I have a new G4 running iMovie 2.1 (both the OS X version and 9.1 version). I also have a 1GHz Dell Pentium III (I know, I know...) running MGI's VideoWave 4. Here is my question:

- For the life of me...I cannot seem to get a result from an iMovie Quicktime export that comes anywhere remotely close to the quality of the MPEG-1 export from VideoWave 4. The title screens in the iMovie export are rough an fuzzy and the final video quality is a little bit shabby (a little dark, pixilated, etc...) I have tried just about every setting within the Quicktime "Expert" settings for exporting the movie, but none comes even close. In VideoWave 4, the title screens are clear (as clear as the DV original) and the video output quality is incredible. AND, and a BIG and, the files sizes can't even be compared. For example, I saved a 3 minute iMovie export at 320x240, 16-bit audio, Sorencco (or how ever it is spelled), etc, etc, etc. The final files size was around 450MBs!! I created the exact same file movie within VideoWave 4, save with the same setting (except as an MPEG-1 file) and the 3 minute video was 35MBs!! WHAT A HUGE DIFFERENCE. And to boot...the iMovie export looked like CRAP while the VideoWave 4 export looked like the original DV video.

What is going on here. Both pieces of software cost about the same. Both are relatively easy to use. I hear people always praising iMovie...but how can I use it when the final results (for Quicktime exports) are so terrible!!??

Thanks!

I'm not sure where your problem lies. I exported a 19.5MB, three minute 360x240 Quicktime from a DV file this evening(using the h.263 codec @ high quality, 16 bit 22KHz), and the quality is every bit as good as any mpeg1 I've churned out in VideoWave.

[This message has been edited by PC2MAC (edited 05-10-2001).]

Originally posted by rdgit:

What is going on here. Both pieces of software cost about the same.

Cost? iMovie 2 is free. . .

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I got a yellow slinky from Outpost.com

Something must be screwy. A 3 minute Sorenson movie should in no way be 450 MB, more in the neighborhood of 20 MB. It shouldn't look bad either. Go through the export again carefully and make sure you're not missing something.

If you want really high quality at minimum size download the 3ivx codec at www.3ivx.com . At 320x240 you'll get way better results than your mpeg movie, and it should come out under 10 MB. (Haven't worked in iMovie in a long time so I don't remember how the export function works, maybe you need QuickTime Pro to use 3ivx.)

In any case your problem is solvable; post back if you need more assistance. I can give you step by step instructions if you want.

Thanks for the responses. I am not trying to say that VideoWave is in any way better than iMovie - I just want to get a good result.

What are the best settings for a <50MB 3 minute 320x240 video. My main concern is with the title quality, not so much the video (it seems to look good). The title screens are almost un-readable (fuzzy looking, and at 320x240, almost impossible to read (FYI - they are white text on the black background). In the full-quality DV export, they look terrific. In the Quicktime export, they look like CRAP!! (and, the MPEGs from VideoWave - with the same font and size and background - look CRYSTAL clear.) HELP!!! Where am I going wrong...? Is it really this difficult to get a good output from iMovie 2...?

Thanks!!

For best results do the following (IMHO): Download the 3ivx codec here: http://lambda.3ivx.com/codec/3ivx1d3_mac.sit.bin
Follow install instructions.

Now export your film to QT in iMovie. Choose "Advanced..." in the settings. Set the size of your film (320x240), then click video settings. Choose "3ivx delta 3" for compression, set the quality to "Best" and frames/sec to 15. Click OK.
For sound choose IMA 4:1, 16-bit.

Be aware that 3ivx encoding takes forever, a 3 minute film takes over an hour to export. You results however will be very good.

Another good codec in on2 vp3. It seems they've removed the QT plugin from their site though but you may be able to find it: www.on2.com
on2 is a lot faster than 3ivx, but not as pretty (though still very good).
Let me know how things turn out!

I tried exporting from iM2 and also got less than perfect results (sorry about my slightly uninformed earlier posts). Even at the highest quality images have artifacts, especially noticable with titles.

Opening the clips in QT Pro and exporting gives similar results implying that it's a problem with QT and/or the DV codec. However, importing the clips into Adobe Premiere (which also uses QuickTime) and exporting from there gives perfect results. Strange.

It seems that iMovie and QuickTime read the DV files differently, as in iMovie the images are always clear, but not necessarily so when viewing them in QT. Maybe this is an issue with QT 5? Anyone have any ideas?

