Hi folks

Is there someone out there with some experience
with iMovie that could help me? It seems that I can
do just about anything I want to do in iMovie on my
FireWire hard drive *except* write the project file.

Here's the problem: I captured quite a bit
of raw footage directly to my hard drive,
then copied the project to my FireWire drive
for editing. Bizarrely, I can open the project on the
FireWire drive only if I also copy a "._Projectname" file from
the original project--otherwise iMovie doesn't
recognize the file as an iMovie project. I can
open the project and move clips around and stuff,
but the project won't save. If I execute "Save project"
and quit, the next time I run iMovie, it
has discarded all my changes. It's as if it fails to write
the project file, but doesn't tell me.

I've tried creating a new
project and moving the clips to its Media folder.
On opening a project, iMovie is supposed to throw any dv
files it finds in its Media folder into the tray, but first it says
"Found NN files that don't belong in the project folder.
Okay to move them to the trash?" Then it throws the
clips into the tray. But, again, the next time I open
the folder, it doesn't work.

Editing, etc. on my PowerBook's built-in hard
drive works just fine, including saving.

Has anyone seen behavior like this? Know a workaround?

Thanks

--MarkJohnson

Hello,
Glad to see some one else loves iMovie2. I'm almost 100% sure you have to do it this way.
1.) I remember reading somewhere that you can't use a zip or external drive and work on a project.
2.) I think you have to work on it internally and can store the finished product on your external FW drive.
3.) If you have the iMovie2 "The Missing Manual" Pogue press by O'Reilly pg. 101 explains the whole thing.

I have 1 60gb HD as my main with OS X with iMovie2 program on it .
my second drive is a 30gb with the OS9 apps on it and my third is a 120gb, where I store all my iMovie2 projects - they are all internal- 7200 rpm

If you want a bunch of free stuff I'll give yoou the links.This is other than the stuff you'll find at the Mac web site.

Bruce
bvmprod@quik.com

Mark,
I don't know what's holding you up. iMovie can, indeed, operate on a project located on a Firewire drive; I do it all of the time.

Here's what a -do- know. The directory structure iMovie expects for a project is extremely rigid (unlike FCP). That is, there will be a FOLDER named as your project name, under which there will be your actual iMovie project file (named precisely). There will also be a special folder titled "Media" in this project folder, within which all of your clips wil reside.

iMovie will not automatically detect dv files in the Media folder. In fact, it will be inclined to send such intruders to the Trash. Nor will make importing footage simple.

Bruce's recomendation on David Pogue's "iMovie: The Missing Manual" is a good one. Since there's no manual it's a good (cheap) investment.

Thanks, guys. I think an Apple rep told me I should be able to capture
to my local disk, and then edit the video on the external FireWire drive
with iMovie2 on OS X. Looks like Ken can do it. It's very weird.
I have David Pogue's excellent book for iMovie 1, but iMovie 2
is so much better, I guess I'll get the new book, too.

Bruce, it would be great if you could post those links. The more
iMovie-compatible tools, the better!

I found a site today about using freeware tools to make
VCDs, but it was a long, 5-6 step process, and the instructions
were so abbreviated that I didn't think it was worth trying to do.
Are there any good OS X tools for making VCD image files? (The
only CD writer I have is on an old Winbox.)

Thanks again, guys, for the generous and helpful feedback!

--Mark Johnson

Hi Mark,
Do you use OS 9 or OSX?

Bruce

Mark,
Well here goes:
www.alcjudprod.sc/ (the sc could be a se)

www.findsound.com/types.html
If you use OS X it will come down as a quicktime moviesound, I prefer them as aiff. to do this when you see the sound you like click it, l keep the check mark in aiff and remove the other two, find the sound effect you want, hold down the controll key and at the same time click and hold down the mouse on the link, then when the window opens, go down to down load to disk and it is saved as an aiff. ( good idea is to prepare a place to put the effect ahead of time!)

www.fontfreak.com
on the left side of screen click macfont, page comes up, if I see any font I like i first print thre page and use it as a font directory, I circle the font in red so I know that it's available, then download. some are free ware some are shareware, I prefer the freeware

www.atm.com/702/imovie-transaction-tricks.shtml

www.alfreesoundeffects.com/noflash.htm

www.geethree.com they offer some free transitions, I liked them so much I bought the actual disks ( i prefer the hard stuff just in case there's a crash)

www.versiontraker.com get a copy of macjanitor

try these for now You might like to print this post


Bruce

<<<-- Originally posted by MarkJohnson : Hi folks
Is there someone out there with some experience
with iMovie that could help me? It seems that I can
do just about anything I want to do in iMovie on my
FireWire hard drive *except* write the project file.-->>>

Read through the foloowing and see if this clears up the issues you are experiencing. The following has been excerpted from The "Unofficial" iMovie FAQ, written by Dan Slagle, at:
http://www.danslagle.com/mac/imovie/iMovieFAQ.html.

