Poor Quality on DVD playback on PB G4

I just purchased the powerbook G4 15'' high resolution screen. I love it, the quality of the screen and digital photos that I see are unprecedented. I do have a problem: when I play a DVD on my laptop the picture quality is poor. My old computer put forth a better quality than what I am experiencing now. Why is this and what can I do to see a better picture?
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

csn102, first welcome to the discussions, Did you happen to go to your Apple and then System Preferences, and then to Monitor.
There are calibartion settings to calibrate your Monitor, and several Photo programs also require you to calibrate color settings before you get a true render of the photo's and or DVD Movies..
One last item of interest, please by all means do not expect a rented DVD that has been played thousands of times to have pristine quality, Most I have seen are poor at best. Don

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Is it possible to improve the poor quality of DVD's?

I started my presentation in Keynote and exported the file as a quicktime movie (high quality). I then moved the quicktime movie into iDVD and when I previewed the project, the quality looked crisp...so far so good. I then proceeded to burn directly to DVD and the quality was, for lack of a better word, crap. I tried creating a disc image and using Toast but unfortunately it's not rearly as sharp as it was within iDVD.
This has been bugging me for about weeks now. I've been reading the discussion boards for a while and haven't found a solution to my problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,
I'm also a very frustrated user experiencing the same problem with iDVD 6. This was not seen when I was using iDVD 5.
I've made a .dv file with imovie 6.0.1, and upon "Sharing" to idvd, I didn't see any drop in quality during preview. Its only when I've the DVD disc image file where iDVD compresses the .dv format to mpeg2 that a significant loss in video quality can be seen.
I've also tried out different methods of encoding the .dv file using other software:
1. Toast 7.0.1 : Same poor quality mpeg2
2. ffmpegX : I tried tweaking different settings, (video bitrate, etc), but only very insignificant improvements were seen. ( Anyone out there with success in finding the right combinations of options, please post reply!)
3. JES Deinterlacer : I don't think the problem lies with interlacing, as I don't see much improvements here either.
Anyway, has anyone checked out this website:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/idvd_6stone.html
I've actually contacted the website owner Ken Stone via email, asking him if he has seen this problem. He replied to me that he did not experience quality loss since he did not work with imovie.
I'm pretty baffled here, as I thought the problem clearly lies with the process of dv to mpeg2 encoding, and not the software that was used to create the movie or .dv file?
Anybody out there has a workaround or a definate solution?

Poor quality HD video playback when in full screen?

I've recently purchased a late 2013 iMac 21.5" mid-range model and finding the video playback quality poor when opening it up to full screen. Does anyone else have this issue?? I was expecting similar quality to my HD tv when using the iPlayer app, but i@m even finding it poor when watching the HBO trailer on the Apple website for Game of Thrones. I have also been into my local Stormfront and found the same issue on both their 21.5 and 27" models on the shop floor.
Am I being too picky? The quality when it is in the small window is amazing.

The quality when it is in the small window is amazing.
One thing that pops into my mind is: what is the resolution/size/quality of the video you are watching? If it was created in a smaller size, then forcing it into showing on a bigger screen will always impact the quality significantly. You cannot enlarge a picture or video without significant quality loss (fuzzy/pixelation).

