Video quality strangely lacking

I've used idvd 5 a couple times burning videos and menus and was satisfied with the result.
I've just burned about 18 minutes worth of media on Best Quality setting and, thought the preview looked fine, I wasn't happy with the burned result. The video looked a lot brighter than in the preview version and also seemed to have a lower contrast. I had spent quite a bit of time in FCP getting the brightness and contrast levels where I wanted them so I'm a little disapointed. I tested the dvd on my friends mac and got the same problem. To my surprise, the dvd looked fine on my TV but I need it to look good on a mac.
Any suggestions?
Power Book G$ Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Claire,
I have just posted the results of a play-thru test I conducted using gray patches at: http://homepage.mac.com/profpixel/gray_patches/graypatches.htm
You can see how things get a little 'dingy'.

Similar Messages

Best trade-off... File size vs. video quality

For several years, I have been creating a .WMV format video file after recording our church's Sunday sermon (using Premiere Pro). Today, for example, I processed the 40 minute sermon down to a 40MByte .WMV file with "decent" quality. The only problem has been that folk who come to our website (sermons are at http://www.calvarychristianchurch.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=dspSermonSeries, if anyone wants to see the current video quality or lack thereof) using a Mac don't seem to be able to play the file WITH SOUND (the video portion works fine)! So, I'm looking to go to another format, but I would REALLY welcome suggestions as to what would be to best format to get at least as good video quality in a file not TOO much larger than my current .WMVs, that is playable both in WMPlayer on the PC and in whatever the comparable player is on the Mac (I presume QuickTime, but haven't played with a Mac in YEARS, so don't know...)!
I'm using PPro CS5.5 with an Intel i5 processor, if that helps any. Oh, one last parameter... Currently my computer crunches the files in 15-20 minutes. I could go lnger if I >had< to do so, but would prefer not having to wait forever!
Thanks in advance!
- Jim 8^)

BH,
Just a quick response... The minister is wearing a wireless mic, so no boom mic is needed. I may not have given the recorded video's audio track enough gain, however.
Thanks!

Publish+Share signifcantly reduces video quality in Premiere Elements 13

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

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

Video quality of burned DVD way inferior to content viewed in iDVD program

I notice the video and menu quality on my burned DVD is VASTLY inferior to video and menu quality when viewing menus and content in the iDVD program while building the presentation.
Having encoded at "Professional Quality" to a single layer DVD which didn't look so good, a number of posts in this forum suggested that "Best Performance" actually renders the best video quality.
I'm using high-quality media from Verbatim so that's not a problem. The DVD's burn fine.
The content -- all high-quality QT movies with great resolution, color and crisp text and animation, look great in and of themselves, and when viewed in the iDVD program. The menus and clips embedded in the scene select buttons, all look crisp and clean.
Burned to DVD however, the video looks noticeably "worn" and the clips in the buttons lack any kind of crispness or resolution. Definitely disappointing. The animations look herky-jerky.
Anyone know what the problem is?

Hi
No iDVD has a fixed quality - as old time TVs
• PAL 625 lines (720x576)
• NTSC 520 lines (720x480)
so Your Mac screen are way higher resolution.
There are NO HD version of iDVD - yet
*DVD bad quality*
copy of an answer on a similar question - may be of help
the iMovie 08 & 09 don't apply
There are two problems in this question.
• iDVD
• iMovie'08 or 09
iDVD - can only handle Standard definition TV quality - NO version can handle HD !
SD-TV
EU - PAL system = 625 lines analog display (no pixles) 25fps
US - NTSC system = 520 lines and 29.97 fps
That's the best iDVD can do.
iMovie up to version HD 6 - could handle interlaced video (displaying every second line
first then start over with the rest - 25fps = 50 frames of interlaced video
less flickering.
iMovie'08 and 09 has destroyed this by deleting every second line
Result a resolution of
PAL 312 lines
NTSC 260 lines
So photos displayed this way will look crappy.
Improvment
Use iMovie HD 6 or FinalCut Express or Pro
Else only way I know of to get "full" quality is by using other tools all together.
Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro (incl BR-component) and here the included FotoMagico™ for SlideShows.
Toast™ also can burn Blue-Ray - even on standard DVD (but much less eg 20 min movie)
These BR-DVDs Can only be playbacked on a Blue-Ray Player (eg PlayStation 3)
But they look super.
A more specific part reg. FinalCut
I do in FC-Express or Pro
• Export out as a QuickTime .mov file
• Not selfcontained (not important but saves time and spaces)
• NO QUICKTIME CONVERSION (Important)
I use
• Verbatim DVD-R disks
• Burn at a reduced speed x1 or x4 recommended by many)
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on internal boot hard disk for 4x3 SD video
and my guess is that I would secure 5 - 6 times more for 16x9 HD
(Still no version of iDVD can do HD)
Yours Bengt W

