compressing in iMovie

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compressing in iMovie

-I have just created a slideshow with video, music, transitions and titles in iMovie 6. It is 40 minutes long and 8.5 gigs! I want to burn dvds of it to be played on standard dvd players.(I would hopefully like to use iDVD so as to take advantages of chapter markers). I do not really want to use the compression of QuickTime because I need to preserve image quality of the photos. I have gone into Share> Expert Settings, but each time I end up with a "compression" that gives me a 8.5 gig file. I have tried "video", "photo jpeg", etc. I am going for an output of 640x480 or 720x480.
-Has anyone had experience with this?
-thank you

Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Dec 19, 2006 10:16 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Dec 19, 2006 10:58 AM in response to drvnsmiln

Hi Drvnsmiln and welcome!

Not sure why you are involving QT in this process, when all you have to do is send the iMovie project to iDVD, which will compress and burn to fit a DVD.

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Answer 2

Dec 19, 2006 12:36 PM in response to Klaus1

Hi,

I have a similar question. I also made a 40 minute movie as a newbie to iMovie and wish to compress it. But I am old school and want to set it on CD-ROM at the highest quality possible, from 8 G to 600 MB, or something. iMovie automatic settings make for a tiny screen. It will take hours to go trial and error and find the best expert setting. I tried MPEG-4 640x480 15 fps, keyframes 60. That got it down to 1.9 MB...too big. Anybody?

Thanks.

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Answer 3

Dec 19, 2006 12:39 PM in response to drvnsmiln

when doing every , and any thing in iDVD I have learned the hard way that you must keep all the original materials in the same place as when you started or the links are all broken and you have to start over again, do not move any thing until the encoding process is complete, the initial encoding can take a really long time, only at the end to have the program inform you that your efforts were unsuccessful I have worked with the program allot, it turnd out a great DVD but can be confusing

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Answer 4

Dec 19, 2006 12:43 PM in response to superdoog

my expeience is that I save every thing as afull quality Quick time movie first , , then I open the full quality version on my screen , and use quick time to compress it , even if it is smaller the resolution is very good when you enlarge it , this is some thing I come up against all the time, if any one has another suggestion I am all ears

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Answer 5

Dec 19, 2006 1:38 PM in response to Jkevin Lambert

Hey thanks for the reply. I assume you have Quicktime Pro for compressing. Ideally I would send the movie to iDVD but I cheaped out when I bought this machine and didn't get the superdrive (looking into an external DVD burner as we speak). If feature length films can exist on CD-ROM at high quality, then how does one get their little home video on them... other software?

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Answer 6

drvnsmiln Author

Level 1

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Dec 20, 2006 1:04 PM in response to Klaus1

Hi Drvnsmiln and welcome!

Not sure why you are involving QT in this process,
when all you have to do is send the iMovie project to
iDVD, which will compress and burn to fit a DVD.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I sent my movie directly to iDVD and after about 8 hours it burned the dvd. I really appreciate your input on this!

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Answer 7

Dec 20, 2006 7:10 PM in response to drvnsmiln

I am having similar difficulties. Got carried away and am almost finised editing a movie for my mom's 90th birthday, but it is 1H11 min. and the file seems to be over 50GB. Any way it can be compressed to fit on a DVD without hurting quality? It worked for 8,5 Gigs, but will it work for 50? When I tried to archive the project to iDVD, it says it cana only do it if I empty the trash, but my trash appears to be empty.
Will I need to split it into several pieces and play them in sequence from a DVD? Or can I export it to Final Cut Pro or some other software? HELP or advice of any kind much appreciated.

IMac G5 (iSight) Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 8

Dec 20, 2006 11:45 PM in response to Merged Content 1

for usage of iDVD not size, but length does matter..

a iM project with lots of imports of >60Gb can fit onto a 4.7GB dvd-r, as long as you stay under 120min.. length.

happy holidays

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