iMovie 09 export quality

I'm trying to find a solution that will allow me to edit in iMovie 09 and export it somewhere/somehow without losing quality. Maybe the Quicktime method described above will be good.

I use and LIKE both iMovie 09 and iMovie 06, but for making DVDs iMovie 06 always looks better to me.

I have spent many, many hours trying (and re-trying) all the iMovie 09 quality "work arounds" but my DVDs never look as good as when I use iMovie 06 with iDVD 09.

The quality issue with iMovie 08/09 are well-known.

From PC World review. "The way iMovie '09 handles video internally is mostly unchanged from the previous version (iMovie 08): interlaced DV and HDV footage use single-field processing to improve performance, which means iMovie is throwing out every other horizontal line of information."

"Apple has deliberately made a tradeoff between performance and image quality for some footage."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/159090/

If you want no quality loss, use iMovie 06 or Final Cut.

I can find no export and/or share settings in iMovie 9 which carry the same visual fidelity as the original iMovie footage, and I believe I've tried them all. It is most notable, as least to me, in the titles. Type that is crystal-clear in iMovie becomes fuzzy and somewhat jagged upon export. I find that the exported footage looks great until I increase its size to fill the screen (which will happen when burned to a dvd). At that point it loses its once-superb resolution. Yet the same images in iMovie 09 look great--even at full screen. I can only conclude that something unfortunate occurs during the export/share process. Given this, even using iMovie HD wouldn't make much difference, would it? After all, the loss in detail occurs when you export the movie out of iMovie 09. By the time it gets into HD the damage is done, right?

I hope someone can tell me that I'm wrong and that if I only do "X" I will be able to maintain that perfect image, but I'm doubtful.

Does Final Cut also suffer from this?

Amazing that this discussion is still running. The problem was solved at least a year ago.

First, iMovie 08 and 09 ONLY work with Progressive video. Apple made the decision years ago knowing its iPhone would shoot 720p30. In fact,most the new cameras and camcorders shoot Progressive.

Second, if you import Interlaced video -- it is deinterlaced while editing. This is what's happening to DV.

Third, by following the correct procedure you can avoid this problem AND also improve the look of your DV.

Fourth, you can edit and use FX.

Fifth, by following the correct procedure, you can move your movie to iDVD and burn it.

This was posted a very long while back.

Steve,

Thanks for the reply. It would be helpful, though, if you could provide links to these "correct procedures." Merely stating that such procedures exist isn't especially helpful.

Fact is, I'll be buying a new camera soon (Canon Vixia HF R10) and, therefore, I assume I won't have the import quality problem anymore.

I also found that since I use Logic Pro I also own QuickTime Pro, though I had never installed it. I did so and my iMovie export options increased dramatically. I was able to increase the quality of the movie I sent to iDVD substantially.

In the end I ended up with a usable product.

How 'bout those links, Steve?

Thanks, Jim

Sorry, I don't keep track of year old links as the material is in my eBook. You alsp have to make a choice about what FX you want to use. Depending on your choice you can pass interlaced through iM and it will never notice.

Are you buying an Euro or USA version?

I'm in the US. Are you asking because of NTSC/PAL or are there other issues with this camera that I should be aware of? I work with a guy who has one of these and he has found it to be a good camera which, he says, plays nicely with iMovie 09. Do you have other suggestions/warnings?i

Jim

I had the same problem, when I export to an .avi file the HD import goes out of quality. Just use the 'export movie' option - problem solved ! If its not working lemme know.