Preserving Video Quality?

I am new to video editing and DVD creation so forgive me if I ask incorrectly or am posting in the wrong place. The project I have been "assigned" by my fianceé is to transfer some programs from our HD DVR to DVD after removing commercials. These will NOT be sold, they are for her viewing only.
Anyway, the problem I am running into is that when done, the picture on the TV is cut off or heavily pixelated. What settings and formats should I be using? Is the problem with iMovie08 or iDVD08?
I have been using two processes. Record the video using the EyeTV 250, or to record the video on a SD DVDr and import using Cinematize. Both EyeTV and Cinematize allow exporting in various formats. I then use iMovie08 to edit out the commercials and iDVD08 to make the actual DVD. I know I am going to lose the HD part in the process, but the video on the SD DVD looks just fine with no cutting off/cropping or pixelation. It is only after the iMovie/iDVD process that things seem to go wrong.
I have taken the simple iLife class at the local Apple Store, but it did not go in to DVD burning.
Lastly, an iDVD only question. How do I make a movie that just starts playing when the DVD is inserted? I need no title pages, just play the movie!

Thank you VERY much for your time and patience. If I had known this project was going to require this much attention...
Well, this is what I get as options/results from EyeTV. First, I recorded a few seconds of HD video, then I exported the clip in the following formats from EyeTV and imported them into iMovie08: ("Seems to be readable by iMovie08." indicates that it looks just fine on the MBP display - set to 1440 x 900.)
iMovie - Seems to be readable by iMovie08.
iMovie HD Project - File imports, but there is no clip.
iDVD - Seems to be readable by iMovie08.
MPEG Stream (type 1 or 2) - Not importable, file grayed out.
MPEG Element Stream - Not importable, file grayed out.
Quicktime DV - Seems to be readable by iMovie08.
QT DV 16:9 - Seems to be readable by iMovie08.
QT HDV 720p - Seems to be readable by iMovie08, I also selected the DV NTSC option as a test. There is some noticeable loss of quality on the MBP display.
QT HDV 1080i - Seems to be readable by iMovie08. Looks better than the 720p, but still getting a bit fuzzy.
H.264 - Seems to be readable by iMovie08.
Then I viewed the clips in full screen mode - aack! I burned a DVD and the quality dropped a bit more.
After a few hours of burning and playing, I have learned that the 720p export setting from EyeTV works pretty well into iDVD. Not all the DVD players in the house can play them, but that is another issue. Using Toast to burn from EyeTV looks acceptable on the HD TV, but not the older sets. Not a single iMovie08 test has provided useful results other than failure. I fear that for some reason I will not be able to use iMovie08 for HD video projects, despite the claims to the contrary. If Final Cut Express any better?
Obviously a big part of the problem is going from HD to SD, but that is not the whole story here. iMovie appears to be a problem as well.
Lastly, how on earth do you create a movie in iDVD that just plays when you insert it? For my tests, I do not need themes, and in fact most of the movies I will be creating do not need themes or menus - iMovie08 titles are perfect.

Similar Messages

Trying to preserve video quality in end result

Hi, my big question is re the problem of quality reduction in the final product, say a disc image. Even though the video is short, just 1/2 hour (no stills), during "processing" it becomes grainier and loses color saturation. Is there no way to keep the video from being compressed? What if you had 5 minutes of video to put on an 8GB DVD? No way to retain full sharpness and color?
I tried dropping the star icon from iMovie onto iDVD's window -- it looked great in Preview, but after making the disc image it is sadly not the same. I had changed the iDVD settings from Best Quality to Best Performance, per suggestions I found here. When I did that it did seem to somewhat increase the pre-burn size-estimate in iDVD -- but nowhere near enough, apparently.
Oh, and there is 57GB free space on the internal start-up HD.
I also tried following instructions to share the video from iMovie using "Full Quality" QT -- that was REALLY terrible - blurry as heck.
I've been coming up against this problem with footage from camera and also from other sources; same problem.
OK, now for full disclosure, I am using iMovie 5.0.2 -- I also have 6.0.3, but kept forgetting to switch. From what I "hear" around here, it does not seem that switching to 6.0.3 will solve my problem. BUT if there are big advantages I would like to do it. Should I just start up 6.0.3 and open the project in that version, or are there other things I need to do first?
thanks.

Hello, Tassia,
I will give it a go.
First, quality of your final product depends on several things. What is the quality of the video you start with? If you have poor quality video footage, say from an old vhs tape, you cannot expect superior quality results.
(However, most vhs footage looks better after being converted to digital format video).
Second, where are you viewing the footage to determine its quality? You cannot judge by just looking at it in iMovie because iMovie's resolution is very low, not what you will get from viewing an iDVD on a TV. It will look darker and fuzzier than on a burned DVD played on TV. Same for disk image file.
You need to burn the project to DVD and then view it on an interlaced standard TV before making a judgment on quality.
For iMovie 6 and DVD, using video footage in DV format ensures a lossless process.
Sharing your iM6 movie as Full Quality QT is also lossless. It may look less sharp when you view it on your computer or in iMovie, but if you export it back to your camcorder, it is as sharp as the original.
Re: iDVD settings...Best Performance is for projects that are less than 60 minutes total content, including menus. Best Quality can be used for the shorter movies also, but it is for content 60 minutes and over, up to 120 minutes. These are for single-layer DVDs. The time limits double if you are burning to dual layer DVDs.
It probably doesn't matter if you are using iM5 vs 6. You should be able to open an iM5 project with iM6. Yes, I would try that.

