18 replies to this topic

[sj200fan]

Ever since I began using iMovie 08/09, I noticed a significant drop in image quality when burning DVDs using iDVD.  The light contrast is usually very stark and the images for either still pictures or video clips are usually low fuzzy quality.  I just purchased Toast 10 Titanium Pro in the hopes of improving the overall quality ofDVDs I create on my Mac.  So far, using the basic DVD encoding and burning features in Toast 10 Titanium Pro has made no difference.  The process is much faster then iDVD, but the overall quality is still very low.  I am now attempting to use the Blue-Ray burning option to hopefully burn a HD (not BD) DVD.

I have two (hopefully) easy questions:

1. Do I need to purchase the BD plug-in separately?  According to the packaging, Toast 10 Titanium Pro was supposed to include the BD plug-ins.
    When I click on BD it vectors me to purchase the plug-in upgrades.

2. Has anyone made a decent quality from iMovie 09 using Toast 10 Titanium Pro?  If so, what are the best settings for a project consisting of  
    digital pictures and 720p HD clips?

[tsantee]

The Blu-ray plug in is a separate installation included with the Toast 10 Pro bundle. You need to find and run its installer.

I don't know what you're looking at when evaluating the quality of a video DVD encoded and authored by iDVD or Toast. They both do this very well although iDVD loses quality quickly for videos longer than 90 minutes burned to single-layer media. Toast has a window for adjusting the encoding settings (click More then Encoding then Custom). In that window check the Half-Pel box for best quality. The average and maximum bit rate settings are somewhat dependent on the length of your video. If it is less than an hour you can push those near the maximum although very high bit rates can cause some DVD players to stutter.

There are high-end MPEG encodes such as Bit Vice but they are very expensive. Part of their benefit is the ability to do multi-pass encoding.

If you are evaluating the quality by playing the video DVD on a computer screen then you must watch at normal (or actual) size. The fuzzy look you describe has me wondering if you are looking at a larger-than-actual-size image.

Still pictures are a problem for video DVD. If you use iMovie, Fotomagico or some other application to convert still images to a movie you'll notice a significant loss of picture quality. If you use iDVD or Toast to make a DVD slide show the image quality will be pretty good for a 720x480 interlaced picture. The DVD slide show does not allow for panning or zooming across a still image, however. iDVD can add an audio track to a DVD slide show but Toast cannot. I also suggest using a photo application to reduce the resolution of high-pixel photos before adding to Toast or iDVD because the photo app may do a better job of lowering the resolution.

I don't have Blu-ray. The quality will of course be much better because the resolution is much greater. I'd choose the default settings and only experiment with other settings if I don't like what I see. Too high bit rates can cause play back compatibility issues with Blu-ray discs, too.

[sj200fan]

The Blu-ray plug in is a separate installation included with the Toast 10 Pro bundle. You need to find and run its installer.

I don't know what you're looking at when evaluating the quality of a video DVD encoded and authored by iDVD or Toast. They both do this very well although iDVD loses quality quickly for videos longer than 90 minutes burned to single-layer media. Toast has a window for adjusting the encoding settings (click More then Encoding then Custom). In that window check the Half-Pel box for best quality. The average and maximum bit rate settings are somewhat dependent on the length of your video. If it is less than an hour you can push those near the maximum although very high bit rates can cause some DVD players to stutter.

There are high-end MPEG encodes such as Bit Vice but they are very expensive. Part of their benefit is the ability to do multi-pass encoding.

If you are evaluating the quality by playing the video DVD on a computer screen then you must watch at normal (or actual) size. The fuzzy look you describe has me wondering if you are looking at a larger-than-actual-size image.

Still pictures are a problem for video DVD. If you use iMovie, Fotomagico or some other application to convert still images to a movie you'll notice a significant loss of picture quality. If you use iDVD or Toast to make a DVD slide show the image quality will be pretty good for a 720x480 interlaced picture. The DVD slide show does not allow for panning or zooming across a still image, however. iDVD can add an audio track to a DVD slide show but Toast cannot. I also suggest using a photo application to reduce the resolution of high-pixel photos before adding to Toast or iDVD because the photo app may do a better job of lowering the resolution.

