iDVD produces jerky video using iMovie HD footage

[longmover]

I really hope someone can help me, this problem is driving me nuts:

I filmed my Nephew's wedding using a Sony HDR-HC5 HD camcorder, imported it in to iMovie and edited it all no problem. The preview plays fine.

Next stage was to export it to the Media Browser so I could burn it in iDVD. I exported it as large and proceeded to make a menu system in iDVD no problem, again the preview looks fine. However, when I come to create the DVD/VIDEO_TS folder the playback is very jerky.

I've found a few threads from people who solve this problem using the 'Shift Fields' filter in Final Cut Express 4, fine but I don't have FCE4 and I shouldn't need to drop £130 on additional software just to burn a dvd!

I've always found that Apple stuff does 'just work' but for some reason, this doesn't....!

Please, please, can anyone help me?

 

[longmover]

Anyone have any ideas? I am pulling my hair out...!

 

[KeithPratt]

I'm pretty out of the loop on iMovie, but you sound pretty desperate and you're from Wales, so I'll have a stab.

Based on it looking fine in iMovie and iDVD prior to encoding I'd assume you were using iMovie 6 (I vaguely remember some reference to '08 deinterlacing HD footage, so if you were using that it'd look juddery in iMovie itself), but the trouble with that is I've exported HD from iMovie 6 to iDVD and not had a shifted fields issue (it didn't look great generally though)...

Whatever is causing the problem, it sounds like it's happening when going from HD to SD, in which case I'd suggest using a program like MPEG Streamclip to do the downconvert and see if it looks different.

Don't know if that's been of any use to you. Someone who's done this kind of thing recently might want to wade in with a more detailed solution (or accurate diagnosis).

 

[huntercr]

Anyone have any ideas? I am pulling my hair out...!

Have you tried playing your disk in a real DVD player?

Can you post a few seconds of the video so we can see what you see?

 

[longmover]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies. In answer to your questions, I have tried playing on a normal DVD player and the results are the same.

I am using iMovie '08.

I tried converting the output from iMovie to various formats using VisualHub and, depressingly, the jerkiness is still present.

I will do some more trials and post some video for you to see soon.

Thanks for helping with this guys, much appreciated....

 

[nitroxwarn]

I am having exactly the same issue - both with Sony hdr tg1 and sony hd sr12.....I ended up having to go back to Sony Vegas on a pc and the jerkiness disappeared. I thought I was a complete Mac convert so would love to find a solution....

 

[Mit59]

Maybe this will help

I have posted several times about this, you might search for my handle.

In my case I was working with footage from a friends wedding. It was shot HD 720p and was widescreen. Anyway, the DVD produced by iDVD was interlaced and so I got horribly jumpy footage on my TV although it looked fine in preview in iDVD. My solution was to choose a non-obvious export setting in iMovie. I used Share/Export using Quicktime/Movie to Quicktime Movie and under options chose DV/DVPRO - NTSC, Current Frame rate, Medium Quality, Progressive, 16:9. I used no filters, and a size of 720x480 16:9, Letterbox. The resulting file imported into iDVD and produced non-interlaced (or at least non-jumpy footage.

Unfortunately I now had a different problem. iDVD refused to see these new files as 16:9. The template menus showed the correct ratio but when I selected and ran the actual movie it was squeezed into 4:3 format. This seems to be an ancient problem in iDVD (why Apple never fixed it is anyone's guess) and I resolved it finally by passing the exported DV/DVPRO files from iMovie through Anamorphicizer (also free) before reading into iDVD.

FINALLY I got a good DVD of my friends wedding from my HD source. I hope this helps you.

One more tip. Don't burn in iDVD, tell it to export an IMG file. It's faster than burning a damn coaster and you can mount the IMG and look at it in DVD Player to see if it's worth burning. I like the application Burn for making DVD's. I've even used it to make a DVD that my PS3 will play as HD... another story.

Tim

BTW If this is of any use, put it down to my dearest departed Mum. She was a Welsh lass her whole life despite leaving for Ireland after WW2 with a Paddy (my Dad of course). I spend MANY summers in Barry with all my Welsh family. Just last May I took my wife there and to the Lake District. She loves it now as much as I do. Good luck!

 

[longmover]

Mit59:

Thank you so much, I will try this right now and let you know how it turns out. One other thing, was your footage shot in NTSC? Mine is a PAL source so I'll try PAL first and see how it goes.

One other thing, I live in Barry I'm so glad you like our humble country/town, where are you from?

 

[Mit59]

Barry

Hi Longmover,

Wow, small world. My Aunt lives on Barry Road and I visit her every chance I get. She's my last link with my Mom's family of 13 siblings. I'm Irish by birth but have lived in the States (Portland Oregon) for 26 years.

I hope my suggestion works. Of course you would export in PAL, I should have caught that. The text was just a copy/paste from an earlier post I made to try and help someone on this side of the pond.

Tim

PS: If you do need anamorphicizer to fix a mis-shapen video get it here:
http://homepage.mac.com/sith33/FileSharing34.html

 

[longmover]

Hey Tim, my Girlfriend works in a Dental practice on Barry road, wow. What are the chances

Also, I managed to get out smooth video using your advice! Fantastic, I do need that anamorphicizer though as it is squashed into fullscreen, but huge progress, thank you so much!

All the best,

Sam

 

[nitroxwarn]

I would like to thank you as well Tim - much smoother although I cannot for some reason download anamorphicizer - it shows it has downloaded but doesn't do anything! I remain confused however that you have to do all of this when Apple are supposedly at the forefront of audio/video editing....

 

[longmover]

I know exactly what you mean nitro, I love how easy to use Apple stuff is and I'm always recommending them to other people on that basis then this happens! I was gutted, I hope they fix it soon...

Thanks again to Tim for his solution

 

[longmover]

Tim, good news! Your technique works a treat, I am so grateful, thank you so much for replying to this thread

After using anamorphicizer to sort out the widescreen issue I have sharp and smooth footage POST iDVD.

Am very relieved...

Thanks again,

Sam

 

[longmover]

Perian is the issue

Just an update for anyone who has this issue, I finally got to the root of the problem. If you are experiencing jerky output from iDVD, remove Perian reboot, re-render/share from iMovie and recreate the DVD in iDVD. This solved the problem without using the above export technique.

Cheers,

Sam

(very very relieved)

 

[nitroxwarn]

Forgive my ignorance but could you please elaborate......

 

[longmover]

Sure thing.

I was having trouble with getting a smooth playing dvd from HD footage edited in iMovie 08 and burned in iDVD 08.

No matter what I did the footage would be jerky and almost painful on the eyes.

After lots of experimenting I found a post on another forum suggesting that Perian could be causing the problem.

After uninstalling Perian, re-booting, sharing the movie from iMovie again using the media gallery, importing into iDVD and burning a disc it all worked like a charm.

If you need any more info let me know.

 

[nitroxwarn]

Thanks longmover - trouble is I am getting the jerky output and I do not have Perian even installed.....?!

 

[montanachad]

Glad I'm using iMovie '06 now, my G4 couldn't handle iMovie '08 and I'm glad after reading these and other threads.

 

[longmover]

Thanks longmover - trouble is I am getting the jerky output and I do not have Perian even installed.....?!

Hmm, how about DivX?

If not then it may be a field dominance issue which I thought was the problem I had at first. That's a pain to solve by all accounts....