imac / xl2 question at DVinfo.net

Mitch Fillion · May 16th, 2007, 07:48 AM

i just purchased an imac and i'm still waiting for final cut studio to arrive but i was playing around with imovie hd and uploading a few things from my camera, and there was so much grain, the picture looked horrible, i even tried a few dvds and there seemed to be a lot of noise in the picture as well. i had the video card upgraded to 128mb too. but i mean the quality on my old pc looks better as of now.

is this just because imovie isn't that great of a program or should it still look half decent? should i be concerned of maybe a hardware issue on the imac?

any help would be appreciated.

thanks

Boyd Ostroff · May 16th, 2007, 08:30 AM

Hi Mitch and welcome to DVinfo! Not sure what "grain" you're seeing. I haven't used iMovie in a long time myself, but I know the preview you see on the computer monitor isn't full quality. I think the only way to judge the image will be on a real video monitor connected to a camera/deck via firewire with FCP. A DVD may not be a good example either since compression creates artifacts of its own.

Certainly the video card has nothing to do with it, and if you captured your video over firewire it's a digital copy of what's on the tape in your camera so there aren't any hardware issues there either.

Moving this thread to the FCP forum since it really doesn't have anything to do with your camera.

Mitch Fillion · May 17th, 2007, 08:03 AM

Thanks Boyd, Sorry about posting in the wrong section.

I actually tried the advanced Colour Caliboration this morning and my settings were actually way too bright, it solved my problem though. The dvd picture looks a lot smoother now that it isn't so bright.

Thanks again.

May 16th, 2007, 07:48 AM	#1
Mitch Fillion Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Stoney Creek, ONT Posts: 34	imac / xl2 question i just purchased an imac and i'm still waiting for final cut studio to arrive but i was playing around with imovie hd and uploading a few things from my camera, and there was so much grain, the picture looked horrible, i even tried a few dvds and there seemed to be a lot of noise in the picture as well. i had the video card upgraded to 128mb too. but i mean the quality on my old pc looks better as of now. is this just because imovie isn't that great of a program or should it still look half decent? should i be concerned of maybe a hardware issue on the imac? any help would be appreciated. thanks

May 16th, 2007, 08:30 AM	#2
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,800	Hi Mitch and welcome to DVinfo! Not sure what "grain" you're seeing. I haven't used iMovie in a long time myself, but I know the preview you see on the computer monitor isn't full quality. I think the only way to judge the image will be on a real video monitor connected to a camera/deck via firewire with FCP. A DVD may not be a good example either since compression creates artifacts of its own. Certainly the video card has nothing to do with it, and if you captured your video over firewire it's a digital copy of what's on the tape in your camera so there aren't any hardware issues there either. Moving this thread to the FCP forum since it really doesn't have anything to do with your camera.

May 17th, 2007, 08:03 AM	#3
Mitch Fillion Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Stoney Creek, ONT Posts: 34	Thanks Boyd, Sorry about posting in the wrong section. I actually tried the advanced Colour Caliboration this morning and my settings were actually way too bright, it solved my problem though. The dvd picture looks a lot smoother now that it isn't so bright. Thanks again.