IMovie 11 to IDVD settings

I'm traveling today so I can't answer properly, but I will shortly.

This is really not a good assessment as it's based on material exported from iMovie and on using the QT X player for playback. The only question I've been addressing is how iMovie captures. I said nothing about iMovie internal behavior or exporting, other than that it deteriorates the image. My statements were solely about how iMovie '11 captures DV media. More later.

Tom,

To be fair, how do you explain this?

I borrowed a friend's Macbook Pro Core i5 2.53Ghz and she has both Final Cut Express and iMovie 11 installed. She also have Quicktime 7 Pro installed. She's a pro-shooter and part time wedding videographer.

Using her DVX-100 and my Canon GL-2 on a tape created by my old iMovie 2 (Print to tape), the result is undeniable. iMovie 11 captures footage in half the rez. Final Cut Express captures it in full.
What's surprising is that, the blocky text that you saw and assume as being unfair appeared in the capture screen as well as the DV stream output. The text on the Final Cut Express never once appeared blocky and when saved, appeared to match the original tape. iMovie 11 could not even do it. Then I took my camera to an Apple store and there, 3 machines did exactly the same thing.
My question to you is that, no matter how I tried to import it -- capture with camera or import the actual file, the results are identical -- blocky and half the rez. Wierd!

Notice on the left, the contender is Final Cut Express -- Won the match!
Notice on the right, the contender is iMovie 11 -- Lost the watch before it got out of the gate!

Any clue?

If you open both files in QuickTime Player, I think you will see they are the same.

Unfortunately, when saved to a DV stream file, Quicktime plays it just like it was captured -- blocky and half the rez. I even tried it in the Apple store with their iMovie copies in various kind of machines from iMac Core i7 to Macbook Pro -- same results. Same results with my title test on all machines. I even showed it to the Apple Genius people and they saw it, tried it all different ways to try and fix it.
As far as I'm concerned, I felt cheated by Apple people telling and assuring me that iMovie 11 WILL capture full DV and they couldn't even demonstrate to me that it could in the store with my GL-2 camera. As usual, no refunds! Lesson learned. Perhaps Tom can help me? I'm hoping!

Stop capturing garbage from iMovie. I'll get to this when I can. What players are these? You're not even using the same player to display the media? What's that about? One is a Final Cut screen capture display. The other is an iMovie display. You're comparing displays. Is that what you're talking about? How the capture window displays a still frame?

I'm traveling today so I can't answer properly, but I will shortly.

This is really not a good assessment as it's based on material exported from iMovie and on using the QT X player for playback. The only question I've been addressing is how iMovie captures. I said nothing about iMovie internal behavior or exporting, other than that it deteriorates the image. My statements were solely about how iMovie '11 captures DV media. More later.


Tom,

Export of that text test to a DV stream file is perfect! Text is clear and background is good. But when you import this same file, it got chopped in half! And when you export it again to a DV stream file, the result was kept in half the rez. BUT, with my PC software, the same stream file loads into perfectly. The same file loads perfectly into Final Cut Express too! Just iMovie 11 is giving the problem.

You need to open the Event clip in QuickTime Player. Right-click on the clip in the event. Select Reveal in Finder. Right-click on the clip in the Finder. Select Open With...QuickTime Player.

One more time, and this is the last I will say until I have time to prepare a test for you, I am talking about capturing, solely and only about capturing DV media. You are talking about iMovie output. If that is the case I have no issue with what you are saying, though I have considerable issue with your methodology and your screen captures comparing different thinks in different windows.

If you're happy with your PC software use it. How much is iMovie? $10 pro rated. How much is Vegas?

Just to add, open with QuickTime 7 player.

Hi Tom,

Player used on the first test is Quicktime X only on OSX Snow Leopard. Quicktime 7Pro was not used in this test as it is fair that not everyone here paid for the Pro version. I believe that's a fair test!

Secondly, I am not comparing displays. I am trying to show you that the capture on Final Cut Express and iMovie 11 are what you see what you get when you save to a DV stream file. When I captured the text with FCE, I get exactly the result like its on tape. But when I save iMovie 11 capture to a DV stream file, I got exactly what I saw on the capture screen, which is blocky text and no where near close to the original tape.

No, I am not comparing displays. I am comparing final output. The display is a good representation of final output, because it is IN PROGRESSIVE!

How do I capture windows displays as still? Screen capture built into OSX, like Command-Option-4? I thought you knew?

Quicktime 7 Pro was not used in this test as it is fair that not everyone here paid for the Pro version.

I never said QT7 pro. QT7 is the only decent QT player. QT X is a joke.

You're comparing different players and screen. And you keep capturing garbage export files.

I know how to make screen shots. You don't have to be snide. And there are better tools than Apple's screen grab. What I don't understand is why you show screenshots of different displays, and of capture displays at that.

Tom,

It is from the same display, which is a Macbook Pro 2.53 Core i5 -- just one. Does it have two? The tests were conducted on her computer and her paid copy of FCE. iMovie 11 is also installed in her Macbook Pro (it came already with it). So the 2 programs were already there and ready to use.

As I said to you earlier, I can re-create this on any Mac machine in any Apple store. I made sure I could create this problem first consistently on those macs before I post for help.

I am not sure why are you so defensive on this matter. All I asked was an expert opinion from you as to the reason why iMovie 11 captured the footage in like half the resolution, then up-rezed and many posters here had verified similar experiences. Final Cut Express and iMovie 6HD have no problems. I know you said it could capture full like FCE and iMovie 6HD. Perhaps it does, but you're not helping me by posting such replies and I do not want to be confrontational with you. You are the expert in this field and I respect you for that -- which is why I asked.

Lastly I apologize to you on my last remark. It was not intended as a snide remark or as an offense to you sir, but I thought you are assuming that I use a digital camera and take a screen shoot and that would degrade quality. It would certainly do, but with OSX screen capture function, I can do this very easily.

Cheers,

Message was edited by: Coolmax

It is from the same display,

What are you talking about? Look at the pictures. One is the display that's used in the Final Cut logging window and the other is the display that's used in the iMovie capture window. They're different displays.

Here are two images





The same text made in Final Cut, exported, and displayed in the QT 7 player. One has the display set to high quality playback, the other does not. The second look familiar? A little like your text in iMovie? That's what I'm talking about. Different displays work differently and can show media differently. The media displayed in the FCP capture window does not display the same as the media in the iMovie. Furthermore the FCP display is even more bogus because it's not the display during capture. It's the logging window which is actually looking at the tape and not at the captured media or even the media during capture. You're comparing that to the iMovie display during capture. How can you use that comparison as a basis for assessment?

Please give me a chance to work on this. I can't at the moment. I will get back to you when I can do a proper test.

Tom,

Can you please export them to a DV stream file *.DV and try it with iMovie 11 -- thank you. And please take your time doing the test. I want you to be safe in your travel! And thank you so much for your patience on this matter.

Cheers,

Message was edited by: Coolmax

Tom,

Also, Quicktime X does not have the option to allow you to play full or not or not that I can see. Only Quicktime 7 does and you are using 7. Please use Quicktime X and you'll see why as my
tests are based on the X player not 7 -- the screen capture clearly showed the X player windows screen.

Thanks,

Message was edited by: Coolmax