Having spent an inconceivable amount of time trying to produce a DVD of acceptable quality with imovie 09 and iDVD, I am now considering other options. It's a shame, really, because I actually like working with imovie 09. It's a fun app to use and offers me more than enough options for doing basic editing to my home movies. Unfortunately, the quality of my videos drops off dramatically at each step in the process, most notably on importing to and exporting from imovie. The most distracting anomalies could be described as uniform lines within the video being broken into pieces that actually jump around as the movie "moves", diagonals dancing off straight edges of the video content, and a general distortion of color and brightness charcteristics.
I'm working with standard definition video, so I don't expect miracles, but the finished product should at least be comparable to the original, and it's really not. I've tried deinterlacing with JES before editing, and I've tried various export settings, primarily utilizing AIC or H.264. Some workflows have yielded better results than others, but even the best I've come up with so far is disappointing.
FCE seems like it's more than I need, and difficult to learn, and kind of expensive for my purposes as well. So now I'm considering imovie 06, which seems to have a better reputation than imovie 09 for producing quality video. I don't want to waste my time and money, though, so I'm looking for advise.
First, I have found sellers offering iLife 06, but I'm wondering if there will be any problem installing it, since I already have iLife 09. No point getting it if I won't be able to install it. Second, should I notice a difference in video quality, comparing 06 to 09? I know imovie 06 is highly regarded for it's HD capabilities, but I can't remember reading much about how well it handles SD.
Any insight would be appreciated.
I'm working with standard definition video, so I don't expect miracles, but the finished product should at least be comparable to the original, and it's really not. I've tried deinterlacing with JES before editing, and I've tried various export settings, primarily utilizing AIC or H.264. Some workflows have yielded better results than others, but even the best I've come up with so far is disappointing.
FCE seems like it's more than I need, and difficult to learn, and kind of expensive for my purposes as well. So now I'm considering imovie 06, which seems to have a better reputation than imovie 09 for producing quality video. I don't want to waste my time and money, though, so I'm looking for advise.
First, I have found sellers offering iLife 06, but I'm wondering if there will be any problem installing it, since I already have iLife 09. No point getting it if I won't be able to install it. Second, should I notice a difference in video quality, comparing 06 to 09? I know imovie 06 is highly regarded for it's HD capabilities, but I can't remember reading much about how well it handles SD.
Any insight would be appreciated.