[MacDV] Re: iMovie / iDVD pixelation & noise

[James Asherman]

I really don't know what all you people are talking bout . My stills 
look fine.Transported by memory stick fom a TRV900 to iPhoto , iMovie 
and then FCP.
If you in-house people would hire people like me we'd all be happier.


On Sunday, April 18, 2004, at 12:39  PM, Jill Arenson wrote:

> Interesting.
>
> I just prepared a still image video presentation for a Sales 
> Conference at my company.  I have a brand new G5 at home, and a Dell 
> Laptop with Premiere on it at work.  I couldn't decide whether I 
> wanted to do the project during my off hours at home on my beautiful 
> G5, or at work on my annoying Dell.  Finally, the need to spend hours 
> and hours and on the project forced me to do it at work.  I used both 
> stills and videos from various sources, added music and all kinds of 
> special effects to give the video 'jazz'.  I exported first as a 
> Quicktime DV movie and the result was terrible.  Pixelization similar 
> to what you describe below.  Then I exported as an mpg using the divx 
> codec making sure I exported to a DV size (720 x 480, I believe it 
> was), frame rate for NTSC 29.97 and I also de-interlaced because many 
> of the forums I'm on point to interlacing as a cause of problems.
>
> The result played beautifully on my Dell Laptop.   I burned a DVD 
> using DVDit.   Burned with no problems.  I tested it on a large screen 
> Sony XBR TV because I know if any pixelization or anything funky  is 
> going to show up, it will show up there.  That TV is a digital ready 
> monster that brings out the flaws in even the best professionally made 
> DVD, and I know my project is going to be shown on a projector and 
> blown up 50 fold in size.  The result was fine.  Not as crystal clear 
> as it looked on the computer monitor, but damn good.  The only images 
> that showed any 'noise' were those images that I knew were not of the 
> best quality anyway, and I expected they wouldn't look the best.  
> There was occasionally a hint of pixelization between transitions, but 
> barely enough to complain about and probably wouldn't be noticeable to 
> someone who wasn't looking for it.
>
> Between the posts of problems with iDVD4 and now this post, it seems 
> my beautiful G5 would have probably given me nothing but headaches if 
> I had tried to do the project on it.
>
> Believe me when I tell you, working in Premiere on my Dell is no easy 
> thing.  Playback in the project is never good; rendering in order to 
> see transitions takes forever (I had transitions, motion, blue screen 
> - all kinds of things on in over 200 images).
> Rendering the final output took 1 hour with divx (and the file size 
> was an acceptable 68mgs as opposed to the 1.5G that produced using 
> Quicktime).  Burning the DVD (~6 minute movie) took 10 minutes.
>
> So, is it safe to conclude I should:
>
> Stay away from iMovie for still image projects.  I have FCP, but would 
> have probably used iMovie because of its links to iPhoto and iDVD.
> Keep my fingers crossed when using iDVD4 as it may or may not be able 
> to burn a DVD (and whether it will or won't seems to depend upon the 
> Gods)
>
> Now I'm not a fan of Windows and Premiere because of the horrible 
> trouble I've had doing projects.  I've had Premiere loaded on many 
> different computers, each one faster and faster with more power, more 
> RAM etc.    But never did Premiere work as smoothly and beautifully as 
> iMovie and FCP work on my G5.  This being said, what good is it if I'm 
> not going to be able to get acceptable output?
>
>
>
> Dj
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>>
>>
>> one, of many problems, is due to the fact that DVD is compressed and 
>> you
>> are watching it from a projector...
>>
>> If you try to watch a DVD on a large screen, pixelization occurs = 
>> not a
>> good idea...
>>
>> If you want to view your "movie" using a projector, try to play it 
>> from
>> tape, first choice would be DV CAM, then miniDV, then D8, then VHS 
>> tape...
>>
>> try it for yourself...
>>
>> and let me know if you see a difference...
>>
>>
>
>
> ----------
> <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/MacDV.html>.
> Send a message to <MacDV-DIGEST at themacintoshguy.com> to switch to the 
> digest version.
>
> XRouter | Share your DSL or cable modem between multiple computers! 
> Dr. Bott | Now $139.99      <http://www.drbott.com/prod/xrouter.html>
>
>   Cyberian   | Support this list when you buy at Outpost.com!
>   Outpost    |         http://www.themacintoshguy.com/outpost.shtml
>
> MacResQ Specials: LaCie SCSI CDR From $99! PowerBook 3400/200 Only 
> $879! Norton AntiVirus 6 Only $19! We Stock PARTS! 
> <http://www.macresq.com>
>