Reduced quality after burn

I just burned my first iDVD with a slide show on it. I burned it twice, once on my brand new iMac (love that machine!) and once on my LaCie external burner. Quality was the same on both but on both the quality was less than that of the original photos as seen on the iMac's gorgeous display. I burned them using the "professional quality" setting and again using the "best quality" setting. No discernible difference between the 2 burned discs.
My question is this. Is it normal for there to be a quality reduction when burning onto a dvd or are the pictures on my mac somehow not as sharp as they appear to be? I have been under the impression that because they are digital there should be no degradation when reproduced.

Is it normal for there to be a quality reduction when burning onto a dvd or are the pictures on my mac somehow not as sharp as they appear to be? I have been under the impression that because they are digital there should be no degradation when reproduced.
Unfortunately it is normal for a "burned DVD". And the reason for this is that the images are highly compressed in order to get them onto a DVD-R. Images ultimately wind up at about a third of a megapixel. Good enough for standard TV's at 640x480 but not so great on a number of widescreen LCD's.
If you need better quality then try either of these:
http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/overview/
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
Btw ... in time, the quality will eventually get better (that is when we see more BlueRay Burners or HD as standard equipment on most macs). But as of yet, we're not quite there yet....

Similar Messages

Quality after burning

I use still photos to make slideshow/movies in iMovie. After many hours and many experiments, I have found settings in Export to Quick Time Movie that produce high quality images. I see some loss when I drag a .mov file into iDVD, but not much.
The real loss comes when I save the dvd project as a disc image: colours are faded, lettering on titles is not as sharp, and so on. I have set Preferences to "Professional Quality" and burn speed to 1x. My projects are 30 to 50 minutes in length and I have set for single-layer discs.
Can I do anything to improve the quality/appearance of the burned project?
I have been reading discussions about Roxio/Toast and FCE and I'm not certain whether using either of these would help. Can anyone offer a recommendation?

Hi
Yes this Q has several layers.
a. NO iDVD version can do HD-video - only SD-video as old CRT-TV quality.
If Your result is about this - then You reached the roof of iDVD
b. If severely / clearly pixelated result - then the problem is in the process
To do very high quality - then You also get some more problems
You need a program that can do this
• eg FotoMagico (in the Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro bundle incl BR-component)
• Blue-Ray burner
• Blue-Ray disks
BUT ALSO A MUST
• Blue-Ray PLAYER eg a PlayStation 3
(BR-disks can't playback on DVD-player nor on Mac ! )
Yours Bengt W

Quality AFTER burning/imaging..??

I have been trying all day to get this to work properly but can't! - here's the situation:
I've put together a movie in iMovie HD (29.97FPS, PAL) which i added chapter markers to, then export to iDVD. Within iDVD, i noticed that the project size was extremely small (around 0.4GB) when the actual iMovie project is much larger (2.4GB).
In Preview mode, iDVD displays the movie as in iMovie HD; however, after i create a disc image / burn the project, the quality is seriously degraded - text and video appears blocky. It is obvious that the movie has been harshly compressed within iDVD given the size of the project compared to the iMovie version, but i have NO CLUE how to stop this happening..! D'oH!
Does anyone have any ideas? It's more frustrating because i've done this before with another movie and it worked completely fine.
Things i've tried : deleting all encoded assets, using the "better quality" option within iDVD's prefs, cleaning all caches/repair permissions (last resort style..!) + restarting.. etc. Also tried deleting prefs but nothing seems to work..
any help would be seriously appreciated!
thanks
ML

Video content for both projects was about the same length, so why did iDVD not apply this 6:1 compression ratio to my previous project (which almost filled the DVD)?
You have two different compression options in iDVD - Best Quality (projects up to 2 hrs) and Best Performance (projects up to 1 hr)
Did you use the same iDVD menus?
Why would it need to compress this data if the entire disc is not being used?
DVD players expect to see compressed data and have a maximum data rate they can handle.
My content came from digital camera .mpeg files which i demuxed and converted to .dv files (same procedure as with previous project which worked).
You're sure you did everything EXACTLY the same way?

