Mac video quality

Discussion in 'Mac Basics and Help' started by saladiro, Sep 7, 2008.

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  1. saladiro, Sep 7, 2008

    saladiro macrumors 6502a

    saladiro

    Joined:
    May 7, 2007
    Location:
    New York
    #1
    Hi, I have a sony hard drive camcorder. (model DCR-SR45) I am importing the videos directly to iMovie. On my sony camcorder, I have it set to the highest quality possible. So when I import it, I can view it in a minimal small screen, lets say a box 4" x 4". the image quality is great.

    NOW.....when I try to make it bigger, lets say to fit the whole screen, the resolution is horrible. My expectation was that having the hard drive camcorder at the best possible quality setting, I would have no quality viewing issues at full screen, or almost (in my case, its only crisp in a small box, like i mentioned above.)

    I called Sony, and they were not so helpful. they said it could be my video card. I have a Mac book pro i think with a 128mb video card. My mac is not even a year old. I guess I was expecting that I would have a superior picture quality after import.

    Could the poor quality be due to the video card? can i change settings in iMovie to import better? are there some 3rd party apps that can help me convert it to a higher quality


    I bought it for my first new bow, and although the quality is "ok" I really wanted it to be crisp so when I look at it a few years down the road...

    pls advise / help
     
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  2. beige matchbox, Sep 7, 2008

    beige matchbox macrumors 6502a

    beige matchbox

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2005
    Location:
    Oxfordshire, UK
    #2
    According to the sony site the camera records at 720 x 480, your macbook pro is much greater than this so the movie is being stretched to fill the screen, this results in a slightly blurry picture and is unavoidable with a standard definition camera.

    If you want sharp movies on such a high resolution screen you need a 720p or even a 1080p camera, this means the movie is made up of more pixels which ends up in giving a sharper image assuming of course the rest of the camera is up to the job :)


    And lastly, as a little demonstration, I've attached a small image, 72x48 pixels, a version stretched 200%, note how the stretched version looks blurry, and a version stored at a higher resolution to begin with.
     

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  3. Cave Man, Sep 7, 2008

    Cave Man macrumors 604

    Cave Man

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2007
    Location:
    Neander Valley, Germany; just outside Duesseldorf
    #3
    No, the video card has nothing to do with image quality. Your camera is a standard def camera and is optimized for standard def TV. Unfortunately, the LCDs on computers and TVs today are far superior to this, thus your image doesn't look as well as it might on an SDTV.
     
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  4. saladiro, Sep 7, 2008

    saladiro thread starter macrumors 6502a

    saladiro

    Joined:
    May 7, 2007
    Location:
    New York
    #4
    720 x 480. Interesting. Even at the highest quality? It's a great camcorder, but for $400, you get what u pay for

    Tks
     
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  5. bootedbear, Sep 7, 2008

    bootedbear macrumors 6502

    bootedbear

    Joined:
    Sep 13, 2004
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    #5
    Don't confuse "highest quality" with resolution. The resolution for any specific camera is usually fixed for SD cameras. The "quality" settings have to do with how much compression is applied to the video.
     
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