Picture Quality Mac

Why is there a difference between the same image using Graphic Converter 6 and Photoshop Elements 3? (They used to be the same.) The GC shows lighter and truer, while the PE shows darker and is unacceptable. Please see attached (first is GC).

Gordon,
When you double-click one of the eydropper in Elements, the Apple colour-picker should open...
if not, open the Elements Preferences and set the colour-picker to Apple.
In the “Apple Colour-picker” toolbar you should see at least 4 picker possibilities,
(Colour Wheel, Colour Slider, Colour Palettes, Image Palettes and Crayons...)
even more if you have other options installed...
Your RGB values are fairly common for any use....
Import one of your (to dark) images and duplicate...
work with the copy and experiment (calibrate) a little with the RGB settings...
enter any value you like (maybe 20 - 20 - 20) for the black eydropper /
(maybe leave 255 - 255 - 255) for the white eydropper /
apply the new eydropper-values to the copy... try other values as well...
always compare the original with the copy...
When you like what you see... save your settings:
Elements will ask you if you like to save these new target colours as default...
Regards
Nolan

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I am attempting to convert 8mm video cassettes to dvd using a video cassette player, elgato video capture with rca/usb connections to the mac, editing in imovie and burning on idvd. The picture quality is awful. What can I do?????

I am attempting to convert 8mm video cassettes to dvd using a video cassette player, elgato video capture with rca/usb connections to the mac then editing in imovie and burning dvd-r using idvd. The picture quality is awful. What can I do??????

At what point is the video quality bad? Is it bad on capture? I would recommend using an s-video 1394 firewire converter instead. They capture the video at a higher bit rate. If you have a lot of 8mm tapes to capture, invest in a stand alone DVD recorder. They capture and compress in one shot. If you need to rip it back from the DVD into iMovie again, I would recommend using DVDxDV.

How is picture quality when mini mac attached to plasma

I have an Apple TV attached to my 50" Pioneer plasma, but the main reason I got the Apple TV was to play play lists with music videos. Since Apple TV can't yet provide this, I'm interested in replacing with mini mac so I can use iTunes to play music video's continuously. But before I do, I just wanted to see if anyone out there knows how well the picture quality looks when attaching the mini mac via DVT to HDMI to plasma TV (in my case, a Pioneer 50" 1080i/720P). If anyone could give me some helpful advice or if there are any problems with this setup I'd gladly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Chris

So I tried playing music videos from a playlist continuously as you describe on my mini. It didn't work under Front Row but it did work from iTunes directly. I have heard that having the very latest version of iTunes and QuickTime installed corrects the limitation with Front Row, but I don't have them installed yet so I can't confirm that.
I am curious to know what is the limitation with AppleTV that doesn't allow this? It seems like it would work. What happens when you try? Do you have the latest version of QuickTime and iTunes on the Mac from which the AppleTV is streaming from?

I've got a MacBook pro 15' running 10.6.6. I want to use an external monitor for my graphic design work running Adobe software and thought I'd try an HD TV. I ran a Mini Display to HDMI lead to the TV but the picture quality was disappointing.

I've got a MacBook Pro 15' running 10.6.6. I want to use an external monitor for my graphic design work using Adobe software and thought I'd try an HD TV. I ran a Mini Display to HDMI lead to the TV but the picture quality was disappointing. I also tried a Mini Display to VGA lead and that wasn't much better. I tried all variations of resolutions in System prefs - Displays but nothing helped. Am I getting something wrong? Thanks all.

In addition to pixel density, you are up against the translation driver card in the TV.
If you read the fine print of computer-resolution-capability in the TV user guide, you will see a chart as tall as the manual page. At the top is the smallest resolution capable, at the bottom is the full use of the 1080p in the TV.
Mac falls into the top 25% of the page, maxing out at 1366x768 often. This is because the TV control card is expected to do too much of the work, but is not designed for computer-monitor processing.
I looked at the resolution charts on 2 TVs before deciding to buy a 1080p LCD monitor that has a TV interface/connector. Computer monitor first, TV second. But the thing is only 27 in. Good thing TV is not as important to me as it is to others.

