Importing to iMovie

[Mark Wessels]

Ok, so I'm trying edit together some juggling/performance clips into a nice little video. I know how to use iMovie fairly well and I have had no problem getting clips off DV tape via camera into my project. My question is, is it possible to get my otherwise formated clips (mpeg, rm, avi etc) into my imovie project? It seems a shame if it's impossible. Any ideas?

Thanks

Mark

[Rex Boyd]

You need to get Quicktime Pro, which basically means that you pay Apple for a registration number which will unlock the pro features that are inside the Quicktime player that you already have on your Mac. It's well worth the price ( about $30 ) get all the info you need at the Apple website http://www.apple.com/quicktime.

Quicktime Pro will convert about a dozen different formats into the DV stream format that you need for iMovie. ( not .rm however ) You can also use this trick to export animations from software such as ImageReady or Flash that is intended for web animation, but can just as easily be used at video resolution. Export from one of these at video size, convert that quicktime into a DV via Quicktime Pro and then import into iMovie for further editing, effects, and even add sound.

I might move up to Final Cut Pro one day, but I'll testify that with a bit of experimentation and creativity you can more easily create just about anything you could want in iMovie.

Rex

[Jim]

[quote]Originally posted by Mark Wessels:
<strong>Ok, so I'm trying edit together some juggling/performance clips into a nice little video. I know how to use iMovie fairly well and I have had no problem getting clips off DV tape via camera into my project. My question is, is it possible to get my otherwise formated clips (mpeg, rm, avi etc) into my imovie project? It seems a shame if it's impossible. Any ideas?

Thanks

Mark</strong><hr></blockquote>


I hear iMovie 3 (requires OSX 10.2 Jaguar) will let you import Quicktime movies into it. I can't confirm this, but I know I did read it somewhere this week after Apple released iMovie 3. Not sure about .avi files. If you don't have 10.2, get it. It rocks.

Or you could go the route Rex suggested and upgrade to QT Pro, which is also worth it.

Jim

[The Pretty Good]

I movie 3 does import .Mov but I think you would want to import full quality files I just think that a smaller .mov would be too compressed and look all crappy. It imports it as 1 big clip.

[Mark Wessels]

I found all of that footage on VHS so it's not so important anymore but thanksfor the advise. I have Jaguar (it does rock once you get used to it, though I have some airport issues) and iMovie 2.1.2. Is there any other reason I should upgrade to iMovie 3? Is it expensive, I don't really use it that often, just a little short every once in a while and my promo vid soon.

thanks

Mark

[The Pretty Good]

Imovie 3 is a free update. Its kinda glitchie but I think it will be good. It has some good options and it seems like it will be better after a few updates.

[Jim]

I've been hearing that iMovie 3 is pretty SLOW... Slower that iMovie 2. I've used iMovie 2 for a while and I haven't had any trouble with it and it feels just fine, speedwise. (Certain rendering can take a while, but that's the same in Final Cut or any video editing app.) I played with a friend's iMovie 3 on her flat panel iMac and it did feel rather sluggish doing general things like importing and opening menus. I only used it for a few minutes so I didn't get a real good picture of it's new features. I do remember it feeling slow, though.

I'd stick with iMovie 2 for a while. I'm sure Apple will address the speed issue in iMovie 3.1 within the next couple months. Keep an eye out for it...

http://www.apple.com/imovie

Jim