I don't know if this will help, but I'm excited about a recent test I did and am sharing it on several sites --
If your movie is less than about 13 minutes, and you want super quality, I found a way to create a .mov file that fits on a DVD and you can burn it yourself, and anyone can play it. (I did not use iDVD.) If you're willing to live with a slightly degraded version, you can put a 106-minute video on a DVD, and it'll look just fine to a group sitting in a room. Obviously if you want to upload it to a file-sharing site, that's easily doable, as well.
Having slogged my way through iMovie’s “Help,” online Apple Help and numerous blogs like this one with solutions that were frustratingly varied, hard to follow and even outright contradictory, I gave up and did my own methodical tests to see which combination of options and settings yielded the best result for creating a file on my desktop that can be shared. I have no idea what the various and sundry options and settings are doing, but the results (differences) are apparent, and that's all I care about.
Here’s what I worked with: I have a four-minute movie created in iMovie ’11, with nice titles and credits that fade in and out, and one-second cross dissolves in the film. The movie is 3x4 aspect ratio, not letterbox. Looks smooth and clean as can be in iMovie, full screen. (If it matters, I am working on a Mac OS 10.6.8; Processor 2 x 2.66 Ghz 6-core Intel Xeon; Memory 8 GB 1333 Mhz DDR3.)
Tried exporting through Quicktime and not exporting through Quicktime. Most settings resulted in titles that were either fuzzy or were not clean and smooth during the fades, and often videos that were choppy and would freeze every second or so. Some had clean imagery and would play fine but got very pixelated during transitions (dissolves). Some that were much larger (higher megabyte numbers) and took longer to generate the file were actually of lower quality. Go figure.
Of all the tests I did, the best results came from doing the following. Here are two options:
A) For a small, convenient file that came to only 176 MB for my 4-minute movie, if you’re willing to live with some very slight image degradation and titles that show some slight compression during fades -- but looks perfect from across a room:
1) Share > Export using Quicktime > “Export: Movie to Quicktime” / “Use: Most Recent Settings”
2) Click “Options”
3) Click “Settings”
4) Compression: MPEG-4 Video
5) Frame Rate: Current
6) Key Frames: Every 24 frames
7) Frame Reordering -- unchecked
8) Compressor Quality: Best
9) Data Rate: “Restrict to 6400 kbits/sec”
10) Click “OK” and return to “Movie Settings”
11) Ignore “Filter” unless you want to alter the look of your video.
12) Adjust “Size” accordingly to your wishes. I clicked it, then selected “1920 x 1080 HD” and checked “Preserve aspect ratio using: Fit within dimensions.” This results in an image 1440 x 1080 (to fit within 1920 x 1080). Remember that if you don’t preserve your original aspect ratio you’ll get a larger/wider movie, but the top and bottom of your image will be cut off.
13) If your video is silent, make sure “Sound” is unchecked. I read that this speeds up the file-creating process.
14) Hit “OK”
15) Be sure to check where you want your file to appear. I chose “Desktop.”
16) Hit “Save”
That’s it! In my case, after about six minutes, I had a “.mov” file on my desktop that anyone can easily play (people may have to have Quicktime, though, as I understand it, but I believe that’s a free download; you do NOT need Quicktime Pro which costs $). I uploaded the file to a file-sharing site (Hightail) for others to download, and, testing it, it took me only a few moments to download (I have a FiOS fiber-optic connection, so if you don’t, it will likely take a little longer). The downloaded file played perfectly and suffered no degradation whatever from the one I generated to my desktop from iMovie.
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B) For a super high-res version, if you’re willing to live with the size, the ONLY difference is No. 9: Change your Data Rate to “Automatic.” But as mentioned in the beginning, a standard DVD-R will only hold about 13 minutes of footage at this quality. If you're only concerned about sending a movie to someone else or a group, upload to a file-sharing site, no problem.
Oddly, this super-quality version took about the same six minutes to generate the desktop .mov file, but the resulting 1.44 GB file is far, far superior. You’ll be thrilled with the result!
The only downside –– to all of the file tests I did –– is that there is a slight loss of color saturation and contrast from the original iMovie imagery I worked with, particularly with the reds and oranges which become a bit muted. The blacks/darks came up a bit, yielding slightly less contrast. But these drawbacks are minor, to me.
If someone knows of a way to preserve the exact original color saturation and contrast, I’m all ears.
Ken M.