Poor video quality, pixelation, flickering on moving subjects in frame

I made a quicktime movie using File>Export>Quicktime Conversion... in FCP using H.264 compression codec with best video quality and 16-bit audio. video was originally captured in miniDV. Self contianed movie was made and looked pretty good in Quicktime, though the edges of moving subjects in frame did have small wavy lines (I assume from interpolation of DV?). Anyway it was acceptable to me (but if there is a fix please advise as I figured this was endemic to miniDV itself.)
Then I created a DVD in iDVD 6.0.3 with several slide shows and two relatively short movies (12-14 minutes in length each). The edges of moving subjects in frame (i.e. persons walking into the frame) now have large square pixelations sort of like this --->( |-|_|-|). At anyrate, the fine wavy lines from the QT movie have become much worse when there is movement, and I'm not talking speed, just any movement like a hand moving in the frame, etc. Otherwise the quality of the video is comparible to the exported movie from FCP.
Does anyone have suggestions for how to eliminate this problem?
thanks!
imac intel core duo 2.16GHz, Superdrive 8x Mac OS X (10.4.9) 3 GB ram

the edges of moving subjects in frame did have small wavy lines
That's normal interlacing. You usually want to preserve those comb lines if your target is TV display which will hide them and use them to make smoother motion.
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCDon_aMacintosh.html#interlacing
But if your target is a computer display, then you usually want to deinterlace them off because they look ugly on a PC monitor.
originally captured in miniDV ... H.264 ... Then I created a DVD in iDVD 6.0.3
No! You should not convert the original DV to H.264 if your final target is a video-DVD!
Just keep it as DV. And take care that your FCP export to DV is bottom field first field dominance because otherwise you get terrible zigzag movement artifacts! ...I don't have FCP so I can't give you more advice on that (mini-DV ->iMovie ->iDVD handle all this automatically).

Video quality difficulties with Vimeo and Youtube sites and with smart phone

Ever since the Vimeo and Youtube sites have changed, it has been pretty difficult to get the video quality I had before. I'm using Final Cut Express to edit, Quicktime Player to resize the video to 640x480 (is too wide when saving FCE project as Quicktime movie), and Jes Deinterlacer to remove all of the jaggies that the original deinterlacing on FCE doesn't fully do (skateboarding video). I'm aware Final Cut Express 4 is a discontinued product, and Apple support over the phone can't help me. The quality is TERRIBLE on my smart phone, and used to be really good before the site changed. The Vimeo app played my videos very clear. I'm using a MyTouch smart phone. I want to know if the quality being bad on mobile is because of the sites being changed, and if there is anything I can do to get the quality I want. I've worked on this the past three weeks, and this is my final option, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Here are the steps I'm using to export (still trying more export options in Jes Deinterlacer).
Step 1: In FCE, click "File", "Export", "Quicktime Movie". In "Include:", choose "Audio and Video", "All Markers" for "Markers:", and check box "Make Movie Self-Contained".
Step 2: Open file in QT Player. Click "Window" (at the top between "View" and "Help"), and choose "Show Movie Properties". Click "Video Track", and click "Visual Settings". Change the dimensions (which are supposed to be 720x480 4:3 but the video is stretched). Enter "640 x 480" for "Scaled Size:", then same with "Offset:" Keep "Preserve Aspect Ratio" unchecked, then when finished entering numbers check it (doesn't let you uncheck it which would be best). Check the "High Quality" box if it hasn't already been checked. Close the window, and click "File", and then "Save".
Step 3: Open file in Jes Deinterlacer. In "Input", check box "Reinterlace Chroma", choose "Video range", and check "Remove Jaggies". For "Project", choose "Deinterlace" and "Use Bottom Field". Check "Adaptive", "Local", and "Filter Chroma". In "Output", choose "Video range". Choose "Export", and "Mpeg-4". For "File Format:" choose "MP4", for "Video Format:" choose "H.264", and for "Data Rate:" enter "2000" for "kbits/sec". Leave "Optimized for:" "Download" as is. Choose "640x480 VGA" for "Image Size:", and "Current" for "Frame Rate:". For "Key Frame:" choose "Every", and enter "24" for "frames". Click "Video Options". Leave the "Main" box checked, and check "Baseline" for "Restrict Profile(s) to:". Choose "Best Quality (Multi-pass)" for "Encoding Mode:". Click "Ok". Click "Audio" (since done with "Video"). For "Audio Format:" choose "AAC-LC (Music), for "Data Rate:" choose "320 kbps", for "Channels:" leave as "Stereo", for "Output Sample Rate:" choose "44.100 kHz", and for "Encoding Quality:" choose "Best". Click "Ok" (leave "Streaming" alone).