Poor image quality after burning with idvd

I used Final Cut Express to make a 45min movie. When I preview the finished product as a Quicktime file it looks great. BUT when I burn it with idvd, the quality of the video is terrible! Jagged diagonal lines, some color loss, some dancing pixels,...
I have been trying to find the solution to this problem for days on end, I have burned about 20 dvd's now, all in different settings and so on, but the quality is not improved.
First I thought it was my tv, but then I put the dvd in my mac and compared the same scene from my quicktime file with the scene on the dvd, and the difference in quality is staggering! For instance, diagonal white road markings are crisp on the quicktime file, but jagged on the dvd.
What is idvd doing with my movie????? Help me!

My Final Cut Express movie (.mov file) is crisp, and interlaced.
You are missing the point - your CRISP FCE movie is mpg-2 compressed by iDVD - that's what DVDs are - mpg-2 compressed video content. Unfortunately, mpg-2 is a very low quality CODEC compared to modern CODECs like h.264.
The best image quality out of iDVD will result in using the 'Best Performance' mode of encoding - this requires your content be under 60 minutes for a single-layer disc.
'Best Performance' encoding uses fixed bit-rate encoding that produces a DVD with about as high playback bit-rate as can be supported by set-top DVD players.
You have three choices: (1) live with the mpg-2 compression on a DVD because you can't do anything about it, (2) use the h.264 CODEC out of FCE and create a data DVD with the file that can be played back in computers, (3) make a Blu-ray disc if you have the equipment and buy the software.

Disapointed with picture quality after burning dvd

Hi,
I have iDVD3 and found the little "cheat" so yo could burn to an external DVD writer as I have a LaCie DVD writer. I duly burned my first project but have to say that I am disapointed with the DVD quality compared to DVDs I have burned with TOAST.
I did notice that when burning my DVD on iDVD that it looked as though an error had taken place as a message appeared on screen saying that it couldn't write to the DVD and the tray to teh DVD burner opened however it already had.
Any ideas?

Hi
58 min should put You in the situation of High Quality in iDVD but it
depends greatly how advanced Your DVD-menu is. iDVD can guess that
it is more than 60 min (together) and then put You in best performance.
a. I would downgrade QT to 6.5.2 (Apple support downloads and so on)
b. I don't use - Share to (iDVD, QT or what ever) from within iMovie (if it
is this that You use) but close iMovie, locate project folder/icon and in
this find folder -> Share movie -> iDVD -> use this QT movie in iDVD.
- it doesn't render this way - which harms photos at least)
(And I'm using OS X.3.9 - feel safe with this)
Yours Bengt W

DVD blurry after burning

I am new to Premiere Elements and I have a JVC HD video camera. The video quality after burning seems like the digital is shakey when moving but on PC its good?

I am not really sure the answer to your questions but here is what I did. I uploaded video
to my PC from the video camera and I can view the video in the Adobe Elements however,
after I burn to DVD or view in Premier elements it is grainy and seems to be unstable with
movement. It seems better when I view the video on the DVD on the computer when I make the screen smaller.
The only setting I changed was when it asked while burning the dvd on the quality to fit it to the DVD or better quality and I chose the top quality?

I have a few wedding projects(1-2 hours)I am trying to export at full hd quality,than burn in idvd.After rendering for 8hrs I receive error code that states "file is too big". Please help? compressing tips without losing quality?

I have a few wedding projects(1-2 hours)I am trying to export at full hd quality,than burn in idvd. After rendering for 8hrs I receive error code that states "file is too big". Please help? compressing tips without losing quality? or any other exporting alternatives?

Hey Z,
Thank you for the tip on exporting by media browser (large) from imovie. But of course, if it's not one thing it's another. Now that I figured how to export a large file from imovie, I have an idvd issue. I followed the instructions for burning from idvd and changing the encoding to professional quality and the burn speed to x4, but I am receiving an error that states the following,
Your project exceeds the maximum content duration. To burn your DVD, change the encoder setting in the Project Info window.
Project:
- total project duration: 79:04 minutes
- total project capacity: 4.327 GB (max. available: 4.172 GB)
Menus:
- number of menus in project: 1 menus
- total menu duration: 0:39 minutes
- total menu capacity: 37.370 MB
Movies:
- total movies duration: 78:25 minutes
- total movies capacity: 4.291 GB
I have searched in the idvd forum for similar issues and I am stumped at this point. I have tried deleting the encoding assets and re launching idvd with the changed preferences, and still the same error. I know you mentioned something about free hard drive space available, and I have very little left. 4GB to be exact due to massive hours of non-edited footage. I am not sure if this is why, but I do not recall ever needing free space to burn memory onto a separate dvd. I would be more than happy if I am wrong, and it would be a quick fix. Otherwise, the technical nightmare continues. It's all a learning process and your expertise is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Bad quallity film after burning dvd with idvdv professional quality.

