Video Editing

[LARAMY]

I've recently made a couple of kayaking DVD's from video shot via GoPro HD. I uploaded the video straight to the Mac and then did the editing / burning with iMovie '09. The video quality on the computer is great but when I'm watching the DVD on my tv it is noticibly less. Any suggestions?

[Shep]

Is it straight from the DVD, or are you looking at the source footage on your computer when it is high quality? The final codec (that's the software block that does the final compression of the movie) that you use to create your DVD has a HUGE effect on the quality (and size) of the video. If you are using the presets for "Internet" or "Mobile Device" that could be the cause of the problem. I am not primarily a Mac user, so I can't say much on the specifics.

Hope thsi helps,
Shep

[GutIt]

You don’t give many specifics Laramy, without which, I can’t be of much help. I may not be of much help anyway, but I’ll try!

For starters try editing in iMovie, save the project, then burn from iDVD. Import the movie from iDVD rather than exporting from iMovie.

There is any number of possibilities/reasons your footage is looking bad. As a general rule of thumb, it usually boils down to your settings/preferences. But there are output choices, interlacing issues, it could be anything.

I would go cruise the Apple Forums. I think you will find that this is a common problem with many possible answers.

iMovie

iDVD

[tomOzarkVideo]

DVDs are 1/4 the raster size (640x480) of HD (1920x1080) and heavily compressed (Mpeg 2.)

You're seeing HD on your computer and SD on the DVD.

The bridge between SD/HD is a bumpy one. I've been on it for 10yrs now..

[waterhog]

never used imovie but what did u render it in and what choices does it give u

[LARAMY]

Thanks for the replies. Using a Mac was new to me as well was the editing software. I browsed several forums and made several support calls to get through the project. I used iMovie '09 to do every part of the editing even adding the chapter markers. I then exported it to iDVD (seemed the least confusing way to do it) and at that point simply added a menu theme and hit burn. If there was other options/settings I don't know where to find them.

Video playback throughout the editing process looked great and it's not that the DVD's look bad but they could be much better. The last two kayaking DVD's I have purchased, Dream Result and Frontier both feature clips shot by GoPro and look great on DVD. There's not a lot of options for blank DVD's and I bought the best I could find so I think the problem is something with the transfer of data.

[Shep]

Bits are Bits. The quality of the discs you buy won't matter as long as they don't get scratched up. It is all about the software you use, and the settings within them. Unfortunately I don't speak much Mac, so I can't give any more hints than that, but the devil is in the software.

Shep

[tomOzarkVideo]

After looking at iDVD for a moment it looks like the setting for encoding is set for fast performance by default. Go To iDVD > Preferences and in the projects tab set encoding to: Professional.

This should make a difference.

[LARAMY]

Tom, I thought for sure that would be it. I found the setting, made the change, and re-burned the DVD. The change it made was minimal, honestly probably none at all. Very frustrating deal. The web is full of forums with people frustrated about the same thing. May just skip the DVD all together and look into something like Vimeo.

[tomOzarkVideo]

Save an HD version for Apple tv (should look good on anything. Dvds are on the way out.

Vimeo or Youtube are great. be sure to upload an HD file.