I don't have Blu-ray. The quality will of course be much better because the resolution is much greater. I'd choose the default settings and only experiment with other settings if I don't like what I see. Too high bit rates can cause play back compatibility issues with Blu-ray discs, too.

Thank you, I will try your recommendations.  

Incidentally, the fuzzy images appear when I try to view a DVD on my HD 1080p TV.  The difference between an iMovie 09 project and a DVD made with iDVD is  huge.  It is so bad that I will no longer attempt to burn iMovie 09 files onto DVDs.  It's too bad because this problem did not exist with iMovie 06.  I'm not sure where the breakdown occurred with newer releases of iMovie or iDVD.  Either way, I find the only way to see a decent quality iMovie project on my HD TV is to connect my MacBook Pro via an HDMI cable.  Obviously, this solution does not scale especially when family members all want to see the movie on their own.

[tsantee]

Thank you, I will try your recommendations.  

Incidentally, the fuzzy images appear when I try to view a DVD on my HD 1080p TV.  The difference between an iMovie 09 project and a DVD made with iDVD is  huge.  It is so bad that I will no longer attempt to burn iMovie 09 files onto DVDs.  It's too bad because this problem did not exist with iMovie 06.  I'm not sure where the breakdown occurred with newer releases of iMovie or iDVD.  Either way, I find the only way to see a decent quality iMovie project on my HD TV is to connect my MacBook Pro via an HDMI cable.  Obviously, this solution does not scale especially when family members all want to see the movie on their own.

If you are shooting HD video then consider getting a WD TV or other device that can play back H.264 HD video directly connected to the TV.

You say you made good-quality DVDs back when you were using the earlier iMovie. What else has changed? I'm guessing that you now are trying to make DVDs from HD video sources rather than SD sources. When using a HD source the DVD created by Toast should look nearly as good on your TV as a any other SD video DVD you have, unless the video is very long. How long is the movie content on one of the fuzzy-looking DVDs? What settings did you use in Toast? How did you add the iMovie project to Toast?

Your TV or DVD player is upscaling 720x480 interlaced video when playing a video DVD so some fuzziness when blowing up the picture size is unavoidable, of course. But it still shouldn't look too much worse than many commercial video DVDs.

[Carmen in Spain]

Thank you, I will try your recommendations.  

Incidentally, the fuzzy images appear when I try to view a DVD on my HD 1080p TV.  The difference between an iMovie 09 project and a DVD made with iDVD is  huge.  It is so bad that I will no longer attempt to burn iMovie 09 files onto DVDs.  It's too bad because this problem did not exist with iMovie 06.  I'm not sure where the breakdown occurred with newer releases of iMovie or iDVD.  Either way, I find the only way to see a decent quality iMovie project on my HD TV is to connect my MacBook Pro via an HDMI cable.  Obviously, this solution does not scale especially when family members all want to see the movie on their own.

Newbie, I very much understand your situation. My problem is exactly de same. I´m desperate. I will try Digital Guru´s recommendations. So far he seems to be the number 1 expert.
I´ve been in different mac forums for this problem and it seems that we (standard mortals) that want to share our family videos, have been abbandoned . IMOVIE 06 was the best but the new IMOVIE versions have specialized in web formats. You can check the mac forums. People are crying out loud.
I also bought FINAL CUT EXPRESS because they told me (Shop) that things will improve. They have, a bit, but only if you import directly to FCE which is not that easy. And IF you dare importing and IPHOTO slideshow or an iMOVIE project into a FCE project, then you´ve spoiled it all.
  I hope Digital Guru´s recommendations work, otherwise I´m done with all of this.
I´ve spent so much money and time for nothing. Most people don´t have BluRay at home, not even myself.

