BIG VIDEO QUALITY PROBLEM IN iDVD

[clive]

Hello all iLife and iDVD cracks,

I have a real problem or maybe iDVD has one.!!!!!!!

1. I have just completed in iMovie a slide show with ca. 260 single pictures + a varied selection of standard transitions + animated titles and a complex audio track ( Music & Sound EFX )

2. The linear S.show was transferred to Q.Time 6.5.2 and looked and sounded O.K. especially the Ken Burns picture zoom effect along with clean title fonts and transitions.

3. After carefully selecting all the settings to transfer the show in PAL Video format to IDVD and then burning a disc for presentation on a TV screen the result of the video quality was atrocious.

4. For example:- Picture quality was at least 25% worse than in Q.Time.

- All blends and fade transitions were good but the transition ''Push'' (picture enters screen from right )was extremely jerky ( almost like 15 frames per second )

- The K.Burns zoom effect was O.K. but all vertical as well as horizontal lines in the picture motives seemed to flicker with the zoom movement.There must be a technical term for this awful effect but it was typical of a sort of interlace/non- interlace disturbance ( Hope you can understand what I mean.!!!!!! )As an example, there was an ocean sunset picture and in the zoom it really looked as if the waves were in motion, flickering between horizontal screen lines......over the other pictures this effect was disastrous.


- All title fonts were heavily pixeled so much so that at times the captions were difficult to read .

- However, as in Q.Time the sound mix and quality was excellent.

5. I am sure the mistakes lie in the converting settings chosen for either Q.Time or/and iDVD ......what do you think?????



6. Some info. about my hard/software - Brand new 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4 + 1GB DDR SDRAM + Super drive + OS X

7. I would sincerely appreciate if anybody could explain how I can rectify the above problems as I wish to burn many linear picture shows of this nature in the future.
Look forward to hearing from you in English or in German,

CLIVE ayres@gmx.net

 

[numediaman]

A couple of questions for you: how big was the QT file before iDVD burned the disc? Also, have you opened up the DVD to see how big a file iDVD created for the end product.

A couple of things to look for: before you burn your disc, check "Status" to see how much room your movie will take up on the DVD. If your settings are right, it should pretty much fill up the DVD. If not, it will be too small and iDVD will be over compressing your work.

I never actually burn a DVD with iDVD -- I have it create a disc image. Then I actually burn using Toast. (You can use disk utility, as well -- though I haven't tried that.)

 

[londonweb]

Hi Clive

Just to check- are you experiencing poor quality when viewing the video on your tv via your dvd player, or is it only when you look at it on your screen?

I'm not sure how much you know about video formats so forgive me if I'm stating what you already know. The PAL format uses a pixel that is a sort of rectangular shape because that's what shape the pixels are on a tv. Also the interlacing methods that video uses are redundant on a computer screen which is more suited to displaying one frame after another like a film projector to display moving image. The pixels on a computer screen are almost exactly square, and because of these fundamental differences when you try to display a PAL format video on your computer screen this presents a huge conversion problem and the image generally looks awful- as you say any text is pixelated, the frame rate goes a bit funny and the interlacing looks terrible.

If you want to view something on your computer, you need to use a pal/ntsc independent compression format such as Sorensen. This will keep the pixels square and will not use any interlacing. However if you want to display the video on your tv you'll have to use the PAL format, and export your video as PAL-DV or MPEG 2.

To get the best quality out of your video you need to set the format you're working on before you start. The problem is that iMovie and iDVD don't offer much scope to adjust all these settings. You'd be much better off with something like Final Cut or Premiere which will give you full control over all these things.

I hope this is some help!

 

[clive]

Hello LondonWeb,

Firstly many thanks for the reply and of course for the suggestions, questions and thoughts which have prompted me to consider further adjustments to my movie.

1. The first discovery was that from the main menu, ''Creating new IMovi'' one is offered video
DV
DV Wide-screen,
HDV 1080i,
HDV 720p,
MPEG-4,
isight
I chose DV which appeared as ( DV-NTSC )+ name of the movie at the top of the main screen. Now, although under ''Preferences'' I had firstly confirmed 25-fps I could see no possibilities under ''Video formats'' for selection by name of PAL or NTSC just DV..... Where can I find this ?

It also seems strange that although these formats are for importing Video I could not find any format reference for the import of single pictures. Is there one ?????? Although it's the only possibility one has in iLife to synch both music / EFX......or have I overseen something?

2. This means probably that I imported all the pictures from iPhoto into the wrong
format (720 x 480 pix. ) Or does it matter at this stage? If YES then any ideas how
one copies a rather large file to the right format ( DV-PAL ) ?????

3. In conversion to Q.Time I used the following selections
Options: DVCPRO-PAL

Quality:Best on the slider
Motion: 25 fps
As there are e.g. 32 selections to choose from under ''Expert Settings'' I am sure this
is also where it went wrong. (Your suggestion to try Sorenson brought much better
results with transitions, picture quality and titling etc. but did not completely
eliminate this strange horizontal picture flicker in the K.Burns forward zoom).

4. After conversion to Q.Time I had a File read out of 6,75 GB with original Disk file of 7,36 GB which, despite maybe the wrong conversion selection (DVCPRO-PAL) it did not compress the data enough to create such pixelation..(.if there is such a word!!!!!!)
Also, the file confirmed that the picture size was PAL 720x576 with duration time of 31'55 mins
Obviously, the data transfer to iDVD and eventual burn only exploited the problems.

