Resolution loss in iMovie

I've discovered that whilst editing in iMovie 6 (or any other version) image resolution is slightly reduced - digital data is certainly not 'fixed' whatever. But, if the finished iMovie project is converted to a 'full quality' QT.dv file, the original resolution is (amazingly) restored. The orginal data must be there in iMovie somewhere (?) but shouldn't be used as-is for producing, say, a DVD. A QT.dv dub seems to be the better option... and it's much reduced in size - without any loss (?)

Toast 8 is a great piece of software.
I open Toast then - Video> DVD-Video > Drag video files...into this area. So, I drag a particular highlighted iMovie project icon + info into Toast and there it waits to be recorded
(There are various option settings - Auto-Play, Automatic Encoding (which I always use, not Custom), Video Quality I set to Best, and etc.
Click the big red Record button, insert a blank disc on request, and away it goes...
Following this I go through an identical procedure dragging the QT.dv file to Toast, and I make NO changes to the settings in Toast. But, I get different results as explained above. Toast appears to see the the two files as I see on the computer and produces DVDs accordingly.
Does this clarify?
Message was edited by: prof d hall

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I have a .mov file that is 59 gigs. Is there a converter that can reduce the file size with minor resolution loss so I can import it into final cut express?

I have a .mov file that is 59 gigs. Is there a converter that can reduce the file size with minor resolution loss so I can import it into final cut express?

Open the file in QuickTime Player. Then do Tools > Show Movie Inspector. What does it say for Format and FPS?
At 59GB, I suspect you have either a 4 hour DV video or a 1+ hour video that was converted to Apple Intermediate Codec. If it's either of those, you can import it directly into FCE provided you select the appropriate Easy Setup first. Your clips have to match the properties of the Easy Setup you are using.
If it's neither DV or AIC then you need to convert it to one of those codecs. (QuickTime/DV or QuickTime/AIC) Many people in this forum rely on MPEG Streamclip (it's free and works great).

Apple gives response on sound loss in iMovie '11

I phoned up Apple 'Care' about the reported sound loss/sound syncing when exporting clips.
Apple are not aware of any problems with the sound on the latest iMovie update. He suggested I look at my settings, and "Search on Google".
Great help.

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Huge quality loss in iMove '11

Hello fellow iMovie users.
Yesterday I upgraded to iLife 11 to get the new iMovie and its "new" audio editing capabilities. I could ofcourse just buy it from Mac App Store, but I am principally against App Store and its strict rules, so I choosed to get it the old way.
Anyway, I liked what i saw. Finally the new iMovie was about as good as the five year old one, and had some neat features like chroma key and cropping.
So I decided to start practicing and create a short video based on some old DV-videos filmed with my Canon MV950 DV-PAL camera.
I imported the footage into iMovie, and noticed some significant quality loss after the import.
And it get worse. After I exported the video, it seems like it is heavily compressed, even if I'm exporting to QuickTime and selects the highest quality possible.
I have some screenshots to show you the differences.
This is the original DV-footage.
The imported video. Notice the higher compression and the choppy edges.
And this is the exported video. Notice the insanely bad quality, especially in dark areas.
Is there any way to fix this, or do I have go back to iMovie HD?
PS. Sorry if my post is a bit unreadable. I'm from Norway.

Steve,
While I agree everyone should have owned a HD camera by now, there are a lot of low-end SD cameras that are still being sold today. In this era of our economy, consumers are sensitive to prices; especially low or lower prices.
And unlike the video camcorder boom of the 80s with Sony introducing the Video8 handycam (shoulder mounted camcorder), people today do not video using traditional camcorders. Most either do it through a digital camera, DSLR, iPhone or blogger cameras and are already mostly in an acceptable progressive format. There is nothing wrong with DV style cam. Canon GL-2 and the Panasonic DVX-100 are still commanding such a very high price tag for cameras of older technology and still being repaired goes to show that there are people out there still using it.
If one can convert quality interlaced footage into quality progressive footage, you can use that footage and create good results using iMovie 11. I agree with you and Tom that iMovie 11 captures interlaced footage in full. But what's the use if it can't make a good product in the end that looks like what iMovie 6HD can do and when there are PC software out there including the free Windows Movie Maker that can do this with no problem.
Consumers, unlike some of us, only relate to past software used and are usually benign to the fact of progressive vs interlaced. I have dealt with some mis-informed customers that they believed FULL HD only means 1080p at 60fps; anything else is not. I digress.
With Mac users, they don't necessarily follow the same upgrade frequency as PC users either. Macs generally last a lot longer between upgrades compared to a PC because they don't have to run a barage of virus/spam/anti-malware growing definition files which ultimately slow an otherwise healthy PC down. Macs do not have to worry about this.

