Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

filmar · Jun 18, 2002, 03:26 PM

Hi all,

I've just started experimenting with iDVD 2.0 on a 800MHz flat panel iMac. Great software, very intuitive. However, I was disappointed after I burned the DVD and tested it to find that the picture quality was not that great. Is this normal?

I digitized a portion of video from VHS, through my Sony digital media converter, using BTV for the capture. I noticed later that Apple recommends converting the file to .DV or use iMovie to export for iDVD. Does this make much a difference in terms of quality?

I know VHS is not the best source, but I was hoping that the DVD playback would at least be as good as the source provided. Instead, when I played it back, I noticed that I could see small pixels in the picture, that you should not see when viewing DVD or VHS for that matter. Of course, I was viewing it on a 53" screen, but that should not matter, the quality should still be at least VHS level showing no pixels.

Any advise on this would really be appreciated.
Thanx. Phil.

fulmer · Jun 18, 2002, 05:46 PM

how long is the DVD? Apple recommends 1 hr only (or maybe 1.5. I believe only 1) per DVD. More than that and the quality goes down.

typoon · Jun 18, 2002, 08:25 PM

Yes if it is not in DV that might cause an issue as well with quality

filmar · Jun 18, 2002, 09:32 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by fulmer:
how long is the DVD? Apple recommends 1 hr only (or maybe 1.5. I believe only 1) per DVD. More than that and the quality goes down.<hr /></blockquote>The DVD content is about 50 minutes in length, so the quality should remain optimized.

However, I will try converting the material to DV and see if this makes a difference.

I assume you guys are getting good results with an expected 'crisp' picture?

Kristoff · Jun 18, 2002, 10:15 PM

I use a Sony TRV-120 to film my two year old.

I have made DVDs under 60 minutes and some over 60 minutes.
The difference in quality is barely discernable...even to my picky eyes.
I have a 36" Sony Trinitron and a Pioneer DV-444 DVD player (for your reference).

I have made a single DVD from a VHS tape that I played by hooking up the VCR to TRV-120 and played through firewire to iMovie for A/D conversion.

The image quality was significantly worse. It wasn't terribly--no worse than viewing the VHS tape on it's own--but it surely wasn't any better.

Jbos · Jun 18, 2002, 11:42 PM

Let's not forget this is a $20 program. You want top-of-the-line quality, you should be using something a little more sophisticated.

lucylawless · Jun 19, 2002, 02:04 AM

I think the problem is the quicktime settings in BTV. I think it has to capture to quicktime format, but if the quicktime settings are set to the DV codec, it should be the same quality as iMovie's .dv files. I think the default setting might be "video" or "composite" or maybe even whatever you last set it to in QTPro. Anyway, check the settings and let us know what codec it was using to capture with

filmar · Jun 19, 2002, 08:10 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by lucylawless:
I think the problem is the quicktime settings in BTV. I think it has to capture to quicktime format, but if the quicktime settings are set to the DV codec, it should be the same quality as iMovie's .dv files. I think the default setting might be "video" or "composite" or maybe even whatever you last set it to in QTPro. Anyway, check the settings and let us know what codec it was using to capture with<hr /></blockquote>I recently installed QuickTime 6. I think it changed or updated the default settings for BTV. I just went into it and noticed a new interface for the video settings that differs from QT 5. The interface looks more intuitive and is easier to switch between inputs. Anyway, according to BTV, the video input information is now...

video size: 720x480
default compression codec: DV NTSC
supported pixel depths: 16, 32

I'm not convinced it was set this way before, I'll need to do some checking and see how the movies were captured prior to burning the DVD. As it stands, I would think that the settings shown above should be acceptable for iDVD.