DV video quality

Hello Steve,

Thanks for yours (and everyone else's) contributions here, but a lot of this has gone over my head. Could I ask for a quick summary here?
Essentially, buying an HD camera solves all the problems with IM 08 and 09? If so, fair enough, as I don't want to have to monkey around with converting files and buying FCP.

Personally, I'll reserve judgment on 09 as I've not seen it yet, but I find 08 a bit of a dog's dinner, fixing something that wasn't broken as far as the interface goes.

However, I feel I need a plan B in case I can't change the camera just yet. That means using IM 06, and I have the stand alone version you could download free at one stage on my iMac. However, I've bought a Macbook for my holidays, and I'd like to put IM 06 on there. I have iLife 06, but I'm not sure I can install it on its own. Can I copy it from my iMac onto the Macbook?

I hope that's suitably brief after the correspondence you've put in.

Thanks,

" I have iLife 06, but I'm not sure I can install it on its own. Can I copy it from my iMac onto the Macbook?"

You can move just iM06 to your new computer. Be sure to empty the iM06 Trash first. I have both 06 and 09 running on my MBP.

Hello Steve,

Thanks for the fast response. This sounds promising. You refer to emptying the trash - the only way I know how to do this is open all the projects and empty the trash in each - or is there some central folder for this?

Was I right about the change of camera?

I read this thread as I also noticed that the quality of the iMovie09 exported video is worse than the DV quality it captures from my old Panasonic camcorder.
Two things I need to ask, especially Steve Mullen:

1) when exporting to Apple Motion JPEG A (or even to MPEG-4) using MPEGStreamClip 1.9.2, the resulted video looks like someone has sliced it horizontally and then pulled the odd slices a few pixels left, and the even ones a few pixels right. I am referring to the contours of objects. Do you also observe this? Why does this occur? I am really asking myself if this is not even worse than the quality of the exported iMovie09 video.

2) The moment I drag a selected piece of DV video into my project (in iMovie09), and then I play it from my project, I see that it is automatically cropped/zoomed in, at least the top and bottom of it, even if my project is 4:3. Any idea how I can set it to prevent that?

KBeat wrote:
Hi Mark,

I use iMovie '09. I don't actually use iMovie '06 any longer. More often than not my videos are destined to be shared via MobileMe galleries, YouTube, or the TV. In all three cases, importing anything higher than the "Large" setting doesn't net any appreciable quality gain, and at the "Large" setting on HDV footage none of these issues apply.

If you have the same intended usage, and unless you're going to do 1080p exports, I'd suggest staying with "Large." The space savings are huge and it's much easier to work with in terms of system horsepower. Tapes are so cheap, a couple of bucks in bulk, that you can literally save them for as long as you'd like, and go back later to reimport at "Full" should your needs change. It's one of the reasons I still prefer working with tape.

For the projects that will require something more, I tend to use Final Cut Express. However, I actually find myself using iMovie '09 to to do the rough cut more and more frequently. I find I can turn footage into something coherent much more quickly using iMovie '08/'09 than using a NLE (iMovie '06, Final Cut). I then export the project to FCE and do the final editing.

FWIW, you've got a 30p option on the HV30 that I don't have on my HV20. From Steve's tests, using that 30p option when filming will eliminate any quality issues you could have with iMovie '09 no matter what size you import or what you do to the footage (scaling, stabilization, etc.).

That's a great camera btw. No matter what you use to edit your footage you're going to love the camera!

KBeat -

I hope this thread is still going... 🙂

I'm wondering if you'd be patient enough to walk me through step-by-step in your iMovie 09/FCE4 workflow? I'm shooting 30P on my HV30 camcorder & have been importing into IM09 sometimes Full, sometimes Large. Exporting to YouTube is no problem completely witin IM09, but there are several times when I need to burn to DVD for gifts or fundraisers. I've played a little bit with FCE4, but really know IM09 much better.

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated as I have a couple of DVDs to burn for fundraisers this coming week.

Thanks! Deborah

Deborah,

I haven't seen kbeat on the forum for awhile. Just curious, why you don't just share to iDvd. I import on Full to provide options to create a bluray or WDMP version of the movie, but for external use such as sharing with relatives...i share to idvd unless they have a bluray player.

Have you been having difficulties in sharing to idvd? FCE provides more features for such as music tracks and other advanced functionality. Considering your ultimate destination is a DVD your large or full imports should work fine.

Sheryl Kingstone wrote:
Deborah,

I haven't seen kbeat on the forum for awhile. Just curious, why you don't just share to iDvd. I import on Full to provide options to create a bluray or WDMP version of the movie, but for external use such as sharing with relatives...i share to idvd unless they have a bluray player.