Mid 2009 13" MBP iSight camera bad picture quality in photo booth

My daughter's stock mid 2009 13" MBP 2.26 ghz intel core two duo has a problem with the isight camera. The isight camera is built in to the screen. The isight camera works some of the time flawlessly and other times it comes out real grainy and with small colored pixels all over the screen like colored static (about 20% to 30% of the photo booth screen is affected but the rest of the screen outside of the photo booth app is unaffected). She only uses it in photo booth but we've tried the iChat app and the same thing happens there too, once she couldn't get the MBP to connect to the isight camera (it just showed a black photo booth screen), so she closed the lid of her MBP and reopened it and it worked. All of the software and firmware is up to date and we've tried resetting the PRAM and the SMC, it didn't do anything to fix the problem. It seems like there's a wire loose in the computer from the screen to the computer base, only because I can move the screen back and forth and the picture quality changes, the amount of static on the picture will move, go away or get worse. I had the screen changed in early 2010 (January or February) (the MBP was about 5 or 6 months old then) at the apple store under warranty due to dirt under the screen's glass (manufacturing defect). The photo booth picture static problem comes and goes, but here lately it comes more than it goes. The screen in general is in good shape and doesn't have any detectable problems with it, it has a good picture and no dead pixels, the problem seems to be only isolated to the isight camera. Can some one help with this problem? How long of a warranty is given on the warranty repairs (like the screen change they did in early 2010)? If apple does a repair on it and finds a wire that has rubbed the insulation off of it on a hinge causing a short and the isight problem, as a result of a sloppy repair from the first warranty repair, will they cover it under warranty again even if it's been over a year since they changed the screen? Also how honest will apple be if they do find out it is a problem caused from the first screen replacement, will they own up to their mistake? If I don't agree with apple's repair decision, can I get a second opinion from an outside source, third party, and if it's diagnosis different than apple's and can be proven, can I still get apple to do and pay for the repairs and labor if it turns out to be their fault from the first warranty screen replacement?
The reason why I'm asking is, I took my wife's white macbook in about a year ago for the famous cracked top cover replacement (under warranty) and when I got the computer back, the isight camera didn't work, so I gave it back, they took it apart a look at it and said there was nothing wrong with it and gave it back, then the screen wouldn't come on so after 4 hours at the Apple store they decided to send it to Austin, TX. for repairs (I'm in Ft. Worth TX.). Apple in Austin said it needed a new main board. They said the old one had water damage to it. We never had water anywhere near the computer, not even in the same room. It was working fine when we took it in, we took it in just to get the plastic top case, that cracks all of the time, replaced under warranty. And then they wanted us to pay for an $800 main board because some how while they were doing the top cover replacement it got water damaged. I argued with them and they finally gave me a one-time offer of them paying for half of the repair and labor or if I disagreed or left the store I would have to pay the whole amount if I chose to have the repairs done. So I ended up having to pay $467 for a year old macbook main board that was water damaged in their possession during their repairs. I like Apple and their products but I am worried about giving my daughter's MBP over to them for repairs because of this incident, it's an honesty issue with how honest they will be with what they find because they won't give back the old parts for analysis by a third party to verify their diagnosis.
Thanks for any info and advice anyone can give.

Hi,
As a personal note I find long posts like this hard to read if they are not broken up in to paragraphs.
As I say it is a personal thing.
I can give you some information about the camera and laptops over the past few years.
Basically in early Laptops of the MacBook Pro and MacBook range the cable did tend to fray at the point where it passed through the hinge. It did take a well used laptop that had the lid open and closed frequently to cause this. (your 2009 model might just be in that group - I have no firm dates or models I am afraid)
Later models have this rerouted so that this does not happen.
However the cable has then tended to get pulled from the camera end and become loose.
This On Line Self fix site has pages about some models (The one I have linked to may not be yours)
I have linked in to later pictures in the sequence but there are navigation points to work back to the start.
Note:- they use pretty specifc specialest tools as well in these pics.
Doing this would certail Void any Warranty you have left.
From Posts mainly in the iChat and the iSight areas I have gathered that it seems common for Apple to replace the Screen as a whole rather than fiddle with getting solely at the camera.
Apple has this article on Trouble Shooting an iSight
Basically it says try several apps then try logging in on another Mac User account to see if it is App based or User based or in fact System wide.
If System wide then resetting the SMC/PMU is the only suggested fix. (Which I did read you had done)
In addition to that I would add that testing should be done in different lighting conditions.
Lighting in the evening or dark that is good enough to read buy is not always good enough for the camera or is not illuminating the right areas.
Some people have reported that Starting the computer in Safe Mode (then Rebooting afterwards) seems to help. (it clears out some caches and starts up with reduced extensions)
As to actual Repairs and any Warranty that may still be in place I cannot say.
I can say that when people post about problems with repairs a certain stores someone else will tend to post that their experience was different.
You seem to report two different experiences with the two computers yourself.
10:24 PM Thursday; July 14, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.7),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Significant loss of picture quality in iMovie, what are my other options???

