Screen Capture Video Loses Quality When Imported Into iMovie - WHY?

I am using screen capture software to make a video of my screen at 1024x768. The video is for a tutorial. I want to use iMove to get things like transitions and such into the movie, and to add text and audio. The problem is that, although the video looks great in QuickTime, it loses quality significanly when I import into iMove. The text on the screen is blurry, and the quality of everything else is terrible as well.
Is this s limitation of iMove? Can screen capture video be imported? Does it only work with DV?
Also, I tried to convert the file to many other formats, from QuickTime to MPEG-4, so it's not the file type.
If anyone can help me out, I've be very grateful.
Thanks!
iBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.5)  

Your dimensions are getting in the way. iMovie converts your 1024X768 to a DV Stream file that is 720X480.
One workaround would be to set your display resolution smaller. Try 800X600 (if your windows fit that size).
If you're using Snapz Pro you should set your window capture to 640X480. This size will import nicely into iMovie.
An even better way would be to do all of the work using QuickTime Pro. Again a 1024X768 QT.mov file would not fit on the most common display settings used. When you add the QT Player window the controller would be below the screen and not accessible for most users.
800X600 would make a better file (smaller, too). It would still be 4:3 aspect and would also import into iMovie.

Similar Messages

  • Images lose quality when imported into Pages

    Hi,
    when I import images into Pages, they lose quality. They are normal jpg files.
    After the import they look a bit fuzzy. I dunno why...
    thanks

    In the Inspector "Measures" there is a button allowing us to reset to the original size.
    Of course, the picture will be smaller than the blurred one
    or
    will be too large and parts will be hidden.
    Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mardi 30 juin 2009 12:12:46)

  • How do I get audio back on single clip that loses audio when imported into Premiere Pro CC?

    I've got one clip out of many that for some reason won't play any audio when imported into Premiere Pro.  I am new to Premiere Pro so am hoping it's something stupid I've done, but this is a problem with just a single clip exported the same way as all my others, the original audio is loud (not quiet) and none of the FAQ issues seem to apply (ie I haven't muted the audio or anything stupid like that)
    The clip was exported from Plural Eyes into a "master" Premiere Pro project where the audio is fine. I exported it as a short MP4 clip and if I play the clip in Windows Media Player the audio is there loud and clear.
    But when I import the clip into a fresh Preimiere Pro CC project this clip appears with just the "film strip" icon on the far left in the Timeline panel, unlike other clips which have an icon that shows "film strip" in the background and "audio wave" in the foreground.
    I'm hitting so many glitches with the CC editions of Premiere Pro and After Effects which have annoying inconsistencies between them I'm tempted to just go back to Sony Vegas Pro (single program, no hassle) but hoping most of these issues are down to "newbie incompetence". Very hard to understand why this one clip out of many should be giving me this specific problem though. Any ideas?

    I'm getting so many weird results. Most go away by simply closing the project and re-opening and I only have 6GB memory but even so, I'm disappointed by what I thought was supposed to be more "world class" video editing software than Sony Vegas Pro which I found to be a lot more stable. Also struggling with differences between Premiere and After Effects. Every time I want to do something in Pro I seem to need to go to After Effects and vice-versa. After Effects lets me do more of what I could "just do" in Vegas Pro timeline, but it's hideous for lining up audio and having to render anything in RAM to even get a clue as to what a change has done.  Need to add Audition to the long list as well I suspect. Fun times!

  • FLASH VIDEO LOSES QUALITY WHEN "WMODE" SET TO TRANSPARENT

    I have a flash video beside a roll out menu. When I set the
    "wmode" to transparent the video loses quality. Any help would be
    appreciated. Thanks.

