Thanks for the input everyone. Someone on lafcpug board suggested I export from iMovie as a Quicktime .Mov file. That let me view without rendering, but there's a discernable flicker in it now as tho its dropping frames, plus the .mov file loses all the dv start/stop markers. I may just go back to the .dv clips and deal with rendering as it's only for a couple minute long behind the scenes piece. Still haven't given up hope that I'll figure out how to capture the XL-1 tapes directly into FCP with my DVX. Until then, i-movie and .dv files into FCP will just have to do.

iMovie with 16:9
 

I was playing around a shot some footage in 16:9 on my XL2. I have never played with iMovie (I use Premier Pro on PC) so I uploaded it on there for fun. The video is all smashed into 4:3 and lookes like a circus sideshow funhouse mirror video.. What's the story? You can't make a 16:9 video with iMovie?

What version of iMovie are you running? I haven't used it in years, but the old versions didn't support 16:9. The current version supports 16:9 and even HDV 720p and 1080i: http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/import.html

iMovie HD (5.0) supports 16:9 DV footage. Don't forget however, that all DV footage, 16:9 or not, is still 720x480 regardless of the NLE used. It's just a matter of how it's played back.

iLife '05 with the new iMovie HD has nice integration with iDVD---true 16:9 widescreen projects become great anamorphic DVD's.

No flags to set etc.

You can edit anamorphic 16:9 footage in older versions of iMovie and when you export the project in Quicktime Pro--just set it as 16:9 anamorphic for MPEG-2 for use in DVD Studio Pro.

iMovie HD is the BEST version of iMovie since 2.0

3.0 and 4.0 were lousy[slow and sluggish].

iMovie 5 issues
 

I edit on Final Cut, but every once in awhile I'll do a rough quickie in iMovie to show a client while he waits... etc etc...

Well I did this quick cut of standard def stuff shot on an XL2, cut it and was rendering a quick transition when suddenly I got the spinning rainbow of death... I quit iMovie, and dis-mounted the ext. harddrive that the project was in, re-started the computer and I haven't been able to open that project since. Now it's not a huge deal since I have all the raw footage and was planning on doing the real job on FC anyway... but I want to retrieve this because... well I need to know in case this happens again.

So what I'm getting is I click on it and it says "project _____ is missing a file, it will be skipped" then it gives me the options: "ignore all" or "ok" then it crashes iMovie and says that it unexpectedly quit. So what's the problem folks?

Thanks in advance for your replies,

Daniel Riser

There aren't usually very many iMovie users around here... so if you don't see a response you might want to visit Apple's iMovie support forum:

http://discussions.apple.com/categor...categoryID=141

Yeah... me either. Pixar uses iMovie for rough storyboarding and that's basically what I do. If this were an FC issue I'd have it licked... funny the "simple" program is giving me problems beyond my scope of knowledge... I'll check out apple.

Thanks,

Daniel Riser

have you tried looking for individual clips in the capture file? (i think iMovie 5 calls this a "media file"--at least you'll know the captured footage is still there, even if your editing is lost. you can re-import those files into a new project file without having to re-capture. and if you discover that footage is *not* there, that means the entire project file is a bust. i'd start there....

Hi Daniel,
In case you are unaware...what Meryem is suggesting is achieved by control-clicking your iMovie project and selecting 'show package contents'

Inside the opened folder there should be a folder entitled 'media'

Your captured clips should hopefully still be in there. Sometimes, iMovie will experience a glitch where it becomes unable to recognize the contents of its own media files. Those files should be the original captured clips you were working with. If you create a new iMovie file and drag these media files into it, you can basically start fresh with the original clips.......the problem here is that you are losing any editing you have done thus far.


Also, while in the package contents folder, you will also see a folder called 'cache'. Inside this folder, there should be a Quicktime .mov file. This is usually a relativley small file as it mostly serves as an alias of sorts to the edited timeline data. Try to open this file to see if it works (try this before moving your media files out of the project folder) If you can open up this quicktime cache file, theoretically you should be able to export it to a full quality dv file - thereby saving a full resolution of your edited project. (I don't know if that works as I haven't needed to try it, but it makes sense to me)

Dealing with clip referencing and file corruptions are one of the limitations of this software...but hey, its a free app with new Macs and part of a whole suite of apps for low cost.....For that, I think iMovie is a pretty amazing application with lots of handy uses. It effectively got me through my first year of a video editing business with flying colors while I saved up my pennies to buy and learn FCP. For that, I give kudos to iMovie....but beware the limitations.

Good luck.
-Jon

Imovie is very impressive. I spoke to a Pixar guy that told me they use iMovie just as often as the FC... of course not for any theatrical work but mainly for rough storyboarding etc... I think iMovie is a powerful tool for the learning filmmaker/videographer...

and I really appreciate the posts. I'll test that right now.

High Regards,

Daniel Riser

can I use iMovie HD to make non-HD dvd?
 

So, I got iLife '05 - with iMovie HD - Now I want to produce DVD. Except, I don't have a HD camera. Frankly, I'm not interested in the HD tecnology, not yet at least.

QUESTION: can I still use iMovie HD to make non-HD movies? or should I get iMovie (without HD)?

Thanks,
Jesse Luke
Lone Wolf Productions

You don't need another product; they just call it iMovie HD to indicate that it can handle HD. You don't have to use an HD camera with iMovie, and there is no "iMovie SD" version. In fact, I don't think you can currently make an HD DVD using iMovie/iDVD; I believe it will downconvert your HD footage to SD when burning the DVD.

Simple iMovie Question
 

Okay... try not to laugh.

I have done about 3-4 or projects in iMovie and when I'm done, I go back and delete the video and get my disk space back.

But when I go to open a new project, I still see my lists of previous projects.

How do I get rid of an old project?

They should just show up as iMovie icons in the finder just find them and drag them to the trash. They are probably in your movies folder located in your home folder.