Resolution (ppi) impact in quality on iDVD

I am creating slideshows of family photos. I scan the photos into Photoshop at a resolution of 300ppi. However, many of the photos sent to me by family members from their cameras and over the internet come in at a resolution of 72ppi. If I increase the resolution either the file size decreases dramatically or the quality decreases. How much impact does the resolution have in quality on iDVD - i.e. will the pictures at 72ppi look worse, better or the same as those at 300ppi?

Any images get "dumbed-down" in iDVD. And they will probably look bad to you once they are encoded and put on a DVD and viewed on an LCD screen. So you'll need to see what works for you.
From iDVD '08 Help:
*Preparing images for iDVD slideshows*
You can use photos, movies, presentation slides (created in a program such as Keynote), or other image files in a slideshow created in iDVD. iDVD works with any image file that is supported by QuickTime (including PICT, JPEG, TIFF, and PDF.) You can also use photos directly from your iPhoto library.
Images and movies in a slideshow are scaled to fit the standard DVD window size, but the aspect ratio is preserved. For example, a picture taken vertically (also known as “portrait format”) may have black bands on either side of it to fill out the screen. If you want an image to fit the DVD window exactly, use an image-editing application to resize the image before bringing it into iDVD. (It is not possible to resize movies.) Resize to these dimensions:
◼
720 x 540 pixels for standard video in NTSC format
◼
854 x 480 pixels for widescreen in NTSC format
◼
768 x 576 pixels for standard video in PAL format
◼
1024 x 576 pixels for widescreen in PAL format
You can also make sure images in iDVD are always scaled to a size that will fit within the area visible on most TV screens, or the “TV safe area.”
*To fit slides into the TV safe area:*
Choose iDVD > Preferences.
Click Slideshow.
Select the checkbox labeled “Always scale slides to TV Safe Area.

Similar Messages

How to view resolution (ppi/dpi) and bit depth of an image

Hello,
how can I check the native resolution (ppi/dpi) and bit depth of my image files (jpeg, dng and pef)?
If it is not possible in lighroom, is there a free app for Mac that makes this possible?
Thank you in advance!

I have used several different cameras, which probably have different native bit depths. I assume that Lr converts all RAW files to 16 bits, but the original/native bit depth still affects the quality, right? Therefore, it would be nice to be able to check the native bit depth of an image and e.g. compare it to an image with a different native bit depth.....
I know a little bit of detective work would solve the issue, but it
would be more convenient to be able to view native bit depth in
Lightroom, especially when dealing with multiple cameras, some of which
might have the option to use different bit depths, which would make the
matter significantly harder.
This
issue is certainly not critical and doesn't fit into my actual
workflow. As I stated in a previous post, I am simply curious and wan't
to learn, and I believe that being able to compare images with different
bit depths conveniently would be beneficial to my learning process.
Anyway,
I was simply checking if somebody happened to know a way to view bit
depth in Lr4, but I take it that it is not possible, and I can certainly
live with that.
Check the specifications of your camera to know at what bit depth it writes Raw files. If you have a camera in which the Raw bit depth can be changed the setting will probably be recorded in a section of the metadata called the Maker Notes (I don't believe the EXIF standard includes a field for this information). At any rate, LR displays only a small percentage of the EXIF data (only the most relevant fields) and none of the Maker Notes. To see a fuller elucidation of the metadata you will need a comprehensive EXIF reader like ExifTool.
However, the choices nowadays are usually 12 bit or 14 bit. I can assure you that you cannot visually see any difference between them, because both depths provide a multiplicity of possible tonal levels that is far beyond the limits of human vision - 4,096 levels for 12 bit and 16,384 for 14 bit. Even an 8 bit image with its (seemingly) paltry 256 possible levels is beyond the roughly 200 levels the eye can perceive. And as has been said, LR's internal calculations are done to 16 bit precision no matter what the input depth (although your monitor is probably not displaying the previews at more than 8 bit depth) and at export the RGB image can be written to a tiff or psd in 16 bit notation. The greater depth of 14 bit Raws can possibly (although not necessarily) act as a vehicle for greater DR which might be discerned as less noise in the darkest shadows, but this is not guaranteed and applies to only a few cameras.