Have you been having difficulties in sharing to idvd? FCE provides more features for such as music tracks and other advanced functionality. Considering your ultimate destination is a DVD your large or full imports should work fine.

Sheryl:

y'know I've never really even tried Share to iDVD as I had always heard on these forums that it messes with the picture quality.

I've got a project due this week which is a fundraiser DVD and I'm thinking most people for this don't have high def or blu-ray, but I did want to give a good quality DVD.

Sadly, way back when I started on this project, I imported at Large rather than Full so I'm already down a notch of picture quality. I did want to use the Chapters feature, if I could, which I understand is only available when you Share to iDVD.

Is what I'm planning going to give good results, do you think, or do you have any suggestions (for this project AND future projects?) I'm with you... I REALLY love the UI of iMovie 09 and its organizational abilities so would rather use it over FCE4 for most of my workflow.

Thanks!

Deborah

I recently used idvd to make a video using my HD material. While it wasn't HD, it certainly was fine and this was on my 50" 1080p TV which would overwhelm any DV material. All i did was share to idvd and I didn't burn a disc image--i just used the lazy way out and burned straight from the project within idvd. I didn't use any chapter markers, but i did have titles and themes. While some of the titles were a little pixelated, I was really the only one who cared!

Sheryl Kingstone wrote:
.....

it certainly was fine and this was on my 50" 1080p TV
....

I didn't use any chapter markers, but i did have titles and themes. While some of the titles were a little pixelated, I was really the only one who cared!


Hmmm... sounds like you had a good enough outcome for me to at least give it a whirl 🙂

I think I remember that you and I are in the same boat of liking titles & themes (when used well) while some on this forum find them very amateurish.

I had also heard from a friend that when he shared to iDVD his still pictures and titles came out fuzzy/blurry in comparison to what he saw in the IM09 preview window playback and was disappointed. I wonder if THAT is the dealbreaker for sharing to iDVD?

Also, I do usually burn to image from iDVD just to make sure before I burn to a fancy Verbatim printable DVD 🙂

Deborah

I'm lazy and have blown through way too many fancy printable DVD's. You are right....BTW--I just did another video for friends coming over this weekend. It has a mix of photo's and movies from analog through HD. I'll through it on a DVD and take a look. I usually go to my appletv. With photo's I have not had a problem mixing photo's and video to my gallery, but i hardly do DVD's anymore. I have made a slideshow in iphoto exported as a movie and then burned to DVD. It was fine.

Deb,

I just burned a DVD with analog, DV and HDV. While i expected the HDV to not meet my expectations, it was all fine, including the photo's, music and titles. ...the only error was mine. I think when i exported and converted a bunch of my analog material with streamclip, i didn't pay attention to the aspect ratio and it is all cropped, but the only way i could tell is the time stamp was cut off...so who cares!

I hope it works for you.

Sheryl Kingstone wrote:
Deb,

I just burned a DVD with analog, DV and HDV. While i expected the HDV to not meet my expectations, it was all fine, including the photo's, music and titles. ...
......
I hope it works for you.

Thanks, Sheryl! The project I'm in the middle of right now includes HDV (30p from my Canon camcorder), Hi-8 from my friend's Sony camcorder, and digital camera jpg pictures (+ iMovie themes, transitions, titles, video effects, color correction, etc.) I'll be burning to DVD later this weekend hopefully if all goes well in a timely manner. It's good to hear about your experience dealing with this.

Deborah

Hey Steve,

I've just read all 222 posts and can't thank you enough for all you advice. I know many feel the same way. I will buy your book on this subject and hope others will support you. You're a genuine great guy. Lots of fine people in this thread.

Thanks Man,

Pete

PS. Why *****? cuz I got tired of having other names rejected...and this one stuck... 😉

bbarzu wrote:
I read this thread as I also noticed that the quality of the iMovie09 exported video is worse than the DV quality it captures from my old Panasonic camcorder.


2) The moment I drag a selected piece of DV video into my project (in iMovie09), and then I play it from my project, I see that it is automatically cropped/zoomed in, at least the top and bottom of it, even if my project is 4:3. Any idea how I can set it to prevent that?

OK, this might sound dumb, but... in your project settings, is your project video set to crop or fit under initial placement? Just a thought.

Deborah

Recheck you exports settings. Make sure you have all specs exactly as he has it in his book. When i convert my DV material....it actually comes out beautiful. It looks better than my HD content right now!