Thanks Jeff!

Hi8 PAL, MiniDV NTSC and iMovie 2...?
 

What do people think about this:
I have a Hitachi Hi8 PAL camcorder, a Sony dsr-pd-150 NTSC camcorder and iMovie 2. Is it possible to use the pd-150 as a DV bridge between my Hitachi camcorder and iMovie 2 to import and eventually edit my Hi8 PAL footage?

Thank you.

Anyone?

iMovie 3.0.3 released
 

There is also an update to iMovie available on the Apple web site. It works with the new version of QT. Early reports are hopeful that at least some of the nuisance issues may be solved...

I don't think it's possible because when it goes into the NTSC camera it's going to become distorted, I suppose maybe if you change your deck settings so that your NLE thinks that it's pulling in from a PAL deck instead of an NTSC deck it would be possible.

Nick, thanks for the reply.

I haven't tried the "trick" yet, but when I do, I'll let you know, if you're interested for the results.

iMovie Plug-In Recommendations?
 

I've found one endorsement in this forum of Slick. Does anyone else have recommendations? Or recommend one or several of the 4 volumes of Slick available more than the others? Am working on something I want to finish and get out quickly to the participants, but there are several points where it could use some less abrupt transitions - and something more subtle - or at least more varied - than what iMovie currently offers. Opinions on all sides would be greatly appreciated.

I've seen the Slick transitions (volumes 1 through 4) and they do very nice effects. I work in FCP, so they are incompatible. But the work I've seen with them looks professional and smooth.

iMovie Compatible Soundtrack Software?
 

Once again, I'm looking for a quick fix for iMovie. Have checked in the audio forum, but no luck. So, has anyone used Sonic Fire or Soundtrack? I'm completely non-musical and still learning to crawl with video, but trying to finish a piece I shot of a veterans' commemorative event. I edited out a lot of the background noise on various clips, but some clips contain singing of national anthems, Hawaiian chanting, etc. This makes the segments without any sound somewhat eerie. What I'd like to do is fill in with suitable music - probably patriotic and/or marches. So far Sonic Fire and Soundtrack appear to allow one to draw on large libraries, but I don't know if the software is truly iMovie compatible - or which one is more idiot-proof. This is not intended to be (nor could it ever be) a professional job. It just has to be good enough "home movie" for some of the vets to be able to have for themselves and their families. Once again, recommendations and opinions any compatible/suitable software greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Jeff. You and Steve Wozniak, apparently.

I'm not an iMovie user, but you should be able to export the audio out of iMovie. Bias makes several audio programs that may be of interest. Peak, Deck and SoundSoap should do just about everything you'd ever need. Unfortunately they are not as easy to learn as iMovie. You might want to look into FCPE. It probably offers the features you need.

I did check out the web site. You're right - too complicated for me. I've decided to try SonicFire, mainly because it seems to offer drop-in tracks from a reasonably diverse (though sometimes costly) library. Should work with FCE, too, which I own but haven't yet used. (Will try working with it for my next, much, much smaller project.) Thanks for taking the time to help out with my problem.

I agree with you Patricia, that SonicFire might seem costly. I have used it for some time myself now, and I think it's a very fine tool for scoring my videos. It's certainly very easy to learn how to use the software. I have even purchased a lot of their music/sound palette CDs, and must say that I am impressed by the quality and flexibility they deliver.

You can import audio from cds directly into iMovie. I dont use iMovie much anymore but I've imported lots of cd audio into it and you can do a rough chop up edit in iMovie as well to get the selections you need from the track and delete the rest. this can be done in quicktime as well.If its not for sale commercially and only for home viewing you should have no problems using any music you want.

Thank you. Problem is that my CDs don't fit the bill. 50's music and patriotic songs aren't part of my current collection. Plus, when you are not musical, you cut tracks off in the wrong place. (By the way, if anyone finds a cure for humming to music when you can't carry a tune - nothing worse than getting picked up by your own mike - let me know.)

Patricia,
I think Sonic Fire Pro will fill your bill better and quicker than Soundtrack. Using SF's "Maestro" feature you can select a music style and length and then a specific variation. SF will then generate a piece as close to your target length as possible which you can then export to a separate file, then import and place into your iMovie project.

You will probably need to also purchase one or more libraries for SF to get the selection(s) you need. More info at the SmartSound site.

Thanks, Ken. I ordered SonicFire Pro yesterday as well as a couple of their CD collections. I am learning by trial and error that once you decide how you want your clips to flow, you work on sound first, then transitions and titles (at least in iMovie). I seem to be doing it absolutely backwards, and I'm sure I'm going to have to redo a few more times, which is a bit much for a home movie, but a good way to learn, nonetheless. (Oh, yes, the best way would be to learn to use the camera to its fullest first, but some of us don't learn that way.)

imovie clips
 

you know after you import your clips they are in the clips pane...then when you drag and drop them in they aren't in the clips pane anymore?? is there a way to use clips but still have the clip there so i can use it more than once?

Alan,

Hold down the option key as you drag the clip from the bin to the timeline. Repeat this as many times as is necessary.

iMovie Plug-In Recommendations?
 

