanted to make back ups before degradation begins.
First, I captured the Vhs movies and corrected some bad color, mostly due to poor white balancing, and on the computer, they looked great in comparison. I burned DVD's and they looked terrible in comparison with the originals. Now I know I am going to lose some resolution when going to DVD, but it seemed harsh, so I ran some tests.
I burned a DVD of the original capture, with no color correction, just the raw footage and the DVD did not look much better, so it wasn't the color correction.
Not satisfied, I made a copy from the FCP timeline straight to Vhs, (I should note, through the ADVC-110.) This looked significantly degraded as well.
Finally, I made a straight dub from Vhs to DVCam, figuring that had to look good, and that also looked significantly degraded, compared to the, (now looking pristine), Vhs original.
As the original Vhs looks so good, what good would a TBC do? Or a proc amp?
Is there some secret to capturing and exporting Vhs that I am missing? Or, will it always look significantly degraded, even straight to DVCam?
+David Murray wrote: There is an industrial way to get good VhS copies but it is extremely expensive+
I don't know what this is, but I am sure it is clearly out of our league, but David M., if you are still following this thread, I'm curious, would this ultra expensive method actually result in a dub that looks like the original? I am actually really shocked at how bad the straight DVCam dub looks. It really does not look much better than the color corrected, computer exported version.
The Vhs tapes of my cousins daughter are as precious to him as anything he has.
As they date back 15 years, he is concerned about the longevity of the tapes.
As there are over forty hours of them, he wants them to be in an editable format, so later he or his daughter can make a highlight reel, or whatever. So thus the QT movie archive/backup on HD.
Whether as Finalcutter said, that this drive, even if unused, and put in a cool dry safe, might not function years down the line, makes it iffy, but what other choice is there for editable versions, unless I break the QT movies up into 20 minute chunks and archive them to over a hundred DVD's instead. Perhaps that is the safest solution, though certainly time consuming.
As failure of the HDD somewhere in the future is likely, though not certain, I am still not sure that the HDD holding all his QT movies for future editing is the wrong way to go.
As it is a digital version, and not an analog copy, I get that a DVCam backup of the originals is the best option. I will suggest to him that we do this as well, even though he does not have DVCam himself. But again, is there something I am missing here? Why does the Vhs to DVCam copy look so degraded? Is there anything I can do to keep the original quality, or will it die with his original Vhs as it slowly degrades over time?

I have Home Movies from iMovie to back-up. What format for external drive?

Hello,
I have Home Movies imported into iMovie 11 on my iMac 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo.
I am saving the cpmleted movie projects onto an external hard disc. A Seagate 1TB.
I have had problems with file sizes as I keep getting the message that a movie project is too large for the medium. It seems that I can't store anything in HD.
I've looked at the disc and it's formatted as MS-DOS (FAT32)
Am I right that this imposes a maximum file size that I can save?
If so I have looked at the Disc Utility on my iMac and I can see that I can reformat the external drive.
I have a choice of -
Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled)
MS-DOS(FAT) is this the same as MS-DOS (FAT32) it already is formatted as?
ExFAT
Windows NT Filesystem (Tuxera NTFS)
I'm guessing I should choose the MAC OS Extended (jounaled) or the Mac OS Extended (Case- sensitive, journaled)?
The Seagate Hard Drive is model SRDOSPO
I don't understand the differences between the above formats and would like help on chosing the right one for my Home Movies.
I also have an Apple TV3 which I use to watch the movies on my tv.
Are the home movies stored both in the iTunes file on my iMac, so I can see them via AppleTV, and the external hard drive.
If so can I just use the external hard drive without having these large files filling my iMac disc?
Hope that all makes sense.

The difference between case sensitive and non-case sensitive is self-explanatory. Non-case sensitive iis easier to work with as it can avoid confusion with files names.
The others are weird and wonderful/partly useless Microsoft formats only of interest to Windows users, or those who want to have both Apple OS and Windows on the same computer. Not all of them can be read by a Mac at all, some of them have inconvenient file size limitations.
More info here:
http://formatharddrive.net/types-of-hard-drive-formats.html
Message was edited by: Klaus1

I am backing up my macbook 10.5 to an external harddrive probably formatted for a PC. I was trying to move instead of copy and the folder partially copied then said i did not have permission to move all my files.

I am backing up my macbook 10.5 to an external hard drive probably formatted for windows. it was let me move most of my files. however i tried to move instead of copy a very large folder (60gb) and it transferred most of the files onto the external hard drive then gave me an error message saying i did not have permision to move all the files. i am worred that some were moved and some were not. it is showing all files when i checked for some of them
my question is if i move instead of copy and i get an error message does os x just copy the remaining files instead of moving them?

Typically when you drag files from one drive to another, Macs copy them, not move them. You usually have to copy them and then delete the originals.
Which files were you trying to back up? If this involved system files or application files then there may have been hidden files, or files with certain permissions set on them.
If you're doing this as a gneral backup I would not use a PC formatted drive since that introduces its own set of issues. I would use a Mac formatted drive and then a cloning tool (Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, others).

