• 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.

iMovie: Exporting from mpeg2 to avi with disappointing results

Joined
Sep 1, 2008
Messages
10
Reaction score
1
Points
3
Location
Lytham St. Annes
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 2.8GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, OS 10.5 Leopard
I have imported files into iMovie08 from my Sony handycam. I have then added titles. So far so good. Then I go to export. If I export to 'large screen', the quality is not bad, but I'm thinking it should be better if I export to AVI, so I set it to 'best quality' and hit save. I then import it into iDVD08 and burn to DVD. Imagine my disappointment when it turns out to be sub-standard and inferior to 'large screen'.:Grimmace: Now, I have to say, in the back of my mind I am thinking that I should be avoiding AVI and maybe, after all, 'large screen' is the way to go. Any ideas?
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2004
Messages
9,065
Reaction score
331
Points
83
Location
Munich
Your Mac's Specs
Aluminium Macbook 2.4 Ghz 4GB RAM, SSD 24" Samsung Display, iPhone 4, iPad 2
AVI is just a container format, same as .mov. That means you can basically use one of several different codes, bitrates, compression levels etc. to create one.

My advice: For digital storage, go with h.264 and a moderately high bitrate (~1500) and you should be fine.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
Messages
3,231
Reaction score
112
Points
63
Location
On the road
Your Mac's Specs
2011 MBP, i7, 16GB RAM, MBP 2.16Ghz Core Duo, 2GB ram, Dual 867Mhz MDD, 1.75GB ram, ATI 9800 Pro vid
Sounds to me that you are exporting using the "Export using QuickTime..." option and not getting one or more settings right for the destination.

For export I'd choose "Movie to QuickTime Movie" because I'd expect iDVD not to have any issues with that container. Then choose H.264 or "Apple Intermediate Codec" as the "Compression Type". For the "Date Rate" start by using "Automatic". I'd set the size appropriate for a DVD since iDVD does not produce HD content. So I think the width would be 720.

You might want to check what the "Large Screen" option created by opening the output file in QuickTime and doing a show info (command-I).

My iMovie Export Guide might be helpful.
 

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