First, I would do a Search on this forum for "FRAPS." There are several articles with comments on the best workflow and also settings for Import and for Export.
Next, YouTube is trobulesome. First, they re-encode everything and their specs seem to change weekly. It's tough to find out what they want on any given day. I'd go to their site and get the very latest instructions and attempt to duplicate those perfectly, knowing that they might be different tomorrow.
Good luck with this one, and good luck with the FRAPS footage.
Hunt

IMovie 10 and DV Video Quality

Does anyone know how iMovie handles DV? Previous versions used Single Field Processing, which threw away every other line of the video. This resulted in very degraded video quality upon export, especially if exporting to a DVD.
I doubt very seriously that this was fixed in the new iMovie, but it’s worth asking.

Some additional info.
A 1920x1080 black and white test image was created. The image consists of 120x120 pixel squares. The first two squares in each direction contain 60 black and 60 white lines, i.e. lines with a width of one pixel. The next two squares contain 30 black and 30 white lines, i.e. lines with a width of two pixels. The source image is located here: http://i.imgur.com/AFkrw6L.png
This image was copied 200 times into a numbered sequence. The image sequence was made into a short movie using QuickTime Pro 7. Two versions of that movie were exported: a 25p and a 50i (interlaced) version. Both short movies were imported in iMovie 9.0.9 and iMovie 10.0.1. A text effect was added to add some movement to the movies. The movies were exported to 1080p format via the Share option in iMovie. iMovie 9 exports to .mov files, iMovie 10 exports to .mp4 files.
What can be seen from these 4 exported movies? Both iMovie 9 and iMovie 10 handle progressive video without dropping lines. The full resolution is preserved. iMovie 10 also handles interlaced video without dropping lines. But iMovie 9 (=iMovie '11) and older (since iMovie '8) do not handle interlaced video correctly. Half of the horizontal lines are discarded ("single-field processing"). Also in the horizontal direction resolution is lost; each pair of two horizontal pixels is averaged. Thus a scaled down resolution of 960x540 pixels is used for processing interlaced video in iMovie 9 (and older). This can be seen in the iMovie 9.0.9 50i Test movie. The upper left square is white; the black lines are discarded! The second square is gray; horizontally each pair of two pixels is averaged.

ZEN (Video Quality)

ZEN (Video Quality)? hello
a while back i stated how crappy videos looked after the conversion to .avi
doesnt seem to matter where the video came from, either a straight up rip from DVD or videos from youtube.
they all looked very pixeled, especially during night/dark scenes.
i?wanted my videos to look like the preloaded videos that came with the ZEN when you first buy it.
thoses videos look amazing! crystal clear!? even during dark scenes.
i've tried all kinds of programs/free trails! spend many days/nights... NOTHING!
why does?Creative?give you these beautiful videos, yet theres no way to?replicate that?
the software that comes with the ZEN, horrific!
everyone says the ZEN doesnt have enough power, the LCD cant produce good blacks.... blah blah blah
it can!!!
i downloaded some movie trailers from a website (hd-trailers.net), converted using BADAK, and WOW!? crystal clear! beatiful!
dark scenes look fantastic!
so i guess the problem is the source, convert HD to avi to ZEN, great results!? DVD to avi to ZEN, not so great. (vhs quality)
does anyone know why? Creative?

The video quality of the Zen is fine. The hardware is fully capable of a high quality 24-bit 320x240 30fps 44.k Hz stereo clips (although 5fps looks just about as good). The quality and configurability of the bundled video conversion application is the object at issue. The solution is to use something else that is both faster and more capable.
The fact a highly capable video encoder is freely available as open source software (MEncoder, which is part of the MPlayer package) leaves little reason to use the Creative software for this task if you want decent conversions. For people intimidated by command line tools there is BADAK (a gui front end for MEncoder). When you select options in BADAK it even shows you the real command it will be issuing to MEncoder. However, since BADAK doesn't expose everything possible, if you really want control over the conversion you'll have to learn to use MEncoder (at least once to set up a batch command that uses your preferred settings) or some other tool.
There is nothing intrinsically better about a HD movie clip. If you have a similarly "clean" SD clip it should convert just as well. The issue here is that the HD clip is simply better source material than the video from a DVD or "captured" YouTube video (which brings up certain ethical concerns).
DVDs and YouTube videos have already gone through at least one pass of lossy compression. Noise and artifacts have already been introduced. Compressing them another time will only aggravate the situation. For that matter, if the artifacts are bad enough at the beginning the encoder may fully decide they are "significant detail elements" and try its best to preserve them in all their glory. Overly aggressi've compression will only make a bad situation worse. Areas that developed blockiness the first time around will probably be extended further. Camera pans over areas that developed banding will help make them jump out. All these problems come from making unwise compression choices for the source material. Even so, most middle-road compression settings are fine if you're watching the video at a reasonable distance from your eyes. If you're holding the player inches away then, sure, you're going to see them. The only way not to see them is to make them not exist.
The Zen screen resolution is approx half the size of a standard SD video frame. If you convert a DVD file to AVI where you ONLY perform the requisite scaling to 320x240 it should look nearly identical to the DVD. It will also be a very large file. That is the relationship: high quality = huge file, low quality = smaller file with artifacts. That isn't a uni'versal truth but does cover 95%+ of pragmatic reality.
Adapti've encoding tries to be "smart" and use extra encoding bits where they are needed most (in detail scenes) and skimp in places they are not (dark scenes where you can hardly see things anyways and areas of pretty uniform color). It is more complicated than that but that is good enough for this discussion. If the encoder strips too many bits from dark scenes on a somewhat "noisy" background it will collapse things too far and you'll get harsh banding. The OP is mostly complaining about harsh banding.
The solution is to prevent the encoder from overly compressing these areas. The simplest way to do that is to use adapti've algorithms but tell it you don't care so much if the file gets bigger. If you still see problems you may have to tell it to use an adapti've algorithm with at least a specified bit rate. If that doesn't really catch it you may have to tell it to use a constant bit rate (which could negati'vely impact scenes that really could use more encoding bits for details). And if that doesn't work you may actually have to tell it specifically what it should do for specified frames of the video. That last is basically a very intrusi've "use human guidance" approach. But if the quality matters that much it is sometimes necessary. That kind of attention is usually reserved for "masters" (like the original master for that DVD you started with).
What you won't find is a single button push, one-size-fits-all conversion that consistently produces ideal results regardless of input. It takes some work and often trial-and-error attempts to find what works best. If you think you're willing to put in that effort them look up the MEncoder documentation (it is available as HTML on the internet) and be amazed by the sheer number of parameters and parameter values it supports. None of them are fluff. They all serve a purpose in real-world situations. Coming up with the proper combination for a given source is the fun part.
Believe it or not, I actually tried to keep this relati'vely brief and avoid excessi've jargon. It's at least my third attempt at a cogent response that probably wouldn't make the reader get defensi've. We'll see how it goes.