[tsantee]

Newbie, I very much understand your situation. My problem is exactly de same. I´m desperate. I will try Digital Guru´s recommendations. So far he seems to be the number 1 expert.
I´ve been in different mac forums for this problem and it seems that we (standard mortals) that want to share our family videos, have been abbandoned . IMOVIE 06 was the best but the new IMOVIE versions have specialized in web formats. You can check the mac forums. People are crying out loud.
I also bought FINAL CUT EXPRESS because they told me (Shop) that things will improve. They have, a bit, but only if you import directly to FCE which is not that easy. And IF you dare importing and IPHOTO slideshow or an iMOVIE project into a FCE project, then you´ve spoiled it all.
  I hope Digital Guru´s recommendations work, otherwise I´m done with all of this.
I´ve spent so much money and time for nothing. Most people don´t have BluRay at home, not even myself.

I'll be glad to assist you with specifics applying to what you're trying to do. Let me know what is the format of your source video. What do you want the end result to be? Are you starting with still photos? What are you unhappy with at the end of making your project?

[Carmen in Spain]

I'll be glad to assist you with specifics applying to what you're trying to do. Let me know what is the format of your source video. What do you want the end result to be? Are you starting with still photos? What are you unhappy with at the end of making your project?

Hello Tsantee: I´m unhappy about the low quality of images in the resulting DVD. I use iMovie 09 iPhoto 09 and Final Cut Express. Convert my projects to .mov (tried many different encoding settings, even Prores, Animation, etc.) that look great on my computer imac 20" Mac OS x version 10.5.8  Intel Core 2 duo 2.4 Ghz.
   My last project is a 40 minutes Final Cut Express project with imported Iphoto slideshows and an iMovie project as well as some photos wich I have imported manually to Final Cut.
   Different encodings make out .mov films with different lengths, but as soon as they pass through IDVD (maximum quality) or Toast they all recompress to 2 GB . So you can imagine the loss. I use Pal and video recorder Panasonic SDR-H250 standard defintion, USB connection, hard disc drive and .mod and .moi files wich I don´t Know how to convert for importing directly to Final Cut. That´s why I use iMovie for importing video files.
   Thank you so much Tsantee.

[tsantee]

Hello Tsantee: I´m unhappy about the low quality of images in the resulting DVD. I use iMovie 09 iPhoto 09 and Final Cut Express. Convert my projects to .mov (tried many different encoding settings, even Prores, Animation, etc.) that look great on my computer imac 20" Mac OS x version 10.5.8  Intel Core 2 duo 2.4 Ghz.
   My last project is a 40 minutes Final Cut Express project with imported Iphoto slideshows and an iMovie project as well as some photos wich I have imported manually to Final Cut.
   Different encodings make out .mov films with different lengths, but as soon as they pass through IDVD (maximum quality) or Toast they all recompress to 2 GB . So you can imagine the loss. I use Pal and video recorder Panasonic SDR-H250 standard defintion, USB connection, hard disc drive and .mod and .moi files wich I don´t Know how to convert for importing directly to Final Cut. That´s why I use iMovie for importing video files.
   Thank you so much Tsantee.

Unfortunately I don't have much available time this weekend. Something to try is choosing the DVCPRO50 export setting from Final Cut (or iMovie). It is an option for a full quality QuickTime movie. In the Scan mode button choose progressive. See if the video exported using that setting looks better on the final DVD. If previewing a DVD on the Mac choose normal or actual size so you're not viewing it enlarged.

[pruthe]

Hello Tsantee: I´m unhappy about the low quality of images in the resulting DVD. I use iMovie 09 iPhoto 09 and Final Cut Express. ...

Have you tried using the Quicktime clips from camera that iMovie generates? They are in Apple Intermediate Codec format (AIC). I regularly use iMovie to read in video from camera, then drag/drop AIC clips generated into FCE browser window. After editing in FCE, then export to Quicktime Movie (not Quicktime conversion unless need size change) and then pass this file to iDVD or Toast. Quality has always been good for me for both SD and HD. Disclaimer: Haven't tried iPhoto slideshow as source. If that's the problem, maybe create your own slideshow by bringing photos into FCE timeline and see if that works better. Hope this helps. (Maybe Tsantee has some other/better suggestions.)

