Why is QuickTime High Quality Movie so bad?

What the heck happened?

Not sure what you are looking for here in the way of an answer or explanation.

I tried using the old QT 7, but it won't allow movies or audio recordings now unless you buy the Pro version.

Nothing has changed here. It has always been the case in that a "Pro" key has been needed to access the recording features.

QuickTime 10 is making me crazy. I used to be easily able to record a video using my iSight camera on my iMac. It played back beautifully.

I find such recordings no more difficult than they were under older operating systems nor do I have any playback problems on my system. However, you did not indicate specific platform/CPU combination you are using and older and/or underpowered systems could exhibit the issues you describe. Also, I am not sure if your "iSight" reference refers to an older Apple iSight add-on device or current built-in FaceTime camera.

Now, using the standard High quality setting, the recordings are jumpy, missing many frames, unless I use the Maximum quality setting. But that then creates HUGE files. What used to be 200 to 300 MBs for a 3 to 4 minute recording is now 2 and 3 GBs! (and the new GarageBand 10.1 can't import the audio track of these files).

On my system, the "High" setting creates H.264/AAC MOV files with a total combined average Audio+Video data rate on the order of 10-11 Mbps or roughly the equivalent bandwidth of a typical Apple 1080p24 trailer for the 720p15 FaceTime HD camera built into my iMac. On the other hand, using the "Maximum" setting defaults to an Apple ProRes 4444/24-bit LPCM 720p15 with a total combined average Audio+Video data rate on the order of 57 Mbps or nearly the equivalent bandwidth of required to play three Blu-ray discs simultaneously.

The H.264/AAC MOV "High" quality file has settings targeted for high quality distribution as is, editing at the expense of some small reduction in quality, and/or the downsampling and/or re-export for distribution at lower bandwidths. The Apple ProRes/LPCM Mov "Maximum" quality MOV file is targeted specifically editing and re-export as a high quality distribution file with little or no loss in visual quality.

Both recording formats import to GarageBand v10.1.0 without problem on my system.

Both of these recording formats employ data rates that are likely greater than needed for typical homemade/home edited consumer use. Basically, if file size and the smoothness of playback is your primary concern here, you should probably consider changing your workflow to prevent overdriving/overtaxing your system.

(And, strangely, the High setting is a widescreen and the the Maximum is 4:3 aspect ratio (or thereabouts)).

This does sound strange. Normally, I would expect the input device and/or the device's "native" encoding format to control the aspect ratio. On my system both settings create 16:9 (1280x720) files at 15 fps. You may wish to look into this further. It would also be helpful to post "Inspector" window screenshots to confirm encoding codecs/settings for your recordings.

Then when I go to Trim it often gets stuck on the Spinning Beachball of Death.

This could indicate corrupted software or software/hardware conflict. Have you tried trimming the files in an alternative app?

I have a mid-2007 iMac with the built-in iSight camera. It came with Tiger, 10.4 (which was a very solid OS) and iLife '08. Currently on Yosemite, 10.10.4.

Unless there is a hardware problem or a bad software install, would normally expect recording and playback of H.264/AAC files to be about the same under Yosemite as it was under Tiger.

It sounds then like I shouldn't really need to use the Maximum setting.

Use would normally be limited to professional or prosumer level projects/workflows but could be used by anyone who plans to re-encode the edited content for specific targeted uses.

Maximum creates a file with the codecs you cite (Apple ProRes 4444, Linear PCM), dimensions 1280x1024 (all per the Get Info window) and the picture when recording and playing back is more or less square.

(The Trim only hangs sometimes, other times it works fine. Perhaps it is due to the huge file size?) AND, btw, I was able to successfully import into GB 10 with a different movie (Max setting).

The High setting, also the correct codecs for that setting (H.264, AAC), has dimensions of 1280x720 and appears as wide screen when recording and playing back.