Comparing video quality of AVCHD BluRay discs using Final Cut Pro Share vs Compressor

Up front, I will admit to being a newbie when it comes to using Final Cut Studio 3 and would appreciate some feedback from the Apple forum experts.
I have spent a lot of time trying to determine how to achieve an optimum group of Compressor 3.5.2 settings so that the playback video quality of an AVCHD BluRay disc is equal to or better than one created by using the simpler auto settings of FCPro Share, version 7.0.2.
When using Compressor’s auto/default maximum settings, I experienced the same error message reported in:
Error MessageDuring Creation of Blu-ray Disc in FCP and Compressor 3.5
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12073794#12073794
I have since made some Compressor AVCHD Discs with smaller bit rate settings and compared video quality with a single FCP Share AVCHD disc. Both seem to be equal in providing a very good video when viewed on my new Panasonic DMP BDT 310 BluRay player. However, the Compressor AVCHD discs show some motion artifacts not present with the FCPro Share version, especially when scrolling text or when objects are moving through the field of view, and visible artifacts are seen from a stationary chain link fence and other lattice work in the background of the video sample.
My sample video used for the comparisons between Compressor and FCP Share discs is a 21 minute duration home movie, originally captured from a mini DV, Canon HV30 1080i camcorder using ProRes HQ encoding(1440x1080), and dragged into FC Pro 7.0.2 timeline where 10 chapter markers have been inserted.
To create an AVCHD disc using FCPro Share, Markers are used to set the IN and OUT points, Select IN to OUT from the timeline, pull down File Menu Share, Select Create BluRay from options in pop out Share pane, and designate output device along with picture files for Background, Logo, and Title options. When these are completed, click on Export. My 21-minute video required almost two hours for encoding including about 10 minutes for burning. This accomplished on an iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
To prepare this same 21-minute video for use with Compressor, I again Select IN to Out from the FCPro timeline, but this time use File Export as a QuickTime Self Contained movie including Chapter markers. Then Open Compressor, choose Create BluRay from Template pane, right click on the down arrow in the Batch window and load the QT self contained movie file. From there I went to the Inspector window and tried various combinations of bit rate settings along with Frame Encoder options such as Better or Best motion parameter controls.
I have tried the following combinations of Bit rate settings along with varying Frame Encoder controls and burned an AVCHD disc for each example:
Example A
Compressor set to 6 Mbps Average and 8Mbps Maximum, Frame Encoder settings OFF. Approximately 4 hours to encode although the time remaining estimator indicated a larger value of ~7 hours; not an accurate estimator at all.
Example B
Compressor set to 6 Mbps Average and 8Mbps Maximum, Frame Encoder settings ON, using “Better (Linear Filter) and Better (Motionadaptive)” settings. Approximately 4 hours to encode, not the 13 hours that were estimated.
Conclusion: Comparing A & B Compressor versions, Disc B showed some improvements in reducing motion artifacts over Disc A.
Example C
Compressor set to 13 Mbps Average and 15 Mbps Maximum, Frame Encoder settings ON, using “Better (Linear Filter) and Better (Motion adaptive)” settings. Multipass checked. DeInterlace was checked. Unknown hours to encode; about 8 hours done overnight..
Conclusion: Disc C showed some minor improvements reducing motion artifacts over Disc B
Example D
Compressor Auto settings,i.e., 15 Mbps Average and 17 Mbps Maximum, Frame Encoder settings ON, using “Better (Linear Filter) and Better (Motion adaptive)” settings. Multipass checked. Approximately 12 hours to encode, done overnight. Inserted disc next morning after the overnight encoding was completed, and a few minutes later an error message pane appeared that the maximum bit rate had been exceeded. This message was consistent with the Apple posted thread referenced above. Unfortunately the long overnight encoding was wasted.
It seemed to me that the best Compressor settings for suppressing the motion artifacts were displayed by the disc burned in Example C, i.e., 13/15 Ave/Max Mbps with“Better” Motion settings in the Frame Encoder.
However, when this disc was compared to the AVCHD Disc burned using the FCPro Share, the latter still seemed much better. I do not know what the auto bit rate values are as set in FC Pro, but for me, the quality is quite good AND the motion artifacts are significantly reduced, especially evident with the scrolling text.
Sorry about this long post, but I thought the detail would be necessary for the experts, and maybe helpful to others trying to get started in this BluRay arena. Did I misuse Compressor? I think the sample video exported as a self contained QT movie was the right thing to do? Not sure where I went wrong.
Thanks in advance for Feedback and Recommendations. For now, I’m going to stay with the simpler process using Final Cut Pro Share function.
BoBo

