serious quality loss with MTS files and iMovie '11

Trying to avoid the cause of this problem is kind of besides the point.

I'm no longer searching for an answer to this problem, because I already know the answer: Apple deliberatly reduces quality to make people buy Final Cut Express.

The problem I see with your finalized video is the same as I'm seeing with my DV footage, like in the shadow area you see blocky artifacts (very noticeable); sign that the video had been through the single field processing cause it probably assumes an interlaced footage (either interlaced or progressive segment formatted). The only way I find to bypass this is to use Quicktime X and save whatever converted footage into 1080p. Then when you import, you'll see full resolution and little noise artifacts. Then, just work in progressive mode and the results will be whatever iMovie 11 is designed to do.

I wasted countless hours trying to find the right codec but kept having the same quality issue you are all having. Apple Support had me trying all kinds of crazy things, including reinstalling Lion. Eventually I got through to a senior iMovie technician who told me I was expecting too much from a $15 program I got for free. He said if I wanted good video I would need to step up to Final Cut. I don't understand why Apple would even bother putting out a program that is so much of a half-effort. I am a new Apple user from PC. I made the switch because of all the hype about how great Apple is for video editing. So far I'm not a believer...

hi all,

i have the same issue her but didn't manage to find a solution.

my camcorder is a jvc everio gz-hm1 and it shoot full hd. i basically use imovie to stich the various clips together and export them as one single movie. i am using the full quality when importing and the hd mode when exporting. the final finished movie is of a much lesser quality and to be honest it not do justice to the camcorder as i know that it can produce betetr results. don't know it if me doing something wrong or imovie not able to produce the desired results. has anyone found a solution?

i am now thinking of getting adobe premiere elements 10. has anyone compared it with imovie?

thanks

aldo

Hi aellul

I have had ALL these same problems and it has been a personal crusade of mine for some time now....moved from PC to edit/produce home HD movies (from a Sony HD camera, now Canon) and play through to a WD Media Player, but, as all these posts are saying and I whole heartedly agree, the results are very very very poor. I bought and installed Premier Elements 10 and it has a slight improvement, but the UI is not as good as iMovie, for example, I like the ability to insert the date, etc.

In short, I have not been able to produce anything worth showing in HD. I have even tried Final Cut Express and the iMovie Apple Tec man said it uses the same codec, namely AIC. Only stepping up to Final Cut Pro (not really aimed at the keen home user) will produce the results we all want. Come on Apple, I hope you are listening, this is epidemic in terms of dissatisfaction. I don't agree with the comment about "I was expecting too much from a $15 program I got for free", as the iMac I bought was half the reason for purchasing. I am very close to dumping this and going back to a PC.

Eureka! I have FINALLY managed to get HD edited footage on my TV (no thanks to Apple!).

This is how I did it:

1. Using Boot Camp, create a Windows 7 install

2. Install Cyberlink PowerDirector 10 Ultra (in Windows)

3. Import AVCHD footage either direct from HD camera or from an archive stored on an external drive

4. Edit, create titles, transitions, etc

5. Output (from a range of various options) using H.264 which will save the edited project as a .M2TS file which now plays seemlessly HD on a WD HD Media Player including Dolby Surround Sound.

It has taken a HUGE amount of research to finally end up with footage as good as the native MTS file the HD camera records in.

Good luck..... Spread the word!!!

I bought FCPX and Compressor.

I use the free x.264 codec to export great quality from FCPX.

The built in "share" presets for iDevices and Mac/PC uses Apples h.264 and gives you huge files with low quality, so you HAVE to use x.264 or something similar...

I still think it's sad that Apple does seem to want to fix iMovie.

Thank you very much, after searching threads today you have answered my problem after importing footage on My Sony HDR CX 11E just recently purchased on ebay as an upgrade for my Sony TRV33E DV based camera.

I tested out the camcorder today and was dissapointed with the grain on blacks after exporting from iMovie. It turns out it was due to the same stablizing preferences.

