Image Quality in iMovie '08

[dgc0225]

Hello all. Can anyone help with this?

I have a HD Sanyo-TH1 camcorder and a Sony DSC-W230 camera. At the time I purchased them I assumed I could just record onto iMovie and iDVD in HD as a result. I found out that isn't true--so working with what I have...how do I know what is the best format to actually use to get the best quality? I don't understand for example (when exporting) why there is even an option for quality. Mine defaults to 50%. If the video was worth recording to begin with, wouldn't the average person opt to have 100% quality?

Also, how do I know which frame size to use. In the process of converting, exporting, importing I'm often given the option to choose a frame size. I am typically making video to eventually burn to DVD. I have a full screen HD that I want to view it on...however I want to give these disks to other people that all have various television sizes etc. Since I know the HD won't automatically work, and knowing it will be viewed on different tv sets, how do I know what is the best frame size to choose without compromising quality when I finally get it into iMovie to begin with?

Thanks.

 

[spinnerlys]

You record, and probably edit, in HD (High Definition - has several resolutions like 1280x720, 1440x1080, 1920x1080 to name the most prominent ones).

Video DVDs (the one you buy at a video store and which has a movie or episodes of a television series on it) are only in SD (Standard Definition - has also several resolutions, due to two prominent broadcast systems called NTSC - USA, Japan, .. - and PAL - Europe, Asia, Africa, simply the rest), so it depends on what size you shoot and what country you currently live in.

I assume it's the USA, so have to use the NTSC preset which uses 720x480 most of the times.

Also have a look at MRoogle (my sig) as this is a topic that comes up every once in a while, and has even been answered once in a while.

 

[dgc0225]

Yes, I do record in HD. I screwed up the camera though, I meant Sanyo TH1 (and also Sony DSC-W230). You are correct, I use it in the US. When you say preset 720x480, I'm not sure if you mean the camera itself or when converting like in StreamClip.

I searched MRoogle but there were 707 posts. I would love to go through them but what I really need is to figure out how to burn my video to disc in some kind of decent quality before I go through extra stuff.

 

[spinnerlys]

If you use iMovie to edit your film, you will probably digitise/import the footage in HD.

When you export/send the footage to iDVD, it will automatically use the right settings for your region, unless you set it to something else.

During the conversion process iDVD has to do, the footage will be converted from HD to SD automatically.

There is no need to use third party software yet. If it does not work to your expectations though, you can involve other software.

But give it a try first and see if it works.

 

[dgc0225]

Thanks for the info.