Poor iMovieHD quality in iDVD

I have an iMovie (iLife 05) composed of still photos and music. When I share it to iDVD and burn the DVD on my LaCie burner the quality is poor when it is played back on a DVD player. When I save the movie to Quality using expert settings, the quality is excellent. Is there any way I can get Quicktime quality using iDVD?

Hello, wmas,
Welcome to the discussions.
How are you getting your iMovie into iDVD? Are you using the 'Create DVD' button from within iMovie?
If so, try closing iMovie, launching iDVD, deleting your movie from iDVD (if you want to use the same theme) or making a new iDVD project. Then, use the 'custom' tab to navigate to 'media' then to 'movies.' You should see your movie in that panel as one of your choices. Just drag and drop it into the iDVD screen and see if the resultant DVD is of better quality.
IMovie does some rendering when it sends the movie to iDVD, and it can render some of the still photos in a way that you do not want.
Try this and see if it helps.
Post back if the images are still poor.

Crappy quality in iDVD...

I tried to make a DVD containing some pics and a movie, all from our holiday. But the quality of the final product, especially the pics, was really bad... The pics didnt scale out on all the tv-screen neighter. Its better to just show them from the PS3...
Why is this? Anyone?

Hi
Yes that's a correct observation and due to many things
• DVD is as standard only - Interlaced SD-Video when at it's best (whatever DVD authoring program used)
• Feeding iDVD - HD or Progressive material will not give a better result - but a worse one as Downscaling is done badly
• Feeding iDVD alient Video-Codecs - also can result in bad DVDs or other strange Errors
• Using iMovie'08 to 11 - will be even more degrading as when material goes from Event's to Project's it drop every second line - resulting in a big quality loss and this can not be repaired on Export (any way chosen)
But by assembling the SlideShow in
• iMovie HD6 - or -
• FinalCut any version
• FotoMagico™
Will keep 100% Interlaced SD-Video quality over to iDVD
And if Higher quality is of need then
• Blu-Ray
• Or as You do - USB-memory ---> PlayStation3 - The way I do too
• OR I use my MacBook and connect this to HD-TV or Projector
Else
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W

Increasing quality in iDVD?

hello.
is there any way to increase the quality of an iMovie project compression through iDVD? the resulting iDVD projects have a terrible quality! iDVD simply ruins all the crispiness and clarity achieved in iMovie. any solution to this, please?

iDVD does an excellent job in compressing video, using an extremely high bitrate of 8kB/sec (just a few bits under standard's max) for projects <60min.
losing quality means, something went wrong while IMPORT... iDVD expects "dv" files, as from iM using "share"/or simply dropping iM projects onto iDVD. and for pics/stills/slideshows, the rule is, not to let iM do the job of rendering...
any other formats could be used for creating a videoDVD, but are mostly lossy... e.g. importing a nice h264... which is for playback only, not DVDs...
dv is highest possible quality on consumer level, same as on miniDV tapes... ~13GB of data per hour...
iDVD is a consumer product... no manually settings of bitrates, b/i/p-frames, GOPs, ... quality is slightly better with "best performance" (=VBR)
helpful?

How to get best picture quality using iDVD to burn a movie from iMovie?

I would appreciate any guidance on options to choose and approaches such that I get the best picture quality when I view an iMovie product on a wide screen HD TV using a DVD burned with iDVD. Choose wide screen or standard format in iMovie? Best Performance or Prof. Quality in iDVD? ...

Good Morning,
My computer is using Snow Leopard 10.6.5 and has ilife 09 installed on an imac. I have been reading it is better to use imovie 06. When I tried to do a custom install from the 06 disk imovie and idvd were grayed out but had a checkmark. It would not let me deselect idvd. Not really knowing how to do this I quite the process. Can you or someone please advise me on how and what exactly to do in order to accomplish a custom install of imovie 06? Should I delete imovie 09 first? If so how is this accomplished. Perhaps it would be less complicated to purchase photo to movie? Really do not want to spend unless it is necessary since I only know a little about what I'm doing but enough to be dangerous to my computer
Thanks,
reverseimage

Photos Lost resolution when transferred to DVD using iDVD

I am new to the iMac and I created a slideshow with pictures imported to iPhoto. When you see the slideshow in the DVD, the photos look awful. Very low resolution. Is there any setting that can help me to improve photo resolution when I create a slideshow in a DVD?

