atkalu31
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: having a nightmare trying to burn a movie from a quicktime file onto dvd.  It distorts the image.

I've spent many hours trying to figure this out - I have an old movie that I had recorded on vhs in the 90s.  I have converted it into a quicktime file (mp4) and it plays fine with no issues on my mac.  However, when I try to burn it onto a dvd via IDVD, the disc version of the movie frequently distorts - the digital image breaks up at times and is too distracting to be acceptable.

 

Is this because the original movie is of mediocre quality (coming from an old vhs)?   The vhs and again, the quicktime version of the movie (that I imported from EYE tv) all play fine with no distortions.  It's only the burned version on the disc that where the digital bits "break up".

 

Any help would be most welcome.  Thank you very much.

Posted on Mar 8, 2015 9:58 PM

by Old Toad,Solvedanswer
Old Toad Old Toad
Level 10 (141,773 points)
Photos for Mac
A:
I'm using Professional quality which doesn't use as many GBs as Best Performance and this is the only way I can fit it on under the 4.2GB limit.

That's not how it works. iDVD will compress the movie to fit no matter which encoding option you choose.  iDVD is only interested in the total playing time of the project including animated menus.  If your movie is less that 60 minutes long you can use Best Performance or High Quality.  For 60 - 120 minutes either High Quality or Professional Quality will work. For projects over 120 minutes use a double layered disc.   For movies with lots of action/motion Professional Quality would be the best choice as it determines which sections of the move can undergo the most compression and which needs less, those scenes with fast moving items. 

 

If you can import the movie into iMove export it out at 480p.  Drag the exported movie into your iDVD menu being careful to avoid any drop zones.  If you reformat the movie start over with a new project as there's a bug in iDVD regarding adding edited movies to an existing project with that movie already in it.

 

Follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:

Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image  menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.

 

To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it.  If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.

 

Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality.  Always use top quality media:  Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.

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Posted on Mar 10, 2015 9:00 AM

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atkalu31

Q: having a nightmare trying to burn a movie from a quicktime file onto dvd.  It distorts the image.

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  • Helpful answers

  • by jamieb452,Helpful

    jamieb452 jamieb452 Mar 8, 2015 10:07 PM in response to atkalu31
    Level 1 (75 points)
    Mar 8, 2015 10:07 PM in response to atkalu31

    Have you tried using another type of software maybe to see any different result? because that would kinda narrow down normally, but also what I do is check the settings before burning the file to make sure the file isn't going to be burned in the wrong setting, which could also cause issues on viewing it from disc.

  • by atkalu31,

    atkalu31 atkalu31 Mar 9, 2015 6:31 PM in response to jamieb452
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 9, 2015 6:31 PM in response to jamieb452

    Hi jamieb452,

     

    Thank you so much for responding.  I don't have another type of software and would prefer to not buy anything else for the moment at least.  As for the settings, I'm not sure exactly what you mean, as in IDVD I only see the "burn" option from the drop down menu and I'm using Professional quality which doesn't use as many GBs as Best Performance and this is the only way I can fit it on under the 4.2GB limit. 

     

    I'm wondering if the file that I exported from EyeTV is the real problem.  I'm not sure what the best type of file I should export it as other than that it needed to be a Quicktime file....

     

    Thanks.

  • by Old Toad,Solvedanswer

    Old Toad Old Toad Mar 10, 2015 9:00 AM in response to atkalu31
    Level 10 (141,773 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Mar 10, 2015 9:00 AM in response to atkalu31
    I'm using Professional quality which doesn't use as many GBs as Best Performance and this is the only way I can fit it on under the 4.2GB limit.

    That's not how it works. iDVD will compress the movie to fit no matter which encoding option you choose.  iDVD is only interested in the total playing time of the project including animated menus.  If your movie is less that 60 minutes long you can use Best Performance or High Quality.  For 60 - 120 minutes either High Quality or Professional Quality will work. For projects over 120 minutes use a double layered disc.   For movies with lots of action/motion Professional Quality would be the best choice as it determines which sections of the move can undergo the most compression and which needs less, those scenes with fast moving items. 

     

    If you can import the movie into iMove export it out at 480p.  Drag the exported movie into your iDVD menu being careful to avoid any drop zones.  If you reformat the movie start over with a new project as there's a bug in iDVD regarding adding edited movies to an existing project with that movie already in it.

     

    Follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:

    Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image  menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.

     

    To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it.  If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.

     

    Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality.  Always use top quality media:  Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.

    OTsig.png

  • by atkalu31,

    atkalu31 atkalu31 Mar 10, 2015 8:07 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 10, 2015 8:07 PM in response to Old Toad

    Old Toad, Thank you so much!  I actually couldn't figure out mounting the disc image to check it first, but I took a chance and burned it anyway and it worked.  Quality is definitely acceptable too.  I appreciate it. 

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Mar 11, 2015 9:06 AM in response to atkalu31
    Level 10 (141,773 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Mar 11, 2015 9:06 AM in response to atkalu31

    Double click on the disk image file and it will mount.  Then just launch DVD Player and it will recognize the video DVD and you can play it.