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Incredibly bad video quality in iMovie? Sample images!

N

nurfen

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 21, 2007
73
0
I've just imported a video of our new puppy, which I'd like to edit in iMovie '09. Although, when I import the videos the video quality gets REALLY bad.

The video is only imported, not edited or filtered in any way. Could anyone please help me? I can't edit the movies if they end up this way. I've tried all the clips, they all become crap once imported.

Thanks.
 
I have now made another screenshot from both the videos, to show just how bad this is. Take a look at the color depth (on the floor, etc) and shadow detail in the iMovie clip (to the right), and you'll notice the difference right away.
 
When you are editing video apps like Final Cut Pro (and therefore I assume iMovie) show a lower quality version in order to preserve CPU power for the important things. When you render the film it will display properly in Quicktime. After all you don't really need full quality for editing, just for things like colour correction which iMovie only has extremely basic tools for.
 
Cromulent said:
When you are editing video apps like Final Cut Pro (and therefore I assume iMovie) show a lower quality version in order to preserve CPU power for the important things. When you render the film it will display properly in Quicktime. After all you don't really need full quality for editing, just for things like colour correction which iMovie only has extremely basic tools for.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply! Unfortunately, I've tried to export the movie, and the quality is the same after exporting it :(

Any other ideas?
 
To be honest I can't see much difference between the two clips and secondly you can be sooooo distraught about the low quality when the original film is very dark and grainy anyway.
 
acearchie said:
To be honest I can't see much difference between the two clips and secondly you can be sooooo distraught about the low quality when the original film is very dark and grainy anyway.
Click to expand...

The difference is in the darkest areas - in the original, the detail is there, but in the iMovie version all the dark areas get CUT!

The fact is that the quality gets very bad in iMovie.
 
then all I can suggest really is upgrading your software to final cut express if you are so eager to correct the quality.

I dislike the new imovie and have had no good experiences with it. However I find FCE to be great!
 
acearchie said:
then all I can suggest really is upgrading your software to final cut express if you are so eager to correct the quality.

I dislike the new imovie and have had no good experiences with it. However I find FCE to be great!
Click to expand...

I actually have a license of FCE, which I got really cheap when buying Logic Studio, but I can't understand how you view the video you're editing without rendering it first? The preview window just says "Unrendered"...?
 
Ah a simple error. Basically the timeline has to be formatted to the type of video you are importing. I havent got my copy with me but if you go to I think "Final cut express>Easy setup" and pick your video type this should solve your problem.

If you cannot see your video type (maybe your camera exports an unconventional format) you can simply open it in quicktime and export it so it works in FCE!
 
nurfen said:
I actually have a license of FCE, which I got really cheap when buying Logic Studio, but I can't understand how you view the video you're editing without rendering it first? The preview window just says "Unrendered"...?
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have an SD / HDD based camcorder, They have never been particularly good for video editing.

One of the many reasons I recommend Mini-DV based camcorders.
 
acearchie said:
Ah a simple error. Basically the timeline has to be formatted to the type of video you are importing. I havent got my copy with me but if you go to I think "Final cut express>Easy setup" and pick your video type this should solve your problem.

If you cannot see your video type (maybe your camera exports an unconventional format) you can simply open it in quicktime and export it so it works in FCE!
Click to expand...

Ok, that sounds great. The camera films in 720p24, so that's really unconvenient, lol. Thanks for the tip, will try.

Cromulent said:
Sounds like you have an SD / HDD based camcorder, They have never been particularly good for video editing.

One of the many reasons I recommend Mini-DV based camcorders.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I actually use a compact digital camera, a small one :) So it really isn't optimal.

Thanks for your replies! I'll try to get this to work in FCE, and get back here complaining if it doesn't work ;)
 
Cromulent said:
Sounds like you have an SD / HDD based camcorder, They have never been particularly good for video editing.

One of the many reasons I recommend Mini-DV based camcorders.
Click to expand...

Why not? My dad has a 40gb canon hg10 and it has caused me no problems. I find log and capture to be much easier than capture as I can pick exactly what clips I want. To get the equivalent of 40gb of tapes would also cost a bomb and take up a lot of storage space!

To be honest I realise that SD/HDD camcorders did used to be a pain in FCE but I think most of the bugs were ironed out with 4.0.1
 
nurfen said:
Ok, that sounds great. The camera films in 720p24, so that's really unconvenient, lol. Thanks for the tip, will try.
Click to expand...

Well if it is from a digital camera then the footage will most probably not be in AVCHD as with many of todays camcorders.

However to get around this you can export the footage as DV and then setup the project as "HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec 720p25"

This should hopefully get rid of your rendering woes.
 
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