Quality loss with iMovie 08?

[Supra James]

To make a DVD from DV footage in the past I've used iMovie 6 for the editing, then I seem to recall being able to drop the finished movie (still in DV format) into iDVD and the encoding is then done by iDVD.

Now, with iMovie '08, which I like because it's easy to knock together my holiday footage (I'm no Pro!) it seems to be a two step encode - I have to finish my editing, then export the movie as an mp4 stream (using Sharing - Media Browser - Large) which takes ages. Then bringing into iDVD means another transcode to DVD format.

Does this two step encode also mean I'm losing quality?

Is there any way I can skip the first encode? It seems rather pointless

Cheers

 

[MisterMe]

... Then bringing into iDVD means another transcode to DVD format.

...

There is no such thing as "DVD format." DVDs use MPEG-2 as their format.

 

[Supra James]

There is no such thing as "DVD format." DVDs use MPEG-2 as their format.

OK, thanks for the correction, but the rest of my query still stands

 

[decksnap]

According to this screenshot, you can select iMovie source projects directly through the media browser in iDVD. I do not have iMovie '08 to test it, but this might be the answer.

 

[Supra James]

According to this screenshot, you can select iMovie source projects directly through the media browser in iDVD. I do not have iMovie '08 to test it, but this might be the answer.

You can only select a source project in this way if it's already been exported / encoded from iMovie 08 into an .m4v stream, so the two step encode is still needed - it's built into the workflow

 

[decksnap]

That's ^&$ lame. There had better be a way because I can't imagine anybody would care to go through this process. Why have I not heard of this before? Does nobody make DVDs of their home movies?

 

[lkhbkbmhtt]

Horrible truth

How disappointing. I also found no other way. What is the point of the so-called "integrated" Media Browser if I have to transcode all the stuff anyway?

Did anybody contact Apple and/or found a discussion on one of their official forums about this?