- Here's how to move an existing project to another disk:
Since iMovie keeps everything needed in the project folder, you simply drag the entire project folder from one disk to the other. After Finder finished copying (which may take a while), you can open the copy in two ways:
1._ Open the project folder and double-click on the project file.
2._ Launch iMovie and select Open in the File menu. Navigate to the copy and open it.

- Here's how to start a new project on another disk.
Select New Project from the File menu.
In Mac OS 9, click on the "Desktop" button.
In Mac OS X you enlarge the dialog by clicking on the button on the right with a small triangle in it. Drag the horizontal scroll bar all the way to the left to see the available disks.
For both 9 and X: Select the disk you want and then navigate to the folder where you want the project.

Hope this helps!

While I count the days until I'm able to afford FCP, I've been playing around with iMovie. I was hoping someone here could help me out.

Are you able to import .mov files into iMovie? I have a file of some stock footage (it actually came from a FCP tutorial CD) that I would like to play around with in iMovie. I don't seem to be able to import this file.

Thanks.

<<<-- Originally posted by L1 Video : Are you able to import .mov files into iMovie? -->>>

According to Knowledge Base TIL Article 60561, entitled "iMovie: Importing Non-DV QuickTime Movies," and available at:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60561:

iMovie is designed to get all video clips by capturing them directly from a DV device. If you want to use video from other sources they must first be converted into DV streams.

With Quicktime Pro, you can convert a Quicktime movie into a DV stream.

1. Open the QuickTime movie in QuickTime Player.
2. Choose Export from the File menu.
3. In the Export popup menu, select Movie to DV Stream. Use the Default Settings.
4. Type a name for your DV movie and click Save.
5. Move the newly saved DV movie into the Media folder of your project. Note: The DV clip may be much larger than the original QuickTime movie. Make sure you have enough space on your hard disk.
6. Open iMovie. You will see the following dialog box which states:
"There was one stray clip file in the project folder. It will be loaded onto the shelf for you to decide what to do with it."
7. Click OK. The DV clip will be imported to the Shelf. If the shelf is already full, you may see a different dialog saying that the shelf is full. Delete some files from the Shelf, or move them to the timeline to make room for the new clip which will then appear on the Shelf.

For information on how to upgrade to QuickTime Pro, visit the QuickTime web site: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/.

Try it.

Thanks Dan. That was it...worked great.

Hi everyone,
This is probably more info than you need, but here it all is so you have a general idea of what's going on.

I am new to macs. I went out and bought one of those dual processor 1 gig power macs. It has a super drive and all the bells and whistles. It came stock with 256k of ram, and I have yet to upgrade it (trust me, I will) I did however put in two internal 7200 rpm IBM deskstar slave drives. The stock mac HD is a 80 gig. My DV slave is a 120 gig and my music slave is a 40 gig. All three are serving me well. I have yet to undertake FCP3 and DVD Studio Pro. Up until now, I have been adequitely satisfied with iMovie and iDVD.

I receintly shot just under an hour of footage in very dark conditions with my GL1. (54.39 minutes) I used a beachteck adapter for sound with a Sennheiser shotgun mic on top, a sennheiser wireless sending unit and a handheld sennheiser corded mic. All plugged into the beachtek monitored with headphones.

I downloaded the footage into my mac via firewire and started to edit. The footage was very dark, so I started to mess with some of my effects to try to lighten it. This of course caused grain, but what the hell G.I.-Go (garbage in, garbage out) The effect I found to be the best at lightening it was one I got for free from www.geethree.com. It is called 'solarize' I used it slightly just to bring the detail out of the image and was pretty satisfied. When I review the footage thru iMovie, it looks and sounds fine.

Now for the dilema. When I tell iMovie to Export for iDVD. It does it's 165 minute deal where it compresses the data for quick time (I guess) Then, I open iDVD and move the data into the field (like I've done about 4 times before with no problems) and tell the machine to 'burn DVD' Once the disc has been created, I take it out and put it in my DVD player in my living room. At first, everything looks cool. (actually, better than I expected.) As the 'show' progresses, the sound gets further and further out of sync. By the end of the 'show' the sound is AHEAD of the picture by about 1 full second. This is of course, no good.

Here's my thinking. When I watch the 'show' on iMovie, it looks great. It is perfect, so I don't think my problem is with iMovie (but maybe) When I watch the show from my desktop on the quick time file, it's off. This leaves me to believe that the problem is not with my iDVD program. There is something happening with the quick time compression. Is this due to the solarize effect? Is this a lack of ram (although, it's never affected me in the past, this is my 5th DVD burn job). Is there an adjustment I need? I have burned about 200 blank CD's in my burner. Could that be the cause? Should apple clean my machine. I did buy the extended coverage.

