bad quality using QuickTime?

[xlv]

Acquiring HD video from my miniDV Canon HV-20 camcorder using iMovie 09 I noticed a significant loss of quality (colors are not solid and the motion is not fluid); furthermore, comparing with other previous works (same camcorder, I moved to 2 months ago ) acquired, edited and mastered into a DVD using Studio 11 in with a PC the result is really evident!

Now, of course I don't think the problem is the difference between PC and MAC (don't kill me!), I'm supposing that the main difference could be that with Studio the acquisition was made writing DV format files and with iMovie by QuickTime 10, could it be possible?
In that case, how can I acquire from the camcorder in DV format file (.m2v) instead of in .mov? Could QTPro 7 update the codecs and so keep on using iMovie importing in different formats?

Thanks for an help, I even tried to check if anybody else had a similar problem but I didn't find any thread...

 

[icrude]

on the pc it did not make dv files, it just made files using the dv codec. on the mac, it did not make quicktime 10 files, quicktime is just the application that runs the files, like windows media player is on the pc. dv is the codec, like jpeg is for pictures, but u dont use jpeg software to view the pictures. same thing. plus i think quicktime 10 does not play back dv files in full quality. the old quicktime gave you a choice to turn on highest quality playback. they will prob add that feature soon.

oh and by the way, m2v is not dv. m2v is dvd movie format. you dont want that. you want dv. and .mov is just the fact that quicktime will play it. .mov means nothing.

LASTLY, i think if u capture hd footage in imovie at full resolution, u use the apple intermediate codec, and if u capture half res, i believe it is .dv or photo jpeg. not 100% sure though. it will be very high quality, just might not play back in full quality in quicktime.

 

[MisterMe]

Acquiring HD video from my miniDV Canon HV-20 camcorder using iMovie 09 ...

Now, of course I don't think the problem is the difference between PC and MAC (don't kill me!), I'm supposing that the main difference could be that with Studio the acquisition was made writing DV format files and with iMovie by QuickTime 10, could it be possible?
...

So you are judging iMovie 09 as a viewer? iMovie 09 is an editor, not a viewer. The editor's preview function is intended as an aid to editing, not for viewing the final product. Every clock cycle devoted to rendering the video display is a clock cycle that cannot be used to edit the video. If you want to view your video, then you should use the QuickTime Player or QuickTime X.

 

[MattSepeta]

also

also, make sure that under preferences in quicktime "enable high quality playback" is checked.

 

[xlv]

on the pc it did not make dv files, it just made files using the dv codec. on the mac, it did not make quicktime 10 files, quicktime is just the application that runs the files, like windows media player is on the pc. dv is the codec, like jpeg is for pictures, but u dont use jpeg software to view the pictures. same thing. plus i think quicktime 10 does not play back dv files in full quality. the old quicktime gave you a choice to turn on highest quality playback. they will prob add that feature soon.

oh and by the way, m2v is not dv. m2v is dvd movie format. you dont want that. you want dv. and .mov is just the fact that quicktime will play it. .mov means nothing.

LASTLY, i think if u capture hd footage in imovie at full resolution, u use the apple intermediate codec, and if u capture half res, i believe it is .dv or photo jpeg. not 100% sure though. it will be very high quality, just might not play back in full quality in quicktime.

Thanks for the full explanation; my purpose is to capture without loss of quality, I'm just looking the best way to do it. iMovie gives me two possibilities in acquisition and I chose full res as you said, I'll try to use the second option and see the difference. Anyway, I'd like to use QuickTime for playing back (that's why I even thought about to purchase the Pro version if needed), but my final goal is to create DVDs.

 

[xlv]

So you are judging iMovie 09 as a viewer? iMovie 09 is an editor, not a viewer. The editor's preview function is intended as an aid to editing, not for viewing the final product. Every clock cycle devoted to rendering the video display is a clock cycle that cannot be used to edit the video. If you want to view your video, then you should use the QuickTime Player or QuickTime X.

I'm not judging anything at all, I'm just trying to understand how to do for capturing HD video from my camcorder. So far I used iMovie to do it, that's why I mention it.

Sorry, let me understand better, are you guys telling me that it's just the way QuickTime (or other existent Apple codecs) plays the movies that is with less quality?

Thank you!

 

[KeithPratt]

I'm not up to speed on iMovie 09, so don't quote me on this, but here's a possible explanation:

The colour is washed out because of a gamma issue. The motion is less fluid because iMovie is deinterlacing (for previewing purposes, not permanently) and you're losing half the temporal resolution.

Put together a quick edit and make a DVD. When you watch it back on your TV, have both of these issues vanished?


Oh, and MisterMe, why the hostility here and in other threads?

 

[icrude]

ya dude believe me you won't lose noticeable quality. just capture full res, even half res if you're making standard def dvds. watch it on tv and i guarantee it will look good, as long as you do a high quality encode in idvd or whatever dvd program.

 

[xlv]

OK, I'll make other DVDs just to compare apples with apples but so far I'm not confident that it's definitively a problem of playing movies.

I've just played an old DVD into my iMac and I said "WOW!!!"... Anyway I'm not comparing that DVD with the preview in iMovie, but with the final .mov files and a DVD created from those final files. I'll create a DVD directly from iMovie and check the difference.

Thank you All