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  1. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    france
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    Hi,

    I have the following issue : I captured some video with a sony HD camera in 1440x1080 60i. I edit them in imovie 11 then export but no matter what I try, the result is terrible.

    the scenes were filmed at night so the image is somewhat grainy but still ok. The output is not, dark areas are very blocky, faces and details are blurred.

    After many, many tries and searches in forums, the best result I get is with the following steps :

    import full quality in iMovie, edit.
    export via quicktime, x264 codec, H.264, AAC, 720p format.

    ... but even so the quality remains quite low. I tried to use huge bitrates to avoid compression but that doesn't help much. I seem to lose quality at import and export.

    What should I do ? the original video (mts files) are both of reasonable size and good quality, there must be a way to get a the same result after editing ?????

    I really need help : this is for my dad who is really, really sick. I'd like to cheer him up a bit. Thanks.
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  2. Your problem is iMovie. It has no native HDV support (I'm guessing HDV based on your raster size since you haven't specified.) If you can move up to either Premiere (Elements or Pro) or FCPX you can input and output HDV with no conversion. With iMovie you are stuck with HDV->Apple Intermediate Codec->mp4.

    Unfiortunately, it sounds like you are doing everything right with the software you are using.

    All that being said, my guess is it's the content of the video, not the quality of the image that will cheer your dad.
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  3. Member budwzr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    City Of Angels
    Search Comp PM
    Compress the blacks with a color corrector. You might have to "stylize" the look a bit.
    Last edited by budwzr; 13th Sep 2013 at 14:23.
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  4. Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    There is a setting in iMove (IIRC) that permits you to import as full resolution. If you don't select that, it will downscale as it imports. (Just grasping at straws here). I'm not familiar with your camcorder. Based on smrpix's post, you have a tape-based camcorder so you're importing in real-time.

    I've added the preferences screen to this post so you may double-check your prefs.
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