I was reading through a couple of threads here and some I found on other sites through google where people were having the same issues as you describe. Try googling to see what others say. One that I found and would try myself would be to scale DOWN the images. Someone reported by scaling down the images for inclusion into iDVD helped with the quality. I don't know if they used iPhoto's crop tool with the 4x3 (DVD) setting, or if they exported the images using the Export command and scaling down copies of the images from the dialog screen (and then, I guess reimporting sized down images into iPhoto.?!). It's worth a try I guess.
btw...here's one of the threads I was talking about:
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-159464.html

Photo Quality in iDVD

I work with still photos only. Want a slideshow that maintains photo image quality. iMovie coverts to video file & degrades the quality. Changed to FotoMagico. Maintains photo quality in slideshow & offers transitions, KB effect & title slides. It exports to iDVD or Roxio Toast to burn DVD. After the burn in iDVD, the images are distorted and the transition movements are very choppy. Is iDVD coverting this to video images, thereby degrading the photo quality? Is there a way to use iDVD and maintain quality? Would Toast be better? My goal is to produce a photographic quality "still photo" slideshow using transitions, KB, etc. I am selecting NTSC 4:3, best quality in both programs. Getting very frustrated trying to output the quality I can see on my display in a DVD...any suggestion?

Hi,
I feel like I am back at school...
1. I have the BETA version because when I tried to export or burn a DVD neither worked. They knew that was a problem & sent me the BETA fix. Now I can burn or export.
2. My problem is whatever I do with the burn results in loss of image quality. I have been corresponding with Werner at FotoMagico who has been very helpful. He says image quality from still photos which have been authored & burned can not maintain image quality the technology just doesn't exist unless I go to a pro DVD lab and have them work with compressions per frame. He specifically said it is due to limitations with the MPEG-2 stream, which is standard in DVD playback. The little I have read on this is over my head.
3. Right now I will forgo the idea of playback on a TV. Let's just deal with computer. When I burn to DVD as my option and it opens in iDVD it results in degraded images. I don't know what to select in iDVD and or FotoMagico to change this result or if it is even possible. I run a G5 with a 23" monitor, most current software on ALL prgrams. Picture files are digital froma Nikon D200 and a mix of negative and slides scanned in with a Nikon CoolScan 5000 and moved into iPhoto via the scanner or a transfer from Adobe. I am having the problem with all these types. What do you mean by resolution in iPhoto?
4. I transfer from FotoMagico to iDVD by selecting 'Burn DVD' and it opens to 'iDVD'. I have left all settings on FotoMagico and iDVD at default settings and Werner said that should be okay. FYI - I have tried changing slideshow setting from display reolution to 23" monitor to NTSC. Nothing seems to change image quality.
5. I would like at this point to be able to maintain image quality for transer in Quick time, upload to .MAC web account, etc. Help me there I am lost.
6. Someone on this discussion also suggested burning to iDVD using the data portion only of the DVD using disk utility. I need help there. Also will that reproduce sound or only the photos. I understand that TV's and DVD players will not accept this mode and that is okay until someone figures out a way to maintain image quality for TV w/o an expensive lab.
7. Werner said this is possible but they suggest copying the entire package (document as well as images and audio) and move it to iDVD or Toast. On the target devise install a FOtoMagico demo version & run it there. or if the target machine is not a Mac & FotoMagico can 't be nstalled there, you can export manually to a QuickTime movie by selecting 'export' frpm the File menu. Use 'HD preset or 'QuicltTime' & burn the resulting file to a DVD. My husband & I will work on this (with a tech if nec) and maybe you have some thoughts as well.
At the end of this I think I will know more about video and FPS and MPEg's than I ever intended. Oh well, a little knowledge never hurt anyone!
One last thing, what is a BETA for NTSC. I hate to bug Werner again without knowing what this is!

