Output 16:9 QT to iDVD w/ chap mkrs-poor quality video-WHY?

I imported ftg rom Sony HDV (shot as HD 1080i) as DV NTSC anamorphic. edited the project. then added chap. mkrs. now I want to export this as 16:9 into iDVD. I have heard all the problems associated with doing this. I am very confused as to how to complete this project. When I increase the quality of the export through qt conversion I seem to loose the chap mkrs. so I guess I will export as standard qt movie w/ chap mkrs. then I will put this thru the "anamorphisizer". then import this new file into iDVD. Is there a better way to do this to improve the picture quality?

Are you looking at the output on a video monitor? Are
you talking about after the DVD has been burned, or
the QI player of the exported file? Is the QT player
set to high quality? exporting to QT Conversion will
not not improve the image, even if you use a lossless
codec. Don't be confused by what you see on the
computer screen. Different codecs will display
different and behave differently. Unfortunately
you're still ending up crushing it to MPEG-2 onto a
DVD designed for display on a television set.
I am looking at the DVD after it was burned. It seems to have lost a lot of quality from the way it lookked in FCP. I guess that is just because of the compression in iDVD?

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IDVD. Poor quality video in drop zones

Video's added to drop zones in iDVD menu themes look terrible, before and after burning the iDVD projects to DVD.
Every video looses quality. They "blink/jump". For example the eyebrows or cheeks of people jump up and down and are very noticeable. It's as if the footage has been scaled up from a smaller image.
Does anyone know how to handle this? Is there a workaround?
This issue has been adressed before, and it seems there's no solution:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/1902931#1902931
https://discussions.apple.com/message/21604603#21604603
https://discussions.apple.com/message/10396039#10396039
I'm using iDVD 7.1.2 - and iDVD 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 themes.

Just tested the drop zone in the same theme that you posted with a video created with PhotoPresenter and it was very sharp.
Try this basic troubleshooting fix:
1 - delete the IDVD preference file, com.apple.iDVD.plist, that resides in your
User/Home/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete the contents of IDVD'S cache folder: User/Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.iDVD.
3 - launch IDVD and try again with a new project with the same theme.
NOTE: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Home/Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and press the Return key - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.
If you're running Mavericks, 10.9, go to your Home folder and use the View ➙ Show View Options menu to bring the this window:

Poor quality video output - final cut studio 2

hi all,
i shot some footage in HD (1080p). it looks great in the clips from the camera as well as in fcp but when i output its very grainy. how can i retain the HD quality? i am not sure what i should be exporting it as. its going onto a dvd and will be used for commerical puporses in a small restaurant. i tried compressor but know next ot nothing about that and the footage came out the same.
thanks!

You need to focus (and maybe read a bit) on the output from FCP. Do not concern yourself with Compressor or anything else until you are happy with the output from FCP because it doersn't get any better than it is at that point.
If the 1080p shows up in your browser with a Compressor description of H.264, you need to transcode it into ProRes (or equiv) before editing.
Your timeline should be fully rendered, then export using File>Export>QuickTime Movie using Current Settings and make sure the "Make Movie Self-Contained" option is selected. This should look just like the timeline when played in QuickTime Player. If it doesn't, we'll need all your sequence settings and kindred info when you post back.
If it looks OK in QT Player, simply import it to Compressor and select the appropriate output format. If you're not sure what the format should be, post back with your presentation plans.
Good luck

Poor quality video output

Hello to all as this my first post, I'm kinda hoping I can call upon the wealth of experience here to help sort out my issue as I really need your help.
Ok, here goes...
I produce architectural animations in 3dsmax, each frame is rendered out to targa & jpeg format as high quality stills @ 1280 x 720 resolution. For the simple stuff I have two passes, beauty and AO which are composited in Autodesk Toxic before being passed onto premiere CS4.
Now when I import the still sequences into premiere and add the titles and effects all looks well in the rendered preview, when I export to media encoder the video looks just awful with banding, fuzziness and artifacts a plenty.
I am not an experienced user, I've been stuck in at the deep end and i'm sinking fast. I've tried pretty much all out the format presets with limited success but have been totally unable to the the final output any where near the still quailty. I'd like a high quailty output matching the still resoultion which can be burned onto DVD and played on computer and through a DVD player.
Can anyone point me in the right direction or tell where I'm going wrong as I'm tearing my hair out with frustration and I'm already two days late on this.
Yours hopefully in anticipation of some helpful advice
Roy

Ok, having checked, the DVD requirement has been dropped which helps me a little, now the only requirement is to play on a pc connected to a large screen tv via HDMI.
So far, with the help from this forum, I've managed to export the sequence, in 1280 x 720p @ 24FPS to a bluray format which has an M4P extension. Despite installing the required codecs I can't play the file on the PC. Does this need further conversion? If so would this need to be done in Encore or another porgram?
Again, apologies for the endless questions but I really am up against my deadline here so any help & advice is very welcome.