Edited by pruthe, 27 February 2010 - 09:38 AM.

[pruthe]

One other thing. 2GB of data might be about the size expected for a 40 minute standard definition (SD) DVD. The quality of a SD DVD is not going to be anywhere near as good as what you see in iMovie/FCE viewer or simulated player output of iDVD. If you want better quality on a disk, you'd probably have to make a high def disk.

[Carmen in Spain]

One other thing. 2GB of data might be about the size expected for a 40 minute standard definition (SD) DVD. The quality of a SD DVD is not going to be anywhere near as good as what you see in iMovie/FCE viewer or simulated player output of iDVD. If you want better quality on a disk, you'd probably have to make a high def disk.

Thank you Pruthe. Indeed I have tried all you say and I want more quality. HD for sure. That is why I am trying Toast. I bought the HD/BD plug-in to upload to 10.0.06 and even if it says that HD functions have been activated in Toast 10 Titanium, my Mac still says that I only have Toast 10.0.04.  
   I don´t mind making two 20 minutes HD DVD´s but ¿How do I do that?

Unfortunately I don't have much available time this weekend. Something to try is choosing the DVCPRO50 export setting from Final Cut (or iMovie). It is an option for a full quality QuickTime movie. In the Scan mode button choose progressive. See if the video exported using that setting looks better on the final DVD. If previewing a DVD on the Mac choose normal or actual size so you're not viewing it enlarged.

I usually see it enlarged because I presumed that that´s the way I will see it in my TV, which it actually does. I will try the Scan mode button in progressive. ¡Thank you!

[pruthe]

Thank you Pruthe. Indeed I have tried all you say and I want more quality. HD for sure. That is why I am trying Toast. I bought the HD/BD plug-in to upload to 10.0.06 and even if it says that HD functions have been activated in Toast 10 Titanium, my Mac still says that I only have Toast 10.0.04.  
   I don´t mind making two 20 minutes HD DVD´s but ¿How do I do that?

I'm a bit confused on your current version. You need to download the Toast 10.0.6 updater and install in order to have latest update. The HD plugin is a separate install and does not affect version number. If you want to create an HD DVD or Blu-ray disk, you need to drop your high def video as created from FCE into Toast Video function window which is set for Blu-Ray video. Then down next to red burn button, select either DVD or BD-R to see how much room you left have for additional videos. I think your 40 minute video should be able to fit in either a HD DVD or BD-R output. When ready to create HD using Toast, I'd recommend clicking "Save as Disk Image". After clicking this, will get a navigation window where you identify where to save disk image file and format to use. If you select DVD, Toast will save HD disk image of video suitable for burning on DVD. If you select BD, Toast will save HD disk image suitable for burning on BD disk. Quality will be better for BD, but HD on DVD is still much better than SD video on DVD. After creating disk image, which could take quite a while, you can then drop disk image file onto Copy function window with Image File selected. Then click red button to start up burn. You can use a regular DVD drive and DVD disk for HD DVD disk image. You need a Blu-ray burner and BD disk if have BD disk image. No matter whether you created a HD DVD or BD disk, you need a compatible Blu-ray player to view burned disk. There is no BD player on Mac yet.

I'd recommend reading online help for Toast under Help->Toast Titanium Help. That will give you more details on what to do. Good luck.

pruthe

[Carmen in Spain]