Anyway, thanks for the energy and thought into my situation. Any help would be very appreciated. I just called a buddy at apple and he's going to rack his brain as well. I'll let you all know if he comes up with anything.


-Kyle

Hello Kyle,
Welcome to the Mac world! Sounds like your first experience is a bit rough.

Off-hand I'm not certain what is causing this trouble, not having used iMovie to create iDVD content. I do know that sound and picture can get out-of-synch over long sequences in the Final Cut Pro world due to frame rate issues.

So, for starters, let's make sure that you exported your video in DV format. QuickTime is merely a wrapper for content and does not determine compression, per se. Based on your "165 min" deal, assuming that you mean it took that time to "compress" your footage, I'm guessing that you did not export in full-frame/rate DV (which would have taken much less time.

Here's Apple's page on the subject: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50168

When you copied the mini Dv data from your camcorder to your hard drive did you do it in one continuous take? Meaning you plugged your camcorder into the Firewire port and used iMovie to bring the contents into your computer without any pauses? If so, try doing it in smaller chunks. Watch the out of sync copy and determine when the sync slip becomes noticeable. Then copy the tape in lengths of that duration. Yes, it's inconvenient, but it is a work around. Have you updated to OS 10.2.2 ? That is solving a lot of FCP issues for the owners of the newer DP models.

Jeff,
you bring up an interesting point. In the past, I have been able to attach the firewire to the camera, press "Import" and walk away. Once the footage is complete, (like an hour later) I simply rewind the DV tape, unhook the machine from the camera, put the camera away and get to work.

Lately however, the camera has been stopping during the importing process and I've had to restart it from where it left off. I also had this happen the other day when I was exporting a completed project back to the camera for DV storage. I haven't had a chance to mess with it to see if I could get it to do it again.

Do you think that could be part of my problem? Keep in mind, the sound is perfect on the iMovie playback. It's not until I try to export it to iDVD that there is a problem.

I appreciate your brainstorms
-Kyle

Are you running OS 10.2.2 and QuickTime 6.0.2 ?

Jeff

Sorry to be so long...
Yes Jeff, I am running the latest versions of all the software.
The guys at apple are racking their brains and my buddy (at apple) is contacting the president of geethree to find out what's up with that.

I'm beginning to think my settings may be askew...

Any more ideas? I told you this was weird.
-Kyle

The folks at Apple will always be "...racking their brains" on nearly any problem. That doesn't qualify this as an eternal mystery.

Have you tried anything Jeff or I recommended?

Actually Ken, thank you very much,
I have been messing with it quite a bit.
Jeff suggested that I import the footage in smaller "chunks". The footage in iMovie isn't a problem. While viewing the footage in iMovie, it appears perfect and the timing is perfect. I don't believe the hardware connection is an issue.
Once all my editing is complete, I select export for iDVD. That's where the trouble begins.
As I'm sure you know, there are 3 options for exporting a film from iMovie.
Export to Camera
Export to QuickTime (which has all types of settings)
Export to iDVD.

I have been exporting to iDVD (where there are no frame rate settings) and then burning the disc from there.
I have done this with 4 other films with no problems.

Now, this one has me without solution.

Are you suggesting I Export this to QuickTime, then move that to iDVD? I can surely try that.

I appreciate the help. Unfortunately, this one has me and my friends stumped... except for one possible solution (which I'll try this weekend)
I am convinced that the problem is with these geethree effects (this project is the first time I've used it)
I can export the film from iMovie back to the camera. Once there, I can then import it back to the computer and from there, to iDVD.
I'll let you know if that works.
-Kyle

Are you suggesting I Export this to QuickTime, then move that to iDVD? I can surely try that.


Yes. Export the sequence to QT in DV format. Also try breaking the sequence into smaller pieces before exporting, as Jeff suggested. Then import to iDVD.

Ken,
I tried to export to quick time.
Actually, what I did was... I extracted all the audio from the live footage and pinned it in place. Then, I exported the video to quick time. In my settings, I saved it as 720 x 480 at 29.97 fps in mono at 16 bit quality. (DV/DVCPRO - NTSC) Best Quality

It took about 40 minutes to export it (original piece is 55 minutes)

Now, the audio is worse. About 2 seconds ahead of the image.

I'm still messing with it.

I have one question though... How can I divide the piece into smaller chunks and then merge them back together after they are exported? iDVD can not accept different chapters. Is there a way to do it with 2 or more quicktime pieces so they run together as if they are spliced?

