Low quality in iMovie Export

iMovie is a great program. Unfortunately the export quality is not very good. I have tried several codecs (Apple Intermediate Codec, H.264, ++), but the result is drastic quality reduction. Very visible in dark areas and peoples faces were the no. of colors are too low. Filesize is reduced too.
The imported file (from Sony Handycam HD (CX550)) is an apple intermediate codec and the quality is great.
When exporting from iMovie useing Apple Intermediate Codec the quality setting is "medium" with no option to change this.
I also use Final Cut Express which gives much better export quality. But the program is not as intuitive and easy to use so I prefer iMovie.
The solution is to edit the movie in iMovie, export the project to Final Cut (by XML) and export QuickTime movie. With XML export all fancy transmissions are lost, but the picture quality is great. The final movie file is 3-4 times larger.
Anyone with similar experience or a solution?

I have exactly the same issues
'Very visible in dark areas and peoples faces where the no. of colors are too low. Filesize is reduced too.'
In light you won't notice but the dark is just terrible.
Important: It has not to do with interlace. Interlacing is not the problem. It's the dark areas en people faces!
I thought I found the solution.
Wat I did was:
- Export as Quictime Apple Intermediate Codec
- > If I use the Dimensions 'HD 1920 x 1080 16:9" it was terrible
If I use the Dimension '1920 x 1080 HD' it was perfect.
(Also I set the compressor to 'other' and 'interlaced' and 'top field first')
But the strange thing is: When I do it on a small piece of footage. It works perfect. When I do it on a longer project: the footage is crappy again.
I worked a week on different home video stuff and it's not fun to see this decrease of quality.
I didn't missed a toppic where someone found the solution?
I will keep you informed about my investigations...

Similar Messages

Low quality of burned DVD even if I drag&drop iMovie project into iDVD

Hi all,
I've a iMovie HD project that I want to burn via iDVD (7.0.4).
If I click "Share with iDVD" the quality of the resultung video (which is burned to DVD) is rather poor. As I've read within this discussions, the preferred way is to close iMovie and "drag and drop" the iMovie project into iDVD.
With this way, iDVD (instead of iMovie) will render the movie, which should give a video with far more quality.
Unfortunately, the burned DVD with the "drag and drop" method has the same low quality as the video with "Share with iDVD".
I've done a little research and noticed that the "shared movie" for iDVD (iMovie project->Show package Contents->Shared Movies->iDVD) for a 1:10 video has a filesize of only 32kb!
Is there any way to set the "export" parameters for this "shared movie" (it is a quicktime file)?
The quality of the completed DVD is acceptable if I export the iMovie project to "DV stream" an import this stream into iDVD. But in this case I lose all my chapter markers of the movie ..
Is there any way to export the movie from iMovie HD and keep all the chapter markers for iDVD?
Importing the iMovie HD project into iMovie 08/09 is not an option, as I lose the chapter markers also ..
Thanks in advice,
Kind regards.

Hi,
the iMovie project was created as "DV" project and I imported DV PAL clips. The iDVD preferences are also PAL (25fps) and the quality setting is "professional quality".
I've also tried the setting "best performance" within iDVD (as suggested within this forum), but with the same poor result.
I can see within the iDVD "project info" that iDVD will use "mymovie.mov" within the "Shared Movies->iDVD" of the iMovie project (Show package contents).
As this converted movie is of low quality, I think this is the root of evil.
If I export the movie from iMovie with "Export as DV stream" and import this converted movie into iDVD the quality is ok - but I lose the chapter markers ..
Is there any way to keep the chapter markers?
Kind regards.

Preview in Canvas and Quicktime movie export low quality

Hi Guys
I am trying to make a slideshow/movie using Final Cut Express HD 3.0 the preview in the canvas is very low quality both with the images and titles. I have tried to export to quicktime movie but that movie is still very low quality. They are not sharp and are pixelated. The images look fine with Preview and iPhoto. I do not have quicktime pro I don't know if that has anything to do with it.
Thanks a bunch

This comes up pretty off and was discussed in the last couple of days. You might do a forum search. Basically you'll looking at a lores display unless you look at the output on a video monitor.