Not happy with slideshows / Ken Burns effects / lesser quality in iDVD

I am a new iPhoto user, having created my first slideshow of old photos to play at my mother's 80th birthday party this week. The whole process of arranging photos, testing visual effects and adding music went swimmingly! BUT (!!!!) I am hugely disappointed now that I've rendered the show through iDVD.
-- The Ken Burns effects keep changing! Once a slideshow was created and the Burns effects seemed perfect, I sent that show to iDVD. But viewing the project once burned to DVD, I see that the cropping, zooming, etc. are all different. Is there a way to "save" a show and maintain the effects?
-- Moreover, the crystal clear image sharpness and clean edges seen when viewing a slideshow in iPhoto are "dumbed down" once the show is sent to and rendered in iDVD. Even at the "quality" setting, moving effects look raggedy-edged. This really makes me unhappy.
Any thoughts or ideas to share on this? Thanks.....

SixPack:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. As TD pointed out, making a QT movie file of a slideshow involves rendering which is then encoded once again in iDVD. IMO, the best image quality for a slideshow is obtained when you create the slideshow entirely within iDVD. Of course there's no KB effect.
If you create the show in iMovie you can get around the double encoding by closing iMovie once the slideshow is finished. Then open the iMovie project file/package (Option-click on the project file and select Show Package Contents option), find the iDVD folder and drag the .mov file in it into the open iDVD window. This will let iDVD do the rendering of the various transitions and special effects and provide a better final product.
You must remember that iDVD's final resolution is only 640 x 480.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've written an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Having problems with video quality in iDVD 09

I have created a slide show in iMovie with audio. When saved it is in a .mov format. I burned it to DVD using the burn folder option. It has great video quality in that format. Since most DVD players won't accept the .mov format or some PC's, I wanted the most common format for viewing. I exported the movie to iDVD and used these settings..
Video Mode-NTSC
Aspect Ration 16:9 widescreen
Encoding-Professional Quality
DVD Type-Single-Layer (SL)-4.2 GB
When going from the .mov format to the MPEG-2 format ( I think this is the output format for iDVD)
The quality is very poor. It seems to have wavy lines throughout the file, especially when someone is wearing patterned clothing.
Anyone know how to get the same quality of the .mov file to something that will be viewable across multiple platforms???
Would using moviegate conversion software be an answer????
Message was edited by: inthecards

inthecards wrote:
.. Anyone know how to get the same quality of the .mov file ..
a mov can contain all kind of codecs and esp. resolutions..
a videoDVD, by standards, has a 720x480 res, and is interlaced.
=> quality HAS to be 'lower' than any 5Mpix on a HiDef computer screen..
but, I did tons of slideshows with iMHD6 and iDVD.. for me, quality is superb.. for sure, tiny 'checker patterns', 'sub pixel lines' etc. HAVE to flimmer..

Burning the highest quality in idvd 9

Hi,
When burning a disk at the highest quality available in idvd 9, what is the final output resolution? I'd like to get as close to 1080i as possible (knowing that I cannot burn HD without a HD burner and equivalent software). I am curious as to what idvd does to your video and stills. I've been creating HD movies in FCE (1280x720) and using idvd to create slideshows and then burning the project to dvd for playback on my HDTV. My images are HD 1280x720 tifs which I have been importing into idvd for a slideshow. On the final output I notice the images look soft, so was wondering what quality idvd is capable of.

As stated above already iDvd is limited to standard definition. There are no workarounds that I am aware of within iDvd itself. You'll have to think outside of this app if your intention is to go high def and blu-ray or even high def on a standard dvd-r. Forget about playing it back on most macs since apple doesn't currently support Blu-ray playback through its own dvd player app. Your hands are tied unless you choose a third party or an alternate dvd player application to open the file. For example, Roxio's Toast Video Player can do this.
click here
Hope this 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.

Image quality of iDVD material

I use AfterEffects, as well as Final Cut Express, to create content. Recently I put together a program that was all AE, 24 fps, and output as a 16 bit per channel animation 'movie', ie high color resolution. When this program is played directly via Quicktime, everything is smooth.
However, after processing it to a DVD via iDVD 6.0.3, I see artifacts such as massive 'color' banding, as if the colors a subsampled to 4 bits. This is especially noticably in 'smooth gradient' areas of the image.
What of course is intersting when I 'play' the preview of the material, all looks correct, it is only after the conversion via iDVD to Mpeg2 that the results look like crap.
What is the format to give to iDVD which has the highest quality, and does the least damage to the resulting content.
Thanks,
John Clark.

