iMovie to iDVD image is horrible - how to?

[MKirk]

I just started filming some sports games.
As expected files are quite large +50GB

Editing in iMovie 11 but for the life of me I can't seem to find a way to transfer the games to a DVD with any sort of decent quality. My intention is to share the videos with other players so they can watch/use, but the image quality on the DVD almost is unbearable to watch. Why is it I can upload the same video to YouTube from iMovie (albeit a much shorter clip) and the quality is much better (as original). I'm recording 1080p AVCHD format.

I've tried iMovie direct to iDVD - horrible
I played with the Preference settings (Best, Professional), single sided and double sided DVD disc.
I think using iMovie to Quicktime to iDVD is sightly better although the total processing time doing it this way is like 10-12 hours.

Are there any real options to do this with retaining the original image quality. It's kind of stupid to be able to record HD movies if you can't transfer them to a DVD to watch on a TV.

So how do they record entire movies onto a DVD with stunning video quality and I can't get a simple 90 min soccer game on a DVD with decent quality?

Frustrated

 

[Small White Car]

The quality of movies is much higher to begin with so they compress down much more nicely. I'm betting your DVDs look fine when played at 100% (as opposed to full screen on a computer, which is usually closet 300% scale) but obviously no one's going to do that.

But all that aside, why are you even messing with DVDs at all anymore? Get a Dropbox account and put an HD file in the public folder and send people the link. (Get the paid account so you have more space. It's probably not any more expensive than buying disks constantly.)

Besides being way easier for you, anyone who uses Macbook Airs, new iMacs, iPads, or mobile phones as their primary video device will thank you for not having to go get the DVD player under the TV warmed up.

To keep your upload times from getting out of control export the files at 960x540. Quite a bit smaller and still far better quality than DVD.

 

[Dave Braine]

I'm recording 1080p AVCHD format.

The best resolution you'll get from a dvd is 720x480. That's why,

I've tried iMovie direct to iDVD - horrible

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video

I still use a miniDV, so my dvds are not too bad.

 

[daybreak]

There is difference in videoing a sport game and editing in iMovie and transferring games unto a DVD.
I may have read you post wrong?????

 

[Unami]

1920*1080 is six times the resolution than 720*480 - maybe that's the reason of your "bad quality". or is it really bad (compression artifacts)?

 

[ChrisA]

....for the life of me I can't seem to find a way to transfer the games to a DVD with any sort of decent quality. ....

DVDs hold at best "standard definition" video. They are not used for "HD". For that you need blue ray.

Standard definition video can look good but you need a work flow that does not compress and uncompress the data multiple times. Shoot your video with the highest bit rate your camera supports then edit it using Apple's uncompressed "Pro Res" format. then finally go directly from ProRes to DVD using something like Apple's "Compressor".

The compression setting matter. When you are mastering the DVD there is no reason NOT to fill the entire DVD. Over compressing will lower the quality. DOn't try to place a lot of video on one single layer DVD. About 20 minutes per disk is good.

 

[sigamy]

As the others have said, taking 7 times the information and squeezing it down to standard definition DVD is going to be a bit rough. Especially with soccer, where you have a lot of motion. This can lead to artifacts.

Where are you watching the final DVD? On a TV or on your computer? If on your computer, do what the others said and view it at 100% (or Actual Size) in DVD Player.

Finally, I agree with the post on forgetting about DVD. Post it to youtube as private and add users to the video. You will get full 1080p, and you don't have to burn plastic disks.

 

[MKirk]

Thanks for the education and info. I'm a still photographer so I understand that type of digital imagery. Video is a complete new experience for me.

I just figured out how to post extended length videos on YouTube so that's the route I'm going to take.

Question. Can I get 1080 into Youtube on 60+ minute videos or does You tube automatically cut them down to 720? Worst case I guess is I could import a single video into shorter 20 minute sections and still get the 1080.

 

[Sarah L]

Hi there,
I'm new to mac, and the forum. I have managed to upload some mini DVs to iMovies. I also bought the apple CD/DVD drive-writer. I then made an hour long film with lots of clips, some photos, background audio, titles etc etc and thought I'd done the job and would only need to design a dvd cover to finish the gift for my sister.

However..... I keep getting a 'share failed' message - clicking on 'details' gives no clue as to why. It told me it needed at least 4.4GB and the disk I tried was a 4.7GB

I also have no real clue how to write my projet to DVD or whether it needs to go through some kind of conversion process. It says MPEG-4 movie and shows a quicktime logo but Quicktime doesn't want to know....

I do have Dropbox, but it's the free version (8GB) and don't want to pay unless I really have to.

 

[Dave Braine]

Hi Sarah. Which version of OSX and iMovie are you using? Do you have iDVD on your Mac? It will be in your Applications Folder if you do.

 

[kelub]

Question. Can I get 1080 into Youtube on 60+ minute videos or does You tube automatically cut them down to 720? Worst case I guess is I could import a single video into shorter 20 minute sections and still get the 1080.