This sounds strange and brings up the question as to whether each output is at its own cropped but correct aspect ratio of is the original content is being recorded at a different and incorrect aspect ratio. I.e., your original files under Tiger indicate the built-in iSight camera recorded 4:3 aspect videos while the "Hi" setting under Yosemite is 16:9 and the "Max" setting is in a 5:4 aspect ratio. Can you post sample files for comparison examination. Would like to know whether or not distortion is being introduced. Would also like to crosscheck the entropy settings for both the Yosemite and Tiger H.264/AAC encodes.

I was maybe mistaken about QT 7? The older movies I made were on Lion, 10.7.5. Was that QT 10? I never have had Pro.

QT X has been the default QT Player included with Mac OS X v10.6 thru v10.10 with QT 7/QT 7 "Pro" being a user "add-on" software option. All QT X players have built-in audio, video, and screen recording capabilities.

The crux of the issue for me is that with Lion I had very smooth videos (AAC, H.264, dimensions 960x720), whereas now, with the same codecs, the vids are not smooth. I get a better looking video using my iPhone 6.

I suspect your primary problem here is the recording frame rate for the Yosemite H.264/AAC MOV files. Frame rates on the order of 5-6 fps provide substandard playback in terms of smoothness. While 15 fps may provide satisfactory results for "average" content (as evidenced by the ProRes and Tiger H.264 clips), most users would prefer minimum frame rates in the 24-30 fps range.

The question now becomes, "Why are the Yosemite H.264/AAC frames being recorded so slowly?" and "Why isn't it affecting the ProRes recordings?" The reason could be anything from a failing HDD to system conflicts/slowdowns to a bad installation of the Yosemite operating system software. This is further complicated by the encode matrix size inconsistencies which are inversely proportional to the time it takes to encode the frames. (I.e., the larger the encode matrix the more time it takes to encode the frames which means fewer frames are recorded per unit of time making the resulting playback more jerky.)

Perhaps related, perhaps not, I just experienced another crash while composing this reply. Several times over the last couple of months the Mac just shuts off and I have to restart using the Power button. Maybe time for a trip to the Apple store.

Crashes and unexplained shutdowns could indicate more serious software or hardware problems. At the very least, I would suggest you run whatever system diagnostic utilities you may have on hand or have the system checked. As to visiting an Apple store, I would say you are probably overdue for a system upgrade. I normally purchase a new system every 5-7 years just to keep up with the changes/improvements in technology.

PS - What alternative to QuickTime can you recommend for making videos? I don't need a lot of fancy stuff.

Was thinking more in terms of trimming and converting the ProRes/LPCM files using an app like MPEG Streamclip. It is (for the most part) the equivalent of a free version of QT 7 "Pro" in that you can use it to trim Apple proprietary codec files and export edited content to a specific target resolution at a user specified data rate while retaining the original recorded frame rate.

poflynn wrote:

I have a mid-2007 iMac with the built-in iSight camera. It came with Tiger, 10.4 (which was a very solid OS) and iLife '08. Currently on Yosemite,

…

I get a better looking video using my iPhone 6.

…

Maybe time for a trip to the Apple store.

A 2007 iMac is getting a little long in the tooth, if you found Lion was OK or any other OS you may be better running that. The latest & greatest OS is not always best for old hardware. Older disks, insufficient RAM & slower GPU's may not be able to use the newest OS to it's fullest ability. If you have upgraded these OS's it may also be time for a clean install to wipe out older apps & free up a little space. Older OS versions tend to leave incompatible software on the Mac, that may be part of your 'force shutdown' issue. You should probably resolve that before focusing on why video performance is poor.

I think your iPhone 6 has decoders built in to handle H264 video, the iMac doesn't and there is also 8 years between them.

I'm afraid you may want to look at the prices of newer Macs if you visit an Apple store, 2007 Macs are out of support as far as I can tell.

Forcibly powering off computers can cause data loss or disk corruption - ensure you have multiple good backups. Also boot to recovery mode (cmd+r at startup) and verify / repair the boot disk to be sure it is healthy.