Hello All,
I am new to the Mac world moving over from windows.
Hooking up my dv camcorder (non high-def) to my TV gives a pretty good picture.
If I use iMovie to import from my camcorder and then iDvd to burn a dvd and play the DVD the picture quality is significantly reduced (looks worse than VHS!).
I am reading that this is uncorrectable through any settings available in iMovie or iDVD. This to me is unfathomable!
Being a newbie in the Mac world I don't know what my other options are.
I read about iMovie HD and Final Cut Express but don't know how they position and can I achieve better picture quality preservation.
I want my camcorder picture quality better preserved. I’ve certainly gotten much better results on windows with various packages (but have little experience).
I came into the Mac world believing that this sort of thing is what Mac was great for so a bit surprised.
How do you folks get around such a significant picture quality loss???
My home movies through iMovie and iDVD look embarassing for circa 2009!

I convert my imported dv files to AIC at 1080p before editing.
There is a small quality drop using this approach, I find it acceptable but some others don't.
I have added an original dv movie clip, two exports in different formats of the same clip as prepared in imovie 09 and another of the same clip exported to back to dv as prepared in imovie 6, to a disc image of a DVD created in iDVD.
I don't feel the differences represent the differences some here are reporting they see themselves, see what you think
Source Comparisons (580 MB)

Loss of picture quality by enlarging on HD TV

I have my mac mini connected to my tv and have enlarged the display by switching it to 720p in settings. Will this now mean i am loosing picture quality?

I wouldn't think quality would be affected, just size displayed... are you experiencing problems?

How to get good picture quality on a burned DVD slideshow using IDVD?

After producing a slideshow on IDVD from either jpg or psd photos, it looked great when I played the project. Picture quality was excellent. When I burned a DVD to share the slideshow with a friend and when I played this on the same computer, it had lost resolution and looks awful. I am using best quality but this made no difference. On a hdtv using a standard player, the quality is mediocre. Is there any way to get a decent picture quality. I have also burned a DVD and CD from the IPhoto album, and the quality is better. IPhoto will not burn a slideshow or at least I do not know how to. Can you produce decent quality DVD using IDVD or is there a better application to produce decent DVD of photo slideshows?

....or is there a better application to produce decent DVD of photo slideshows?
Yes. It's called DVDSP (apple's top of the line DVD Authoring application). It has a much longer learning curve than iDvd and is more $$$ but it does work well. The Help Menu alone is over 640 pages long. However, is this app significantly better than iDvd solely in terms of visual quality?.... No.
But it does offer many more tools to address visual artifacts on the finished DVD, more audio control, much better control of durations per slide, audio, buttons that work as expected, among other things. (for additional examples of this see chapter 12 of the DVDSP Help Menu / starting on p. 373).
Short of DVDSP, and much less money, you can also try these 2 third party apps which come highly recommended on this iDvd Forum:
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/overview/
At the moment most macs do not yet support burning to Blueray (which does offer much better results). Once this technology is more commonplace, then I believe we will see a significant improvement in what you are trying to do above.
Hope this is helpful but if not just come on back.
Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software products that may be mentioned in this topic. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information above at your own discretion.

