iMovie image/movie quality very bad?

Hello friend I need your help as after trying lots of thing I was able to get a new iMac from my parents. It concerns a 20 "iMac with the firmware ports yet. One of the biggest reasons was nevertheless also the wonderful iLife package. My father has a Sony camera, a DCR-PC6E PAL. This is digital and uses mini DV tapes. Last week my parents had gone for a good holiday outing for a week and they used their Sony camera DCR-PC6E Pal and captured good images and few videos also. But when i tried to connect it to my iMac I got a problem as we connect the camera to the Mac, iMovie recognizes the camera very nicely, we press import, there are currently no options for adjusting image quality, and after importing the image quality is downright search: an awful lot of noise, blocks and pixels! Why iMovie does not converted it properly? Is there a solution? I think it's ridiculous that we have a good Sony camera but iMovie cannot handle this?! I am looking for urgent help.

Everything here in my head before you import the movie you can express your preferences, you usually do this but do 1x. If I currently import into iMovie 06 HD, I fear the poor quality during import, afterwards when the camera is disconnected, the picture is good. In iMovie 09 is currently only an occasional bug, no such titles, that's again after a restart. But, noise and pixels, you have an old tape used, the head cleaned? I also work on tape; make sure you use the tape but 1x. In my previous camera (JVC), which had sometimes mite with the Sony Tapes, I now only buy tapes that belong to my camera (Panasonic).

I wonder if the video expert’s also have experienced the following problem. Films that are exported from iMovie '08 in the highest quality (Parts: Export or via the Media Browser and then "Large") are not great quality when I then directly (or via DVD) on my LCD TV review. So I thought, just export via QuickTime stream of high quality DV (Parts; Export with QuickTime) to watch a DVD then burn it. But what happens is that the quality is less (especially sharpness) than a direct export from iMovie '06 or FCE (3.5) via the same QuickTime export with the same settings. Any ideas how this is possible? This stops me now for more experiments to go with iMovie '08 output seen significantly less quality than the other programs mentioned.

Did you film material imported in the same way? Is it SD or HDV? If HDV: FCE / iMovie 06 import in full HD. iMovie 08 imports stand at 960x540 instead of 1920x1080. It's also handy to the QuickTime movie if you used it first on high quality and possibly single field to put before you bring it to iDVD. Given your experiment (with the same export intelligent in QuickTime), I suspect that once you should look at the import settings of iMovie08. Incidentally, I use 08 to import content in full quality, especially the library function 08 and selections quick and dirty, small quick projects. For larger projects still imports over 08 and then to FCE for editing detail.

Thanks for your comment. The strange thing is that I am exactly the same source material (imported with iMovie '08) difference in output does the exact same export settings. It therefore appears that the QuickTime Export in iMovie '08 is not the same as in '06 or FCE 3.5. It is therefore SD material that has been read with iMovie '08 and then exported from this program as well as FCE. I myself had the difference in quality first because I did not notice this material for a family member had to put on DVD. He told me about the 'lesser' quality than other DVD's that I had made for him. Back then I did with iMovie '06 so that's why I immediately thought it to some tests with it. I myself have an HD camera but now I am somewhat cautious about new projects with iMovie '08 to set the output as 'moderate' turns out to be. For commercial work I use FCE but anyway for the quick/iMovie holiday settings is basically perfect.

Actually I have not yet understood the perfect workflow: Import into iMovie 08 -> Export, I understand. How do I import into FCE/iMovie 06, by the XML export of 08? Same import footage directly into FCE/iMovie? By looking through the finder of the 08 imported by iMovie clips by exporting the clips from iMovie 08. I understand that iMovie 08 add the clips renders a different quality than the other two programs (that should just search). At maximum major import and export to iDVD and then would be on an analog TV cannot make. DVD on a digital HD TV you will always see. Less if you render the professional setting in iDVD chooses.

The bad news is that in order to get this real-time performance without renders or progress bars, there is some sacrifice in quality. For interlaced video Such as DV and 1080i HDV, iMovie now uses single-field processing. This Means every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, Which Reduces the sharpness of the footage. High Definition (HD) footage is processed internally at 960-by-540 pixels at most, and that's not as high resolution or sharp as It could be (and was in prior versions), but with the output from many HD consumer cameras, the visible Difference between Full (1,920-by-1, 080) and Large (960-by-540) will Slight likely to be negligible for most users. In short, if you want maximum quality output from an HD device, do not use iMovie '08." I must say the quality difference that I have not yet encountered, but the DVD's so far I have produced from HD instead of SD material. Incidentally, the original quality of source material is iMovie (if imported in maximum resolution). In other words, there is no difference in the original clip or imported by iMovie08 eg FCE. You can easily test that by the iMovie 08 clip to view through the finder and instance to open in FCE.