IStoleThePies

Q: Imported video quality is lowered

Recently, I tried importing a few high-quality videos into iMovie, but the quality of the videos were much lower in the preview and after exporting. I also tried importing them in Final Cut Pro, but the quality was still lowered. Any advice?

Final Cut Pro X, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Aug 15, 2016 12:30 PM

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Q: Imported video quality is lowered

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  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Aug 15, 2016 12:42 PM in response to IStoleThePies
    Level 10 (118,086 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 15, 2016 12:42 PM in response to IStoleThePies

    Much lower than what? Compared to what and how is this being assessed? You need to give complete and exact specifications for the media.

  • by IStoleThePies,

    IStoleThePies IStoleThePies Aug 15, 2016 12:50 PM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Video
    Aug 15, 2016 12:50 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

    All right, it's 1920x1080. Its codecs are Apple ProRes 4444, Timecode. Importing it significantly drops the quality; for example, this is a screenshot of the original file:

    Screen Shot 2016-08-15 at 3.46.54 PM.png

    And this is it after I import and export it from iMovie:

    Screen Shot 2016-08-15 at 3.46.27 PM.png

    You can see that the text on the second image are a lot blurrier than the original's. The difference is especially noticeable when I zoom into both of them. This kind of quality degradation is apparent in all the videos I import.

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Aug 15, 2016 1:01 PM in response to IStoleThePies
    Level 10 (118,086 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 15, 2016 1:01 PM in response to IStoleThePies

    How are you exporting exactly? Are you exporting from FCP a master file in ProRes 4444.