5. So, I certainly would appreciate your input to the above especially to No's 1,2,3

6. Also, how do I create in IDVD a simple black start frame without having to plough through a number of standard Templates with drop zones and animated Menues etc.?
I would just like the DVD player to simply start playing the linear video
Thanks in advance for some further advice.

Clive

 

[Applespider]

Now, although under ''Preferences'' I had firstly confirmed 25-fps I could see no possibilities under ''Video formats'' for selection by name of PAL or NTSC just DV..... Where can I find this ?

This is where if you had a PAL camcorder, then iMovie automatically selects PAL. To force it to create new projects in PAL otherwise, then you have to open up a new project as DV, then go to preferences and choose 25fps, then close the project and open a new one when it will come up as DV - PAL

2. This means probably that I imported all the pictures from iPhoto into the wrong format (720 x 480 pix. ) Or does it matter at this stage? If YES then any ideas how one copies a rather large file to the right format ( DV-PAL ) ?????

Make sure your project is PAL and then import. Once you've stated it's NTSC, it stays like that.

The Missing Manual for iMovie HD says that part of the problem is likely to be that iMovie tries to render the still images into video which will always drop some of the resolution from the real photo - if you clicked a button called 'Render & Proceed" on the dialogue box which said that 'Your Movie contains still, slow motion clips", then there's not much you can do except re-import them.

The Missing Manual suggests always importing them into iMovie with the Ken Burns effect on (don't switch it off and put it back on later) since that means you keep more of the resolution (don't ask me why - that's what the troubleshooting says!). It will take longer but then you'll end up with rendered video there rather than a still being rendered later at a lower res.

The other alternative they give is not clicking on 'Create an iDVD' within iMovie but instead dragging the title bar of your movie straight to iDVD which has better rendering processes.

6. Also, how do I create in IDVD a simple black start frame without having to plough through a number of standard Templates with drop zones and animated Menues etc.?
I would just like the DVD player to simply start playing the linear video
Thanks in advance for some further advice

To make it start playing immediately, go to the Map View in iDVD and drag your video into the box which says 'drag content here to automatically play'

Themewise, I'd go for a simple one with just an image on it like Transparent that doesn't move. But you can get a plain black one in two ways.

To keep the drop zones, then just drag the image you want (a plain black tiff for example) onto the current background. To lose the drop zones, then click on Settings in the 'Customize' drawer and then drag the black background jpg (that you've created elsewhere) onto the background box.

 

[clive]

A couple of questions for you: how big was the QT file before iDVD burned the disc? Also, have you opened up the DVD to see how big a file iDVD created for the end product.

A couple of things to look for: before you burn your disc, check "Status" to see how much room your movie will take up on the DVD. If your settings are right, it should pretty much fill up the DVD. If not, it will be too small and iDVD will be over compressing your work.

I never actually burn a DVD with iDVD -- I have it create a disc image. Then I actually burn using Toast. (You can use disk utility, as well -- though I haven't tried that.)

Hello numediaman,

Firstly many thanks for the reply and of course for the suggestions, questions and
thoughts which have prompted me to consider further adjustments to my movie.

1. The first discovery was that from the main menu, ''Creating new IMovi'' one is offered video formats
DV,……………..(nothing else?????? )
DV Wide-screen,
HDV 1080i,
HDV 720p,
MPEG-4,
isight

I chose DV which appeared as ( DV-NTSC )+ name of the movie at the top of the main screen. Now, although under ''Preferences'' I had firstly confirmed 25-fps I could see no possibilities under ''Video formats'' for selection by name of PAL or NTSC just DV..... Where can I find this?

It also seems strange that although these formats are for importing Video I could not find any format reference for the import of single pictures. Is there one?????? Although it's the only possibility one has in iLife to synch both music / EFX......or have I overseen something?

2. This means probably that I imported all the pictures from iPhoto into the wrong
Format (720 x 480 pix. ) Or does it matter at this stage? If YES then any ideas how
one copies a rather large file to the right format ( DV-PAL ) ?????

3. In conversion to Q.Time I used the following selections Options: DVCPRO-PAL
Quality: Best on the slider
Motion: 25 fps
As there are e.g. 32 selections to choose from under ''Expert Settings'' I am sure
this is also where it went wrong. What can you recommend ?.......Sorensen ????

4. After conversion to Q.Time I had a File read out of 6,75 GB with original Disk file of 7,36 GB which, despite maybe the wrong conversion selection (DVCPRO-PAL) it
did not compress the data that much to create such ..(.pixelation if there is such a word!!!!!!)
Also, the file confirmed that the picture size was PAL 720 x 576 with duration time of 31'55 min.
Obviously, the data transfer to iDVD and eventual burn only exploited the problems,
wherever they occurred!.

5. So, I certainly would appreciate your input to the above especially to No's 1,2,3

6. Also, how do I create in IDVD a simple black start frame without having to plough through a number of standard Templates with drop zones and animated Menues etc.?
I would just like the DVD player to simply start playing the linieres video.

7.I have heard that Toast was a good program but why is it better than iDVD? …better Compression ? user friendly ? can do more ? ….would like to hear your comments.

Anyway thanks again in advance for some further advice.

Clive