I'm a bit confused on your current version. You need to download the Toast 10.0.6 updater and install in order to have latest update. The HD plugin is a separate install and does not affect version number. If you want to create an HD DVD or Blu-ray disk, you need to drop your high def video as created from FCE into Toast Video function window which is set for Blu-Ray video. Then down next to red burn button, select either DVD or BD-R to see how much room you left have for additional videos. I think your 40 minute video should be able to fit in either a HD DVD or BD-R output. When ready to create HD using Toast, I'd recommend clicking "Save as Disk Image". After clicking this, will get a navigation window where you identify where to save disk image file and format to use. If you select DVD, Toast will save HD disk image of video suitable for burning on DVD. If you select BD, Toast will save HD disk image suitable for burning on BD disk. Quality will be better for BD, but HD on DVD is still much better than SD video on DVD. After creating disk image, which could take quite a while, you can then drop disk image file onto Copy function window with Image File selected. Then click red button to start up burn. You can use a regular DVD drive and DVD disk for HD DVD disk image. You need a Blu-ray burner and BD disk if have BD disk image. No matter whether you created a HD DVD or BD disk, you need a compatible Blu-ray player to view burned disk. There is no BD player on Mac yet.

I'd recommend reading online help for Toast under Help->Toast Titanium Help. That will give you more details on what to do. Good luck.

pruthe

PRUTHE: Thank you. I never knew mac couldn´t read HD DVD´s or that I needed a Blu-ray player  to view it. You have enlighted me indeed.

              Well tough luck. I will give my friends and family both SD and HD versions.
    
Carmen.

[high definition]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum so bear with me.

I'm using iMovie 09 and trying to export to Toast 10.0.6.  The original footage was shot in 1080HD with my Panasonic HDC-HS100.  I easily imported the movie into iMovie 09 and added music and transitions.

Now, I'm having a problem getting it to Toast 10.0.6 so that I can burn it into DVD-R (using the high def plugin that I purchased).  I keep getting multiple errors referring to the source movie.  How is the best way to export (what format)?

Any suggestions?

Sincerely,
High Definition

[pruthe]

High Def,

I don't normally use iMovie for editing. It seems the max size that 'Share->Export Movie' allows is 960x540, which is not full HD. You could try to use 'Share->Export using Quicktime' and select 'Movie to Quicktime Movie' and then click Options. I would try H.264 for Settings with High quality and Size at 1920x1080. Turn off Internet Streaming. Might take a while to finish creating this file. After done, drag and drop created .mov file onto Video function window in Toast. This would provide a full HD movie file for Toast and you could create either a HD DVD or HD BD-R from it. You'd probably want to create a disk image file first, then if everything OK, do burn. See previous post in this thread on how to do disk image and burn.

Hopefully, this will work for you without error.

pruthe

[high definition]

High Def,

I don't normally use iMovie for editing. It seems the max size that 'Share->Export Movie' allows is 960x540, which is not full HD. You could try to use 'Share->Export using Quicktime' and select 'Movie to Quicktime Movie' and then click Options. I would try H.264 for Settings with High quality and Size at 1920x1080. Turn off Internet Streaming. Might take a while to finish creating this file. After done, drag and drop created .mov file onto Video function window in Toast. This would provide a full HD movie file for Toast and you could create either a HD DVD or HD BD-R from it. You'd probably want to create a disk image file first, then if everything OK, do burn. See previous post in this thread on how to do disk image and burn.

Hopefully, this will work for you without error.

pruthe

Pruthe,

Thanks for your prompt reply.  I'll give that a try tonight.  What do you suggest for movie editing (I only have iMovie 09 now, but I am willing to try other software)?

Also, when saving the disk image, do I chose BR or DVD?  I am trying to burn a high-def movie onto a normal DVD-R.

Thanks again,
High Definition

[pruthe]

I'm using Final Cut Express 4.01, but that has a bit of a learning curve. If you got that, you could continue using iMovie until become proficient with FCE. I haven't done a HD DVD in a while. I think you select DVD as the format for the Blu-Ray video disk image. You can mount the disk image after done to make sure have BD folders and data. If you don't see BD folders, use BD as format in previous step. After burning image file onto DVD, load into Blu-ray or compatible player to view.

Edited by pruthe, 01 March 2010 - 05:56 AM.