Low quality export for stop motion animation stills from Canon 5D Mark ii

Thank you very much beforehand to anyone who is willing to look through this issue, it's been a long and frustrating process so far...
I am attempting to put together a stop motion animation in Final Cut Express but my exports are always either low quality, or medium quality and stretched. I am shooting on a Canon 5D Mark ii set to take pictures at 21M 5616x3744 [999] (though I'm not entirely sure what the 21M or 999 mean).
When I first assembled my stills (unedited or altered in any way) and exported, it looked like this:
A relatively drastic loss in colour and quality. This was achieved exporting through quicktime conversion using the following settings:
Compression Type: H.264
Compressor Quality: Best
Size: 1920x1080 HD
Preserve aspect ratio using: Crop
Deinterlace source video: unchecked
Unhappy with the result, I went through hours of testing and researching which only yielded a result after I discovered the control-Q Easy Setup menu. I tried setting up as an apple intermediate codec using HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60 at 29.97 fps. I kept the export settings the same as above, but knowing that I was now working with a canvas that keeps to the 16:9 proportions, I tried cropping one of my stills in photoshop to fit that 16:9 ratio.
I then imported my 16:9 cropped still and an unedited JPEG version from my camera and exported the resulting 10 second video. The result was better quality, but still noticeably degraded from the original stills. More importantly, both the cropped 16:9 and the unedited JPEG were stretched out of proportion as seen below (16:9 version):
Of course I forgot to note the original settings on Easy Setup so I can't figure out how to get back to the original lower quality, yet undistorted image (not that I want to do that). I tried numerous different sizes for the export including changing the Crop (when necessary) setting to letterbox. Nothing worked.
The canvas, however, immediately looked 100% better after switching the Easy Setup to HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60 at 29.97 fps. It held the improved quality without distorting the image:
I'm not sure if there's any hope of having a great image quality, but at very least I would like to be able to export at the decent quality of the second screenshot without the stretching and cropping.
I need to have this resolved ASAP for work, I've already wasted too much time here. Any help is so appreciated, I'll be active in providing whatever additional information that I can to responders, though please keep in mind that I'm relatively new to all this, I don't know where to find everything

I've decided just to try to get back to the export that I showed in the first screenshot. That result came before I started tampering with the Easy Setup. Like I said, when I changed the setup the canvas quality improved drastically and the dimensions seemed to fit much better, but the export was vertically stretched and cropped. I just reset my FCE settings and it turns out the default setup is DV-NTSC, but it's giving me a terrible quality still...
I just want to get back to that second screenshot's quality.. Could someone suggest what I should switch the easy setup to for importing stills from my Canon 5D Mark ii to yield the right results?

Jpeg export is low quality

For some reason, when i export a jpeg, it seems low quality, even if i go up to 12 quality (and make the image 3 times the size of the original)
here's an example, an image that was TAKEN as a jpeg originally, imported to aperture, and then exported after some editing.
the one on the right is the exported jpeg, and it seems ..not sharp at all
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c44/funk11963/Picture1.png
I'm not the only one with this issue, check out this post where other people have the same problem.
http://www.apertureprofessional.com/showthread.php?t=15206&highlight=resolutiononexport

