Encoding with iMovie

[bwise101]

I have a family video project I'm in the middle of. I have VHS-C (old, standard) videos and some HDV (29.97, 1080i) videos that I'm using to produce a family dvd. I have about 1.5 hours worth on a project that is pretty much done.

Unfortunately, it is about 16 gig. I know some of the VHS-C clips are HUGE. I have one that is 1.5 minutes and is about 2 gig.

What type of encoding should I do for this project to get it on one DVD? I'm not wanting to reduce the perceived quality of the HDV clips if possible.

And for future, when I capture the VHS-C clips, should I encode them before I bring them in a new project?

Many thanks,
Byron

 

[spinnerlys]

HDV takes up a lot of space, and captured VHS footage too, depending on the codec you used.

It's best to use a codec that compresses as little as possible (albeit using more HDD space), as editing with highly compressed footage is not recommended performance wise.

If you edit in iMovie and want to create a video DVD, why don't you use iDVD (that comes with iLife)? Know that video DVDs are in Standard Definition (SD), so your HDV footage will be at some point converted from HD to SD.


May I know how you capture your VHS footage, what resolution you use and what project settings you have in iMovie for editing your project?

 

[phoenixjen]

Hi,
I am Byron's sister and I did the transferring of VHS. I had my sister's video on small analog camcorder tapes. I connected it to my VCR/DVD combo. Copied them to the DVD created a DVD with the VCR/DVD combo machine. Realizing I had a DVD on my hands and no way to get that into my iMovie I had to convert the DVD to an MP4 using Handbrake. This worked but I had to individually convert each chapter. I gave up on that thinking it would take too long. So I went back to my VCR/DVD combo connected my digital video camera and transferred it to the camera and then downloaded from that camera to iMovie. This worked fine. I wish I had done this to begin with. Definitely a learning experience.

I would have used iDVD but I had upgraded my desktop to Leopard and my old iLife doesn't work with that OS. =( I do have a MacBook and MacBook Pro I can transfer the video to to use iDVD.

So knowing all that, should I just try iDVD with our existing video and see if that will fit?

Jenny

 

[spinnerlys]

Hi,
I am Byron's sister and I did the transferring of VHS. I had my sister's video on small analog camcorder tapes. I connected it to my VCR/DVD combo. Copied them to the DVD created a DVD with the VCR/DVD combo machine. Realizing I had a DVD on my hands and no way to get that into my iMovie I had to convert the DVD to an MP4 using Handbrake. This worked but I had to individually convert each chapter. I gave up on that thinking it would take too long. So I went back to my VCR/DVD combo connected my digital video camera and transferred it to the camera and then downloaded from that camera to iMovie. This worked fine. I wish I had done this to begin with. Definitely a learning experience.

I would have used iDVD but I had upgraded my desktop to Leopard and my old iLife doesn't work with that OS. =( I do have a MacBook and MacBook Pro I can transfer the video to to use iDVD.

So knowing all that, should I just try iDVD with our existing video and see if that will fit?

Jenny

Hi,

You could export the video via your working iMovie and try importing that in your working iDVD on another machine.

Which iMovie version did you use to edit the video and what version of iDVD is the working one on on of the other Macs?

 

[phoenixjen]

I used iMovie HD to create the file and I have iDVD 7.0.3 on my laptop.