[tsantee]

Thank you Pruthe. Indeed I have tried all you say and I want more quality. HD for sure. That is why I am trying Toast. I bought the HD/BD plug-in to upload to 10.0.06 and even if it says that HD functions have been activated in Toast 10 Titanium, my Mac still says that I only have Toast 10.0.04.  
   I don´t mind making two 20 minutes HD DVD´s but ¿How do I do that?



I usually see it enlarged because I presumed that that´s the way I will see it in my TV, which it actually does. I will try the Scan mode button in progressive. ¡Thank you!

pruthe provided great information. As for previewing standard-definition video on a Mac in actual size: Computer displays are very different from television displays. To evaluate the quality of how something looks on a TV you must see it on a TV and not on a computer display.

There are two kinds of slide shows you can create for play back on standard-definition video DVD players. One is called a DVD Slide Show. The other is a movie from slides (which is what you created in iMovie or Final Cut). A DVD slide show looks much better but it does not allow for panning and zooming of the photo or for matching an audio track. Toast makes DVD slide shows by simply dropping the jpeg images into the Toast Video window with DVD selected as the format. Each video title can have up to 99 photos and there can be 99 titles. If you select the option to include the actual photos on the disc Toast automatically includes a Photo Disc slide show application for viewing those photos at full resolution on a Mac or PC (see Toast Help for info about a Photo Disc burned in the Data window).

DVD slide shows present the full-frame photos as stills that advance in set time intervals. You can go forward or back in the slide show by using the chapter skip button on the DVD player's remote. Toast cannot add audio or transitions to the slide show. iDVD can add a background audio track and lets you select a transition style for its slide shows but you don't get Toast's computer-playback Photo Disc when using iDVD.

If you want people to see your photos looking their best on their TVs using a standard-definition video DVD player then make a DVD slide show directly from the photos instead of from iMovie or Final Cut or any other QuickTime movie made from photos.

If you want a very entertaining presentation of your photos then use FotoMagico bundled with Toast 10 Pro or iMovie or Final Cut or other movie-making application to pan and zoom the photos, create transitions and titles and add an appropriate audio track. The image quality is less but the show is more fun to see.

Edited by tsantee, 01 March 2010 - 08:13 AM.

[Carmen in Spain]

pruthe provided great information. As for previewing standard-definition video on a Mac in actual size: Computer displays are very different from television displays. To evaluate the quality of how something looks on a TV you must see it on a TV and not on a computer display.

There are two kinds of slide shows you can create for play back on standard-definition video DVD players. One is called a DVD Slide Show. The other is a movie from slides (which is what you created in iMovie or Final Cut). A DVD slide show looks much better but it does not allow for panning and zooming of the photo or for matching an audio track. Toast makes DVD slide shows by simply dropping the jpeg images into the Toast Video window with DVD selected as the format. Each video title can have up to 99 photos and there can be 99 titles. If you select the option to include the actual photos on the disc Toast automatically includes a Photo Disc slide show application for viewing those photos at full resolution on a Mac or PC (see Toast Help for info about a Photo Disc burned in the Data window).

DVD slide shows present the full-frame photos as stills that advance in set time intervals. You can go forward or back in the slide show by using the chapter skip button on the DVD player's remote. Toast cannot add audio or transitions to the slide show. iDVD can add a background audio track and lets you select a transition style for its slide shows but you don't get Toast's computer-playback Photo Disc when using iDVD.

If you want people to see your photos looking their best on their TVs using a standard-definition video DVD player then make a DVD slide show directly from the photos instead of from iMovie or Final Cut or any other QuickTime movie made from photos.

If you want a very entertaining presentation of your photos then use FotoMagico bundled with Toast 10 Pro or iMovie or Final Cut or other movie-making application to pan and zoom the photos, create transitions and titles and add an appropriate audio track. The image quality is less but the show is more fun to see.

Thankyou Tsantee,
   I have finally been able to burn a HD DVD, but after looking to your answer about Result Code = "18771" that I kept having  when trying to make a disc image of my QT file. As you advised, I downloaded Toast 10.0.05 and it worked. Why do they make a new version that gives so many problems?