How I can I make my videos created in Keynote look as good as videos as they do as slides?

May 14, 2009 10:32 AM

When I make presentations in Keynote 08 and then export them to video, they look terrible. My pictures are all blurry, and my fonts are all jagged. How I can I make my videos created in Keynote look as good as videos as they do as slides?
posted by 4ster to computers & internet (9 comments total)

What export settings are you using?
posted by chudmonkey at 10:53 AM on May 14

I'm exporting to QuickTime with the following settings:

Playback Uses: Manual Advance
Enter full screen mode when opened is checked.
Formats: Full Quality, Large
Include audio is checked (although I add audio later, in iMovie).
Include transparency is checked.
posted by 4ster at 11:50 AM on May 14

The problem is twofold.

First, you have Keynote at a larger resolution than video: it's probably 1024 x 768. Redesign everything at 640x480.

Second, you mention the export to 'QuickTime' but you neglect to mention which codec (compression type.) Be careful, because iMovie will (likely) compress your video into another codec when imported.

What format are you exporting this into. And what are you trying to do (play back on a computer? Go to DVD authoring.) Yes, that would help.
posted by filmgeek at 12:35 PM on May 14

I'm using QuickTime's default setting, which is .mov, h264, 1024x768, 24fps. These videos are used for playback using a projector connected to a macbook.

Thanks for the help, everyone.
posted by 4ster at 12:39 PM on May 14

When you're playing back the videos, are you playing them in fullscreen? Do you know what the dimensions of the video are compared to the dimensions of your monitor? (1024x768 is probably the output size from "Full Quality, Large")

This site has some tips about settings, although the author is mostly dealing with audio settings. Still, I would follow his steps of selecting "custom" as the output type and cranking up the data rate to 5000 or so. in the "optimize for" drop-down, what options are there? At any rate, I'd choose something other than "download", since you don't want the program sacrificing quality for file size. Max out the compression slider to "best" and make sure "multi-pass" is checked under that.

What are you doing with resulting videos? Watching them on a computer screen? Projecting them? Putting them on YouTube?
posted by chudmonkey at 12:41 PM on May 14

Does the quicktime look crappy before you import it into iMovie? I can have a pretty decent looking quicktime and then it'll look terrible once I import into iMovie (as filmgeek more smartly refers to above). If the quicktime looks good before the iMovie import, could you try adding the audio in in Keynote and avoiding iMovie altogether? No matter what you do, it will never look quite as good when playing in Keynote, though.
posted by Uncle Glendinning at 12:44 PM on May 14

Uncle Glendinning: it looks great prior to importing it into iMovie.
posted by 4ster at 1:01 PM on May 14

Then I'd try adding the audio in Keynote if you can and then doing the quicktime export.
posted by Uncle Glendinning at 1:17 PM on May 14

If you're playing these back on a MacBook hooked up to a projector, why not just run them as Keynote presentations?

I've never been able to get anything approaching the smoothness of Keynote when exporting to video and gave up on trying, opting intead to play them back natively in Keynote.
posted by jrchaplin at 11:08 AM on May 17