FUNK1196 wrote:
For some reason, when i export a jpeg, it seems low quality, even if i go up to 12 quality (and make the image 3 times the size of the original)
here's an example, an image that was TAKEN as a jpeg originally, imported to aperture, and then exported after some editing.
the one on the right is the exported jpeg, and it seems ..not sharp at all
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c44/funk11963/Picture1.png
You've got a couple of problems here:
1. JPEG is not a very good format for editing then re-saving as a JPEG. It's a lossy compression, and one of the cruelest ironies is that compression artifacts compress poorly. It can get especially bad if you open an edited JPEG and re-save it to a third JPEG. Obviously, at the higher quality settings, you lose less in each step, but you'll still lose something.
The best strategy is to shoot your pictures using Camera raw, which should be either uncompressed or compresses with a lossless scheme, or in an uncompressed format like TIFF. Then, edit them and do all your work with the TIFFs or the raw files. Once you're happy with your edits, then the last step is to export a JPEG. If you want to make a new version of the picture, just go back to the original, make a new version (either from the master or your previously edited version), edit that, and re-export when you're done.
2. Exporting at a size larger than the original will always result in some image degradation. Think about it this way: if you printed your JPEG on a sheet of rubber and stretched it to three times its size, your picture would get blurrier the more the sheet stretched. The same kind of thing happens in your computer. You're always better off to work on a picture at a bigger size than you'll eventually need it, then make it smaller when you're done editing.
I'm not the only one with this issue, check out this post where other people have the same problem.
http://www.apertureprofessional.com/showthread.php?t=15206&highlight=resolutiononexport
What they're talking about in those posts is different. They're talking about a resolution setting for printing. For example, suppose you have a picture that's 1500 by 1500 pixels. If you print that at 300 pixels per inch, you can print that picture 5 inches by 5 inches. If you change the resolution to 150 pixels per inch, the same 1500x1500 pixel picture will print out 10 inches by 10 inches. But if you look at the picture at 100% zoom level on screen it should look the same, since the screen has a fixed resolution.
This article might explain it a bit better:
http://www.ransen.com/Articles/DPI/Default.htm
charlie

Bringing in an uncompressed .mov...when exported, comes out lower quality??

hello
i am dealing with a project using adobe flash cs3 and final cut pro 2 on a mac.
i am exporting a quicktime from flash and then bringing that .mov into FC to edit, add music, etc.
when i export from final cut, i see that the clip isnt as crisp as it was when i originally exported from flash?
im wondering what could be the issue. the clip itself is short, roughly ten seconds, although, even if my final result would be a 300 mb clip to still retain that perfect quality, i won't mind.
when i exported from flash, i had to do different trial and errors to get it to keep its full quality. the aspect ratio is 720X480 .. although upon export trying an NTSC it was extremly pixelated. i just ended up doing an uncompressed, no codec, quicktime export...having the final result be 350mb for ten seconds! either way, i love the final result. nice and crisp.
i brought this into final cut...heres the problem, what i am assuming is happening, is there is a setting wrong in the sequence settings. here is what i have it currently set to:
in the general tab:
frame size 720X480 NTSC DV (3:2)
pixel aspect ratio NTSC - CCIR 601
field dominace none
editing timebase 30
compressor non
quality 100%
advanced - compressor none / quality 100%
^^^ i thought maybe the whole ntsc issue is what causes the slight lower quality, considering even though it is the same aspect ratio its not dv footage but just an uncompressed flash video quicktime
^^^ i tried changing the aspect ratio next to frame size to custom/ custom (3:2) ... everytime i clicked okay, and re-opened the seq. settings, it resorted back to ntsc automatically
also the pixel aspect ratio section (the one directly under) only lets you choose ntsc , square pix, or hd - there wasn't even a custom thing to choose for that one
the problem with my final export is that is has slight artifacting on the edges of things...
maybe it isnt the sequence settings, for when i changed the settings to this, the little video box in the canvas of the fcp interface has no artifacting.
so possibly it can be the export settings in final cut?
if i do an export in FC which is an ntsc, it comes out extremly pixelated
the closest thing i can get to 100 quality is doing an uncompressed 10 bit....which is still causing the slight artifacting on the edges of objects.
any ideas of what i can do to fix this problem? it would be extremly appreciated and thank you so much for taking the time to read this.
thankyou,
-Mike