Thank You, Brad, for responding; glad to hear I'm not the only one having similar Compressor issues.
You may have hit on something. Perhaps Compressor's use of H.264 encoding was the reason for my motion artifacts? And perhaps Final Cut Pro Share retains the 1440x1080 quality as it burns the AVCHD BluRay disc?
I had Toast 10 for less than 30 days a couple of years ago, and was lucky to get a refund.
What version of Toast do you have? Wondering if new Toast 11 has improved previous bugs, especially upgrading its Chapter text, pictures, music. I would go back to Toast if it came close to mirroring DVD Studio Pro, or even iDVD capabilities.
Thanks,
BoBo

MacMini - LG 32" (32LB75) Problem - Poor video quality and now no picture.

Hi there, apologies for the length of this post....
I purchased a mac mini 1.8Ghz with 2Gb RAM yesterday with a wireless keyboard and mouse and hooked it up to my 32" LG 32LB75 using VGA. On startup the display looked ok, I managed to click through the various Leopard initialisations. I bought the machine for use as a front room media player for mainly DivX movies and the occasional bit of music.
Once I had installed the DivX codec I opened a DivX file in Quicktime and selected "full screen mode." As soon as the movie started I became quite disappointed. The picture quality was quite pixelated ("noisy") and certainly not as good as when I play the same movie file from my old dell PC on the same LG tv (the dell PC has a 64Mb PCI radeon 7000 which connects to the tv using the same VGA port as the mac).
Anyway just to give the mac a fair go I thought I would try out some genuine quicktime video samples from the itunes store (this time viewed from front row)....again not brilliant.
So I thought I would investigate the screen resolution to see if I could improve things. It appeared the resolution was set to 1900 by 1200ish I say "ish" because I can't remember exactly. I then attempted to reduce the resolution and eventually I settled on one that looked quite clear with the font size big enough to be easily read. Again I tried the movie and there wasn't much (if any improvement). Whilst changing resolutions the screen would go blank for a few seconds but on one particular setting (can't remember exact numbers) the display went blank and never came back. The tv now just displays "no signal".
I despaired and connected the mac to a 17" Iiyama montior that I use with a PC and it worked ok. However each time I tried to "hot swap" back to the television I would end up with no picture.
I'm really disappointed because everything else about the mac I really like. Particularly the remote for frontrow which is precisely what I wanted it for. The problem is I've spent over £500 and now seem to have a lesser quality picture than I had to begin with (ignoring for the moment that I don't have any picture!!)
Anyway my questions are these, answers to any or all most appreciated.
1) what is the easiest way to get my mini to start displaying on my tv again?
2) what would the optimum resolution be? My television mentions 1366 x 768 in the manual
3) If the mini doesn't offer this resolution in the pick list is it advisable to "force it" using some alternative software (ie 3dexpress.de)?
4) Is the video quality affected by the software player? ie would VLC give better picture with DivX over quicktime/itunes/front row?
5) How likely is it that the video resolution of my new mac mini isn't "as good" as my old dell machine with its PCI graphics card?
6) Finally if I don't get results as good as my existing PC setup, how accomodating are apple with refunds? I bought it from a UK high-street apple store. The back of the receipt mentions a "14 day not satisfied" return policy but then goes on to say something about being "unopened"...which seems a little confusing. Ie how do you know if you're satisfied until you've actually used it?

Hi there
the solution was to remove the various display config files in leopard and then restart the machine, this got my display back on the tv (albeit off centre). To fix the "off centre issue" I used the LG "auto correct" feature from the remote control "menu > screen" options.
The apple support site describes how to remove the affected leopard display files here http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2213?viewlocale=en_US As you will see their resolution consists of 2 main steps, the first one involves starting your machine in safe mode, if this doesn't work then you proceed to the second step where you remove the files using a terminal prompt.
I didn't bother with the first step mainly because I don't think I can start my mac in safe mode since my only keyboard is wireless (bluetooth). So I connected the mac mini to a 17" LCD monitor (which thankfully did display the video signal ok) and removed all the listed files using terminal. I then shut the mac down, swapped the VGA cable back to the LCD tv restarted the mac and it detected the tv and set a resolution that worked. I then very carefully reduced the resolution down to one that was recommended by my tv (1300ish.. x 768ish??).
At this point I was back to having an acceptable signal but still a little off centre. So I used the TV remote, pressed menu, went into screen options and chose "auto correct". Picture then filled the screen perfectly.
The problem seems to be, leopard lists a bunch of resolutions that it believes your tv/display can handle but it would appear that in fact some of these resolutions are not supported by your TV and if you choose one of these your signal disappears and you can't get it back.
I would still say that I'm not 100% convinced with the mac mini's onboard graphics (I have a 1.8GHz version). I'm going to download some HD content and see if that improves things, but certainly my existing DivX collection looked a little sharper and clearer and better coloured using my old dell PC with its radeon PCI card. But the difference in picture quality is outweighed by the convenience of its size and the font row interface. I might tinker with putting Windows Media Center on it one day, perhaps that might improve things.