Really poor quality final DVD output

Hi there,
I am about to pull my hair out because I am so frustrated. I hope someone can help.
The goal:
-Trying to make a DVD of family videos using premiere elements. Basically I'm just taking the long videos we shot, editing them down to a reasonable time, then putting them in chronological order w/ a simple title. Very simple stuff.
The problem:
-I have successfully made a DVD of our 2010 family videos, but the quality is HORRIBLE when played back on the DVD player.
Important background information:
-We have a mac (Mac OS X 10.6.8; processor 3.06 Ghz Intel Core i3; memory 4GB)
-I have adobe premiere elements 10
-The videos were shot from a Sony DVD 850 standard definition camera. Originally (as in 3 years ago), I wanted to use iMovie to make a DVD. Found out that because the video camera had muxed format and everything was interlaced, that the mac did not like it. Basically just upon import or when importing to imovie, there was video footage with no audio. After hours of phone support w/ apple, I was instructed to convert the files to a different format (I did this 3 years ago, at this point I have no idea what or how I did this other than I used an application I had to download). This was successful and I was able to upload to imovie, but I hated doing this conversion process as it took too long. Also the quality of the video wasn't so great (probably b/c of all of the conversion going on).
-So I purchased premiere elements and organizer to hopefully skip that need for conversion.
-At some point in the last 3 years I uploaded the files to premiere elements organizer (whatever format they were in at that point - I believe I was dumb enough to convert the originals but not sure, the mac is such a mess right now I have no idea what files are original vs not)
-Last week started making the DVD in premiere elements.
-Have tried burning AVCHD 1080i 30 - then burning to Dolby DVD (this seems to be the best quality)
-Have tried burning NTSC DV Standard - then burning to Dolby DVD
-Have tried burning AVCHD 1080i 30 - then burning to widescreen
-Have tried burning NTSC DV Standard - then burning to widescreen
The Problem:
-the quality of the video is very very poor. I can see "lines" running horizontally across the picture that kind of bounce around, esp. bouncing when there is any sound. It is so bad it looks worse than my parents old VHS tapes.
-The menus are hard to read (only readable w/ the Dolby DVD format when burning) and then the titles for each segment of movie are very very blurry.
-I've tried to render - it is taking forever (like 2 days) and stops a lot. Not sure what is going on there?
What I need:
-any suggestions
-what am I doing wrong?
-how to I find the original files if they even exist?
-what should I do at this point to try to get the best quality?
(We bought a new camera 1.5 years ago - a Canon that is HD and will work much better w/ the software - but I still need to save these 2 years worth of videos!

Tarheelmommy,
Welcome to the forum.
Unfortunately, you have posted to the Premiere Elements Tips & Tricks sub-forum, which is basically a repository for articles on how to do things in Premiere. Few ever even drop by. I will Move your post out to the main Premiere Elements Forum, where you will get quick assistance, and many more "eyes," than back here.
Thank for a compresensive post too, one with a lot of useful detail. There might be a few more questions that get asked, but we could use your post as an example of how to ask a question.
Good luck,
Hunt
[Moved to Premiere Elements Forum]

Best quality for DVD playback!

I just finished a film i shot in HDV my sequence properties are:
Vid Rate: 29.97fps
Frame Size: 1440x1080
Compressor: HDV 1080i60
Field Dominance: Upper Odd
what is the best why to export this sequence onto a dvd for maximum playback quality?

Hi there,
1)make sure you export your movie in FCP as QT movie self-contained
2)Import it in Compressor
3)In the Settings tab (lower left window) Open Apple>DVD10 groups>choose DVD 90 minutes best quality and drop that folder on your video (upper left batch window). Compressor will encode your movie as Mpeg2 video an AC3 dolby stereo. In the inspector window you can change a number of settings if you wanted to but, if you are not familiar with Compressor, leave default settings to see if you are happy with the result (take sometime to read the very useful PDF manual that you can find in the main menu>help)
4)Choose destination
5)Submit
G.

Help with quality of DVD playback

Apologies for what is probably a very basic question with an even more obvious answer. Being new to Imovies & editing in general I finally managed to create a DVD via Imovies & IDVD. The issue is that the picture quality when watching the DVD is poor - the Picture looks like it is speeded up. The movie in idvd is only 2.2gb. When I went back & tried to save the original movie in Imovie via the "share" function (vs in iDVD) - in full DV mode it would be over 6.7GB (the movie is 32 mins long). Net, my questions are this;
1) Is the reason it looks speeded up because idvd has compressed the movie & reduced the frames?
2) Is it possible to increase the frames/quality (say from 2.2Gb to 4gb) without reducing the length and make idvd accept it - if so how do you increase the quality & stop idvd compressing so much. Do I need to do this in imovies or Idvd?
3) How do I stop idvd compressing the movie at all and just adding say all 4GB of a 4GB movie?
4) If I want DV quality on one DVD - do I basically always need to keep the film short?
I really appreciate anyones help on this - as I am lost!

I am having the same problem, using iMovie HD and iDVD. Actually, my movies play great in fullscreen mode in iMovie, but all the "share" settings I've tried (including "Full Quality" and "export to iDVD") come out looking bitmapped and terrible in general. Not something I want to share with the family. How do I export a movie so that it will play at the same great quality it does in the native program? Is it possible to export it uncompressed?
PS. I've posted this question as a reply to several other discussions, but have not yet gotten any replies. Thanks!
Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Poor Quality of DVD Copies

With both iDVD and Toast 10, the copies I make of the movie I created in iMovie aren't as good as the original file is. The opening title cards have a lower resolution, as does the rest of the video copy. Is there any way to get an exact or near-exact copy of an original iMovie file (in Quicktime)?
I've been using 1x or 2x burn rates, with new Verbatim DVD-R discs, and the copies are still unsatisfactory.
I'd be grateful for your help! The Apple community is so terrific--what a blessing.