Poor quality video output from iMovie 08

I have tried to save or export videos on several occasions, their output quality is always very poor.
Recently, I needed to translate videos from MPG, MOV, AVI etc.. using various translation tools. I am not sure how much quality I lost during those translations (I wish iMovie would import something, anything!).
I have saved my projects and also tried exporting to the highest resolution in both cases. When playing back within PowerPoint or QuickTime (7pro or 10) the quality is so bad I almost can't recognize the people in the video.
Does iMovie 09 do a better job with output or am I just using the wrong tool?
Thanks in advance.

not sure if i'm having the same issue or not, but i'm having problems with iMovie 08, and exporting my finished project, and having the frame rate be goood, or the resolution stay good, or both. I've tried m4v, avi, mpeg4 and they worked in quality in that order, but m4v still didn't have as good as resolution as the original file. Is there an option that automatically goes with original framerate, and resolution? What should I be doing for best visual quality in general?

IDVD 6.0.3 - Poor quality DVD burn

I'm somewhat stumped and hope the good people on these boards can help.
I recently picked up a Panasonic MiniDV camera in order to video the kids etc. here in the USA so I can send PAL DVDs home to the folks in the UK.
I've been somewhat dismayed by the quality of the resulting DVD. I burned a DVD in PAL format (source DV was NTSC) 43 mins long and it only used up about 1.6GB on the DVD and the resulting DVD quality is pretty poor. I made sure that I had the "High Quality" setting on.
Is this something to do with converting and burning an NTSC DV source to PAL format or something else? Anything I'm missing?

Len,
The OP has 43 minutes of content that only required 1.6 GB in Best Quality mode.
I doubt going to a DL disc would help. At 43 minutes, he probably will get better image quality in Best Performance mode because that uses a compression bit-rate about as high as a DVD player can handle. Using Toast makes it possible to dedicate more of the bit-rate to video because it can use Doly compressed audio instead of iDVD uncompressed, PCM audio, so Toast might be a little better.
It's that darn 'Best Quality' - 'Best Performance' name game confusion again - 'Best Performance" usually gives better quality than 'Best Quality' - I wish Apple had simple called them something like 'mode 1' and 'mode 2'!

DOH! Poor quality output after 4 days trying to perfect the DVD

Hi guys
I have been trying to burn a 1hr 27min .avi file (700MB) for 4 days now. Ive tried a few ways but each time the DVD has poorer quality video than the original file.
I tried:
- opening .avi file in ImovieHD and then sharing it with iDVD (it refused to burn it, after going thru the whole rendering encoding process mind you)
- going straight to iDVD (definitely it would not burn)
- opening in QT Pro and then 'stream as DV'. which i opened in iDVD and saved as disc image with menus etc. burnt using toast titanium - probably the best result so far i think)
however the dv file was worse than an mp4 file i created using iSquint from the .avi.
- have also tried just opening the avi in toast and burning from there. worse product than the previous one.
So, any suggestions? The main problem is things look quite jagged and a bit pixelated if you know what i mean. Where as the mp4 file, which ive played using iTunes and VLC, is quite smooth (but you can see there's still a bit of quality loss when sharp movements are made by the actors.(expected).
So I've lost lots of time on this stupid thing, but I just really want to sort out how to do it well once and for all.
Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks

G'day Looneysbin
Sounds like a hardware problem. Is your drive under warranty?
For a start, try rendering your iDVD project to a disk image, instead of burning straight to disk.
Then, create a new Burn Folder on your desktop, and drag the VIDEO.TS file from the opened disk image to the burn folder (note that only an alias actually gets put in the folder).
Next, use Control-click on the Burn Folder to get the contextual menu, and select 'Burn Disc'. Follow the prompts, but burn at the minimum speed available.
This way, your apparent hardware problem won't mean re-rendering the iDVD file each time you try and burn a disc.
You can also keep the .img file on your hard drive as a backup of the disc.
You might also be having a problem with quality of the actual discs themselves. What brand are you using?
Regards
Santa

IMovie '08 option to make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08

Which iMovie '08 option will make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08?
1. Share-Media Browser-Large-Publish
2. Share-Export Using Quicktime
3. Or can you use an unpublished iMove in iDVD?
(Of course I'll have to first get iDVD to open without crashing...)

