[MacDV] re: Two beginner questions

[David Hillman]

Michael Winter <winter at mac.com> wrote...
> You're multiplying the number of pixels by 4, then trying to take
> that 4x amount of information and squeeze it back down to a small
> size. Bad things _are_ going to happen. Why not just leave it at
> 320x240?

   Well it's easier to watch bigger videos.  Yes, I'm increasing the
pixels four-fold, but I don't mind increasing the file size four-fold to
match.  The problem is, I can't find a format to do that.

> Is it random, or is it when you stopped/started recording with the
> camcorder? I don't have it in front of me now, but you can (IIRC)
> tell iMovie to ignore scene breaks when importing.

   It's random.

sb wrote...
> You don't say what version of iMovie you are using, or what version of OSX?
> I assume since you are using H.264, you have QT7, so you must be using
> either 10.3.9 or Tiger.

   Sorry, Tiger.  iMovie 5.0.2.

> DV video is 720x480. After importing into iMovie, export out using the
> Share, then Expert settings, then make sure all the QT settings are for best
> quality, choosing the H.264 codec, choosing 320x280 frame size, using AAC
> for audio. You should be able to double that on playback and have it look
> very good.

   That's just about what I did, except for the 320x280 part.  The
resulting video quality is really not impressive.  I will try the smaller
size.

   Is H.264 as good as it gets?

   Thanks for the help.

--
 David Hillman