Chapters in iMovie

carrie_uk wrote:

Could it be what I have recorded it in, I recorded it in the highest setting, HD 1080/50i, superfine quality?

That setting is fine. I've also used it with my Sony camcorder and imported to iMovie '11 at the Full setting. The 50i means 50 interlaced fields per second, which equates to 25 frames per second (25fps) - the PAL standard. When exported (using Share>Media Browser) from iMovie at the Large setting, a .m4v file is produced with the dimensions 960 x 540. That will normally work perfectly with iDVD (which produces a Standard Definition DVD). You could also try exporting from iMovie using HD 720p (one of the options under Share>Media Browser when editing HD clips).

carrie_uk wrote:

Tried it with another short movie recorded on the same camcorder and it's fine in iMovie but does the same in iDVD. Is there another program I can use instead of iDVD?

Try Toast - see my earlier post above where I linked to this site:

http://www.roxio.com.au/ena/products/toast/default.html

The jerkiness you describe in iDVD is not something I've come across before, and I've produced many DVDs using various versions of iMovie and iDVD. Perhaps there is a problem with your version of iDVD (the latest is 7.1.2).

Try trashing iDVD's preference file. It's in your User/Library/Preferences folder and is named "com.apple.iDVD.plist". Close iDVD, then drag the .plist file to the Trash. When next opened, iDVD will rebuild the file with the default settings, which you can change in iDVD's menu item iDVD>Preferences.

John

carrie_uk wrote:

I have the latest version of iDVD.

Have trashed the iDVD preference file and am now exporting in HD720p.

Hopefully that will give you the result you are seeking.

Not going to pay for another program to do something that iDVD should do, when I could just use Pinnacle on my laptop, but was told the mac and all the stuff it comes with would do the job

Fully understand your frustration. The Mac and iDVD will do a perfect job under normal operating circumstances. If not, clearly there is something amiss either with your Mac or with iDVD. Maybe there is a conflict between iDVD and a 3rd party application you may have on your system. Anyway, let's hope that trashing the iDVD preference file does the trick (along with using HD 720p).

Hang in there Carrie! You may have to re-instal iDVD, otherwise I'm bereft of ideas. 🙂

John

Message was edited by: John Cogdell

Thanks Carrie. Yes I have seen the post you refer to regarding the Samsung HMX-H200 camcorder (see my PS below). I looked at a few reviews and specs for that model and it apparently shoots at 1920 x 1080 50i at the top resolution. At this resolution it is recording as 50 interlaced fields per second (as I mentioned earlier). Unless I'm mistaken, this means that the actual frame rate is 25 frames per second.

Here's a quote from one review:

"Thanks to Samsung’s eschewing of the AVCHD format in favour of H.264-encoded MP4 files, video can be recorded at a number of resolutions. These include interlaced 1080/50i at 1,920 x 1,080, plus 720p and 576p at 50 progressive frames/sec. The top resolution uses a data rate of 17Mbits/sec, so 4GB of storage will be enough for around 30 minutes of video."

That quote was taken from this review (it appears about halfway down the page):

http://www.trustedreviews.com/Samsung-HMX-H200_Camcorder_review

Note that the other resolutions (720p and 576p) are recorded as progressive (as distinct from interlaced) at 50 frames per second. Possibly, you've recorded at one of these resolutions - therefore 50 frames per second - rather than at the top resolution (25 frames per second).

My experience is that 50i works fine with iMovie and iDVD, as it is 25 frames per second (PAL). But perhaps that's only with AVCHD clips which are automatically converted to Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) on import to iMovie. The problem could be with the H.264 format that the Samsung uses, in combination with the 50i clips. If the H.264 clips are not being converted (optimized) on import, perhaps they remain as 50i when being shared for use in iDVD. I don't know if that makes any difference - just guessing here!

Hopefully, another user here can offer some further insight, as I don't have the technical knowledge at this level. I trust that I haven't confused the issue for you!

John

PS The other topic referred to is this one: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3245333?tstart=0

Note that I wrote my response above before seeing Lynn's last post in that topic. That throws a different light on the whole issue. 🙂 So perhaps the best advice is to follow what Lynn has posted (don't optimize and use 720/50p).

Message was edited by: John Cogdell