Macbook Pro to VIZIO LCD TV via HDMI Grainy Video Quality?

So when I bought my MacBook Pro back in July 2010, I purchased an assortment of accessories to go with it including a special third-party Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter device off of eBay. The HDMI Adapter device works mostly the way I expected it to. That is, the video and audio signal coming out of the MacBook is channeled into the LCD TV display properly so that I can see the computer video display on the LCD TV and sound is also coming out of the TV too.
Just one minor annoyance: video quality. Actually, the picture is perfectly fine and beautiful, except for some reason I get weird video artifacts that are basically tiny specs that quickly fly across the screen very rapidly and they are all over the video display. Almost like the video signal is partially grainy or fuzzy or something.
I've tried to Google to see if anyone has reported any similar problems, but no luck. I wish I knew exactly what device in this process is the culprit of this behavior; i.e. either the MacBook, the HDMI Adapter, the HDMI Cable, or the LCD TV (Vizio SV470XVT 47" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV).
If anyone can help to possibly instruct me how to fix this problem or how to further diagnose the problem, I would greatly appreciate it.

For a 2010+ MBP you can connect with a Displayport to HDMI, which will include Audio.
With older MBP you will need a displayport to HDMI, if you want audio to the actually TV, then you will need to get a cable with either digital out from MBP to the HDMI, or USB audio mixed into the HDMI
eg
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/CBLMDPHDMID/

FCP Novice needs help with video quality and FCP 5!!

Hi,
I have a real problme that I cannot seem to fix. I think its because I am doing something really wrong!
I have a Sony HC42E MiniDV Camcorder which by default records video in full widescreen. I recorded several tapes this way and have now begun trying to edit them in FCP 5.04 (Tiger 10.4.6). Whenever I log and capture my clips they appear to be fuzzzy and unclear on the Mac monitor whilst being totally crisp and sharp on the camcorder viewfinder. I tried capturing using the DV PAL 48Khz Anamorphic Preset which keeps everything the right size (the final output needs to be true widescreen and not with black bars added) but the resulting video on screen is blurry and bitty. I then tried capturing using the DV PAL 720 x 576 normal preset and the video is a little clearer on the screen (for both presets I have chosen lower field dominance) but when I play back it plays back in widescreen on the mac canvas window but at 4:3 on the camera's viewfinder.
I then assumed that maybe this is just becuase the mac screen (CRT by the way) doesn't use fields. So I exported the sequence as a QT movie using DV PAL 16:9 and used quicktime (OS9 Classic - my compressor has never worked because of the dreaded "unable to connect to baackground process" problem which I've never managed to correct) to convert it to MPEG2. When I import this as an asset into DVD Studio pro 4 and set the track size to 16:9 it comes through at the right aspect ratio. However it looks blurry on screen. Thinking that this will be fine on a TV I burned the disc - inserted it into my DVD player (a good one!) and watched it on my new 32" widescreen TV (a good one!) and the picture qualitty is poor. Its so much blurrier and bittier than the original footage looks when played through the camcorder's viewfinder!
The final footaage looks like an old VHS recording that's a year or two old!
Does anyone know how I can capture my footage in FCP with the maximum quality, edit it without quality loss and the export it for DVD again without such significant quality loss whilst all the time keeping it at proper 16:9 widescreen?
Is there some presets I should be working to?
I'm tearing my hair out! Help!

Hi Guys,
thanx for your replies.
here's the latest:
Brian, I followed your instructions and the DVD burned successfully. However the video quality of the dvd when viewed on my TV ('ve tried on all 3 of my tvs now) is still a lot poorer than the quicktime movie that was imported into DVDSP4. When I play the original QT Movie on my Mac CRT monitor it looks a little blurry and grainy because I guess its non interlaced however when viewed on an external Video monitor it looks great - very sharp.
When I view the burned DVD on my television the picture quality looks like the non interlaced version of the original QT Movie that appeared on my Mac CRT and not the sharp interlaced (lower field) version that appeared on my external video monitor.
Its almost like taking a sharp jpeg into Photoshop and applying a gaussian blur of about 0.3 followed by jepg compression compressing it down to 5% quality!
I'm totally mystified. Can the conversion to Mpeg2 be removing all interlacing so that you get the less sharp computer monitor look? I just want the video on my final DVDs to be as good as the original source footage! I appreciate that along the way there might be loss of some quality but surely not that much?
Does this make sense to you guys or am I still doing something very wrong?
Robert: I have tried setting all manner of drives including a fresh external firewire HD with nothing on it (clean out of the box) but it doesn't seem to help.
Brian: I tried the no network suggestion a few months back but I'm not sure if I got it right. At the moment I have broadband through an external speedtouch usb modem and am also connected (occasionally although not for the last 3 months) via a crossover cable to my PCs ethernet card. When I last tried the No Network solution I had immense trouble getting my internet to work again! Can you please help me by directing me to the best ay to do this while protecting my internet settings?
any more help guys would be greatfully appreciated.

