iMovie '09 tip - Higher quality HD

Note: This guide is for users of iMovie ‘09 and 1080i video cameras. If you have an older version of iMovie (including iMovie ‘08), this guide won’t work for you. If you have an HD camera that doesn’t shoot in 1080i (such as one of the “Flip” cameras, or most digital still cameras that also shoot HD video), this guide won’t work for you.

By default, Apple’s iMovie ‘09 software will only export video at up to 720p, and at 25fps. (This tutorial will use PAL framerates, but if you live in America or another NTSC country, it will still work for you. Just read 30 instead of 25, and 60 instead of 50.) 1080i video cameras, however, shoot 50 frames a second. It is possible to exploit this interlaced format and end up with 1080p video, optionally at the full 50 frames a second. (Note that you need a very fast Mac to play 1080p50 video. You should probably choose either 1080p25 or 720p50. Alternatively, the Sony Playstation 3 makes an excellent 1080p50 video player.)

Here’s how you can get the most out of your 1080i video camera.

Things you will need:

• A video camera that shoots in 1080i, and is compatible with iMovie.
• iMovie ‘09. This is bundled with iLife ‘09, and comes with every new Mac.
• JES Deinterlacer. This is a free download, but make sure you get the Universal Binary version.
• QuickTime Pro. This is a $30 download from Apple.
  (If you don’t want to buy QuickTime Pro and have access to a different MP4 encoder, you can use that, but you’ll have to figure out what to do in step 5 for yourself.)

How to do it:

1. Import your video at “Full” size.
Run iMovie, connect your camera, and wait for the import window to appear. Make sure you choose the “Full - 1920×1080″ option.

Note! You must leave “Analyze for stabilization after import” turned off. Unfortunately, stabilising your video completely destroys the interlacing and so, combined with the “Full” size import, makes exporting HD video completely impossible. Yes, this is stupid. Blame Apple, not me.

2. Edit your movie.
Create a new project and put whatever you want in it. Note that you must not stabilise your video, see above.

3. “Export using QuickTime”.
We’re going to export your video to the “Apple Intermediate Codec”, at the full 1920×1080 size. We need to do this to preserve the interlacing on your video.

a) Choose “Export using QuickTime” in the Share menu.
b) Select “Movie to QuickTime Movie”, and click “Options”.
c) Click “Settings” under Video and set the options to match these:

d) Click “Size” under Video and set the options to match these:
(Note that the sizes marked NTSC/PAL/HD at the start of the name have non-square pixels, so avoid these.)

e) Click “Settings” under Sound and set the options to match these:

f) Turn off “Prepare for internet streaming”. When you’re done, the Movie Settings window should look like this:

g) Click OK, and then click Save. Wait for your video to export.

4. Deinterlace the video with JES Deinterlacer.

a) Run JES Deinterlacer. Click “Choose” and select the video you just exported from iMovie.
b) On the Input tab, set “Block match threshold”. For high quality video with little noise, choose 300. For noisy/fuzzy video (perhaps shot in the dark), choose 600 or higher. For only slightly noisy video pick a figure somewhere between.

c) On the Project tab, make sure “Deinterlace” is set. For 25fps output, choose “Use top field”. For 50fps output, choose “Both fields”. (Please note the disclaimer about playback at the top of this tutorial.) You can optionally turn on the “Local” option. This slightly increases quality, but takes longer to process.

d) Ensure the Output tab looks as below (change the output filename by clicking “Put”, if you wish), and click OK. Wait while your video is deinterlaced.

5. Compress and scale with QuickTime Pro.
Load the video you created with JES Deinterlacer into QuickTime. Select “Export” from the File menu. Choose “Movie to MPEG-4″ and click Options.

a) Change the options on the video tab to match this:

Important: If you want 1080p output instead of 720, change the resolution to “1920 x 1080 HD” and increase the bitrate to 16200.
These two bitrates are suggestions, you can tweak them up or down if you wish.

b) Click Video Options and change the options to match this:

c) Change the options on the audio tab to match this:

d) On the Streaming tab, turn off “Enable streaming”.

Click OK, choose a filename, then click Save.

6. You’re done!
You can delete the two intermediate videos you exported from iMovie and JES Deinterlacer.

courtesy of David Glover