After making a movie in imovie and importing it in idvdv the quality is still HD
after burning a dvd with professional quality the quatity of the dvdv is very poor. Horizontal lines are dancing over the screen!!
Can anyone tell me wat is going on???

Keep in mind that all Dvd's burned through your mac and are playable on your mac as well as your set top DVD player are ALWAYS standard definition /SD. There is no way around this (that is if your intentions is for playback on most computers and most set top Dvd Players.
One of the limiting factors is apple's dvd player app. It isn't fully blu-ray compatible yet. Meaning that even if you did burn a high def. Dvd which is only playble on Sony's PS3 and most set top Blu-ray players .... the finished Dvd won't play on your mac since apple has yet to update/upgrade their DVD Player application to fully incorporate Blu-ray standards. To the best of my knowledge, apple's support is very limited here. Hence the alternative for mac users is to use Roxio Toast's Blu-ray plug in as well as Toast Blu-ray player. If you opt to go high def through Toast then the completed Dvd will NOT play on most set top dvd players but will on most Blu-ray Players as well as Sony's PS3.
Hope this advice helps 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.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

After burning a successful DVD in iDVD out of FCPX, how can I see the settings it used? So I finally burned a DVD out of a Apple Pro Res file into iDVD in PAL format. My question now is how can I find out what the exact burn properties were so that I ca

After burning a successful DVD in iDVD out of FCPX, how can I see the settings it used?
So I finally burned a DVD out of a Apple Pro Res file into iDVD in PAL format. My question now is how can I find out what the exact burn properties were so that I can apply the same burn properties to a project in Compressor 4?
Is it possible to see what iDVD did?

I don't know any way you can interrogate iDVD to reveal settings to the extent that you can in a Compressor project. What you could do is open up the show's VOB in MPEG STreamclip, go to File and Reveal Stream Information; that will at least give you some rudimentary info like average bit rate. Perhaps someone, with more iDVD experience, can chime in here.
The broader question is why use Compressor at all if your current workflow is doing the job to your satisfaction?
The value of Compressor is that it gives you control over the many parameters that affect size quality. and playability. The Compressor presets can give you a starting point for DVD delivery, Web, etc. From those presets, people typically experiment by adjusting the parameters until they get the desired results for their specific show. It's a little bit science and a little bit art. After experimenting, you may be able to get slightly better quality for the project you've successfully burned in iDVD by using Compressor and something likeToast…or maybe not.
Good luck.
Russ

After burning to dvd, using idvd, movie stops on frame but audio continues

After creating imovie which works perfectly, and also after trasferring to idvd works perfectly, i have problems when playing back dvd after burning to disc. The movie stops but the audio continues. I altered the clip but same thing happened in next clip after next burn. I don't think its a corrupt clip, but maybe something to do with WHEN it occurs in the movie. Any suggestions? After 4 goes and many hours burning I am stumped!

Hi Tomma1
And welcome to apple discussions. It's good you chose to use 16 bit audio for all of your source material. And assuming this is accurate info .... From what I can tell, you are doing nearly everything correctly. However let me ask you a few questions.
1. Are you using the boot volume (the hard drive where iDvd and Leopard are actually located) to encode your dvd (yes/no)?
2. More importantly, does the disc image also go out of sync when played thru apple's dvd player app? or does it only happen on the burned dvd-r?
3. Are you using Verbatim Dvd-R or an alternate brand? if it's the latter, then for troubleshooting purposes while on this forum; please use Verbatim Dvd-R. (it helps us eliminate additional / possible variables). Thereafter feel free to use the media that works best for you and your mac.
4. Have you tried an alternate encoding setting other than pro quality setting? and do you get the same results?

Out put quality after DVD authoring is less than .mov file that fcp source

Anyone know why I would be getting a notable drop in quality after i make a dvd?
going from HF11 Cannon shot at 17 mbps into FCP. then out to compressor and using the high quality dvd setting.
then when i play my dvd i notice for example jaggies on some objects yet if i look at the .mov file that was ignested into FCP that has almost no jaggies. is there some setting i'm missing?
everything was set at 16:9 1080x720.
I'm up to my pits in information overload.
Someone with some idea or experience please help me out. thank you so much.

