[Simon Young]

Hey everyone, first time poster here (I just got my Snow iMac - 500Mhz, 512Mb RAM - a couple of weeks ago).

My question: how do I export digital video from iMovie 2 so that it retains its full quality? Even when I tell it not to compress the footage, or try 'Full Quality' mode, the resulting file is either grainy and blocky or jerky as hell. There must be a way of saving a finished movie so that it can then be imported into other progs, or later exported onto mini-DV tape.

Cheers,

Si

[jcarr]

The full image quality is retained in the DV file. The reason your DV files are not viewed at full quality, is that QuickTime is using a software codec where your camera uses hardware. You can see the full quality by chcking both 'High Quality Enabled' and 'Single Field' in the 'Video Track/High Quality' section of the Properties dialog.

The best place for you to store your iMovies is on a DV or MiniDV tape. Choose 'Export' and then select 'to camera' and save the finished project to a fresh tape. A 60min MiniDV tape will be the least expensive 13GB of storage you'll find.

[Simon Young]

Thanks for the info, but I don't understand...which properties dialogue?

Si

[jac]

You need QT Pro to access properties, but even this won't help you if you compress your film from iMovie to Sorenson, for instance. Since iMovie exports with "High quality" off, you'll get the the lower quality in compression and the high quality setting will have no effect.
This is a serious bug in iMovie (and/or QT 5). The workaround requires QT pro ($30) and a bunch of additional steps (exporting in full quality, checking "High quality" (and probably "Single field)in QuickTime Pro and finally exporting with your desired compression). I'm not even entirely sure that it works (I don't use iMovie anymore) and even if you manage to export in full quality, you might have problems with interlacing (QT 5 seems reluctant to deinterlace)...

If you're ready to move up from iMovie, try
EditDV Unplugged. It's free and a lot more capable than iMovie (albeit harder to use). It also includes Media Cleaner EZ that handles compression.
It's, as I said, not nearly as simple as imovie, but you can do a lot more so it might be worth trying. Beware that there are incompatibilities with iMovie, so read the Readme carefully. If you decide to go back to iMovie you can keep Media Cleaner and use it instead of QT Pro for compression. Might save you the $30.