There are several issues when creating media from 'something other than DV'. My work is predominantly stills at the moment, so some of these items may affect what you are trying to do.
For the most part my usual 'main goal' is to make computer/internet playable media, and so I don't usually worry about two things Pixel Aspect Ratio, and Frame Rate. Computers use 'square' pixels, and Video because of historical reasons, uses a rectangular pixel. This 'necessarily' introduces some changes in the image when converting. If one just forces the square pixels into the the rectangular, one gets distortion, ie round circles turn into elispses.
However, at the moment I need to make a 'promo' DVD and so I need to findout what the limitaitons, and what are the ways to make things as good as possible on DVD, and given that I don't have the money or even the call for making DVD's with more expensive tools, and perhaps actually more suited for my quality needs...
The next item is frame rate. I usually do 24 fps, that in itself is a form of compression, but I have been lately using the H.264 codec and it seems to be pretty good for my purposes.
Depending on the hardware being used to play, I will see some artifacts from dropping frames. But usually this is not so overwehlmingly objectionable... otherwise I'd figure what codecs and parameters to use to make things smoother.
DVD's use 'Mpeg 2' as their underlying format. Mpeg 2 is capable of handling 24 fps material, as well as 'high resolution', 'square pixels', etc. However, most of the Mpeg 2 compressors targeting DVD often are setup only to produce pixels in 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios.
In order for 24 fps to be correctly played at 29.97 fps it has to be converted.
In addition to any of the above, there is the 'compression' rate of the media. A Standard Definition video can be compressed to 6 Mbits/s data rate, with almost no 'human preceptable' loss. Going lower than this, usually introduces certain types of artifacts. Blocky 'big pixels' especially at the egdes of items in the image (usually very visible on 'photos'...), and of course the other way to compress is to make the color palette very 'small'.
I did an experiement where I took my 24 fps 16 bit/channel media, and then used Final Cut Express to encode it using the Apple HD intermediate codec. I saw some of the same artifacts as what I have seen on the iDVD output. However, it was far less than what iDVD produced.
I'm going to experiement with taking the Apple HD media and selecting the 'Best Quality' on the encoding, as opposed to 'Best Performance' (and as a subnote, background encoding... why these are somehow tied together is beyond me...)
On that topic when talking about encoding, it would be nice to know if iDVD produces a 2 pass variable bit rate package, or is it 1 pass and constant bit rate... while these probably were left out of any discription as being 'too obscure' for most casual users it would help analyze problems...

Low image quality on idvd slide show DVD

Hi, I am trying to create a DVD that will play wildlife images. I have the images (In high ressolution, edited at photoshop CS2) and an audio file (Wildlife sounds)
I went to IDVD, choosed a theme, added an image as the entrance, add a slide show, added the images to the slide show, added the sound to the slide show and exported.
My settings in idvd are set to best quality.
The resulting DVD presents very low quality, saturation has decreased immensly, sharpness is gone. Audio VERY loud.
Is this the best quality iDVD can provide? Shall I use FCP (I wish to avoid it since I will like to make new versions of the cd as long as new images arrive, iDVD, if it provides good quality, will make life much easier.
By the way, I tried exporting a slide show from iPHOTO to iDVD but the resulting quality is extremely poor. I also tried to prepare the slide shows on iMOVIE but the results I get are not good either...
Is there anything I ma doing wrong? Should I change the settings somewhere womehow? or Should I forget about iDVD?
Hope to receive an answer soon. Thanks for your time. Cheers.
Jorge

See Preparing images for DVD slideshows at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/6.0/en/17.html
I have the images (In high ressolution ...
Basically, that's an overkill. At this point (pre-HD capable burners) we are limited to the less than 640x480 pixel resolution of the NTSC system (or 768x576 pixel resolution of PAL).
You slide show should look 'fairly good' on a TV set or on your computer monitor viewed at 640x480.
Sorry.