-Kyle

I think you're outsmarting yourself. Don't fool around with separating the sound during export. The whole point of this experiment is to try to ensure that sound and video remain in synch. The DV export from iMovie is intended to maintain the audio sampling rate with the video rate. So export the whole piece, sound and video, to a DV format QuickTime file. Then bring the QuickTime DV file into iDVD. DON'T manipulate the audio separately!

iDVD cannot deal with chaptering or chaining at all. It is designed to simplify the DVD authoring process, so it hides the markedly more complex features of the DVD specification that enable you to do such tricks. To divide your disc's content you will have to create separate exports from iMovie and bring the into iDVD as separate content pieces. (Given your problem, this would probably be a good idea anyway.)

Hi,

I'm using iMovie to edit video on my Lombard PB (400Mhz G3) and I've notice that when I do a crossfade effect from one clip to another, the "action" goes into slow motion during the actual fading from one image to another and goes back to regular speed after the fade. Is this normal? Is this a limit of iMovie, or of my slow machine? It sure doesn't look good and slick.

Any info appreciated (I'm a complete newbie btw).

Thanks.

Marc.

Marc,
It sounds like iMovie is rendering the transition when you observe it going into "slow motion". That it, it's creating the necessary frames in the background as you're playing it. After it's finished rendering you should see the movie displayed at full speed.

In fact, it is not the rendition but the actual playing of the fade. And also, there is no change whether I'm looking at the rendition during playback on the computer or on the minidv tape (sony TRV25) after I've exported the movie to my camera. I'm puzzled as to why this is and how to change it.

Marc.

How full is the hard drive? I don't do much iMovie work (just to help my son) but could one of the clips be too short and iMovie stretches the clip? Just guessing though.

Jeff

No, the movie files take about 500 megs and the disk still has about 3 gigs left so I don't think that is the problem.

Marc.

How long is the clip? Can you delete it and re-import the clip and render it again. That sometimes works in FCP.

Jeff

Marc,
Apple's support site is one of the best and is a good resource for every Mac user. Here's an article discussing what seems to be your trouble. It looks like it's time for you to update iMovie.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60564&SaveKCWindowURL=http%3A%2F%2Fkbase.info.apple.com%2Fcgi-bin%2FWebObjects%2Fkbase.woa%2Fwa%2FSaveKCToHomePage&searchMode=Assisted&kbhost=kbase.info.apple.com&showButton=true&randomValue=100&showSurvey=false&sessionID=9234553!tanakak@ameritech.net|158245996

You can download the latest version of iMovie (http://www.apple.com/imovie/download/) and iPhoto (http://www.apple.com/iphoto/download/). They are also available from software update in your system preferences.

The Apple support page for iMovie is loaded with unhappy people. You might want to read some of the problems first. I'm going to wait until things get worked out. I might just get FCX anyway.

Do they require Jaguar?

iMovie and iPhoto require 10.1.5 or later. iDVD (not free and not available by download) requires 10.1.5 or 10.2.2 or later. Some people are having problems, some are not. If you don't want to experience a problem or two wait for the first or second update. All the bugs are usually fixed by the second update (at least for newer machines). That is the nature of software, especially when it has been rewritten (it's Cocoa, not Carbon).

I am using iMovie right now until I can get my hands on FCP. Here is my question. I have some photoshop images that I want to import into iMovie. The resolution is fairly high in PSD..why does the image look so crappy when I import it into imovie? Is there any way to change that? OR does anyone know the recommended resolution to import stills?

This thread (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6401&highlight=photoshop)may be of interest as well as these tutorials. (http://www.lafcpug.org/basic_ps.html)

Hi,
I have a break in timecode for about 8 min. of footage. I was wondering if I can capture in imovie and then import my footage into premier? I've heard you can have dropped frames doing this. Does anybody know for sure if this will affect footage in a negative way? thanx a lot in advance.
-Kris

Just capture in separate clips and avoid the break. You can import iMovie into FCP, I would assume Premiere can import iMovie footage also. Try a small clip.

Premiere can import QuickTime DV files. So if iMovie can create
those Premiere should not have any problems importing the file
(it seems to support most of the QuickTime codecs...)

This was just announced at NAB (http://www.arboretum.com/). It's not free, but less the Final Cut Express

This is the problem I'm having with Imovie 3 and IDVD 3. When in Imovie the audio matches the mouths of the people talking perfectly. When I encode using IDVD and play back the finished product the audio goes out of sinc looking like a Godzilla movie with the people moving their mouths and the audio not matching. Any ideas on how I can fix this or why it's happening?

This is actually a known issue and a fix is in the works, I read. I understand that a fix involving extracting the audio works for some people and not others. You can read about it here in the Apple Discussions (http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?230@170.CazXaUm3mhb.6@.3bc07548).

Thanks Jeff!

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?

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.

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.

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.