Picture quality in iChat

Greetings all - New to iChat use. A couple of questions - just hooked iSight to my Mac (G5 1.8ghz dualie) and to my daughters eMac (G4). When using iChat my picture in screen is clear, but reception from my daughter's is highly pixelated, and more so when she moves. Even stationary, my picture is not clear. I understand excessive motion, but A. Is my reception always going to be fuzzy and pixelated? She is receiving a relatively clear picture on her end. Note: Her computer is using a wireless connection, B. Should she be directly connected to the router? Any all all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

I think Running Panther might have something to do with the video quality also. Correct me if I am wrong. I think Panther is using iChat 2.0 and i believe it does not support h.264. iChat 3.0 uses h.264 and the picture quality is better. If your daughter's eMacs is still running Panther, maybe this is the reason why you're not getting good quality picture because her Mac did not encode the data using that codec?
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/

Picture quality of DVDs and iTunes HD video on my iMac less than other macn

Hi,
This might be difficult to help with, but I've been concerned about this for some.
The picture quality of DVDs (retail movies) and iTunes HD video look far superior on my mother's and sister's laptops than on my iMac. Even a movie I just recorded off TV looks way better on our old CRT TV than on my Mac.
I can't find any way to adjust settings.
Can anybody help? What info do I need to give to help you help me?
Regards

I'm not exactly sure what you are describing, but you can consider the following...
Laptops have smaller screens, with higher pixel density (smaller pixels). Also DVDs are typically something line 720x480 resolution. When you spread those pixels out on a larger iMac screen, especially one that is 24-inch 1920x1200, it will look less sharp. The screen may be larger, but the quality of the video image stays the same.
A 8"x11" photograph, may look fine at that size. But if you blow it up to poster size, it will probably look terrible.
iTunes HD is usually 1280x720. That should look pretty good on an iMac's larger screen. But if you are comparing (side-by-side) how sharp the same video looks on a small laptop screen, it will look sharper on the small screen with less area and smaller pixels. But if you back up a few feet from the iMac when you are using +full screen+ mode (to TV viewing distance), it should look about the same.
Even a movie I just recorded off TV looks way better on our old CRT TV than on my Mac.
CRT TV's are optimized to show motion, with a technique called interlacing. If you freeze a frame (pause), it will look terrible. Since an iMac's display will not use interlacing, the same video will not look as good, especially when the size is increased. The quality of showing the same video on an iMac will be impacted by the method used to transfer it to the iMac. If it is encoded to a digital format, there will be loss of quality in that process.

Yank in Europe Seeks Picture Quality

Put me in the ignorant but willing to learn category, i.e., not very sophisticated yet but not afraid of techie details when needed.
I just finished my first iMovie project and put together a DVD with iDVD (iLife '06 versions). I was generally happy with the process and results except for the quality of the picture when the DVD was played on our largish (32") plasma TV. Lots of jaggies on photos in slideshows, and the menus that looked so great in iDVD were almost illegible on the TV screen (plus which the highlighting often didn't work, so you couldn't tell what you were going to get when you pressed the OK button).
I'm looking for help on two topics: 1. how to maximize picture quality in general on an iDVD project; and 2. whether it makes a difference that I live in Europe but have an audience (i.e., grandparents of my cute kids) that lives in the U.S.
1. Picture quality in general. From what I've read on this forum, I gather that the following things are helpful: keeping the video in the same format from the beginning of the project until the end; using non-rewritable DVDs; and using Ken Burns rather than having static photos. Any further tips would be helpful. In particular, is there an advantage in using iDVD to create the menus, etc., but then using a third-party program like Toast to do the actual burning since you get more control over compression settings and the like? Whatever program is used, what settings tend to work best if picture quality is the only consideration? And are there settings on TVs or DVD players that can also be changed to be more compatible with disks produced by iDVD?
2. The continental divide. So here I am in Europe, where they not only use PAL but are about to go to an HD standard that is different from the US standard (not that I need to worry about that yet, since I don't have an HD camcorder). My TV accepts both PAL and NTSC input, so I've been working in NTSC (4:3, since my parents don't have a widescreen TV). But are there options or settings that I should be using to get the best results for the folks back home? Should I tell my parents something like: "You need a DVD player that the_ type of disk, and you should set it on a __ frame rate and _ resolution?" (I don't know if this is even a meaningful question, but you get the point: what can my "audience" do to get better results, assuming I do the right thing on my end).
Thanks in advance for any advice.
PowerBook 15" Mac OS X (10.4.4) 1.67 GHz G4, 1GB RAM

I never use iMovie for still images, so I'm not much help.
1.)
You might look around here:
http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/index.shtml
And here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93002
http://www.keywebx.com/tutorials/200509_080001/
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie4_bugs.html#jaggystills
2.) Stick with NTSC and you should be fine. They should have a recent DVD player; hopefully not Toshiba.