I have Video camera movies that are HD format.. I am doing editing work on them using Final Cut Pro, but using DV PAL format for the projects I am editing. When I then tried to copy my work done in FCP Project that's originally DV PAL , into a new FCP Pro

I have Video camera movies that are HD format.. I am doing editing work on them using Final Cut Pro, but using DV PAL format for the projects I am editing. When I then tried to copy my work done in FCP Project that's originally DV PAL , into a new FCP Project that is HD, and tried reconnect media with original HD movies (video), the sequence project got distorted for all the text, shapes used and all.. everything changed its orientation and scale.. Is there a way by which I can preserve my work done on DV PAL and switch it preserving its proportions, scale and orientation, but on a HD project sequence?? Appreciate your help and advice..

Yes. A couple of ways that might work.
First Way
What you need to do is load one of your hd clips in the viewer and edit into a new HD sequence. Does it display correctionly?
OK, select the clip in the hd timeline and copy (command-c). Now go to the HD sequence with the material that's distorted. Select all (command-a) and paste attributes (option-v) and choose basic motion and distort. That should maek things work. What won't work is anything that you've adjusted as far as basic motion or distort in your PAL sequence. That I'm pretty sure you'll have to redo.
Second Way.
Choose your original PAL sequence and do a Media Manage changing the sequence preset to the appropriate HD paramenters with the media offline. You then should be able to reconnect these clips with your original HD media.

Hi, I have problem with importing MOV files from SJCAM 4000. MOV files are in supported formats for Adobe Premiere Elements 11. But if I'm importing MOV file, only audio part is imported, video part is not imported. How can I solve this problem?

Hi, I have problem with importing MOV files from SJCAM 4000. MOV files are in supported formats for Adobe Premiere Elements 11. But if I'm importing MOV file, only audio part is imported, video part is not imported. How can I solve this problem?

haben
From looking at the specifications of your camera (SJCam 4000), we know already what video compression your camera is using. It is H.264.
A H.264.mov file should be supported by Premiere Elements 11. On what computer operating system is your Premiere Elements 11 running?
Do you have the latest version of QuickTime installed on your computer? And, are you running QuickTime and Premiere Elements 11 from a
User Account with administrative privileges? Please go to Premiere Elements 11 Publish+Share/Computer/QuickTime to confirm that you find
presets there for the QuickTime choice there.
What are the properties of these H.264.mov files - is it 1080p30 (1920 x 1080p30) or something else? Do you know if this camera is recording with a variable or
a constant frame rate?
Please review and consider and then we will decide what next.
Thank you.
ATR

What is best movie format for iBooks Author

What is the best movie format for iBooks Author?

Thanks for the people who helped my. Thanks to you I now have the answer. It is as follows:
1. Load your movie into Quick Time Player.
2. When in Quick Time Player go to File then Export to then check Broadband H.264, 5Mbp/s maximum data rate.
This worked for me so many thanks.

Best format for viewing movie on Windows ?

Hi,
I use a Mac, but need to make compressed movies for someone to download and view on a Windows PC. They are accessing the movies from various internet cafes, and the computers dont always have QuikTime installed. What is the best format to save my movie in to allow them to view it without needing to download additional software?
Thanks....

mpeg1

Payment medium DME format for Cheque Refunds

Dear Gurus,
We have cheque Refund process in ISU FICA, cheques are not printed in SAP, instead data will send to printwork bench via SAP PI to print the cheques and distribute to customers, which is handled by 3rd Party.
In order to send the data we may have to develop custom payment medium generate DME file, I wanted to check with you if any one has an idea is there any SAP standard payment medium format or function module which enables less development.
Would really appreciate your inputs and thoughts.
I checked by copying International Payment medium CHECK and activated DME format, however am unsuccessful on put. DME file generated with no Data.
Regards
Prab.

Pravakar,
There is no standard DME format for Chq Refunds as far as I know.
In R/3, there is a standard program for Voyager<FCKR>. If you are looking for similar program in ISU, You need to go for customized program.
Also if you want Text file for your Chq Refund, suggest you look into the format of Legacy to understand the format.
If it is similar to BACS Refund file like VOL1, HDR1, HDR2 etc, you can copy the standard FMs
FKK_PAYMEDIUM_BACS_00
FKK_PAYMEDIUM_BACWAY_10
FKK_PAYMEDIUM_BACS_15
FKK_PAYMEDIUM_BACWAY_20
FKK_PAYMEDIUM_BACWAY_25
FKK_PAYMEDIUM_BACS_30
FKK_PAYMEDIUM_BACWAY_40
and tailor suit to your requirements. But again, if this is only a text file for SAP PI, suggest you to look what they are expecting from SAP <like Chq no, amount,date, Customer number>.
In that case you can write a program where it shall use the data base tables DFKKCR*, DFKKOP & FKKVKP.
Coming to FPY1, you may see a DME entry in FDTA for Check but you cannot view it there as it is only a correspondece. Alternatively you can view in Spool.
Hope this is clear and helps.
Rgds
Rajendra

I really need to speed up my IMAC. I purchased a new external drive specifically formatted for apple. I also would like to move some other media (movies and music) to this external drive. What is the best method for this?

Please help...I need to delete iphoto pictures and back up to external drive without losing pictures. I have the external drive and would like to start this process. Can you help?

Formatted for Mac is not a format - for iPhoto you MUST verify that it is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled)
and putting your iPhoto library on an external drive is NOT a backup - you MUST have a good backup plan like Time Machine running or you are 100% guaranteed to lose your photos sooner or later
Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
other media questions need to be ask in the forum for the software you use for them - this forum is only for iPhoto and the above instructions are only for iPhoto
LN

Large vs. Medium format for 4:3 movies?

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