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Video quality in iMovie

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gavilanz


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I've recently started shooting video with my Canon 7D. Great fun. But I have a lot to learn about the workflow once the movie file is uploaded to the computer. I'm shooting HD at the highest quality (1920x1080). The videos look great both on the camera and when I view the raw .MOV file after upload. But once I dump it into iMovie (v.5), the quality is pretty lousy. I go to Share>Quicktime and try out the various file options, but the movie is still pixelated and nowhere near what the original file looked like. How do I keep the high quality? I see so many sharp videos out there and am not sure how to achieve similar results.

Thanks.
zs
 
C

chas_m

Guest
Hold on.

iMovie version five? Is that correct?

That's a super-duper old version if what you're saying is true. Are you sure about that?
 
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gavilanz


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Thanks for the response. I have PowerBook running Tiger (10.4.11) and the iMovie version is 5.0.2. I know, more than 5 years old and things are ancient. Planning to upgrade soon to a new machine with faster processor and more memory to deal with these large video file sizes. But, I think I should be able to get decent video quality with what I'm using, I just need a little guidance to make it happen.

-zs
 
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chas_m

Guest
Did they have HD video cameras back then? :)

What I'm trying to say is that iMovie 5 is in no way shape or form going to support full HD video. It's almost certainly converting it to SD quality (at least on screen). In fact, I don't see how a Powerbook of that vintage could even PLAY full HD files.
 
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gavilanz


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Yes, my machine has a lot of trouble with the files directly uploaded from the camera. Basically won't play them smoothly. I get about 2-3 frames in a 30 second clip. Worthless. It's iMovie HD by the way. Thanks for the insight. I'll be doing some reading about all this and will be upgrading to a newer machine soon.

zs
 
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chas_m

Guest
Ah, well iMovie 6 HD (the proper name for that app, not iMovie 5) does support HD, but yeah, the machine is working against you, not with you due to its age.

Your new machine will have a vastly different but way updated version of iMovie that works very well with HD by converting it to a new "standard," Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) that will make editing and output much better. If you're used to how iMovie HD works, prepare yourself for a HUGE change BUT overall the newer iMovie is just fabulous in a different way than iMovie HD was.
 

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