Display size query, + quality loss from iMovie originals

Learning to work the iDVD process, but what is the word on a foolproof sizing method, such that the thing will display OK on any TV? I don't see any way to restrict display size in iMovie, and what good is the TV Safe check, if you can't control the display size?? Also is quality loss inevitable? I'm compiling the DVD from separate files, less than 1 gb ea. I used "full quality" Quicktime compressed versions from the original iMovie file (which look fine in QT); then pulled those back in to iMovie, then shared to iDVD. One of the files looks fine encoded, but the other has weird sizzling-oil standing wave artifacts, even on still scenes from jpegs. Looking for help/comment/expressions of sympathy
Thanks,
John
Houston TX

Hi v
Quality of the DVD-disc depends on several things.
• Highes Quality isn't Top - better is Best Performances (up to 60 min movie)
confused naming - in iDVD'08 there is Pro Quality AND I like it.
• Media brand - I use Verbatim
• Type: DVD-R my choise no DVD+R or +/-RW
• I save a Disc-Image and burn this at an as SLOW speed as possibly (eg x1) with Toast™
(Disc Util tool can also do this)
• I DON'T USE the function Share/Export to iDVD from within iMovie - IT IS DESTRUCTIVE !!
Just drop the movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window - then iDVD do the
rendering and so much better. Especially if there is photos in the movie.
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disc - should be about 25Gb when all material is imported
and structured. This for iDVD to work with - iDVD can't use an extern hard disc as scratch.
(less than 5Gb - result is most probably of no use at all)
This is what come's first to my mind.
Yours Bengt W

Resolution concerns in iMovie, will Final Cut Express be solution?

Hello:
I'm working on a film, and have input from various people with various cameras. We are all working with 'standard' definition cameras, however, even among our cameras and outputs our film clips have different resolutions.
I put together a 120 minute film in iMovie. There are approx. 15 minutes of various clips from cameras with less than good quality film. Because of the film quality of a vast minority of the film clips, in iMovie, I can only export it into a 'medium' resolution, because medium is as good as some clips can be made out to be. So the majority of the film suffers with resolution because a small amount of film can only be done in medium resolution.
Does FCE allow you to better blend film clips with various resolution, while still maximizing your final output's quality? iMovie seems to be limited in that your final output is only as good as your worst quality clip that is included in the film.
Can I use FCE or some other tool to somehow compress and clean up the clips that are medium resolution so they can be then imported back into iMovie and can be used in a high resolution output?
Or will FCE natively handle most of what I'm asking, ie, glueing film from different quality standard def. cameras and creating a final highest possible resolution film? There appears to be an export from iMovie into FCE, however som things are lost in transition. I don't want to learn FCE completely or be forced to move to FCE or Pro in order to do something I'm shocked iMovie doesn't better handle.
Or are there any Pro's out there for hire to help me get over this hurdle. I'm making a DVD. The best output I have right now is 640 x 360. I don't exactly know what output is ideal for going onto DVD, but I figure the rest can be done in 960 x 540, so shoot for the higher resolution before compression and have better results, but I don't know if I'm thinking right.
Any input into using FCE as a solution, or if I'm asking something that cannot be done? I don't understand all the codecs and compressions but figure if I can massage the lower quality stuff or otherwise find a tool that help me produce a film project done in iMovie to the highest possible resolution.

.. which vers. of iM we are talking about?
if your source is miniDV (=interlaced), iM vers≤6 is ok.
iM08/09 have that 'skip field' prob, meaning, you lose halve vertical resolution while using iM08/09.
=> this is discussed +in extenso+ at the iM boards. it leads a few folks (incl. me) to establish this web-site:
http://sites.google.com/site/theimovieoutputproject/
if you really need that extra-grain of quality, you have to start from scratch in iM09 or FC/e.
640x360 is no resolution supported by iM (any vers.), nor FC/e.
for sure, +on export+ you can choose this 'size'.
for DVD-creation, use the app's intended workflows to avoid useless interim-conversions.

Quality loss in Imovie after finalizing

Having read alot about codecs and converting i'm still not able to figure out why there's quality loss after finalizing my project in Imovie. In the original .MTS files I can see, when played with the VLC player there's a little noise in the grey and dark area's but it's more then acceptable. After converting and finalizing it's a horror to watch. The weird thing is that the converted .MTS into .MOV files look better when played in Miro then in Quicktime.
What advice can you give me on reducing the noise and making sure the movie looks best when played from a DVD on flatscreen? I want to do the editing in the higest possible quality because in the future I want to burn to BluRay aswell (I know that full HD is only possible when you burn to BluRay)
Here are the details:
1. I imported the material, filmed in 25P (so I don't have to interlace) directly from my canon HF200 into Imovie. I can choose between 960X540 or original size.
2. I choose original size and receive a warning that this can cause a negative effect on the quality. So maybe the problem is caused by my old and small laptop, see specifications underneath my questions.
3. The converted mov. files in Imovie appear to have more noise then the original and after finalizing to HD 1080p the noise in the grey and black areas is almost unwatchable.
Is there anything I can do besides buy a new laptop?
Thank you for your help!
Specs Mac
Modelnaam:          MacBook
Modelaanduiding:          MacBook4,1
Processornaam:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processorsnelheid:          2,1 GHz
Aantal processors:          1
Totaal aantal cores:          2
L2-cache:          3 MB
Geheugen:          4 GB
Bussnelheid:          800 MHz
Opstart-ROM-versie:          MB41.00C1.B00
SMC-versie (systeem):          1.31f1
Intel GMA X3100:
Chipsetmodel:          GMA X3100
Type:          GPU
Bus:          Ingebouwd
VRAM (totaal):          144 MB
Fabrikant:          Intel (0x8086)
Apparaatcode:          0x2a02
Revisiecode:          0x0003
Beeldschermen:
Kleuren-LCD:
Resolutie:          1280 x 800
Pixeldiepte:          32-bits kleur (ARGB8888)
Hoofdbeeldscherm:          Ja
Synchrone weergave:          Uit
Online:          Ja
Ingebouwd:          Ja