What kind of picture quality can I expect from a Mini DVI adapter to Scart?

I currently have my iMac connected to my tv via the Apple Mini DVI adapter and a composite video cable. There are two problems with this, one is the poor picture quality in general, the other is that the tv screen is not filled by the image from the iMac, i.e. there are black spaces on the left and the right of the screen.
So my question is, if I used S-Video to Scart, would it kill the problem with the black borders when viewing Front Row etc..? Also, would there be a significant increase in general picture quality?

Yes, if you can get an s-video cable and plug that into the SCART adapter, that would be better than plugging in composite video.
Clearly, having an SCART connection is not going to "improve" the video going in, you're going to be limited by the lowest quality connection. An s-video connection will provide a higher (but probably not a lot) quality signal than composite video.
-Doug

Ipod to TV, Is there a way to get picture quality ?

I have the dock and av cables. I played a video that was downloaded from itunes.
The picture is distorted. Does anyone know how to get better picture quality?

Probably not. This is one of the problems with video from iTunes. If you have a large size screen or HDTV then iTunes video will likely not look 'good'.
If I remember correctly iTUnes video is 640x480.

Calendar Picture Quality Warning

I am converting some old 35mm slides my father has and creating a calendar for him for Christmas. The pictures look good in iphoto. I add them to the calendar and in the upper right corner of the picture there is a yellow warning triangle.
When I complete the calendar and go to order it indicates that some of the pictures (I assume the ones with the yellow triangle) are of a too low picture quality to print.
I shot the slides in raw format and imported into iphoto.
Is there something I an do to correct this issue? When I cropped the pictures I did not go with one of the preset sizes, but rather just cropped to get rid of the slide frame

What resolution did you scan the slides at? For a decent print they should be at around 3600 dpi or better. I believe iPhoto will warn if the dpi of the photo used in a particular frame or page falls below 140 dpi. The calendars are now 13" x 10.4" per page so you would need an image size for a full page photo to be around 1820 x 1456 pixels to avoid the warning sign.
For a full page image, 1280 x 960 gives a warning as does 1600 x 1200. That's not to say they won't print up fairly well but it's below the standard set by iPhoto.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Improving Ibook to TV picture quality?

Hi.
I have tried hooking my ibook G4 with my TV (32" CRT) as an external display using the video adapter and a composite video cable.
Its really only good for viewing pics and video. Web pages and print are unreadable. Is there any way of improving the quality? Is it because of the lack of digital connection or the non-LCD/plasma TV I am using?
Thanks!
- John

If anybody is still following this thread I still haven't quite given up yet! I thought I would just try dragging ten photos out of iPhoto on to the desktop. I then inserted a CD and dragged the ten photo icons directly into the CD icon. Lo and behold when I played this CD, via my DVD player, to my standard definition widescreen TV the picture quality is excellent. It at least has proved to me that it is possible to get good quality TV results from a DVD. The big drawback is that each image takes 3-4secs to scroll down the TV screen which is not acceptable. I presume this is because the method I used has loaded the original full resolution image to the DVD. I thought I would then try 'exporting' the same 10 images to the desktop using the JPEG/MEDIUM/MEDIUM settings and dragging the photo icons to the CD icon exactly as before. When displayed on the TV the picture quality is very poor but of course composes much quicker.
My tiny compact camera can display these original images on TV perfectly adequately and composes the next photo instantaneously. Amazing! I now conclude (probably completely incorrectly) that to obtain a good quality image via DVD to TV the original full resolution image must be used even though the TV itself doesn't need this. Presumably the image data is corrupted if the iMac is used to reduce the resolution. Is there no simple answer to displaying good quality pictures on a TV screen?
regards Malcolm Sheppard

Picture Quality Mac

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