IPad Retina Resolution - PPI issue

Hi All,
I am really struggling to get my head around what is going on in my document.
I am in process of creating a page for iPad. it only has to be a single PDF which will then go off into a magazine (publishing company will be doing this).
Now the iPads all have different resolutions and PPI abilities. The original iPad and iPad 2 are 1024px x 768px @ 132ppi and the iPad Retina is 2048px x 1536px @ 264ppi.
(See - http://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/ for specs).
Now my issue has arrisen after I have tried creating a document in inDesign with the settings of 1024px x 768px @72ppi (default & unchangeable ppi settings).
I create my image which ive made large enough & dense enough to ensure quality at the top end iPad. This image is at size 2172px x 1536px @ 528ppi (.
When I place the image into the document at its full size, it is tiny inside the document. You can see this in the attached screenshot.
Can someone please tell me what is going on, pixel wise and what I should be doing to create a document suitable for its prerequisites.
Many thanks,
Tim

Now my issue has arrisen after I have tried creating a document in inDesign with the settings of 1024px x 768px @72ppi (default & unchangeable ppi settings).
While placed images do have a pixel resolution, Indesign documents do not. So, when you make a new document with the Intent set at Web or Digital Publishing you get pixels as the initial measurement units, but you are free to change them after the doc is created.
For measurement purposes Indesign assumes there are 72 pixels in an inch—obviously that's no the case for most monitors and tablets. The Link panel's effective pixels per inch reading is relative to the page dimension in inches. So, if you accept the iPad 1024x768 preset and change the measurement settings to inches you'll get 14.22" x 10.66" almost twice the size of the iPad's physical dimensions.
If I scale up a 264ppi image to fill the page on a 14.22" x 10.66" page I get an effective ppi of 144, but when the page is eventually displayed on the smaller 7.7" x 5.8" iPad screen the effective res will go back up to 264ppi.

Hi, The burn quality of iDVD in very low for my slide shows. Images do no tlook good on playback and the sound track jumps every 99 images due to the way chapters are set up in it. How to I output a slide show to be high quiality?

Hi
the output form iDVD is very poor quality( Low res due to compression by iDVD) when I produce a slide show in iPhoto and share it over to iDVD then burn it. What is the solution? I like to add the title page in idvd ads it looks professional, but hte end output in NOT professional.
Also in iDVD the soundtrack that was flawless in iphoto now jstutters every 99 images and IDVD apparantly can only process bulk images in chapters that contain 99 images. So if you have a slide show with 245 images in you get hesitation at two points of teh slideshow as it struggles to start the next set of 99 images in the slide show!!! How annoying overall. Please help??????

There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, iMovie or iDVD and some limit the number of photos you can use (iDVD has a 99 chapter (slide) limitation).
If what you want is what I want, namely to be able to use high resolution photos (even 300 dpi tiff files), to pan and zoom individual photos, use a variety of transitions, to add and edit music or commentary, place text exactly where you want it, and to end up with a DVD that looks good on both your Mac and a TV - in other words end up with and end result that does not look like an old fashioned slide show from a projector - you may be interested in how I do it. You don't have to do it my way, but the following may be food for thought!
Firstly you need proper software to assemble the photos, decide on the duration of each, the transitions you want to use, and how to pan and zoom individual photos where required, and add proper titles. For this I use Photo to Movie. You can read about what it can do on their website:
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
(Other users here use the alternative FotoMagico: http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/homevspro/ which you may prefer - I have no experience with it.)
Neither of these are freeware, but are worth the investment if you are going to do a lot of slide shows. Read about them in detail, then decide which one you feel is best suited to your needs.
Once you have timed and arranged and manipulated the photos to your liking in Photo to Movie, it exports the file to iMovie as a DV stream. You can add music in Photo to Movie, but I prefer doing this in iMovie where it is easier to edit. You can now further edit the slide show in iMovie just as you would a movie, including adding other video clips, then send it to iDVD 7, or Toast, for burning.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how professional the results can be!
To simply create a slide show in iDVD 7 onwards from images in iPhoto or stored in other places on your hard disk or a connected server, look here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1089

Resolution (ppi) impact in quality on iDVD

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