iMovie Imported Video Quality Drop

Your're right, iMovie uses AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) and Final Cut has it's own too (Apple ProRes422) it uses that at the editing stages before you get to export anything.

There's been more than a few discussions already in the iMovie group (folks discussing 1080p and codecs etc.) MIght try doing searches within the iMovie/FCP discussion boards for 1. lossless 2.codec 3.high bitrate

Those keyword/tags are likely to come up on the folks talking shop and making suggestions on what to try. Recently someone came up with a pretty detailed multi-step way to get iMovie to edit 1080p footage (possibly without recompressing). With bitrates you're suggesting I think FCP would be the way to go.

No doubt quick and dirty rules the day. Definitely an argument for going the Final Cut route to keep things untouch resolution-wise. The footage is edited in the faster codec, but the Final Export uses the full rez untouched footage to assemble it. So it has speed and quality too. But I'm guessing the price you pay is in the amount of disk space all those extra 'proxy' and full rez versions take up.

You are probably correct about why they do this, but it seems a bit arrogant of them not to allow a higher-quality export. I would be willing to allow for a longer render period and larger file size, if only Apple would. It does not seem to be an issue of playback on the iPad (it could handle it).

And if you look at the properties it is indeed H.264 that is being used. Now this is a popular and capable codec, and can make beautiful pictures if the settings are not so severe, so I would love an option for higher quality.

As to the resolution, that should not be an issue for those of us using SD content, as it is already the same as the original file, and lower than both the rendered file's resolution and the resolution of the iPad, meaning that choice in the render will not reduce the resolution. It is not all that sharp because it is SD in the first place. The problem is not resolution, it is the increased level of video artifacts that I find unacceptable.

I thought iMovie gave you the option in preferences to import in original quality, larger than 960by540.

Hugh

It does.

This problem has little or probably nothing to do with the size of the pixel map. The problem is not about importing. It is about exporting. The iMovie '11 presets for iPad (and others) use fixed hidden parameters that do the encode on export quickly, but with severe video artifacts, which is not an import issue nor is it a pixel map issue. Even if the import is DV (which is very mildly compressed in a lossless format) and SD (640x480) the artfacts are excessive. It is not that it looks blurry, but that there are visible artifacts that destroy the video quality making it look like a 1965 picture phone beta test from Bell Labs.

If Apple thinks that folks will ignore this horrendous drop in quality just to get a faster encode, they are sorely mistaken.

As you just said, the artifacting happens even with a QuickTime EXPORT. How does that imply anything OTHER than it being an export problem?

If the original footage is clean and imported as DV, and if it looks OK throughout the entire editing process and then suddenly looks not OK after the export how could it not be an export problem?

iMovie '11 gives three choices on export (five if you include the two HD versions that are greyed-out when using SD 4:3 content) and the highest quality one, designed for iPad, still blows out loud. I have no idea what export setting you are talking about, only that the highest-quality one among those available *****. HandBrake does not have this issue, StreamClip does not have this issue, even earlier versions of iMovie do not have this issue. You will wait for a good encode with them, but in the end you will get it. That is much preferable to a hurry-up down and dirty quick encode that ends up looking like dried hammered dog feces.

and once again, I am not sure why you keep harping on the pixel map. The pixel map has nothing whatsoever to do with this problem, which is as artifact problem. Scaling issues do not create quantization error artifacts, severe quantization used in heavy compression is what causes these artifacts. Not only that, but as I said before, the pixel map on export (960x540) is larger than the pixel map for import (640x480) for the content I am seeing this on, so it would preserve the effective resolution and cause very little artifacting if any. If it did cause artifacting at all, it would be very limited and of a very different kind than we are seeing here.

I have decades of experience working as an engineer for major TV networks in the areas of compression, transcoding, non-linear editing, digitial transport and delivery, and signal evaluation, at a minimum. I think I know a little bit about how to deternine where a technical problem generally lies in this particular arena, and in my professional opinion, this particular time, it is in the export.

What are your credentials?

It must indeed be the export or the way imovie handles the footage.

Also importing still pictures in Imovie results in very poor exported full HD movie, dark eareas are completly messed up, or dark blue, red...

Simply try iPhoto using same clips and pictures

Create a slideshow, then export in full HD 1080 and the output movie is PERFECT

There MUST be somthing completely wrong with iMovie and how exports

The export simply looks same like the poor preview quality

I like iMovie11, but like this is useless!