Which iMovie '08 option will make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08?
1. Share-Media Browser-Large-Publish
2. Share-Export Using Quicktime
3. Or can you use an unpublished iMove in iDVD?
As always, this depends on a number of factors which you failed to cover in your original question.
1) If you source files are SD, other than an increased loss of time in converting you gain nothing in scaling the files up in iMovie '08 only to scale them back down in iDVD. On the other hand, if your source files are HD, then you will likely see a marginal increase in quality which may or may not be worth the price of increased processing time. In this latter case, you are allowing the MPEG-2 compressor to get the most it can out of your file at the P- and B-frame level.
2) Export using QT allows you to customize your output with regard to both compression format and settings. For instance, you can use a codec with extremely high data rate (e.g., VGA dimensions with DV at 28.5-57.0 Mpbs, AIC at 18.0-22.0 Mbps, or even unlimited H.264/AAC at 16.0-20.0 Mbps). High video data rates generally translate to less lost quality during the re-compression process. Thus, if the intermediate file produced by iMovie '08 and passed on to iDVD retains more of its original quality, the MPEG-2 compressor can get more quality out of the final conversion as stated above.
3) Since no physical file actually exists until the project (simply a set of instructions detailing how the final file will be created) is published, there is nothing to be physically sent to iDVD. basically you must create a physical file from the project in order to do anything at all whether sending it to a gallery, iTunes, YouTube, iDVD, etc.

When I burn my imovie I get the IDVD screen with a thumb size video playing in the corner of the screen without audio - weird

When I burn my imovie I get the IDVD screen with a thumb size video playing in the corner of the screen without audio - weird

You can find the serial number either in About this Mc in the Menu bar under the , or it should be on a sticker under the foot of the machine.
If you have the install discs, try booting from them, holding down the c key and then using Disk Utility to check the drive.
You can also boot into Safe mode
To start up into Safe Mode (to "Safe Boot"), do this:
   1. Be sure the computer is shut down.
   2. Press the power button.
   3. Immediately after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key.
      Tip: The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone but not before.
   4. Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple and progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
During the startup in Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.9, you will see "Safe Boot" on the Mac OS X startup screen.
During the startup in Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login window, which appears even if you normally log in automatically.
Please post back with results,
To leave Safe Mode in any version of Mac OS X, restart the computer normally, without holding any keys during startup.

Poor iPhone video output from QT Pro

I am creating videos for my website using the File > Export for Web option in QuickTime Pro.
My problem is with the generated file for the iPhone "myfile-iPhone-cell.3gp". The video generated for the iPhone is very poor quality - it is very pixelated when streamed over the internet. I believe this is due to the fact that it is generated by QuickTime Pro at 176x109px, which is about 1/2 the size of the iPhone's actual screen. So, when it gets to the iPhone, it has to be "enlarged" and then gets grainy. If I stream a large dimension MP4 file, like 640x480px (from another software converter) into my iPhone, it looks really great.
So, I'm wondering why the programmers at Apple, who have direct access to the hardware and software, chose to output the iPhone-cell.3gp file at such a small dimension? Is there a way to correct this or am I stuck with what I get? I feel the video quality is not good enough to put on our corporate website.
Any advice on this is appreciated. Thanks.

The cell type movies are meant for ten-year old Nokias.
I feel the video quality is not good enough to put on our corporate website.
Then don't post it. Or enlarge it.
Use a larger export size. The iPhone type. It's for the iPhone: myfile-iPhone.m4v
It's not difficult to figure that out. And you seem to know the answer:
If I stream a large dimension MP4 file, like 640x480px (from another software converter) into my iPhone, it looks really great.
And why not try them all. Why not try? Why so helpless?