    This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
    --------------010106060209070007020804
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
    actually, i can see in that code that you do still have wmode
    transparent stuff in there. if you look just a little before
    the ending
    script tag, you'll see some. and then it's also in one of the
    parameter
    tags. in fact, you have the wmode=transparent parameter tag,
    but not the
    one that the instruction i gave you said to put in! actually,
    it doesn't
    look like you followed the instructions i gave you at all! at
    least not
    completely.
    i think your best bet might be to just delete the video from
    the page
    (your code is too messed up for me to figure it out, sorry)
    and
    re-insert it, then follow the instructions on the link i gave
    you. but
    you need to do EVERYTHING it says to do, all the way until it
    says *"2.
    Hiding the <select> element:"
    * if you start fresh and follow those instructions precisely,
    i think it
    will work!
    just started wrote:
    > courtney (n h c) wrote:
    > quick question: when you did the stuff in the link i
    gave you, did you
    > remember to take out any wmode/transparent stuff that
    you already put in
    > there?
    >
    > Yes I did take out the wmode/transparent.
    >
    > This is the code. Thanks.
    >
    > <script type="text/javascript">
    > AC_FL_RunContent(
    > 'codebase','
    http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#
    >
    version=8,0,0,0','width','550','height','367','id','FLVPlayer','src','FLVPlayer_
    >
    Progressive','flashvars','&MM_ComponentVersion=1&skinName=Clear_Skin_3&streamNam
    >
    e=videos/2007_fishing_video&autoPlay=true&autoRewind=true','quality','high','sca
    >
    le','noscale','name','FLVPlayer','salign','lt','pluginspage','
    http://www.macrome
    >
    dia.com/go/getflashplayer','movie','FLVPlayer_Progressive','wmode','transparent'
    > ); //end AC code
    > </script><noscript><object
    > classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
    > codebase="
    http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#ve
    > rsion=8,0,0,0" width="550" height="367"
    id="FLVPlayer">
    > <param name="movie" value="FLVPlayer_Progressive.swf"
    />
    > <param name="salign" value="lt" />
    > <param name="quality" value="high" />
    > <param name="scale" value="noscale" />
    > <param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
    > <param name="FlashVars"
    >
    >
    value="&MM_ComponentVersion=1&skinName=Clear_Skin_3&streamName=videos/2007_fishi
    > ng_video&autoPlay=true&autoRewind=true" />
    > <embed src="FLVPlayer_Progressive.swf" wmode="opaque"
    width="550"
    > height="367" quality="high"
    > pluginspage="
    http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"
    > type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed>
    >
    flashvars="&MM_ComponentVersion=1&skinName=Clear_Skin_3&streamName=videos/2007_f
    > ishing_video&autoPlay=true&autoRewind=true"
    quality="high" scale="noscale"
    > width="550" height="367" name="FLVPlayer" salign="LT"
    > type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
    > pluginspage="
    http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"
    />
    > </object>
    > </noscript>
    >
    >
    --------------010106060209070007020804
    Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01
    Transitional//EN">
    <html>
    <head>
    <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"
    http-equiv="Content-Type">
    </head>
    <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
    actually, i can see in that code that you do still have wmode
    transparent stuff in there. if you look just a little before
    the ending
    script tag, you'll see some. and then it's also in one of the
    parameter
    tags. in fact, you have the wmode=transparent parameter tag,
    but not
    the one that the instruction i gave you said to put in!
    actually, it
    doesn't look like you followed the instructions i gave you at
    all! at
    least not completely.<br>
    <br>
     i think your best bet might be to just delete the
    video from the page
    (your code is too messed up for me to figure it out, sorry)
    and
    re-insert it, then follow the instructions on the link i gave
    you. but
    you need to do EVERYTHING it says to do, all the way until it
    says <strong>"2.
    Hiding the &lt;select&gt; element:"<br>
    <br>
    </strong> if you start fresh and follow those
    instructions precisely, i
    think it will work!<br>
    <br>
    just started wrote:
    <blockquote cite="mid:[email protected]"
    type="cite">
    <pre wrap="">courtney (n h c) wrote:
    quick question: when you did the stuff in the link i gave
    you, did you
    remember to take out any wmode/transparent stuff that you
    already put in
    there?
    Yes I did take out the wmode/transparent.
    This is the code. Thanks.
    &lt;script type="text/javascript"&gt;
    AC_FL_RunContent(
    'codebase','<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="
    http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#">http://download.macr omedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#</a>
    version=8,0,0,0','width','550','height','367','id','FLVPlayer','src','FLVPlayer_
    Progressive','flashvars','&amp;MM_ComponentVersion=1&amp;skinName=Clear_Skin_3&amp;streamN am
    e=videos/2007_fishing_video&amp;autoPlay=true&amp;autoRewind=true','quality','high','sca
    le','noscale','name','FLVPlayer','salign','lt','pluginspage','<a
    class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="
    http://www.macrome">http://www.macrome</a>
    dia.com/go/getflashplayer','movie','FLVPlayer_Progressive','wmode','transparent'
    ); //end AC code
    &lt;/script&gt;&lt;noscript&gt;&lt;object
    classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
    codebase=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="
    http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0">"http ://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#ve
    rsion=8,0,0,0"</a> width="550" height="367"
    id="FLVPlayer"&gt;
    &lt;param name="movie" value="FLVPlayer_Progressive.swf"
    /&gt;
    &lt;param name="salign" value="lt" /&gt;
    &lt;param name="quality" value="high" /&gt;
    &lt;param name="scale" value="noscale" /&gt;
    &lt;param name="wmode" value="transparent" /&gt;
    &lt;param name="FlashVars"
    value="&amp;MM_ComponentVersion=1&amp;skinName=Clear_Skin_3&amp;streamName=videos/2007_fi shi
    ng_video&amp;autoPlay=true&amp;autoRewind=true"
    /&gt;
    &lt;embed src="FLVPlayer_Progressive.swf" wmode="opaque"
    width="550"
    height="367" quality="high"
    pluginspage=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="
    http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">"http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" </a>
    type="application/x-shockwave-flash"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;
    flashvars="&amp;MM_ComponentVersion=1&amp;skinName=Clear_Skin_3&amp;streamName=videos/200 7_f
    ishing_video&amp;autoPlay=true&amp;autoRewind=true"
    quality="high" scale="noscale"
    width="550" height="367" name="FLVPlayer" salign="LT"
    type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
    pluginspage=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="
    http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">"http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" </a>
    /&gt;
    &lt;/object&gt;
    &lt;/noscript&gt;
    </pre>
    </blockquote>
    </body>
    </html>
    --------------010106060209070007020804--