No worries Still your remark about the external drive is someting to take in to account, i have mine hooked on most of the time.

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Hi,
Any suggestions to how I can restore the resolution of a clip that has been "zoomed in" on through the use of the smoothcam filter in FCP 6?
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I am happy with the clip being zoomed in on, but not with the resulting loss in resolution.
The footage was shot in DVCPRO HD 720p PAL.
Would using Red Giant's Instant HD filter work in restoring the resolution?
Eva
Message was edited by: Eva D.

I'm now seeing that me stating that the rendered footage looks pristine in Canvas, isn't entirely true.
When the clip is viewed at any percentage in the Canvas OTHER than 100%, then the footage looks great. If Canvas is set to 100%, then you can see the "jitters" that will be created in export. I suspect that because 100% is interlaced, and any other %age is de-interlaced, and exported video I believe is interlaced, then maybe there is something not connecting in the smoothcam and interlacing language?
I found this on another forum and tested it empirically myself. The forum was old and archived so I wasn't able to reply to it. I re told the story and my experience here to see if anyone might know a solution.
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Aloha!

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When I import photos into IMovie they instantly loose focus and quality. Is there anything I can do about this?

Lets say you have a 6 megapixel jpeg file.
When you render it in iMovie, it will be downsampled to fit the project.
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Resolution loss in multicam when GPU acceleration enabled

Hello all,
Strange multicam problem here. I know others besides me have struggled with multicam playback resolution, but at least on the surface, this particular problem seems counter-intuitive.
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I cut a 1080p sequence using 4k footage that I scaled down in the Effect Controls window. If I export that sequence as a 4k file, will Premiere compress that original 4k footage to 1080p, then expand it back to 4k in the exported file (please say no)? Or is Premiere intelligent enough to interpret the export scaling using the size of original footage, rather than the sequence size? (Hope that makes sense)
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David

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Hi folks,
I have a Sony Handycam DCR-SX33e (good one!) and iMovie '11 recognizes it, it's able to import movies directly from the cam, creates events, etc... BUT the quality of the movies within iMovie environment is very very poor (i.e. pixels big like a house!) BUT if I look at the movies using QT (from iMovie events, "reveal in Finder" on a movie), the quality is perfect.
Still, if I make a project and finalize it, the exported movies are horribles.
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Thank you!
Bye

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Personally, I don't know if iMovie 6HD helps because your Mac still needs to read MPEG-2 properly which you said are not having any success. Over here on my Macbook, I have no problems working with MPEG-2 converted files and with iMovie 11. Quality is superb. Albeit, I converted those MPEG-2 files using my faster Quad Core Vista 64 machine and posted them later on my RAID network server before being made available for the Mac.
Hope this helps.

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The resolution of an iMovie 10 project cannot be set manually but is determined by the first clip to be added to the project. If your first clip is 1080p then the project should be 1080p. ( iMovie 10 on the Mac definitiely supports 1080p)
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How do I import an existing finalised imovie into a new project either in part or full. The movie I want to import is filed under "movies" but greyed out when I go through the procedure in imovie 11

How do I import an existing finalised movie clip into a new developing project ? I go through the imovie 11 procedure for importing and the list of clips (finalised and un-finalised) appears, but always "greyed out" which makes it impossible to create anything. I have tried placing it on the desk top and dragging but this doesn't work either.

AppleMan Thanks very much for the information, however I could't make it work. I followed your instructions to the letter, in fact I tried every which-way. I created a dedicated file into which I copied and pasted the project from "package contents" but it was still greyed out when I went to retrieve it. I also found that the file size was reduced to only a few Kb. Any further step-by-step instructions would be appreciated as I am obviously doing something wrong. Babowa It appears that in imovie everything has to be "finalised" before it can be used or shared elsewhere in the same way as a disk has to be to be played elsewhere. Funnily enough an MOV file I converted to Mp4 was not greyed out and I was able to import it.... an exercise I am not keen on because of resolution loss during conversion

Resolution loss in iMovie

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