[enzofsilva]

Does iMovie 09 have any plugins like Instant HD? I have footage of my newborn daughter in a miniDV tape (I know, she was born last week but I am waiting on the new Canon SD10 to make the plunge into HD)... I would like to "convert" the footage I have of her first week to HD...

[jeffcarlson]

enzofsilva said:

Does iMovie 09 have any plugins like Instant HD? I have footage of my newborn daughter in a miniDV tape (I know, she was born last week but I am waiting on the new Canon SD10 to make the plunge into HD)... I would like to "convert" the footage I have of her first week to HD...

No, plugins aren't supported in iMovie '09. You can mix and match your SD and HD footage in a project with no problem, though you'll notice the change in resolution when you export the movie. But that's going to happen anyway, because you're enlarging the SD image. I haven't used Instant HD; I would guess it does a better job of upconverting the picture (otherwise it wouldn't be worth anything).

Jeff

[webraider]

I've been making alot of movies in iMovie 09' and putting them in iDVD and I thought I should mention a few things. In spite of the fact that Apple offers "send to iDVD" as an option, I've found that I get a better result by sharing it via the media browser first. In other words, doing it the old way. The final product is better quality AND it's the easiest way to put multiple movies onto a DVD. Sharing straight to iDVD will send it there put it in it's own project by it self and then you have a more difficult time changing menus. If you want to send another movie to same project it's much more difficult. My advice to everyone, you get better quality DVD, and more options if you simply share it to the Media browser. Then grab it from the media browser from within iDVD after you've set up your menu theme.

When I say better quality, it won't look that way in the preview, but when you finish burning it, it will be a better result than if you send it straight to iDVD from iMovie. I've noticed that iMovie uses a completely different codec for sharing it via the media browser and sharing it directly to iDVD. For whatever reason the Media browser version which is an mpeg 4 variation, looks worse in the preview than the direct version from iMovie to iDVD. But when you burn the disk or create an image, the mpeg 4 version which is was initially a much smaller file, actually looks better. I feel now that Apple's send to idvd feature is pre-mature. I think the media browser idea is what they should continue to go with. Just my 2 cents on the issue but I thought I would just share the results of finalizing a project.

[Chatty]

I also have found this to be true. After sending several movies directly to iDVD and finding it too involved sometimes and not worth the time, and worse, the quality of the final project was poor. Now I enhance the movie in movie projects, imovie 09, and send it to media browser or to movies and then to iDVD. Unexpectedly I was surprised by the difference. My HD movies finally looked like true HD.

[OlsonBW]

Quote

I've been making alot of movies in iMovie 09' and putting them in iDVD and I thought I should mention a few things. In spite of the fact that Apple offers "send to iDVD" as an option, I've found that I get a better result by sharing it via the media browser first. In other words, doing it the old way.

Thanks for the note. I will probably do it both ways as I don't yet have a high def camera and am just curious what it will look like both ways. This could save me a lot of time and frustration.

[fraudelm]

Thanks for the tips on creating IDVDs. I had an awful time when I tried to send Imovie to IDVD and was not crazy about the resulting movie. My one question is what size movie do you make when sending to Media Browser?

Thanks.