  • Why is my 60i video pixelated/choppy when imported into Final Cut Pro X?

    I just bought a brand new Nikon D5200 to get into some indie film making. I put together a quick short the night I got it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN8OAprluOI) and filmed in 1080p at 24fps. It turned out great, footage looked great, was ready to test out the 1080 60i they put on it. Again, the footage looked great but only on the camera this time...Every time I go to import it into FCP X it comes up pixelated and choppy but if I'm just watching it in Quicktime its smooth and looks fantastic. Is there anything I can do to get my 60i footage imported into FCP X and stay true to the quality? The codec it's importing on is
    h.264 and when it gets into FCP X it switches over to it's true nature of 29.97i so i just don't know what the problem can be!!
    HELP PLEASE!!!!
    Thanks in advance!

    ZacBecker wrote:
    It turned out great, footage looked great, was ready to test out the 1080 60i they put on it.
    Hey Zach.
    How did your progressive footage wind up in an interlaced video? (Who is "they"?)
    Typically, one wants to edit as close as possible to what was shot. The cases where progressive needs to be converted to interlaced would typically be where one needed to match delivery requirements in broadcast. The conversion to interlaced is almost certainly going to introduce "issues".
    Russ

  • Pictures are loosing quality when imported into I photo 08

    Hello all,
    I have just recently made the switch to mac with no regrets, only a few questions. Here is my situation. I recently took some pictures at a wedding, I have a nikon d80 set with a jpeg setting. Now the pictures when viewed on my camera, on my windows PC and in finder look great. When I imported them into i photo, all the photo's have more red tones in them. Please advise.
    One more thing, when I imported the pictures, I saved them all to the hard drive, then imported them into i photo. don't know if it makes a difference.

    SD video is just 1/3 megapixel. Importing a multi-megapixel image into iMovie turns it into a 1/3 megapixel image (or if you use Ken Burn: a 1/3 megapixel video).
    Fear not. When you burn a DVD it will look just fine.
    IMPORTANT: When sending to iDVD from iMovie, iMovie may tell you that some stills are not rendered. Do NOT let iMovie render them. iDVD will do a much better job rendering them.