Hi
iDVD can't do better than DVD-standard
Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl BD-component - sort of can
Here You can make a Blu-Ray quality disk either
• on a standard DVD disk (up to 20-30 minutes)
• on BD-disks and by use of BD-burner
Neither of them will playback on DVD-player or Mac
They NEED a Blu-Ray player as PlayStation3
BUT THEN - You got a very much better quality.
Yours Bengt W

Motion file poor quality in DVD Studio Pro

I'm using a Motion file for my DVD menu. I have double checked to ensure that all of the dimensions are correct, however the quality of the motion file is incredibly poor in DVD studio pro. Is there something that I am missing?

Don't trust the viewer in DVDSP. It's by no means accurate. Plus, since you're adding a Motion project to the DVDSP project, the Motion file needs to be converted to MPEG2 so that it'll play on a DVD. You could be either seeing a preview of a file that's not been converted yet, or else the encoding settings in DVDSP could be set too low.
My recommendation would be to burn a quick DVD and view in on a TV for quality.
Andy

[solution inside] Poor quality of DVD created with iDVD '08 (jerky movie)

Hi everyone !
I have a problem with the export of iDVD, the result is jerky.
Here's what I done
- filmed (cam sony 42E, DV)
- imported to iMovie '08, exported to the media navigator
- taken in iDVD and burned on a DVD simple layer in professional quality
And it looks like the movie is 15 images/s (but apparently no problem of sound)
I checked everything's in PAL (I'm in Europe)
I checked with another DVD
I checked the large selection in the navigator (720 * 540, H.264, 25 fps, 4Mbps)
I tried with "best performances"
I tried to cut the movie : 72 min -> 35 minutes
I exported just an image disc
Nothing fixed the problem
Finally, I exported from iMovie in .dv then integrated the file in iDVD and, this time the result was the same as in the preview (thanks to SkyDrinker for the tip)
So this is a solution, but this is strange :
or my iLife is corrupted, or the way Apple say to work (with conversion in h.264) is not good.
Did anyone else had the same problem ?
Thank you for your feedback.
Take care!

I had the same problem with jerky pans and dancing pixels particularly when using Ken Burns on stills.
Here is a solution. Save the 08 movies in Quicktime using AIC encoding then burn using Toast 8 with the quality slider set to best. The improvement in quality is substantial.
There is some improvement(not as much as using Toast) using Quicktime AIC encoding then burning with iDVD with Professional Quality and dual layered DVDs just to make sure the quality indicator is well into the green.
The disadvantage in using Toast as compared to iDVD is that the cool menus are lost.
PS: All my burning is done using NTCS but it should not make a difference.

Video exporting poor quality to dvd

after i export my vid. to quicktime the quality becomes distorted on the dvd(when watching it on tv monitor)... anyone know how to fix it?

i've tried exporting both ways now each 1 is just as distorted as the other... i read in other forms about using imovie or something to import but i've always just firewired from my cam(dv) to ntsc... do you think importing a diff way will improve the vid?

Best compression for iDVD authoring and DVD playback?

I have some DV footage that I had captured into MPEG-2 files on my old PC, then recently got a Mac and I want to be able to edit the footage on the Mac software I have and put it onto DVD for standard playback on a TV.
I've got the latest Quicktime Pro with the MPEG-2 playback component, and MPEG Streamline that allows me to convert the MPEG-2 files into MOV files. I want to be able to edit them in iMovie and Final Cut Express, and then I want to drop them into iDVD.
I would like to know what the best compression to use would be in converting the MPEG-2 files into MOV files or other format that's compatible with iMovie and Final Cut Express that will result in the best quality for DVD playback. I don't have Final Cut Pro so I don't have Compressor, which I understand, already has a preset compression optimized for DVD authoring and playback later on.

So you have some already mpg-2 compressed files you want to edit in FCE. Using MPEG Streamclip, I suggest you convert them to DV video (which runs about 13 GB per hour) to work on them in FCE.
As far as recompressing the edited video, I really doubt the mpg-2 encoding mode used will make much difference since you took the real quality hit when you initially mpg-2 compressed to content.
If you want to take the additional time required, you can try the new 'Professional Encoding' option in iDVD 7, but I seriously doubt it will improve anything. (You know the old 'silk purse out of a sow's ear' thing...)

Best Quicktime compression for DVD playback later on?