UPDATE:
i discovered a way,
upon export,
instead of choosing uncompressed, i chose custom,
i then typed in whatever and exported...came out clean.
i don't know what uncompressed 10 bit caused artifacting though

How to export low quality png while using exportToPNGSequence jsfl command ?

how export low quality png while using exportToPNGSequence jsfl command ?

var mat=fl.getDocumentDOM().library[0].matrix;
mat.a=.5;
mat.d=.5;
fl.getDocumentDOM().library[0].exportToPNGSequence(file:///yourfile.png,startframe,endfram e,mat);

When I move high quality clips into my timeline in Final Cut Express HD, they look and export low quality. I have tried converting the clips and de-interlacing them, but they always look the same, What is the problem? Thanks so much.

When I move high quality clips into my timeline in Final Cut Express HD, they look and export low quality. I have tried converting the clips and de-interlacing them, but they always look the same, What is the problem? Thanks so much.

You should check that the Project settings match the clip settings before editing them to the Timeline.
Only newly created Projects will change not existing ones by adjusting the Project settings.
If, for example, you have a Project set to NTSC DV you can only end up in trouble if the clips are PAL 1920 x 1080i.
Al

Resizing Script Exports in Low Quality

Hello. A while back I found an image resizing script on these forums. Recently it's JPEG outputs have seemed to be on low quality, like 30%. How can I change this script-application to export resized images in a higher quality?
Thanks, and the script is below.
on open some_items
repeat with this_item in some_items
try
rescaleand_save(thisitem)
end try
end repeat
end open
to rescaleand_save(thisitem)
tell application "Image Events"
launch
set the target_height to 256
-- open the image file
set this_image to open this_item
set typ to this_image's file type
copy dimensions of this_image to {current_width, current_height}
if current_height is greater than current_width then
scale this_image to size target_height
else
-- figure out new height
-- y2 = (y1 * x2) / x1
set the new_width to (current_width * target_height) / current_height
scale this_image to size new_width
end if
tell application "Finder" to set new_item to ¬
(container of this_item as string) & "256_" & (name of this_item)
save this_image in new_item as typ
end tell
end rescaleandsave

You can't control the jpeg compression quality using Image Events. You can with iMagine Photo. iMagine Photo is free, and is like a more powerful version of Image Events.
You can read about iMagine Photo here:
http://www.yvs.eu.com/imagine.html
You can download iMagine Photo from here:
http://www.yvs.eu.com/downloading.html
iMagin Photo documentation is here:
http://www.yvs.eu.com/documentation.html
Follows is a script that will allow you to specify the compression quality while scaling. The quality difference between maximum and lossless is tiny while the file size difference is quite large so I don't normally recommend lossless.
The script does not copy the exif information to the scaled image file, but iMagine Photo can copy the exif information, and or modify certain exif types.
The script replaces the contents of the original file - so beware.
Kevin
---- begin script
property theScale : 0.5 -- 50% scaling
using terms from application "iMagine Photo"
property exportQuality : high -- minimum / low / medium / high / maximum / lossless
end using terms from
on run
-- this script replaces the contents of the original file
set thisFile to choose file with prompt "Choose an image file to scale: "
tell application "iMagine Photo"
set thisImporter to import graphic thisFile
if the component error of thisImporter is not equal to 0 then
close thisImporter
return
end if
tell thisImporter to make exporter with properties {export file type:"JPEG", export file location:thisFile, export compression quality:exportQuality}
set scale of thisImporter to {theScale, theScale}
export thisImporter
close thisImporter
end tell
end run
---- end script

Final Cut Pro X -- Export is Low Quality?

I'm wondering about some of the behavior on export with Final Cut Pro X.
While editing my videos, I set preferences to 'use proxy media' to make playback smoother.
However, when I go to export the video as a high-quality 1080p file it's clear that Final Cut is using the proxy files to make this video -- rather defeating the point of exporting at 1080p. Now, it's not a problem if I switch playback in preferences from 'use proxy media' to 'use high quality media' -- then the export is actually high quality.
My question is this: is final cut supposed to work this way? Why on Earth would it not default to use the highest quality files when exporting? It's not a huge deal, but it is annoying when I spend several hours exporting a project only to find out at the end that I accidently left playback on 'proxy media' and have to restart the process.