  • Why do Apple photos lose quality when imported to Windows?

    When photos taken on an Apple phone are imported to Windows Photoshop Elements 11, the photos seriously lose quality.  Why?

    A bitmap image (such as a .jpg or .gif) is basically a grid of colors, which are represented by the values (numbers) for how much red, green, and blue of each pixel in the grid to activate when the image is displayed on a monitor or printed.
    Some bitmap images (including .jpgs) can also specify a color profile. Applications that support color profiles will adjust the color values before they are displayed. Photoshop honors color profiles, Fireworks does not. Fireworks does not, because most browsers do not; Fireworks displays images as they will be seen on the Web. Photoshop does, because Photoshop can support color profiles for print devices.
    Photoshop has a default color profile. If you open an image that does not have a color profile in Photoshop, Photoshop will apply its default color profile to the image and adjust the color values it displays. Photoshop shows you modified data; Fireworks shows you the raw data. This is not a quality issue, because nothing has changed with your image and the applications are operating exactly as they are supposed to.
    What you want, I think, is to be able to open your image in Photoshop, and then save the richer view of the colors you see, but without a color profile.
    Read this article: http://www.viget.com/inspire/save-for-web-simply
    You can find out more about this whole issue if you query your favorite search engine for the phrase "photoshop save for web color shift" (without the quotes).

  • Why does my video skip when importing into iMovie?

    I'm using a Canon HD video camcorder (HV20) to import my home videos into iMovie.  After starting the import, the video being recorded in iMovie often "skips" (flickers on the computer screen / sound is also affected) yet the video playing on the camcorder plays without any issues.  Can someone help?

    You would get better results if you convert the MP4 ciips into Apple Intermediate Codec before editing. After editing you can render them back into MP4 if you want.
    MPEG Streamclip (free) will do this conversion. Or get iMovie 09 and it will do it.

  • Poor photo quality when importing to iMovie

    I imported some photos to make a slide show with added soundtrack. When I select a photo and click the "Show photo settings" it looks crisp and clear, just as it was shot. As soon as I deselect the "Show photo settings" button it looks blurred, pixeled and fuzzy, just an ultra low quality photo. The end result of the video slide show it's just a low end work.
    I just want to burn some DVD's to show my photographic work, but such a poor photo quality it's not going to help me achieve what I had intended.
    Any clues anyone???

    I'd like to follow up on your answer re: resolving poor photo quality. It seems the mere act of bringing photos into iMovie degrades the quality. You look at the photo in the preview window and it looks crisp. But then when you "ADD" it to the timeline, it becomes almost fuzzy. Isn't iMovie rendering the photos then and there as you bring them into the timeline? I cannot seem to make the photos look sharper and it doesn't seem to help doing the slideshow first in iPhoto, which I'd rather not do anyway.
    Any suggestions?

  • How do I keep .mov clips from being squashed when imported into iMovie HD6?

    Hi there! First time poster... Hoping someone can help me out with this:
    I've stupidly shot some footage with my digital camera sideways, portrait-style. I used QuickTime Pro 7 to rotate the footage clockwise, preserving the aspect ratio, so now the .mov clips are 480x640 pixels (so 3:4, instead of the standard 4:3).
    When I import the clips into iMovie HD 6, the footage gets squashed to fit the 4:3 screen, making everyone look shorter and fatter. The Help file advises that iMovie "automatically adjusts incoming footage to fit the screen size (aspect ratio) of your project".
    Is there some way I can opt out of this automatic adjustment? I'd prefer to have black bands on the sides of the screen than squashed video!
    Thanks for any help you can give. Cheers!

    You'll need to make an all black 640X480 image file and add it to your video.
    Adjust its layer so it is in the background and then reduce the dimensions of your video so it fits over it.
    Bring this new file into iMovie.

  • Built-in iSight video is jerky when recorded into iMovie.

