>
> (Original video was dig8 from Sony TRV 460 via Firewire
> to Mac G4 (Panther) and iMovie 4 to iDVD 5 on (Tiger)!)
>
> Thanks
> Lyndon

"PTravel" <ptra***@ruyitang.com> wrote:

> "lyndon" <lynd***@easyjunktrapstreet.com> wrote in message
> news:lyndonr-332C9F.13115126062006@sn-ip.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net...
> > Having imported video into computer and creating an
> > iMovie/QT file of it the quality wasn't too bad. But
> > when it went thru iDVD to a DVD, the quality really
> > dropped off. (Resolution was not great) Is this a
> > software problem or ......? Would FinalCutPro put
> > out a higher quality picture?

> Producing a DVD requires transcoding DV-codec-encoded AVI to MPEG2, a lossy,
> temporally-compressed format.  The transcoding process is critical to final
> video quality -- such things as bit precision, motion search, compression
> rate, matrix structure, number of analysis passes, variable versus constant
> bit rate compression, and other factors determine how good the final video
> will look.  Most entry-level consumer products, like iDVD, compromise on
> transcode quality in the interest of speed of output.  Final Cut Pro is,
> primarily, an editing program -- I don't whether it is intended for
> authoring DVDs from the timeline, or can simply produce a quick-and-dirty
> DVD for evaluation purposes (lots of comparable prosumer editing packages go
> the quick-and-dirty DVD route).  You may wish to investigate stand-alone
> authoring and/or transcoding packages.   However, it is clear that poor
> video on the DVD when compared to the edited AVI is the result of
> transcoding that has been optimized for speed rather than quality.

> In article <4gav96F1ltlv***@individual.net>,
>  "PTravel" <ptra***@ruyitang.com> wrote:
>
> > "lyndon" <lynd***@easyjunktrapstreet.com> wrote in message
> > news:lyndonr-332C9F.13115126062006@sn-ip.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net...
> > > Having imported video into computer and creating an
> > > iMovie/QT file of it the quality wasn't too bad. But
> > > when it went thru iDVD to a DVD, the quality really
> > > dropped off. (Resolution was not great) Is this a
> > > software problem or ......? Would FinalCutPro put
> > > out a higher quality picture?
>
> > Producing a DVD requires transcoding DV-codec-encoded AVI to MPEG2, a lossy,
> > temporally-compressed format.  The transcoding process is critical to final
> > video quality -- such things as bit precision, motion search, compression
> > rate, matrix structure, number of analysis passes, variable versus constant
> > bit rate compression, and other factors determine how good the final video
> > will look.  Most entry-level consumer products, like iDVD, compromise on
> > transcode quality in the interest of speed of output.  Final Cut Pro is,
> > primarily, an editing program -- I don't whether it is intended for
> > authoring DVDs from the timeline, or can simply produce a quick-and-dirty
> > DVD for evaluation purposes (lots of comparable prosumer editing packages go
> > the quick-and-dirty DVD route).  You may wish to investigate stand-alone
> > authoring and/or transcoding packages.   However, it is clear that poor
> > video on the DVD when compared to the edited AVI is the result of
> > transcoding that has been optimized for speed rather than quality.
>
> Thanks for the response, but I found what seems to be the source
> of the problem. I had produced an mp4 with iMovie and sent that
> to iDVD which did have a real dropoff in picture quality. But
> going back to the original iMovie file and exporting directly to
> to iDVD resulted in a very markedly improved picture. In fact, it
> came out better than I thought it would before I even started the
> whole DVD creating process.

>
> Lyndon