iMovie HD is downgrading the quality of my photos

[Gherkin]

I'm trying to make a photo slideshow/movie with iMovie HD, and whenever I import the photos, there is a noticeable loss in quality. Is there any way to avoid this?

 

[gauchogolfer]

I've been experiencing the same problem (and in fact started a thread on it long ago...) so I'm interested to see if there are any new ideas.

 

[dejo]

What video format is your iMovie HD project? HDV 1080i or HDV 720p or only DV? Just guessing.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Am I missing something, or isn't HD quality significantly lower resolution/higher lossy compression rates than still photo 2 - 8 Megapixel quality in any case?

 

[dejo]

Am I missing something, or isn't HD quality significantly lower resolution/higher lossy compression rates than still photo 2 - 8 Megapixel quality in any case?

1920 x 1080 is about 2 Megapixel. But it depends on the compression setting, if used, on the digital camera too.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Am I missing something, or isn't HD quality significantly lower resolution/higher lossy compression rates than still photo 2 - 8 Megapixel quality in any case?

1080p has 2,073,600 pixels (~2.1 megapixel)
720p has 921,600 pixels (~1 megapixel, not even)
480p (DV/NTSC) has 345,600 pixels (less than .5 megapixels)
Linkety to a Wikipedia link on common resolutions

Basically, iMovie is scaling down your photo to make it fit and not take up as much space.

 

[LethalWolfe]

As others have said the loss in quality you are noticing is because the resolution of video formats (w/rare exception) are much lower than the rez of still image formats. For example, in terms of rez standard def video (like DV) is equal to about the lowest quality setting you'll find on most digital still cameras.


Lethal

 

[dejo]

Try creating your iMovie project with an HDV 1080i video format (bottom of the Create Project dialog box) and see if you are happier with the resolution. Report back.

 

[theBB]

Do you use Ken Burns effect?