URGENT - Screen Capture Video Quality

Hi,
I need to create a movie for a client that shows the computer system that was developed for them. The system is a web application and is accessed using Internet Explorer. I need to be able to put the movie onto a dvd for viewing at various client locations.
I created a number of screen capture videos using Snagit 9 showing the user experience in Internet Explorer. I took these with my screen resolution at 1440x900 and, when I put them into my Premiere Elements project that is setup as a NTSC DV format, the video quality is unreadable. I have tried to use several tools to compress the video to a size that is lower than the 720x480 resolution of my NTSC DV format Premiere project and the files themselves look great when I view them using Windows Media player. However, when I add the files to Adobe Premiere they become extremely blurry regardless of whether I've scaled the video or not. I have tried different aspect ratios in the Interpret Footage and have even removed the scale to frame option.
Does anyone have any idea what I am doing wrong or how I can fix this problem? I need to have this video completed for tomorrow evening and am stuck with the illegible screen capture videos. Please help.
Thanks,
Scot

Burn your project to DVD (or first to a folder then onto DVD) and see how it looks on a standalone DVD player. It may be a problem with your screen resolutions v native resolutions, or a lack of preview rendering (is there a red line above your timeline - if so press enter).
On top of this you have the absolute problem that your are asking PRE to reduce from a 1440 x 900 screen resolution to a 720x480 DVD format. How well it does this you'll really only see by burning a DVD - but if it doesn't look good enough you might consider using a 800 x 600 screen resolution to record your screen captures and reduce the amount of downscaling PRE does.
Which Snagit Export format did you use to import to PRE? What other export formats are available?
Cheers,
Neale
Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

Poor Audio and Video Quality

Using IDVD to burn iMovie containing pictures and music and am getting very poor quality audio and video. The video is very low resolution, lacking clarity and definition, and the audio comes out really flat with over-saturated vocals that is unpleasant to listen to.
The content was made from iMovie 11, importing photos from iPhoto and iTunes music.
I exported the movie via Share->Export Movie-> HD 1080P
In iDVD 7.1.2 I imported the movie (actually several) into a slideshow menu item.
I used the iDVD encoding preferences set at 'Best Performance' and 'Professional Quality' with no difference between the two
Then to ensure it wasn't the DVD disk causing the problem, I used the 'Save as Disc Image', and validated the file image saved to disk had the same quality issues as the burned DVD.
Then to eliminate the iMovie as the problem, ran a test and used an iPhoto slideshow in place of the iMovie, and it also has the same low quality issues.
I have observed that using the iDVD viewing capabilities, the A/V quality is fine. Its after the burn to disk the problem occurs.
At this point I'm not sure what to try. I'm viewing the DVD on my 50" widescreen TV using Sony DVD player.
A year or so back I did similar steps and the DVD came out fine... the sound quality was excellent and the video quality while not outstanding, was reasonable.
Any ideas -- I'm really stumped.

Hi
In iMovie'11 - I do (not use Share to iDVD)
• Share to Media Browser - AND AS Large - NOT HD ! (result will not be better but rather WORSE)
• In iDVD I import from Media button and Movie tab.
Yours Bengt W

After IOS7 video quality poor on iphone4s

Hi,
anyone else noticed the video quality blurry on iphone 4s after ios7? snapped a few seconds of video out with the dog yesterday, uploaded it and its dreadfull!
never had any issues before, camera seems okay, but video quality is lousy!
any ideas? anyone else having the same?
aside from that ios 7 seems okay.
thanks

I have experienced the same problem recently, without having made any changes whatsoever to my Handbrake settings. Very strange - streaming quality went from excellent to horrible. The only possible factor, as referred to elsewhere, may be that I upgraded to 9.4v of HB. Yet, even then I did not fiddle with any settings, did not use ATV Legacy (note as problematic elsewhere), did not enable CABAC (also problematic). Verified post-conversion settings of many of my movies in iTunes and there is no difference. Network is as strong as ever. Did, however, recently upgrade ATV software - could this be a related issue?

