• The Mac-Forums Community Guidelines (linked at the top of every forum) are very clear, we respect US law and court precedence when it comes to legality of activity.

    Therefore to clarify:
    • You may not discuss breaking DVD or BluRay encryption, copying, or "ripping" commercial, copy-protected DVDs.
    • This includes DVDs or BluRays you own. Even if you own the DVD or BluRay, it is still technically illegal under the DMCA to break the encryption. While some may argue otherwise, until the law is rewritten or the US Supreme Court strikes it down, we will adhere to the current intent of the law.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying unprotected movies or homemade DVDs.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying tools in the context that they are used for legal purposes as outlined in this post.

Best Quicktime compression for a nice smooth DVD

Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Messages
101
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro 15"
I'm using i-movie HD (06) and as with all lengthy and detailed movies I make it in two parts because after about 30 minutes the sound starts to break up.

When the second half is complete, I compress it into a Quicktime movie by going to SHARE/QUICKTIME/EXPERT SETTINGS then 768-576 at 24 fps (which I think is the default) - and then I import it and stick it on the end of part one.

Then of course it has to be compressed again for DVD, though first I compress the whole movie as a Quicktime file by the same method, so the second half of the movie has been compressed twice, and although there is virtually no difference in the picture quality I have noticed that pans and long shots are not as smooth as they should be, and the picture jerks a little.

Is there anyway to avoid this, and am I using the best compression settings for that which I wish to achieve?

Many thanks

SB
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Phoenix
Your Mac's Specs
mac Pro 2 X 2.66 Dual-Core
my advice is to keep everything in the same codec. What codec do you use when you compress the first time and what codec is your iMovie timeline?
 
OP
Shoeboat
Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Messages
101
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro 15"
Hi tcross, sorry but can you explain what you mean by 'codec'? I'm not as computer savvy as I'd like to be. :)

It is not possible to make an i-movie project longer than 20-30 minutes without the sound timeline becoming distorted beyond recognition which is why I make it in two chunks. This problem has been put to the forum before as well as Apple technicians where I live and remains a mystery to this day, and I accept it can't be resolved and am not seeking to resolve it.

Anyway, back to the codec issue - is it to do with the compression settings?
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Phoenix
Your Mac's Specs
mac Pro 2 X 2.66 Dual-Core
Codec - compression decompression

Any video file, you compress then when you watch it the player is decompressing it. The trick with codecs is finding an efficient one, one that keeps the picture quality high while keeping the file size and bit-rate low. For example the "animation" codec is highly inefficent in most casses, the picture quality is great but the file size for a 30sec clip is around 300mb. However, apple's "H.264" codec is highly efficient.

So, back to your current question, you should be able to find out what codec your raw footage is, and what your timeline is set to.
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Phoenix
Your Mac's Specs
mac Pro 2 X 2.66 Dual-Core
your raw footage should be on your HD somewhere. Find it, and with it open in quicktime press "apple" + "I". This will open a window with your footage info. What does it say for codecs?
 
OP
Shoeboat
Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Messages
101
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro 15"
I tried that and it didn't work.

If you were compressing two movie projects into Quicktime files so you could have both movies on one i-DVD project - what setting would you choose?

That should have been my opening post. :)
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Phoenix
Your Mac's Specs
mac Pro 2 X 2.66 Dual-Core
use the dvntsc codec.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top