YouTube will allow longer videos now, I'm not sure the resolution matters. There's a registration process necessary but basically you just verify your login information; after that, you can post longer videos. I recently posted a 50 minute 1080p video.

 

[MKirk]

YouTube will allow longer videos now, I'm not sure the resolution matters. There's a registration process necessary but basically you just verify your login information; after that, you can post longer videos. I recently posted a 50 minute 1080p video.

Thanks, yea I got that with YouTube now so I'm all figured out now.
It was trial and error at first. Originally I uploaded up to 90 minutes and was only getting 360p....took me a few deleats and re-uploads to figure out that it took a while after uploading for the full 1080p to take effect.

 

[Sarah L]

Hi Sarah. Which version of OSX and iMovie are you using? Do you have iDVD on your Mac? It will be in your Applications Folder if you do.

Hi Dave,

I've got OS X Version 10.9.5 I only bought the Mac a couple of weeks ago so am still a real newbie. The Mac terminology is different to PC terminology isn't it share/save etc.

No, I don't have iDVD. I looked in the app store for iDVD but couldn't find it (only tutorials for it).

After a look around the internet I ended up downloading "wondershare DVD creator" and it has done the job.

I've saved the file in 'theatre' then used that one to create the DVD

The menus page of DVD creator is not great, and the extra templates you can download for free seem to disappear into the ether but it did create a DVD that plays on my windows laptop and on my Pioneer DVD player, so I'm happy.

 

[Dave Braine]

After a look around the internet I ended up downloading "wondershare DVD creator" and it has done the job.

Yes, that will do. You could also have a look at "Burn" which is also free.
http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html

I've saved the file in 'theatre' then used that one to create the DVD

You can also Share your Project using the "File" option and then use that movie file.

The menus page of DVD creator is not great

No, that's the problem with all the dvd creators that I've come across. Unfortunately none of the menus are as good as iDVD used to be. It's a shame that Apple discontinued it.

 

[Sarah L]

Yes, that will do. You could also have a look at "Burn" which is also free.
http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html

I'll take a look at that, thanks. I ended up shelling out 14euros to get rid of the watermark on W*ndershare.

You can also Share your Project using the "File" option and then use that movie file.

I'm still having a problem with that. It looks like it's doing something and then comes up with a "share failed". When I click for 'more details' Apple kindly, if rather unhelpfully, explains that 'Your file could not be shared' (or some such elucidation) lol!

Never mind, maybe a 1h06m file with loads of clips, titles & music was a bit overly extravagant for a first try.

 

[Dave Braine]

Never mind, maybe a 1h06m file with loads of clips, titles & music was a bit overly extravagant for a first try.

Not really. It shouldn't make any difference. Can you Share to iTunes?

 

[Sarah L]

Not really. It shouldn't make any difference. Can you Share to iTunes?

I don't know. Can I? Does that put it in a 'cloud'? - you can tell I'm new to this can't you?

As I mentioned, I do have Dropbox, but it has limited storage. Is cloud/iTunes storage infinite?

 

[Dave Braine]

I don't know. Can I?

It's under the Share option. I mean't, does it work when you Share to iTunes, as you can't Share to File?

Does that put it in a 'cloud'?

No, it puts it in iTunes on your Mac.

Is cloud/iTunes storage infinite?

Yes, but you only get the first 5Gb free, and then you have to pay.

 

[chiguimania]

If you want to upload your movies to the cloud, you could use Mega. You have 50GB totally free and the Mac client is excellent.

 

[Zwhaler]

Thanks for the education and info. I'm a still photographer so I understand that type of digital imagery. Video is a complete new experience for me.

I just figured out how to post extended length videos on YouTube so that's the route I'm going to take.

Question. Can I get 1080 into Youtube on 60+ minute videos or does You tube automatically cut them down to 720? Worst case I guess is I could import a single video into shorter 20 minute sections and still get the 1080.

YouTube will go up to 4K as of today. I would do the highest quality h.264 compression you possibly can (using automatic Best multi pass with Compressor), 320kbps AAC audio, fast start, uncheck add clean aperture info, and you're good to go!

 

[shohelbd92]

The best resolution you'll get from a dvd is 720x480. That's why,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video

I still use a miniDV, so my dvds are not too bad.

I do use same. Thanks

 

[Altemose]

Some points to note is that the latest version of iDVD (7.1.2) offered some quality enhancements when burring to DVDs. Furthermore, iMovie 11 is known to have some "artifacting"/pixelation in black layers. This issue was corrected in iMovie 10 (requires Mavericks/Yosemite). I too use these pieces of software for my work as a basic video editor, and I have found Google Drive to be the best companion. I ended up buying a Google Chromebook to supplement my workflow and was given 115 GB of Google Drive free for 2 years. On a regular free account, you will receive 15 GB of storage. Since Google Drive is integrated with the other Google services, you can create links and allow your clients to download (or not depending on settings) the files as well as view them in essentially a private YouTube.