Export your movie as "Full quality, large," and then get a copy of Media Cleaner EZ to do the compressing. All you have to do is answer questions and it will compress the movie according to what you say.

It also works good to export the movie smaller than you want (like, 256x192) and then scale it up, (320x240) and save it with QT Pro. This will give you a smaller file size and will still look just as good.

Also, another way to get the file size down is to use MP3 for the audio. After exporting as "Full quality, large," extract the audio track and save it as an aiff file. Then encode it with iTunes (I use 24kbps mono) and then add it back to the movie (the one created with Media Cleaner EZ).

If you look at my website (link below), you can see the results of this with the first movie (at the top, Nut of the Week). I think it gives very good results.

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BNuts.net

[This message has been edited by IMKoRnNuts (edited 05-21-2001).]

Originally posted by IMKoRnNuts:
Export your movie as "Full quality, large," and then get a copy of Media Cleaner EZ to do the compressing. All you have to do is answer questions and it will compress the movie according to what you say.

It also works good to export the movie smaller than you want (like, 256x192) and then scale it up, (320x240) and save it with QT Pro. This will give you a smaller file size and will still look just as good.

My original point is that you should not have to do this. I think this is a bug in iMovie. Why use a product to create the movie only to have to run around to other product to get acceptable finished projects. This does not make sense and I cannot believe (or maybe I can) that Apple wants this to be the case (with as much importance as they give to products like iMovie...)

Try this:

• 256x192 (then later up it and save at 320x240, or even higher)
• Sorenson Video
• Quality: Best
• 15 Frames Per Second
• Key Frames (leave blank)
• Data rate: 30Kbytes/sec
• QDesign Music 2 if your movie has more music, • Qualcomm PureVoice if your movie has more voices (MP3 still works the best at 24kbps, mono iTunes)
• 11.025 kHz, 8-bit, mono

• FPS & Data Rate: For more motion, 15fps, 30Kbytes/sec. For less motion, 10fps, with a higher data rate.

This should give you a good quality movie for a small size. The one downfall of Quicktime is that it doesn't have a very good audio encoder. MP3 will give better sound and smaller size than the two codecs above.

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BNuts.net

The problem is that even at full quality there is deterioration. Opening up a rendered title clip directly i QT shows that there is some glitch. iMovie can read the clips correctly, but not QT.

I'm gonna downgrade to QT 4 and see if the problem persists. Maybe there is some other conflict since not everyone seems affected.

I liked those suggestions about this 3vix plug-in. Thanks!

What is the difference between 3vix and Divx?
I know, that in the Windows-World many are using Divx. Are they able to play 3vix encoded movies? Does the 3vix plug-in allow me to play Divx movies?

Thanks

Originally posted by jac:
The problem is that even at full quality there is deterioration. Opening up a rendered title clip directly i<b>n</b> QT shows that there is some glitch. iMovie can read the clips correctly, but not QT.

I'm gonna downgrade to QT 4 and see if the problem persists. Maybe there is some other conflict since not everyone seems affected.

HELLO! There is no "Glitch"! Get info on the movie. select the Get movie (Command-J in QT 5) properties and find "High Quality enabled" and check it! it will look like it does in iMovie. iMovie just truns this on its self all the time...

-Owl

p.s. you need Quicktime Pro...

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OwlBoy@mac.com www.owlboy.com

Originally posted by Felix:
I liked those suggestions about this 3vix plug-in. Thanks!

What is the difference between 3vix and Divx?
I know, that in the Windows-World many are using Divx. Are they able to play 3vix encoded movies? Does the 3vix plug-in allow me to play Divx movies?

Thanks

3ivx (pronounced Thiv-ix by many), when finished, will have higher Visual Quality and Smaller File size than its DivX ;-) copy at the realativly same settings.

Also the Original DivX was a Hack of M$s MPEG4 Codecs in WiMP. The new version that is in development (OpenDivX) is being made from scratch it seems, yet by the same ppl. OpenDivx DOES NOT, I repeat DOES NOT play DivX movies.

Also 3ivx is better than DivX cuz once its finished it will be worked on more unlike the current DivX.

3ivx is in active development as we speak.
[3ivx] http://www.3ivx.com
[OpenDivx] http://www.projectmayo.com
[Mac DivX] http://mac.divx.st

[DONT PIRATE MOVIES]
-Owl

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OwlBoy@mac.com www.owlboy.com

Alright, so I will have to refer to the 3ivx Hompage when ditribuing my 3ivx movies to make sure that recipients can decode it...