Importing to iMovie: Quality issues

[MyLeftNut]

Hi all,

I am trying to import and edit a DV video for a friends wedding. I am a little disappointed though. Most of the footage was taken indoors and there was plenty of light when I took it. Looks great on the camera viewfinder but when I import it into iMovie (5.0.2) the footage is very dark. Too dark.

Moreover, when importing, the footage seems jerky and hardly smooth like when it is viewed on the camera display. This is really awful. Its not like I want this to be a masterpiece but shouldn't you get what you see from the camera?

The details are as follows:

PB17 (1GRam) RevC + LaCie FW800HD 200G + Panasonic NV-GS120 camera.Note: PAL setting. Saving to external hardrive.

I dont know what else to do. The preferences seem fine. Could it be hardware related? Is the PB not powerful enough? Can firewire have issues?
I have reset permissions and trashed the pref files just in case but I dont think these should have anything to do with it. If anyone out there is able to assist it would be greatly appreciated...

 

[gekko513]

I would be very surprised if it is hardware related as I've seen DV footage imported to an iMac G3 450MHz without problems.

Try to import to the internal hard drive, sending data in and out at the same time could perhaps saturate some part of the I/O system.

 

[homerjward]

if they're on the same firewire bus that could lead to dropped frames (going off what i've heard; dont own a dv camera or ext hard drive) and that makes it look jerky. also are you running anything else at all because when i capture video in to imovie and i'm doing something else i get a lot of dropped frames and quality issues.

 

[MyLeftNut]

Thanks guys for the replies.

I dont run too much while Im importing footage. Usually just Mail or iTunes. I think the dark footage might be to do with the camera settings. At a bit of a loggerhead as what to do...