I have some DV footage that I had captured into MPEG-2 files on my old PC, then recently got a Mac and I want to be able to edit the footage on the Mac software I have and put it onto DVD for standard playback on a TV.
I've got the latest Quicktime Pro with the MPEG-2 playback component, and another program I just found called MPEG Streamline that allows me to convert the MPEG-2 files into MOV files that can be edited in iMovie and Final Cut Express, of which I have, and then I plan on just using iDVD to put the projects on DVD.
I've converted some footage using 3 different compressions: Apple DV 25, JPEG Motion A, and H.264 at NTSC 720x480 resolution so far, and cannot see any noticeable difference in the picture quality between the three converted files when played full screen with Quicktime, but of course, there is considerable difference between the resulting file size for each video. With all three files played back in Quicktime, there was some faint pixelation around moving figures in the video, even after setting the video stream to play back high quality.
I would like to know if there is and what the best compression to use would be in converting the MPEG-2 files into MOV files or other format that's compatible with iMovie and Final Cut Express that will result in the best quality for DVD playback. I don't have Final Cut Pro so I don't have Compressor, which I understand, has a preset compression optimized for DVD playback later on.

Nevermind, I just used DV compression and the playback quality came out just fine on the DVDs I've burned from the footage.

Is the DVD playback of poor quality?

I'm still miffed by the quality of the dvd playback. We have dvd players both in a pc, xbox, ps2 and stand along units. Yet somehow the one on my imac looks really rough. Is this more down to the really new hardware? I still have have the same full screen dvd playback glitch on my replaced intel imac so dont know where to turn to.
Sarfraz

I don't think the problem is the dvd player, but the resolution of the monitor. When you stream hi def trailers, it looks awsome. The resolution of the mac monitor is higher than a hi def television. You are not seeing a limitation of the hardware, but the limitation of the source dvd itself. My cable company has some analog channels mixed in with the digital ones and a hi def tv will make a bad picture look worse. The highest settings on hi def tv's is 1080. If you look at the display settings on the mac, you are at 1440. That's a significant difference.

Appalling DVD playback quality

I posted this in the Intel-based iMac forum but was advised iot might be better here.
DVDs play back with loads of image noise and blocks, what handles the decompression as using VLC media player displays the same poor quality as Apple's DVD player. Is there a way of using a better decoder or is this a more serious problem? cheers...rob

Rob, I think you have another problem. I have DVD player 5.0.3 and the playback is great.
I'm not a DVD player expert and you might get better advice posting in the Leopard forums: http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=235
There is also a iMac DVD category: http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1113

My finished DVD is always of a poor quality, help please?

(Encore cs5.1)
My finished dvd normally is always:
Very quiet / Poor sound quality
Large black bars at the top and bottom of the screen
Menu doesn't quite fit on the screen (even though it did within encore)
Reduced video quality (pixelated)
Can anyone please help me out the best export settings
to combat these problems?

Well the video it's self is generally fine until i put it into encore and it gets transcoded and what not and i was wondering what's teh best transcode / export setting for encore basicly but i've answered your questions anyway
What version of Premiere Pro? Include the minor version number (e.g., Premiere Pro CS5.5 with the 5.5.2 update).
Cs6
Have you installed the recent updates? (If not, you should. They fix a lot of problems.)
Yes
What operating system? This should include specific minor version numbers, like "Mac OSX v10.6.8"---not just "Mac".
Windows Ultimate 64-bit (Service Pack 1?)
What kind(s) of source footage? When telling about your source footage, tell us about the codecs, not just the container types. For example, "H.264 in a .mov container", not just "QuickTime".
usually .avi however i always experiment for the best result, i'm not sure what codec
If you are getting error message(s), what is the full text of the error message(s)?
No error messages
What were you doing when the problem occurred?
well there isn't one
Has this ever worked before?
never hasn't just poor quality after exproting and transcoding
What other software are you running?
well most other Cs6 programs
Do you have any third-party effects or codecs installed?
Nope
Tell us about your computer hardware. Be especially certain to tell us about third-party I/O hardware (e.g., AJA, Matrox, Blackmagic, MOTU).
intel i5 2500k
8gb Ram
1 terrabyte hdd
2 terrabyte external hdd
nvidia gtx 570
guess that's all the important stuff
Are you using Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration?
don't think so but don't know how to check
Does the problem only happen with your final output, with previews, or both?
Generally final output, howver sometimes the previews are off to
I hope that's what you where asking for
Message was edited by: ConnorJoe_97

Poor Quality on DVD playback on PB G4

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