I've read a few threads on this issue. Are you using the share feature or exporting to compressor? My understanding is when you export you need to set to original or optimize setting in preference.
More about this topic here.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3166556?start=0&tstart=0

IDVD08 lower quality video than iDVD06

I'm not a pro video guy, so I really relied on the "simple" Mac apps and associated iLife (mainly '06). There were MANY changes from iMovie/iDVD '06 to '08 and maybe I'm missing something.
With a recent import of DV tape into iMovie '08 and sharing it with iDVD, my wife and I immediately noticed lower quality video in the films (let alone the lack of chapters, sigh). Reading these (and other) forums, I found the iMovie '06 download and proceeded to use it for another movie and sent it to iDVD '08.
Using the same quality (professional -- I don't mind the lengthy time), the output DVD was definitely better looking than the previous work flow (iMovie 08, share, iDVD 08).
Has anyone else seen/noticed this?

Hi Andre
There is another aspect too.
If You add photos to Your movie and use "Share/Export to iDVD" from versions up to iMovie 6
then You'll probably get a lousy result what ever coding scheme.
If You done this and let iMovie render - two problems occures:
• iDVD performs badly
• Your original iMovie movie is harmed and You need to re-import Your photos and re-do the edit.
Then close down iMovie. Drop the movie icon (with a Star on it) into the theme window in iDVD.
Now iDVD will do the rendering and so much better.
Most probably this goes for iM08 and iDVD08 too.
Ps. I used Pro Quality on a small project and got a very good result - but may be I just was lucky Ds
Yours Bengt W

High def on my iMac, but low quality on MacBook :(

I did a screen capture and exported it as HD. Imported it into iMovie for some editing and then exported as HD. Looks crystal clear on my iMac and really low quality on my MacBook Pro. Both computers are new within the year, not old. These are for my Photoshop tutorials which I sell. I claim that these videos are crystal clear and will play sharp as a tack on your computer. Will they or will they not? Help!

P.S. Could it be that I did the screen capture on my 21" imac and then finished the editing in iMovie on my 15" MacBook? I recorded on a big screen and edited on a little one? I can't figure this out! Didn't happen with any others.

IMovie Exporting: "Not Enough Room In The Heap Zone"

Okay, I'm trying to export a video from iMovie '11 on OSX 10.8.4 on a Macbook Pro (without retina display). It is only 1:53.
Every time I try to export I get an error message:
"Unable to prepare project for publishing.
The project could not be prepared for publishing because an error occured. (MemFullErr / iMemFullErr: Not enough room in the heap zone / )"
I have checked literally every forum post about this error and nothing has helped. I have over 700 GB of room on this computer, so there's enough memory for it to export for sure, and I'm not using special characters in the title. I'm trying to export in 720p. I exported a project 2 days ago (which was way longer than this one), in 720p, and it worked fine. I do not have time machine running.
It works when I export it in lower quality, but lower quality isn't good enough.
I've tried exporting it, exporting it with quicktime, publishing it to youtube, exporting it through the share menu, and renaming the project. Nothing is working.
I have not tried clearing the Cache yet, because I could not figure out how to do it. If you could explain how to clear the Cache in great detail, that would be awesome. (Also, if you have another solution, explain that as well.)
I am really frustrated with this problem.
If you could help me out, that would be amazing.
(Please do not link to another article, I've already looked at them all.)