Here are some of your options as you look toward HD encoding.
Using Toast, Encore, or FCS 3 you can move toward blu-ray authoring and encoding. In Toast and FCS 3 you can make AVCHD disks which are blu-ray disks put onto single or dual-layer DVDs which is a huge cost savings. Your encoding is limited to 17 Mbps, but in h.264 that will still allow for decent quality. Encore will let you design a complete disk but it doesn't make AVCHD disks - you'll need to jump through some hoops in order to take an Encore project (but it can be done). Here's a workflow for that. As a side note this workflow is for using Final Cut Express - in FCS you have the added benefit of being able to work with 23.98 fps timelines.
Your other option it to move toward digital outputs. You can use something like an AppleTV to playback HD content (it'll be reduced to either 960x540 @ 30 fps or 1280x720 @ 24 fps. Or you can use one of the various media streams on that market now (SlingCatch, Western Digital WDTV, etc.) Personally I'm a big fan of the WDTV from Western Digital. It's affordable (around $100) and plays back all kinds of formats in HD up to 1080p. Plus it reads from flash drives or hard drives via USB. You can encode MP4 files for these types of devices in QuickTime, export from FCP, MPEG Streamclip, Compressor, etc.

Pixelated images after burning

A friend of mine is using iDVD to create a slideshow of some photos. The photos look great, and after burning, when playing on either tv's or even other computers, no matter the screen size, all the images, as well as the text that pops up, is all pixelated. But on her computer, they look fine.
She is using RAW images, could this be the problem? She has tried burning for both Widescreen and Standard, with no fix.
I told her to use jpegs, haven't heard back if that worked or not, but thought I'd ask.
Thanks!
Jordan

You gave your friend excellent advice. Most Jpegs will work fine. If you wish to add RAW image files as well then I'd suggest doing so to the dvd-rom section of the dvd (and there is a preference you can select within iDvd that will automatically do this for you).
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/6655.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/6675.html
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8164545&#8164545
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/6705.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/11417.html
These 3 apps that specialize in quality slideshows and they come highly recommended on this iDvd forum (especially the first one).
http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/overview/
http://boinx.com/photopresenter/overview/
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

After burning a audio CD, the Create LightScribe Label window does not show

I found burning a LightScribe label after burning with iTunes directions. It says that iTunes works with Sonic Express Labeler. After burning the CD, a Create LightScribe Label window is supposed to appear. It does not. Why? Help!!
HP Pavilion a1220n Windows XP
HP Pavilion a1220n Windows XP

No one answered his question. On HP it says:
Creating a LightScribe label with iTunes
iTunes works with Sonic Express Labeler to conveniently burn labels on a data CD or audio CD from iTunes. The playlist you create in iTunes to burn a disc is automatically imported into Express Labeler so that this information is available for you to use on your LightScribe label.
NOTE: To use Express Labeler from iTunes, the data or music tracks in the playlist your are using must fit on a single CD.
Click Start, All Programs, iTunes, and then click iTunes again.
Burn a data or audio CD with iTunes. When the burning process is complete, click Yes on the Create LightScribe Label window.
Make sure that Disc Label is selected in Step 1: Select Project.
Select a label template by clicking the left or right arrows next to Layout and choosing a layout.
NOTE: The various layouts show different amounts of playlist information. Some show only the playlist title, others show the playlist title and track names. You can edit the playlist information by clicking Disc Title to open the Edit Disc Title window.
Click Tracks to display the Edit Tracks window. Click New to display the Track window. Enter text to identify the first track or file (you can optionally enter artist and date, or length), and then click OK.
Repeat step 5 for each track or file on the disc.
Click the left or right arrows next to Background to select design elements for the disc. The selections you make are previewed in the disc window.
NOTE: If you use a color image, LightScribe burns it as a greyscale (monochrome) image.
When you are satisfied with the appearance of your label design, insert the LightScribe disc (label-side down) into the disc drive tray and then click Print.
From the Disc Label menu, select LightScribe 12cm Disc.
Select a Contrast Level and then click OK to begin burning the label. The estimated time to complete the label is displayed, along with a progress bar. You can continue to work on your PC while LightScribe is burning the label.
NOTE: A sudden bump or vibration of the computer during the labeling process may affect the quality of the label.
His question is why this does not happen. What version of iTunes are you using? Is an upgrade to the newest version needed? I woul dlik eto hear form others who use lightscribe with itunes and how they do it.