IPhone 6 Plus video quality is extremely poor when on Facetime and when sharing via text/message

I upgraded to the 6 plus from the 4S. Everyone that I facetime with and send videos to via text/message tells me how incredibly horrible the video quality is....especially in comparison to the way it was before I upgraded from the 4S to the 6Plus. These are people that I have always sent videos to and Facetimed with before, and they all say they can really tell a difference. So frustrating that my three year old iphone 4S is better than the new 6 plus 128gig that I just paid $500 for. We have little ones at home and this is one of the main things we use the phone for....to send vidoes and to Facetime with grandma and grandpa.
I'm on the same carrier (Verizon) that I have always been and have not changed anything. Is there a setting on the phone I can change that will help with this? I love the phone otherwise, but if it can't do this right, I'm going to return it and get my money back.
Can anyone help? Anyone experiencing this???
Thank you.

I have the same issue!! Why isn't there any answers to this problem? I became the laughing stock who owns a $1000 iPhone that can't share videos with family and friends. Please help!!!

How should I best import HD Videos from the new iPad to my mac without loosing video quality?

The new HD video on the new iPad is awesome, but it can eat up a lot of memory in no time. I would like to know what is the most recommended way to export my ipad movies to iLife on my mac without loosing image quality, so i can free up space on my iPad.
If I use iPhoto I notice that the file size of the video from the new iPad is a lot smaller then if I use iMovie to import the same video.
Example: I import a 53 second video from the new iPad to iPhoto and the imported file has a file size of 143 MB in iPhoto. (iphoto save the video as IMG_0048.mov)
I import the same video to iMovie manually and the imported file size is 843 MB in iMovie. BIG DIFFERENCE. (iMovie saves that same video as clip-2012-03-20 16;13;08.mov)
Now to really be confusing: I go to Image Capture program and locate the file manually on my iPad and is has the same name and file size is what is in iPhoto.
So either iMovie is making the File a lot larger when it imports to an event, or the file I'm looking at is actually the iPhoto version that I get because I sync with iPhoto.
The second issue that I have is that now I have 2 videos on my hard drive: one in iPhoto, and one in iMovie for a combined data storage of close to 1 GB.
I would like to be able to import ALL my iPad recording into iPhoto and then delete the video from the device when done.
But if I loose video quality, I'm not happy about that. Secondly, by importing video from my iPad into multiple iLife programs, I'm creating duplicates with sometimes different quality. Any suggestions? is there a setting in iPhoto that can do all this for me?
Robert

Don't use iphoto to deal with movies. it's not really meant for that. use Quicktime or iMovie to work with your videos

Why is playback video quality not as good as the source?

Hi. I'm not new to PrE but am new to the forum.
I've been using PrE 2 for about 7 years. I got a newer computer running Windows 7 and basically was forced to upgrade to PrE 12 because PrE 2 didn't run very well on the newer machine. Once I installed PrE 12, I was eager to jump into my first project on this machine.
I expected that with a newer machine and the latest software, I would get outstanding results--hopefully much better than what I always got with PrE 2 on the old machine. With PrE 2, it was not uncommon that the imported video seemed lossy on playback or for whatever other reason seemed not as good as the source video.
Unfortunately, the results on the new/new were no better than the old/old. So I switched to my wife's (even newer) machine running Windows 8 and got the same results. Then I thought that perhaps the output to DVD would be better than what I saw in the PrE editor. No dice.
The video quality of the source isn't the greatest (see below), but I expected that the PrE 12 would be no worse.
What went wrong?
Here's what i'm working with on the current project:
Machine 1:
HP EliteBook 8560w
Intel Core i7-2640M 2.8 GHz CPU
Window 7 Enterprise SP1
2 GB RAM
360 GB available HD space
Machine 2:
Dell Inspiron 3521
Intel Pentium 2117U 1.8 GHz CPU
Windows 8 Touchscreen
4 GB RAM
400+ GB available HD space
Video Source:
iPhone 4 video (MOV format)
Thanks for ANY help you can give me.
BTW, I noticed that Steve Grisetti is one of the frequent commenters on this forum. In case you're reading this, Steve, I want to thank you and Chuck E. for your PrE books. I purchased one several years ago and found it extremely helpful. And surprisingly, I found that with PrE 12 I could still use the book that I purchased before because most of it was still relevant to the new software. Still a great purchase!!