This is my first post so pardon the delay.
Here are list of plugin sites i found the other evening.
I haven't tried them out but there's a wealth compared to a few years ago.

http://www.stupendous-software.com/

http://www.umlautllama.com

http://www.csb-digital.com/iplugins/community

http://www.virtix.com/imovie/

http://www.ezedia.com/products/eZedia_plug-ins/iMovie_plug-ins/eZeMatte_plug-in.html

iMovie plug-ins by GeeThree.com
 

They just came out with volume 5 & 6
fantstic stuff,
I have all 1 to 6
love them
Bruce

iMovie 3.03 (can you use it with external drive?)
 

In FCP you can use external drives as most of you know.

Question, can you do the same thing with iMoive.

I was thinking, I guess if I put iMovie on the external drive, that would work.

apple doesn't support using external drives with FCP... external drives work for some people and not for others. It will depend on which Mac you have, whether or not the firewire bus is shared, how fragmented your drives are, which chipset/bridge your firewire enclosure is using, which drive is inside it, etc.

With iMovie you should install it onto an internal drive and put your projects on the external drive if you want to use them.

I'm not sure what you are talking about.

I've used Final Cut Pro with an external drives, and I'm sure most people do.

You can select which drive to use, using the strach disc.

What I'm asking is with iMovie, I believe it was meant to be a cheap edit solutoin and 99%of the people using it would use their internal harddrive.

Is there a way to use iMovie, but have the footage on the faster external drive?

right now I don't see how.

iMovie and external drives
 

There is no way within iMovie to specify the capture drive.

According to my copy of the iMovie manual, if you don't have enough hard drive space "you may want to install another hard disk or attach an external hard disk." That being said, you may run into all kinds of problems, as implied by Glenn. I have a 200GB 7200RPM Maxtor that I use for storage only. The one time I tried to export to my camcorder from files on the Maxtor, the end product was unusable. If you check other posts in this forum, you'll find others runnning FCX and FCP running into problems as well. For a better understanding of how divergent people's experiences can be, try the apple/support/discussions/iMovie forum.

With iMovie you can put/create your project file on an external drive for iMovie to capture to the external/firewire drive. Or you can move existing projects there by moving the folder then project files are in.

2- Regarding FCP and firewire drives, apple does not guarantee that firewire drives will work with Final Cut Pro. Some people have problems with firewire drives and some people don't.

3- Stick with internals if you can. If not then you probably have to go with the external drive route (which may not work...). Which Mac are you using?

Yes, You can have iMovie on the internal drive and edit on the external. I do it all the time. When it comes time to start a new project just specify where you want it.

As for problems capturing to the external drive there are many different causes. A common cause is the use of a Canon camera. There is something about Canon's implementation of firewire that doesn't quite work well with external drives.

As I have a Canon I regularly capture to my internal hard drive then move the entire folder to the external for editing. It works fine.

Same here. I have a Xternal Lacie 120GB, and so far it's been working fine with iMovie.

audio drift in Imovie
 

Anyone deal with audio drift in Imovie? How are you correcting this?

Also, I'm interested in getting a few helpful books on Final Cut Express. Recommendations?

Is your camera footage 32khz/12bit? It needs to be in 48khz/16bit.

16bits. The drift doesn't happen all the time. Here and there.

Ok I'm stumped.

I saw a nice FCE book in the Apple section at CompUSA, sorry but I don't remember the title.

How many frames does it drift and is it repeatable? There is not much you can adjust in iMovie. Have you tried recapturing the material? If so, does it drift in the same spot? You might try exporting and importing as a QuickTime. What version OS and iMovie are you using? How full is your hard drive and how much ram do you have? Does it only drift on longer captures? If so, you might want to limit the length of your captures.

Yeah, no audio timeline for video sound in Imovie! I haven't tried anything other than the original captures. Well, the reason I ask about FCE books is because I also have that to play with, it's just that I'm new to NLE and wanted to warm up on something simple.
But you know what. When I first got and used FCE two months ago, I captured footage shot with the same camera that I used to shoot the footage that I'm having trouble with in imovie. I captured quite a bit in FCE then, and almost all of it had to be rendered, it had this electonic booping throughout the audio (FCE's signal that material must be rendered, according to the manual). Could these issues be related?
Thanks Jeff for thoughts on books. If it's in print, I'll be able to find it. And thanks, Glenn, for giving it the old college whack :-) .

The beeps mean the audio needs to be rendered. There are several causes, do a search and you'll see I've covered this topic in the past. If you still have problems, post details about your computer, OS, software, etc. so I can trouble shoot the issues.

Couldn't say off hand exactly how many frames off the audio is, but if, in some footage, a person were to say, "Yes.", the sound of the word would be heard, with the lips moving immediately after.

iMovie and FCE don't play very well since iMovie clips require their sound portion to be rendered. If you captured in FCE then make sure all your settings match up to NTSC 48khz.

Does the sync get worse gradually or is it consistently off?

Generally, it gets worse.

ok I will try another stab at this. If you turn on your camera's display and play back footage, does it say 12bit or 16bit? If it's 12bit then iMovie will crap itself according to the apple knowledge base. Sorry if you already tried this.