I was just wondering what your thoughts are on keeping the original content on the memory stick duo pro cards they are recorded on. I have kept my 8m Canon and original tapes and Sony DV and Tapes and wondered what the life expectancy of footage stored on flash storage was. I will obviously edit and create a finished home video in addition to the original footage. I plan to store the edited footage on a NAS and viewed on an Jailbroken Apple TV 2 using firecore media player.

Any advice greatfully received

Andrew

Gibbyice wrote:

I was just wondering what your thoughts are on keeping the original content on the memory stick duo pro cards they are recorded on. I have kept my 8m Canon and original tapes and Sony DV and Tapes and wondered what the life expectancy of footage stored on flash storage was.

Hi Andrew,

You've resurrected an old thread here! I didn't receive a notification from Apple that you had posted here. This has happened a bit lately with older topics I had posted in. I had forgotten that I had contributed (fairly extensively) to this topic in its earlier stages and was just looking at it again out of interest and saw your post.

Unfortunately, I can't answer your question about the life expectancy of flash storage, as I have no idea!

An important step with camera footage is to create an archive. If you can afford it, keeping the memory cards with the original video is also an option. However, I would guess that most users archive their clips then erase the contents on the cards, due to the cost involved in purchasing new cards. In my case, I'm using a hard drive camcorder that records in the AVCHD format (60GB capacity) - it's the Sony HDR-SR7E, now getting long in the tooth! So I'm forced to delete clips from the camera as it fills up.

Thankfully, iMovie has an archive feature that works very well. When you import clips to iMovie you will notice an "Archive All" item at the bottom of the import window. This allows you to archive all the AVCHD clips on your camera to an archive folder. The archive will be identical to the content on the camera's memory card (or hard drive in my case).

The archiving is not selective, unlike importing to an Event which allows you to import selected clips or all clips. The archive function will always import the full contents. So, if you haven't erased clips since your last archive, some duplication will arise. For this reason, I use a 3rd party app as it allows selective archiving of clips (I'm in the habit of retaining as much as I can on the hard drive as space permits). If you want more information about this option, please post back here. It does have an annoying downside though.

In iMovie Help (menu item "Help > iMovie Help") there is a topic "Make a backup copy (archive) of the contents of your camcorder". Another topic is "Import video from a camera archive into iMovie" - this provides instructions on importing your archived clips into an iMovie Event (as the name suggests). A good process is to firstly archive your clips, then import from the archive, rather than importing directly from the memory card. This provides assurance that the archive works correctly, allowing peace of mind when later erasing the contents from the memory card.

Here are the links to Apple's online Help topics I mentioned:

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2145

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2150

Glad to hear that removing stabilization fixed the problem you were seeing Andrew. Good luck with the archiving!

John

Hi John,

Many thanks for your kind reply,I did'nt realise the thread was old apologies. I 've had a look at your links and that does look like a great way to archive footage, and I will start using this method after I get back from my holiday next month i'll just need to get a bigger external drive! Never truly used the new iMovie as well as i did with the older version.

I've past on your links to my brother who was also looking into archiving too and has a Hard drive based camcorder like yourself which is getting full.

I still seem to be loosing a bit of quality in some of the darkest blacks which are pixelated but not grainy when I export my footage, i've tried reinstalling iMovie HD 6 and then importing footage from the movie folder and that does show much improved quality, but its not ideal, especially if iam having to import using iMovie 11 to get the footage of my camcorder anyway, as avchd importing is not supported on the older iMovie HD

I had read somewhere on the forums "export to QuickTime, Then choose "Movie to MPEG4", Click Options: File format - MP4, Video Format H.264, data rate 10000 Kb per second, Optimized for Streaming, Image size 1920x1080, Frame Rate : 30, Key Frame Automatic, Video options: Encoding mode: Best quality"

I guess Apple want us to move to Final Cut Pro, I just cant justify £200 piece of software for family holiday, Christmas and Birthday's, if it was priced similar to Aperture 3 then I would consider it.

Kindest Regards

Andrew