IDVD 08 - problem with scene selection tabs not working after "burn"

I have a movie that is about an hour long (made in iMovie08 using mostly still photos). I wanted to have "chapters" -- but with that option gone, I used the Scene Selection option in iDVD08. This created menus with 15 scene selection buttons (I chose every 4 minutes). The menus were automatically created by iDVD and I did nothing to change them, except to type in scene info (two-three words).
The buttons all worked fine on the computer, and I burned a DVD. The DVD worked great in my VCR player. I'd select Play Movie and it would go. I'd select Scene Selection and I'd get the menus for that. But when I'd highlight one of the scene selections and "enter" (select) -- it wouldn't go to that scene. I could go back and forth between menus, and could move around and highlight the scene buttons, but selecting would not start the scene to play. The movie played fine from start to finish, and the other remote features worked (stop, pause, menu, etc.).
I went back to iDVD and chose a different theme (thinking maybe I'd inadvertently done something to mess things up. The only thing I did differently in addition to the new theme, was to add two small movie clips - and I rearranged the buttons on the menu (dragging) to get them positioned where I wanted them. So my first menu says "Play Movie". The second menu has: Play Movie, Scene Selections, Little Movie 1, Little Movie 2. Everything worked greated in iDVD. Then I created a disk image to view using DVD Player (rather than waste another DVD). Same problem -- only worse. This time I couldn't even highlight Scene Selection to get to the scenes' menus.
Any thoughts on why I'm not able to get the "Scene Selection" buttons to work after a burn? Am I missing a step somewhere in iDVD?
Thanks.

I am not sure, but does your post concerning the problem, that all Remote Control function will work properly within iDVD'08 but after burning the DVD absolutely not with the RC of your set top DVD player connected to your TV?
If this is it:
Meanwhile I could figure out - after many nights of not been very productive and only working out on all the iDVD'08 problems - that **ALL** of the *7.0 Themes* have a major problem in generally.
The following points are concerning iDVD'08 using any of the 7.0 Themes:
- Complete deep freeze of your Mac under Leopard when rendering/coding/burning a movie which has chapters and you use movies instead of still images in drop zones. (LeopardiDVD087.0Themes)
- Functions on remote control of your set top DVD player are not working correctly when making a movie with chapters. This is generally on Tiger and Leopard the same problem using iDVD08 with any of the 7.0 Themes.
Quick and dirty workaround:
You may avoid this if you simply use a 6.0 Theme or lower version of the Themes.
But this is of course not the clue...
It is VERY DISAPPOINTING, having software at such a low quality level deliverd by Apple. And somehow it looks like they DO NOTHING against it. No statement, no excuse, they really remain silent.
This may also be a thread you could be interested in:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1203323
Cheers,
Roland

After burning a slide show, I get a skip in audio

After burning a slide show, II get a skip in the audio about every 5 min. of run time. I imported the pictures from i photo and the music from an itunes play list. When I play the entire thing in preview it runs fine with no problems, but after burning to a dvd, I get a skip every 5 min. I burned to hp DVD-R (16x) and Memorex DVD-R (16x). Still the skip. I have burned to Best preformance, High Quality and Professional Quality. I have even slowed the burn time to 4x. Still the skip. I noticed the bar at the bottom of the screen always reads 5 min. for the audio duration and when it goes back to 0 is when it skips. The run time when I put the cursor on the audio well reads the correct 3min:35sec.

SlideShow function in iDVD - is limited to 99 photos per show.
Creating the SlideShow in iMovie HD6 or FinalCut - doesn't limit this but offers 100% control over process (audio and transitions)
Using iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 - will degrade picture quality as they only deliver every second line over to iDVD.
I never use "Share to iDVD" in any iMovie version.
• iMovie up to HD6 - Just close it and import movie project from within iDVD
• iMovie'08 to 11 - "Share to Media Browser" and as Large (not HD) will give as good quality as they can do
Yours Bengt W

Reduced quality after burn

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for