[Indigent]

Started using imovie and its not bad for the price (free). One major annoyance is the lousy titles. Real fuzzy, reminds me of something Microsoft would do. Anyone have the same problem? Is there a solution, (short of FCP)?

Thanks, Bill

[Hydra]

Originally posted by Indigent:
<STRONG>Started using imovie and its not bad for the price (free). One major annoyance is the lousy titles. Real fuzzy, reminds me of something Microsoft would do. Anyone have the same problem? Is there a solution, (short of FCP)?

Thanks, Bill</STRONG>

Is the fuzziness you talk of during onscreen playback or after it has been put back on DV tape or DVD? iMovies title are OK for me as far as iMovie goes and I even used to use it a little to make easy scrolling titles for FCP before the built-in text got really improved in FCP 3.

If it is onscreen it may only be in the preview that they look bad. FCP titles even look bad when they are previewed on the computers display - that is why pro's use NTSC monitors- the way computers display stuff is different than a TV so the only proof is on the real thing.

-Jerry C.

[nitram_at_work]

Also, don't forget the Titling Rule: make it big. Your standard TV has a lower res than a 13" monitor. What might look good on your screen in a fancy font will be lost on the TV screen. So don't skimp on the pixels.

Also #2 Check that High Quality is enabled in the playback options for iMovie. Can't tell exactly where it is coz I'm at work on a peecee.

[Indigent]

It is fuzzy onscreen during playback and in QT movies made from imovie. I use my Ti (and Epson projector) for briefings and it is nice to have vidclips of our products "in action". But the text is almost unreadable onscreen or using the projector.

Bill

[NeoMac]

Might want to stop by the local bookstore and take a glance at "iMovie: the lost manual" ... or whatever it is called.

It's nothing wrong with iMovie, because I've seen iMovies where the font appears great. It probably has to do with the iMovie settings, rendering, etc...

[Hydra]

Originally posted by Indigent:
<STRONG>It is fuzzy onscreen during playback and in QT movies made from imovie. I use my Ti (and Epson projector) for briefings and it is nice to have vidclips of our products "in action". But the text is almost unreadable onscreen or using the projector.

Bill</STRONG>

Quicktime has a HQ mode that is off by default and it will blur text among other things when not set to HQ on. Select the Movie menu from inside QT and click on "get movie properties" (command-J for short), from there select Video Track on the left list first and then High Quality from the right list. That should up the quality. I think the reason it is off is that it pushes the data rate way up and slower systems may choke and start to drop frames. (my dual 800 plays them just as smooth in HQ mode but your mileage may vary with a TiBook - I never used one so I don't know but it's a G4 so I think it will do the heavy lifting).

On a side-note I believe PowerPoint in Office v. X can use QT clips so you could use your movies and have razor sharp slides with text as well. Just a thought - can't believe i'm pushing a M$ app but I actually like Office v. X.

-Jerry C.

[ 04-30-2002: Message edited by: Hydra ]

[Indigent]

Egads! My eyes have been opened!
It's like a new program! High Quality makes all the diff in the world. Overall quality is much better. 500Meg clips play fine on my Ti/500. Man, that quality checkbox is buried!

Thanks for the help, Bill

Originally posted by Hydra:
<STRONG>

Quicktime has a HQ mode that is off by default and it will blur text among other things when not set to HQ on. Select the Movie menu from inside QT and click on "get movie properties" (command-J for short), from there select Video Track on the left list first and then High Quality from the right list. That should up the quality. I think the reason it is off is that it pushes the data rate way up and slower systems may choke and start to drop frames. (my dual 800 plays them just as smooth in HQ mode but your mileage may vary with a TiBook - I never used one so I don't know but it's a G4 so I think it will do the heavy lifting).

On a side-note I believe PowerPoint in Office v. X can use QT clips so you could use your movies and have razor sharp slides with text as well. Just a thought - can't believe i'm pushing a M$ app but I actually like Office v. X.

-Jerry C.

[ 04-30-2002: Message edited by: Hydra ]</STRONG>

[Hydra]

Originally posted by Indigent:
<STRONG>Egads! My eyes have been opened!
It's like a new program! High Quality makes all the diff in the world. Overall quality is much better. 500Meg clips play fine on my Ti/500. Man, that quality checkbox is buried!

Thanks for the help, Bill

</STRONG>

Glad to help - and yes Apple would have to try very hard to make the HQ mode less visible

-Jerry C

[NeoMac]

As fate would have it, we just got a sweet deal on a Sony Digi8 camcorder.

I tried iMovie. The titles are perfectly clear when you export the movie back to the camcorder. On TV everything looks great. On the computer the titles look like crap.

BTW, iMovie2 is buggy! The clips in the pallet keep 'hazing' out - just becomes a bunch of colored static. ick. A definite no-no. Apple must fix this 'pronto'.

[Indigent]

Hmmm... I don't have that problem. (yet!)

I am running Imovie 2.03 and other than the once (but no more!) annoying blurry text it has been pretty darn solid.

Bill

[Neilwhit]

I just started using iMovie myself (new digital camcorder!!!). I get the same problem with titles -- look good in iMovie, but when you render a QT movie, they look lousy. The only cure I found so far is to use the Expert settings in Export QT and set to Sorenson and higher quality. Of course the file size gets massive.

I tried the adjustement in the QT Player for HQ but it doesn't seem to have much affect on the text.

Anybody found a way to export for web use etc. so that the titles look good and still keeping the file size reasonable?

[lucylawless]

try installing the 3ivx codec, from http://www.3ivx.com/download/macos.html then in the export dialog from imovie, keep pressing the expert or advanced buttons until it lets you choose the 3ivx codec from a pop-up menu. The only thing you have to watch out for is that black borders around the image are double-plus-ungood when compressing with MPEG-4 codecs like 3ivx, so if your camera produces such borders you might want to export from iMovie in the highest quality DV codec (if you have a lot of hard drive space free), and then open the result in Quicktime Pro and use the Mask function to crop the edges off the video, then export that to 3ivx from QTP. then you can discard all the huge DV files, of course

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I've also heard that QuickTime Pro allows you to do even better resolution for titles out iMovie, though I'm no expert.