Imovie 4.0 RE: best compression for burning

[selfemployed]

When I am capturing analog video using a convertor to IMovie 4.0, the format it automatically saves to is Quicktime. I am interested in compressing the video as much as possible without affecting the viewing quality and I also want to insure it DVD plays on as many DVD players as possible. With quality of playback and the burned disks ability to play on most players are the main concerns, is there a compressor I should use rather than quicktime for optimal compression? If so, the procedure in which to do so would be more than greatly appreciated. I currently have ILife. Many thanks.

 

[Makosuke]

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you're asking, but it sounds like you want to import analog video with a converter (DV converter?), then edit it in iMovie, and put the result on a DVD that will play in as many players as possible.

If that is what you're trying to do, the process is easy: I'm assuming that your converter is producing DV files, which are iMovie's native format and although they may be identified as "Quicktime" files, are very low compression. If that's the case, you're not going to do any better, since iMovie needs things in DV format eventually anyway.

The other possibility is that the converter is using some other format, in which case you have no choice anyway--again, iMovie converts everything to DV anyway.

To burn to DVD, use iDVD with "Best Quality" selected. There is only one actual DVD format--MPEG2, which iDVD produces--and regardless of what format the video was in originally, it all ends up in this format in the end. If you use DVD-R discs (as opposed to +R) they'll be compatible with just about any DVD player still around.