kcarter
Please excuse if I mention things you may already be aware of, but I did not want to take anything for granted.
The installed RAM on Machine 1 is too low for HD work, and I wonder about the processor on Machine 2 even though it has more installed RAM than that on Machine 1. For now, I will bypass the usual drills and get to the source media and project settings.
1. From what I can put together, your source media from iPhone 4 are 720p up to 30 frames per second. That usually translates into a variable frame rate which can be problematic for Premiere Elements. The variable can lead to audio out of sync, but not necessarily. If all else fails, then it is onto HandBrake or the like to change the variable into a constant frame rate.
2. One of the features of version 11 and 12 is the program taking over the setting of the project setting based on the properties of the first video drag to the Timeline. Some times it does it OK, sometimes not. When not, then you set the project preset manually yourself based on what you know to be the properties of your source media. Please refer to the following which includes how to set the project preset manually.
http://www.atr935.blogspot.com/2013/04/pe11-accuracy-of-automatic-project.html
Based on what I have read about the properties of the iPhone 4 video, I would suggest the project preset (assuming a NTSC set up)
NTSC
AVCHD
AVCHD-LITE 720p30
One of the important things to remember is that Premiere Elements 11 and 12 have as their default project preset
NTSC
AVCHD
Full HD1080i30
and not the NTSC DV Standard of versions earlier than 11.
When 11 and 12 do not get the automatic project preset correct, they do not give you the closest fit, rather they give you their
default NTSC AVCHD Full HD1080i30 which is not going to be appropriate for 720p video.
Classically it is written if you have the correct project preset you should have no colored line over the content when you bring the video to
the Timeline manually set. But, just the variable frame rate can trigger the unrendered indicator (orange instead of red in versions 11 and 12).
So, rendering the Timeline would be indicated to get the best possible preview under these circumstances.
Do you have the latest version of QuickTime installed on either of your computers?
More later.
ATR

Publish+Share signifcantly reduces video quality in Premiere Elements 13

As the title states, whenever I publish and share a video in Premiere Elements 13, the video quality is drastically reduced to an almost unwatchable level compared to the original video This is even the case before any effects are added to the video. If I add the media to the timeline and then directly publish+share before any changes are done, the video quality is still ruined. When I click play full screen in elements, the quality and resolution is exactly where I want it, but once again, when I share the video, it's essentially destroyed.
When I play the newly created video there is giant black space above, below and to the sides of the video (where there is none in the original) and movement in the movie causes the video to grain with black lines.
I have been playing around with settings and researching online for a long time now but I can't seem to find the solution. What I have been doing is going publish+share, ---> Computer, ---> AVI. Then in advanced settings the video codec is selected to DV NTSC, and the basic video settings which are locked in (which I can't change) are set to quality 100, width 720, height 480. The Aspect is D1/DV NTSC (0.9091). I have selected render at maximum depth. I have also tried saving it as MPEG and other video types but the result is the same.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I understand that I am new and have lots to learn, but it seams so strange to me that the simple process of putting a video in Elements would essentially destroy it. Thanks again.

HSTompson
It was not until Mary Lou Frost posted in your thread today that I realized that I did not see and reply to your questions in post 4 of your thread (dated December 15, 2014). Sorry about that.
If you want to match up the properties of the export file with the properties of the Timeline source media, often you need to direct your attention to
a. Publish+Share/Computer/......and trying to match up the video (especially) and audio compressions of the import with those of the export choice.
b. A frequent cause of a difference between import file size and export file size is the bitrate used by these files. The higher the bitrate, the greater the quality, but
the larger is the file size. So, trying to match import file and export file bitrates is also on the agenda. See the preset's Advanced Button/Video Tab and the settings
there for bitrate. The units for bitrate will be either kbps kilobits per second (also seen as Kbps) or Mbps megabits per second. We can go into that further if necessary.
Premiere Elements allows for the setting of one project preset which should match the properties of the source files. If you have "mixed source files", setting up the
project can become a challenge. The rule of thumb that I typically use involves setting priorities...
1. If videos and stills, I will set for the properties of the video and then size (or let the project size) the still to the frame size of the video
2. If just stills, I try for 1920 x 1080 stills and import them using a DLSR 1080p project preset...that seems to give sharper end product results when doing burn to disc.
Please review and consider and let me know if I have targeted your questions. Any questions please do not hesitate to ask. I try to respond daily to questions, so, if you do not see a timely, response, please send me an Adobe Forum private message asking me "What happened to you?".
Best wishes.
ATR

Did Apple fix the video quality issue in iMovie '09?

I am a casual video editor and iMovie 08 had the perfect user experience / functionality for what I want to do.
However, the known video quality issue (throwing away interlaced scan lines) made the result unacceptable since I archive our family video on DVDs. I have been forced to use iMovie HD for that reason. I have tried tricks such as converting the original DV files to AIF and deinterlace prior to import into iMovie08 but that did not seem to work either.
So does anyone know if Apple fixed the video quality issue in iMovie '09.
MESSAGE TO APPLE IF YOU ARE LISTENING:
Please fix the video quality in iMovie09 if not already. Yes, the quality is ok for YouTube or Internet video but for those of us who want simple editing to archive our family video we cannot accept poor video quality. Dropping an interlace field effectively halves the vertical resolution. Thank you.

Please explain this in more detail when you say Adaptive Deinterlacer. Are you talking about another program? If so, what program and what are the specific steps.
Also, sounds like you are recommending imovie09. By saying to do the above, are you saying imovie09 still causes you too loose significant quality like imovie08? Are you saying you can use imovie08 or imovie09 with these steps to get high quality video or just imovie09? I guess I just need more specifics on how you do what you are describing and how imovie09 fits into this versus imovie08. I joined this whole discussion trying to figure out if upgrading imovie09 made a difference regarding the whole quality issue. I know it has more features, but I am more concerned about he quality of the video right now. Thanks.

Preserving Video Quality?

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