Loss of quality between iMovie '09 and iDVD

Hi all,
I'd like to have some advises to understand if what I'm doing is the right way to do or if there is a better/different solution.
I'm working in a photo shop (not ADOBE Photoshop ... ;-)) and sometimes we are doing some "movies" from photos. I'm currently using some embedded iMovie features such as Key Burns, etc.
Once I created my "movie", I'm exporting it using the Browser Media HD option (1280x720, H.264, 25fps, 10Mbps)
Now I have the problem to put it on a DVD. I started to use iDVD but the end quality on DVD is much lower than expected, absolutely nothing to do with High Definition
Do you know if using the HD feature in Toast 10 Pro the DVD quality will improve ?
Thanks
Giancarlo

Next time I recommend "bumping" your question by entering a response to it. A lot of questions get posted and that causes any older questions to move to the next pages.
As for your question: there's a lot of info here: http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=80 and doing a search here: http://mroogle.edesignuk.com/ will reveal a LOT.
What I've learned: iMovie 09 is best used for video intended for computer viewing. iMovie HD (06) to iDVD 09 is best for burning to DVD. If you've already created your movie in 09, I'm afraid there's not much you can do about improving the quality but some searches might reveal something I missed.

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    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...
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    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

  • Loss of quality from iMovie Project to Burned DVD

    Hello,
    I have read some strings regarding this subject but I'm still left with questions.
    I have created a photo collage set to music, in iMovie. It's 12 minutes long, and when I play it in iMovie on my computer, it looks great. All the photos are crystal clear, rich with color, and vibrant in all the right places.
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    Data Rate: 20.23 Mbit/s
    Current Size: 1549x871
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    Somewhere between the Quicktime movie and the Burned DVD, the movie loses a significant amount of quality. It seems all the colors are washed out. I can see my edits on some of the photos... it looks like crap. To me it looks awful, to others it may not look as bad, but I know the difference. It looks awful.
    Can someone please tell me why this is happening and how I can prevent it? All while still using iMovie through this whole process, and Toast for burning?
    Thank you so much
    YahYah

    Hi Ziatron,
    The quality workaround I proposed assumes the person starts with a progressive source material. The original poster did as I don't see how you would import true progressive source media and get interlaced artifacts at the end, especially for stills! We are not in the days of the Sony Mavica you know. What you are doing is importing interlaced video and processing it in interlace with a progressive scan workflow. The combing artifacts you saw is from the consumer algorithm that is inherent in iMovie 11. I know iMovie 6HD and FCE or FCP have better de-interlacing algorithms. You can by pass iMovie 11's weakness by treating the interlaced video through a commercial/high end de-interlace software and get better results.
    As long as you are working with a progressive source media, then you are not bound by de-interlacing artifacts unless your movie was shot in it. Suffice to say, best de-interlace programs cost money and a lot of computing power. That is not something the majority of computer owners use iMovie possess. I see you have a high end Mac Pro. I also have a high end Quad PC with a high end Nvidia graphics card to utilize its hundreds of CUDA cores for vReveal to eat on. But that's not what the general public of Mac or PC owners have nor what the general public buy during Black Friday or Boxing Day in Canada either. High end Macs or high end Quad PCs go with high end video editing software where the de-interlacing and the encoding and decoding algorithms are much better than the consumer versions.
    This is OBVIOUS! Better algorithms will simply slow down any mid-end Macs to mid-end PCs to a low teeny 1-5 fps processing a video clip in H.264 in very very high quality and multiple passes. This is not acceptable to the general public. Which is why, you are also seeing noise artifacts in the workflow too, because you need to first de-interlace the source media and then re-encode to H.264 which obviously adds artifacts to the source before you can use it with iMovie 11, so clearly iMovie 6HD has a clear advantage. This carries over to the final workflow. But most AVCHD material out there is compressed too!
    Consumers need to be aware that there is a difference between consumer grade software and commercial grade software. Also, commercial grade software require a hefty computer to do its job reasonably well! People need to understand that just because you own a nice $900 to $1000 camcorder does not mean that your mid-end Mac can deal with it.
    Getting quality is so easy. Just spend lots and lots of money on hardware to shave off 15mins to a few hours of video encoding to digital video processing, but at what end because it will never end!
    I've seen a few footages floating around on Youtube that looks really good made with iMovie 11. Just keep in mind that there are always tradeoffs for reasonable rendering time vs cost of your computer package.
    Message was edited by: Coolmax

  • Is there a difference between iMovie '11 and iMovie HD?

