Why do my photo's look like crap on a TV made with iMovie/iDVD?

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I put together some nice Christmas pictures I had taken with my Digital Rebel in iMovie. I exported it to iDVD, rendered it, and burned it to a DVD and man, the quality of picture sucked. I was really disappointed with the picture quality on my tv (~30" TV).



Is this normal or do I have to adjust some setting to improve quality?

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    Well, what's the picture resolution? If its a small one, then you can't expect them to appear good on a huge TV.



    Furthermore, what format did you burn them on? JPEG, TIFF, PNG?
  • Reply 2 of 24
    I did the same thing with christmas pics last night. The photo's were taken with my old 1.3 MP digital camera, and I used iPhoto's export to iDVD feature. I was surprised at how good it turned out. I had cropped the pics quite a bit too. I don't recall changing any settings within either app.

    really looks great.
  • Reply 3 of 24
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    3072 x 2048, 3.6 mb taken with a 6.3 mega pixel sensor Canon Digital Rebel. They are in jpg format by default from the camera.



    I did the export to iDVD thing too. The porcess worked great, but the pictures look horrible on screen. :-(



  • Reply 4 of 24
    Just to make sure that your expectations are in line... DVD resolution is 720x480, so if you are expecting better than that you should re-evaluate. That is the best resolution you can possibly hope for, no matter how good your TV is. You will never get up-close detail on a TV.



    HDTV's have better output capability, but they use interpolation to get the results when using non-HDTV sources. The formulas for this are well tuned to motion, but tend to fall apart on still pictures.



    Does that knowledge change anything?
  • Reply 5 of 24
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Yes, it changes my point-of-view somewhat. However, video seems to look better than still pictures. I can't understand this unless iDVD is screwing up the downsizing on my still photo's.



    How come movies look exceptionally clear? Star Wars is mind blowing clear.

  • Reply 6 of 24
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Yes, it changes my point-of-view somewhat. However, video seems to look better than still pictures. I can't understand this unless iDVD is screwing up the downsizing on my still photo's.



    How come movies look exceptionally clear? Star Wars is mind blowing clear.



    One last thing, they even look bad on my 20" monitor. Is there a way to make a video that will come out in QT format for high resolution? At least that way I can get a good presentation on computer screens.



  • Reply 7 of 24
    Quote:

    Originally posted by aplnub

    I did the export to iDVD thing too. The porcess worked great, but the pictures look horrible on screen. :-(



    Eric, you should check the iMovie and iDVD folders in the Apple Discussion Forum. One of the things that's mentioned is do NOT export your finished movie from iMovie to iDVD. Instead, make a new project in iDVD, then import the .mov file using iDVD->File->Import->Video. This causes iDVD to render the project rather than iMovie and the results are supposed to be better.



    One nice thing about the big price drop in blank DVDs is that we can now do test burns without feeling we're throwing a buck away each time.
  • Reply 8 of 24
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Thanks! I will. And yes, cheap DVD's are a plus. I will do just that now and see if I can tell a difference. :-)



  • Reply 9 of 24
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Not to sound too stupid, but do you think using FCP HD would make any difference whatsoever? I have it and am learning to use it. Just never thought I would use it for something so simple.



    Even the titles in iMove look like crap on the screen.

  • Reply 10 of 24
    Quote:

    Originally posted by aplnub

    Not to sound too stupid, but do you think using FCP HD would make any difference whatsoever? I have it and am learning to use it. Just never thought I would use it for something so simple.



    Even the titles in iMove look like crap on the screen.



    Eric




    Which screen do you mean now? Computer screen or TV screen?

    Titles within iMovie on computer screen look somewhat low end

    But they are greatly improved after beeing rendered.

    In general i can not second your results, mostly, my iMovie footage

    looks pretty great, almost professional. Don't expect the same "Crispness"

    with Tv Screens compared to Computer Screens.



    As someone else pointed out, Computer Monitors almost always display Movies in higher resolution than Tv Monitors ever could so.
  • Reply 11 of 24
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Sorry, I was referring to both screens. I will have to find someone else locally who has a mac and has done a dvd with iMovie/iDVD and see what they produce. People's eye's look weird on a 30" tv screen.