Trouble
When iMovie doesn't work as intended this can be due to a lot of reasons
• iMovie Pref files got corrupted - trash it/they and iMovie makes new and error free one's
• Creating a new User-Account and log into this - forces iMovie to create all pref. files new and error free
• Event or Project got corrupted - try to make a copy and repair
• a codec is used that doesn't work
• problem in iMovie Cache folder - trash Cache.mov and Cache.plist
• version miss match of QuickTime Player / iMovie / iDVD
• preferences are wrong - Repair Preferences
• other hard disk problem - Repair Hard Disk (Disk Util tool - but start Mac from ext HD or DVD)
• External hard disks - MUST BE - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted to work with Video
( UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange - works for most other things - but not for Video )
• USB-flash-memories do not work
• Net-work connected hard disks - do not work
• iPhoto Library got problems - let iPhoto select another one or repair it. Re-build this first then try to re-start iMovie.
This You do by
_ close iPhoto
_ on start up of iPhoto - Keep {cmd and alt-keys down}
_ now select all five options presented
_ WAIT a long long time
• free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk to low (<1Gb) - I never go under 25Gb free space for SD-Video (4-5 times more for HD)
• external devices interferes - turn off Mac - disconnect all of them and - Start up again and re-try
• GarageBand fix - start GB - play a few notes - Close it again and now try iMovie
• Screen must be set to million-colors
• Third-party plug-ins doesn't work OK
• Run "Cache Out X", clear out all caches and restarts the Mac
• Let Your Mac be turned on during one night. At about midnight there is a set of maintenance programs that runs and tidying up. This might help
• Turn off Your Mac - and disconnect Mains - for about 20-30 minutes - at least this resets the FireWire port.
• In QuickTime - DivX, 3ivx codec, Flip4Mac, Perian etc - might be problematic - temporarily move them out and re-try
(I deleted the file "3ivxVideoCodec.component" located in Mac HD/Library/Quicktime and this resolved my issue.)
buenrodri wrote
I solved the problem by removing the file: 3ivxVideoCodec.component. after that, up-dated iMovie runs ok.
Last resort: Trash all of iMovie and re-install it

IDVD low quality slideshow

Hi There,
I start a new project slideshow of a wedding I shot with my Canon DSLR and decide to make a slideshow DVD with iDVD. I shoot my pictures in RAW and convert them to JPEG in Adobe PS the RAW image is 24MB each and when convert to JPEG they go to 7.9MB. The Issue is I make the presentation and it looks fabulous in my iMAC but when i view the final product in my dvd player the photo's looks out of focus like if the convertion decrease the quality a lot,also i burn the disc in professional quality and Best performance with the same results,i little lagy using Best performance. Anything else i should try? Any advice?
Mike

Hi
And here is my "un-sorted collection of thoughts about DVD-Quality" read if You can take it - It's long !
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeaskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W

How can I replace one low quality source with another high quality one ?

Am I really this dumb or is it really this hard ?
I have one timeline / project / edit that essentially references one long source clip / event / file.
I have a newer higher quality transcoded version of the same source and want to replace the original lower quality version and end up with the same edited result just with better quality images !?
It's the same frame rate and image dimensions but "relink" tells me the new file is not "similar" enough and won't do it !
Why is this so hard ? Is there a way to export a good old fashioned edl and then just reconform using the new source ?
What if I wanted to to replace low res offline footage with finished colour-corrected material and output a finished master - would that be this clueless as well ?
Please let me know the problem is between the chair and the keyboard - not between the hard disk and the power cord !

Guessing that when you created the higher quality media, it was done outside of FCP and probably changed some important metadata that the app is looking for. Or perhaps there is a difference between the original audio and the new audio.
Anyway, Luis' advice about the replace edit seems like the easiest solution.
a_mumford wrote:
What if I wanted to to replace low res offline footage with finished colour-corrected material and output a finished master - would that be this clueless as well?
The usual way to do offline online is within FCP – creating the proxies and then using Preferences to switch back to and from.
If you sent it out for grading, the Relink should work fine. If you haven't seen this kb doc, it's worth reviewing.
Russ

Low quality in iMovie Export

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