    Just getting started with trying to learn how to edit a video.  Also, is '11 short for 2011? In other words, if I referred to "iMovie 2011" would I be talking about something that actually exists?  I guess HD means High Definition.  What do you call something that is NOT HD?  Low def?  Regular Def?  The introduction to "iMovie HD"manual refers to "Magic iMovie"  Does the word Magic have special meaning, the way it does in reference to a mouse (mighty or magic being different)?  The   manual keeps referring to "the latest" but the copyright date at the back is 2005.  This makes me wonder if there is a more recent version of this manual.  Is there a place on the apple website to check on what the latest version is?  What is the Product I am asking abouit?  I don't think it is iMac, iPhone, iS 5 or None.  But those are the only choices I see below here.  Why is there not a choice of "iMovie"?  Or iLife?

    more questions: is a "project" the same thing as a "movie"?
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       Or is it a "project" while you create it and then it becomes a "movie:" after you finish it? 
    A movie is the result of your Sharing the project as I mentioned above.
    This is something the Apple manual writers assume everyone already knows but I do not.  What is a Cache and how it is different from a Library?
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    Clip seems on the surface obvious (a short section of continous video/audio that is a building block for a movie) but as I think about it, I wonder.....It is BOTH audio and video?  or EITHER?  If a movie contained only one clip wouold it be called a clip or a movie?
    The best way to understand clips is that it is a unit of video from the time you press record on your camera until the time you press stop. Ususally a clip is from 5 seconds to 20 seconds, but if you are recording a convert, a single clip might be two hours.   A clip is imported into an Event. A clip, or a portion of a clip, can be used in a project. It becomes a movie when you share the project. Could you take one clip and make a project from it with no editing? Sure.
    Usually a camcorder will record both audio and video. You can, however, use only the audio or only the video in a project if you want.
      If the audio and the video were from different sources would it still be a clip?
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    A scene is usually a unit within your movie. It is up to you to define that. For example, if I was makeing a movie about my daughter's marathon, I might put a scene together about the pre-race preparations, a scene about the starting line, a scene about the midpoint, and a scen at the finish line. Each scene could have many clips. A scene is really where you use your creativity. I am not sure how you are using the word Section.
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    An effect could be changing the color balance, adding a sound effect, adding slow motion or fast motion, adding an old-timey or black and white look, adding a freeze frame, there are a lot. You dont have to use them at all. It depends on the story you are trying to tell.
      How many different types of panes exist? (So far, I see audio, titles, photos, transitions, effects, and iDVD) What is the difference between iDVD and DVD? 
    A DVD is a round disk that you put in a DVD player. You can create a DVD if you have DVD authoring software and a DVD burner. Five years ago, all Macs had DVD burners. Now, MacBook Airs, some iMacs, and some Mac Books no longer have built-in burners, but you can always add a DVD burner through a USB port.  Apple used to sell iDVD, which is an app that is used for DVD Authoring.  You can still find copies of iDVD on Amazon or eBay. More on disk burning here. https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3711
    More and more people are shooting HD video - and DVDs are only standard definition. And more and more people are sharing the video through YouTube and Facebook, which support HD. So Apple has been deemphasizing DVD lately. They have not updated iDVD since 2006. Still, if you make movies for friends and family who are not comfortable with the internet, DVDs are still quite useful.
    What is video exactly and how is video different from a movie?  Does video include audio by definition?  Or are there different terms to refer to video with and without audio?
    I think I already answered  this one.

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