Is there a difference in video quality shot on MiniDV tape or HDD ?

Now that the new Macbooks lack a firewire connection, and following on from Steve Jobs comment that there are many HDD camcorders available I just wondered if there is any difference in the quality of the end video between that filmed with a MiniDV camcorder and that on a hard drive based camcorder. I have a Panasonic 3CCD camcorder that is still going strong and I think produces very good footage so I wasn't intending to replace it until it dies, but when I do replace it I want to improve on it rather than take a step backwards or sideways. If hard drive camcorders can produce better quality footage and are not just better for convenience sake I can see the point of dropping the firewire connection.
So could someone clarify this for me, and also maybe tell me what the format choice of the professionals would be?

The answer is that HDD has nothing to do with video quality. It is just another media on which the video is recorded. The selection of media has its own pros & cons independent of the video 'quality'. That said, most tape-based cams record in DV or HDV whereas most HDD based cams record in AVCHD.
Quality is subjective. You can read all about the relative merits of DV, HDV & AVCHD on the net and in this forum. HDV and AVCHD are much more highly compressed than DV but they enable hi-def, 16:9 video.
If you're an average consumer you would be hard pressed to see significant differences between these formats in the finished video other than the obvious 4:3 vs 16:9 aspect ratio difference.
As David said, you will be better off spending time looking for camcorders that have the best lenses, and learning how to shoot top quality video, then worrying about the codec or the media.

Bad video quality on Atom over Internet, but not o...

I have an Asus netbook with a 1.66GHz Atom, 1GB DDR3, and XP. The video quality when in a call over the Internet is almost always bad, and Skype complains the computer is "slow". There is no virus scanner or any other garbage running that sucks up resources. I keep it lean.
So I tried using a different computer to make the call; an 8 year old Sempron laptop, also with XP and 2.2GHz or close to that. Video quality is great. So it's obviously a computer performance issue, right?
It gets stranger. I set up a video call between these two computers over my LAN (i.e. within the same house). Video quality is great on both.
The results have been similar over a span of a year or more, calling people in different parts of the country, and even dropping Wifi and using a cable.
So what causes Skype to think the computer is slow when video calling over the Internet, but not when calling another computer on the same LAN? I have a theory, but I'll hold that thought for right now.

I have been using iChat exclusively over WiFi (Airport Extreme) from my iMac, and via Ethernet and WiFi from my Powerbook. I have not had any quality issues when connecting in this manner. Connections within my local network from WiFi to WiFi, as well as to outside connections over Broadband have all been of very good quality. Now if I can just get it all working again following the upgrade to Leopard 10.5.1.
FYI: I have even used iChat AV on Tiger using DUN on my Treo650 (Sprint), which worked fine as well.

Video Quality :: remaining recording time in shari...

I have a problem when setting the Video Quality to Sharing Quality the remaining recording time shown ONLY 35 seconds but when I increased it to TV high quality it comes 1 h : 30 m : 25 s
strange???
can any one help

not sure , but 'sharing quality' may be something you can attach to a txt message so is limited to data size of video rather than available phone memory ? I tend to record in high quality and simply upload via Pixelpipe to FB or Image Shack and send a link via message if I want to share via sms . Hope you get a better solution from someone who knows the definitive answer
If I have helped at all, a click on the White Star is always appreciated :
you can also help others by marking 'accept as solution'

Quicktime 7.4.5 HD Video Quality is Poor

Hello, every since I updated to the latest QT version the video playback quality of my HD's movies has been poor. For example when I play a 480p trailer the video appears very jaggy around the outlines of text and objects. The QT preferences are set to High Quality.
I tried completely reinstalling QT and still got the same results. Luckily I did still have the previous QT version so I installed that and now the playback quality is perfect once again. Guess I'll have to stick to this version until another update comes out.
Any one else have this problem?

I just tried using that option in the 7.4.1 version that i installed and doing so actually reduces video quality, don't think that would help in 7.4.5. Funny thing is when i do put it in safe mode the video quality looks exactly the same as in 7.4.5.
It's almost as if the newest version is running in safe mode even though i have it set to directx, strange...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video quality strangely lacking

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for