Mini DV True Widescreen Capture

Question

Mini DV True Widescreen Capture

Hello,
I have a question that has been answered I am sure on other posts. I have about 40 Mini DV tapes from a Mini DV Standard Definition Camcorder. I want to capture them in Imovie 11, edit and add effects, and then send the file to IDVD to burn. I have heard many situations where there is quality loss. I am assuming that when I captue in IMovie, I should choose High Performance. The Mini DV tapes are all in True Widescreen Standard Definition format. Should I choose Anamorphic? Also, when I am done editing in IMovie I have heard many people recommend not exporting to IDVD and instead importing the final project? How do you do this? If I export to IDVD, will I lose the quality. My goal is to reduce the quality loss and burn on a DVD that closely matches the quality of the original tape. My Mini DV tapes look great on my Plasma TV and I am hoping for the same quality on DVD. Please offer any advice.

Thanks!

IMAC, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 3, 2010 12:24 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Dec 3, 2010 10:40 PM in response to Matt Rosenthal1

True Widescreen Standard Definition format. Should I choose Anamorphic?

Yes. True Widescreen = Anamorphic

I have heard many people recommend not exporting to IDVD and instead importing the final project?

Some people swear by exporting to a file first and other have no complaints with "send to iDVD". But, for the best DV performance you will probably want to use iMovie 6. That version worked best with interlaced footage.

Nothing you do is going to make it looks "as good" as the original since iDVD, or any other program, has to convert your footage to MPEG-2 (what DVD's use). It should look "about as good".

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Answer 2

Dec 4, 2010 4:51 AM in response to Matt Rosenthal1

You will just import your DV into iMovie. If your camera has set the Anamorphic flag to wide screen, imovie will see it automatically. Be sure to set your project in a 16:9 aspect ratio. You do this either when you create the project or anytime using FILE/PROJECT PROPERTIES.

If your footage does not show up as wide screen, you will need to reset the anamorphic flag in another application. You can do this in MPEG Streamclip, which is my favorite because it is free. This happens rarely.

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Answer 3

Dec 24, 2010 2:50 PM in response to Matt Rosenthal1

I also need to import my DV videos to iMovie. How much space does 1 hr of footage take on the hard drive?

Thanks

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Answer 4

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,004 points

Dec 24, 2010 2:55 PM in response to Jerry Dammers

It's about 13G an hour if I remember rightly.

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Answer 5

Ziatron

Level 5

4,186 points

Dec 25, 2010 9:47 AM in response to Matt Rosenthal1

I have heard many situations where there is quality loss. I am assuming that when I captue in IMovie, I should choose High Performance.

That will 'help', but for full quality use Final Cut Express or iMovie 06.

For faster editing iMovie 09 & 11 uses single-field processing. This means every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, which reduces the sharpness of the footage. iMovie 06 and Final Cut Express uses all of the image.

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