    Hello,
    When I record video in iMovie directly from my built-in iSight, the resulting video is rather jerky - it doesn't look like the frame rate is slow, it's just that if I move my arm quickly, for example, while it may be a smooth motion in real life, the recorded video has little stutters in the motion, almost if some of the frames are out-of-order.  I don't have this issue when using iChat - everything looks fine there. I have a MacBook Pro 17-inch (Mid-2009), with iLife '09, Mac OS X 10.6.7, 4 GB RAM, and about 100 GB of free space on my hard drive.  Everything is completely up-to-date via Software Update, and I just ran Repair Disk Permissions in Disk Utility last week.  The last time I recorded into iMovie, I didn't have any other applications running on the computer, and it still happened.  The computer was sitting stationary on a table.  I was using a professional microphone through a FireWire interface, and the audio recorded perfectly - it was just the video that had issues.  The audio and video stayed perfectly in-sync the whole time, too.  The video looked jerky in iMovie immediately after recording, and still looked jerky after being uploaded to YouTube.  I've seen other people's videos on YouTube that exhibit this behavior, and they generally look fine if I go down to a lower resolution for playback, so I'm guessing I'm not alone - it could either be an iSight issue or an iMovie issue.

    Sorry, I meant when I use the 'Q' command to put the video onto the storyline. I use the Import files to bring the files into my library of videos and it looks fine there before using 'Q' to stack the video onto the storyline. 99 percent of the time it works fine, it just has this flipped error when building multi-video composites, it has never happened when I build a normal video project.

  • Canopus ADVC110 - No Audio When Importing into Imovie 6

    I'm trying to import a vhs video tape from a vcr through the canopus ADVC110 into imovie. The video comes over fine, but there is no audio. I've checked the connections and they all look correct. Any ideas?

    I am having the exact same problem except I am using iMovie HD 5.0.2. It is definetly not my camcorder because I tried connnecting other audio sources to the converter. No audio is recognized by iMovie. I tried "cycling the power" opening and quitting GarageBand and deselecting ouput to camcorder. Nothing seems to work. Please help!!

  • IPhone videos lose quality when shared

    Sometimes when i take a video and send it through messages or even email its turns out blurry and just crappy quality on my girlfriends phone.theres one video in particular that im looking for and i can only find the crappy blurry coppy in my messages attachments folder on my MBP.I have an iphone 5 and my gf has the 4s if that helps.just curious to see if anybody else has the same problem or knows how to fix it. Thanks!

    When you send a video with a message via messages, the video gets compresses to save data, so the video will look blurry, and crappy quality.
    As far as the one you are only finding on the MBP, if you did not import the videos to the computer, and deleted them from the phone, then that could be the only copy you are going to find.

  • Video loses quality when I put motion footage in FCP?

    I made a little thing in Motion but when I put it in FCP, the quality goes down dramatically.
    Does anyone know why this is happening?
    Thanks a lot

    Not without you telling us exactly what you're doing. What are the exact specifications of the Motion project? How is the Motion content getting into FCP? Exactly are the specifications of the sequence you're working in?

  • Decreased JPEG quality when inserted into iMovie as stillframe

    I am trying to create a 1 minute video of still frames that consists of a picture that has a duration for 1 second, followed by a black screen for .5 second, repeated until the end of the video.
    What I am finding is that the quality of the JPEG decreases when it is inserted to iMovie and is then saved to a file format that would work within presentations (often .wmv). I have tried saving as Quicktime and then using other programs to convert to .wmv but experience the same problem.
    Is there an easy solution to this problem? I'd appreciate any help that I can get.

    Sounds like you are creating web graphics. Your project is almost the a standard web banner size. It's very small. If your composition window is set to full resolution and 100% scale and the imported images are not perfect then follow these instructions.
    The comp must be set to square pixels and an even number of pixels high and wide
    The quality setting of the layer in the timeline must be set to high quality (the slash should be solid and go this way /)
    Your original images should be created in square pixels (most are) and they should be an even number of pixels high and wide
    Your images should be set to 100% scale.
    Do that and you'll get a pixel for pixel reproduction of the original image. If you scale, rotate, or mix pixel aspect ratios then the pixels will be reinterpreted. If the image is an odd number of pixels high or wide then the pixels won't line up.

Maybe you are looking for