    Thanks for all the comments. I will try and investigate more and report back something.







    Quote:

    Originally posted by Vox Barbara

    Which screen do you mean now? Computer screen or TV screen?

    Titles within iMovie on computer screen look somewhat low end

    But they are greatly improved after beeing rendered.

    In general i can not second your results, mostly, my iMovie footage

    looks pretty great, almost professional. Don't expect the same "Crispness"

    with Tv Screens compared to Computer Screens.



    As someone else pointed out, Computer Monitors almost always display Movies in higher resolution than Tv Monitors ever could so.




  • Reply 12 of 24
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    After watching DVD's (I Robot, Star Wars, etc.) and pausing the movie, the sceen shots look great on my tv. I still don't understand what the deal is with iMovie.

  • Reply 13 of 24
    Are you sure yiu're using the same TV system in both software?

    I mean if you're in the states, double check that your projet in iMovie AND iDVD are set to NTSC. If you are in Europe, it should be set in PAL.



    TV system conversion get very losy results in low-end software...



    my 2cents
  • Reply 14 of 24
    i haven't checked recently but the "ken burns effect" pretty much ruined all images that it touched. in order to make the effect work it seems to rough render the images, thereby losing all the quality. if you used ken burns effect it might have made them look worse.
  • Reply 15 of 24
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by admactanium

    i haven't checked recently but the "ken burns effect" pretty much ruined all images that it touched. in order to make the effect work it seems to rough render the images, thereby losing all the quality. if you used ken burns effect it might have made them look worse.



    It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.
  • Reply 16 of 24
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    I would like to report that iMovie and iDvd make crappy looking pictures in a slideshow compared to DVD Studio Pro 3. I have yet to try iMovie and iDVD HD but I will and report back.
  • Reply 17 of 24
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by aplnub

    I would like to report that iMovie and iDvd make crappy looking pictures in a slideshow compared to DVD Studio Pro 3. I have yet to try iMovie and iDVD HD but I will and report back.



    i was going to respond to earlier comments, but you're sort of arriving at this answer already. movies you buy, especially ones like star wars, are compressed with state of the art technologies. DVD Studio Pro 3 gives you much more control over rendering than iDVD, so it's no surprise that encodes from that look better than those from iLife apps. There's a lot more to this answer, but that's all I have time for right now.
  • Reply 17 of 24
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by aplnub

    I would like to report that iMovie and iDvd make crappy looking pictures in a slideshow compared to DVD Studio Pro 3. I have yet to try iMovie and iDVD HD but I will and report back.



    i was going to respond to earlier comments, but you're sort of arriving at this answer already. movies you buy, especially ones like star wars, are compressed with state of the art technologies. DVD Studio Pro 3 gives you much more control over rendering than iDVD, so it's no surprise that encodes from that look better than those from iLife apps. There's a lot more to this answer, but that's all I have time for right now.
  • Reply 19 of 24
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    i was going to respond to earlier comments, but you're sort of arriving at this answer already. movies you buy, especially ones like star wars, are compressed with state of the art technologies. DVD Studio Pro 3 gives you much more control over rendering than iDVD, so it's no surprise that encodes from that look better than those from iLife apps. There's a lot more to this answer, but that's all I have time for right now.



    When you get time to post more, I am all ears. Very few people seem to realize there is a difference. I believe this is because most don't have DVD Studio Pro.
  • Reply 20 of 24
    mpmoriartympmoriarty Posts: 289member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by OldCodger73

    Eric, you should check the iMovie and iDVD folders in the Apple Discussion Forum. One of the things that's mentioned is do NOT export your finished movie from iMovie to iDVD. Instead, make a new project in iDVD, then import the .mov file using iDVD->File->Import->Video. This causes iDVD to render the project rather than iMovie and the results are supposed to be better.



    One nice thing about the big price drop in blank DVDs is that we can now do test burns without feeling we're throwing a buck away each time.




    You mean, you go to iDVD and import the .mov file within your iMovie project?
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