IPhoto album to iMovie to iDVD, poor quality of projected images

I am preparing a slide show of digital photo images. The finished product shows poor quality images. I am import the images as an album to iMovie, add a few title slides, then export either to media file or directly to iDVD. The results remain unacceptable when projected on a flat panel HD TV. Where am I going wrong?
Marks 3

If you are using the Share ➙ iDVD menu in iMovie, don't. Use the Share ➙ Media Browser menu option and then drag the movie frome the Media/Movies pane in iDVD into the projects menu window. The Share ➙ iDVD route noticibly degrades the resulting movie. What size movie are you sending to iDVD? It should be Medium or Large.
What size images in iPhoto are you using? They shoujld be cropped to the 4:3 size ratio for iDVD before adding to either iMovie or iDVD.
Have you considered creating the slideshow in iDVD by adding the album of photos via the Media/Photos pane in iDVD. I've found I get better results that way. However, there is a 99 slide limit with that workflow.
What do you mean by poor quality. When going from a photo on your monitor to a TV screen the media gets resized and compressed/encoded down to 640 x 480 which can't duplicate the high resolution of the original image viewed on the monitor.
OT

Videos .avi with poor quality on iDVD.

I am new user on Mac. I work with soccer match analysis and I have to use the softaware on windows plataform.
I creat videos (.avi) with good quality if I watch on Windows Media Player or TV. When I watch on my Mac, they have a real poor quality (defocused and trembled).
I used to creat my videos on this software (windows) and I burn de DVD on iDVD.
Do I have to convert my .avi videos to any other extension file?
When I converted my .avi files to .ogm files the quality was better, but I couldnt use these files on iDVD.
Are there anything that I could try to get better quality on my video files?

Hi
I would convert the .avi to streamingDV and use this in iDVD.
.avi
You can use MPEG-Streamclip to convert the AVI files so that QuickTime can play them
and to streamingDV for iMovie.
Yours Bengt W

Why are burned DVD's poor quality from the IDVD?

I made a slideshow in iphoto and exported to IDVD so I could burn copies. The show lloked great on screen but the first copies on dvd's were terrible. The quality of images are very poor and seem to be depixilated? Why would the copies be so poor? Does the widescreen or standard have something to do with it??
Help

Hi
There are levels in h*e*l*l*
iDVD - is same as DVD Standard - Interlaced SD-Video
Feeding iDVD progressive or HD material will not improve result but degrade this as from
- iMovie'08 to 11 - as they can not deliver - but only every second line of the picture
- iDVD downscaling from HD - is doing a bad job
So by using a program that can deliver - best possibly DVD is the result
- iMovie HD6
- FinalCut any version
- FotoMagico™ - (for SlideShows)
If this is not enough - then DVD is no option as HD-DVD is rare and needs special HD-DVD-players - alt
• Blu-Ray e.g. from Roxio Toast™ but still needs BD-Player as PlayStation3 etc
• out in high quality to USB-memory to be played on device that can do this
• Play via MacBook and out to a HD-projector/TV
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 DeskTop/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

Professional DVD in iDVD? Or Atleast Decent Quality...

Okay, I'm thinking of making a DVD and cramming a bunch of stuff on it. I will have a movie shot on a DSLR that will be about an hour and forty-five minutes. I want to save it out as an MP4/M4V which will probably be about 4gb. Then I want to ADD DVD Extras including an MP4 of another movie I did (but this will be saved as a file if possible) but it's and SD film and comes in at about 1gb. The rest is a trailer and a featurette. Can anyone tell me what will the quality be like for set-top players as well as people playing these disc on PCs. I do have DVD Studio Pro 4 also, but I love iDVD's pass through and Stretch backgrounds.
I also thought about doing a Blu-Ray, but Apple's Blu-Ray function, even out of FCPX is atrocious as far as menus go and I hear Toast 11, even Pro, is buggy and not very good with menus either. Is there any reason people won't create a Blu-Ray burning program for Apple. Even if it just burns a blu-ray image to a DVD5 and/or 9. I hear the quality on that is pretty decent. Any word on a DVD Studio Pro 5?
And I'm on a Macbook Pro 2.5, Core2 Duo with 4gb of RAM. And a G5 1.8 with only 2gb of RAM. Any ideas? I've managed to get great quality from iDVD, but I've always burned basic .Mov files and not MP4 files.
-Nate

Hi - my notes on this
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 burn a slideshow to a dvd disc and keep the same full screen hi-def quality to it? I exported it to idvd but much of the quality was lost.

how can i burn a slideshow to a dvd disc and keep the same full screen hi-def quality to it? I exported it to idvd but much of the quality was lost.

Ask in the iDVD forum on what's the best way out of iPhoto and into iDVD. The resident expert there, Bengt Wärleby, can give you the best option.
OT

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