Edit .avi in iMovie

Warning: new Mac user, so be gentle.
I have an .avi 85MB clip that I want to edit in iMovie. It was filmed on a digital "still photography" camera. When I go to open it in QuickTime, it was playing just the audio; the video was just a white screen. Same thing happened when I imported clip into iMovie (audio fine, but no video).
So I read through these forums and found a suggestion to add the Perian.org component. As soon as I would open the file in QT or iMovie, the program would "unexpectedly" quit. I downloaded the VLC media player and can now view the video clip fine, but I still can't edit it in iMovies.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advanced. Some of you are VERY smart and resourceful; I'm amazed!

Before you can send the file to an app like iMovie it must first play correctly in QuickTime Player. Your file doesn't.
Open the file in the QuickTime Player and then open the Movie Info window.
In it you should see the video codec used in the file (Format:) and a Google search for codec name +Mac should help you find what you need.

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iMovie 9 (v 8.x) cannot import an earlier version of iMovie and keep its edits. You will get the clips, edited clips, photos, but no effects or titles, and all the transitions will be converted to cross-dissolves.
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I have problems with my films that become slightly jerky after I have imported and edited them in iMovie and then burned them onto a DVD using iDVD. I can see the weak jerkiness when panning in both laterally and vertically. I shoot with a camcorder Canon

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and edited them in iMovie and then burned them onto a DVD using iDVD.
I can see the weak jerkiness when panning in both laterally
and vertically.
I shoot with a camcorder Canon Vixia HF10. The camera has been set to deliver HD quality (1920x1080). But I have accidentally filmed with a frame rate of 60 (?).
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I am trying to edit .AVI files on Final Cut Pro 5 on a volunteer basis.
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See my User Tip here.
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robiemc wrote:
How do I connect 2013 iMac with thunderbolt to 2007 iMac with FireWire 800 to have an extra monitor to edit videos on iMovie? Both iMacs are running Mavericks.
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Thank you

Hi zealous,
welcome to the  board
you gave us very little info to help you… ".avi" is no standard, just a socalled "container", can contain litterarely zillions of formats... (very little supported by Mac/iMovie).
please post your camera-model (we can research, what format it creates, then), and tell us, how you import the files from camera to your Mac (iPhoto? Finder? 3rd party apps?)
final word:
iMovie is a video edit app meant to work with firewire connected miniDV camcorders
… it is no all-purpose-all-file-edit-app

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Hi,
i am now starting on iMovie HD. I use a Casio Exilim s-600 for video shooting. Problem: the recording format is AVI.
I run the divX codec Pro on my desktop, which i expected to enable Quicktime to read those.
I unfortunately only have the sound and a white screen. Consequently, I can not use any of these in iMovie.
Is there any additional codec enabling or any foramt converter that can turn into the proper format, and if so, which format?
I am only starting in movie editing and not fully aware of what and what is not possible between formats.
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Hi there,
I feel like I'm going insane with this.
I had the same problem on '08 as I do on '09.
I make youtube videos and I am trying to open some clips that were edited on a PC by other youtube users (who have emailed them to me for a group project). They won't open in imovie. If I convert the file to .avi or .m4v or even .mp4 using Handbrake, they still won't import into imovie.
I don't know what to do and there aren't that many threads about this online.
The closest I've got is this information I found on one thread:
iMovie '08 will only allow you to to import files containing compression formats that can be edited. If your AVI file won't import, it likely means that the audio and/or video data is not editable. To import it, you will have to first convert it to any of the acceptable compression formats. For video this means DV, AIC, M-JPEG, Photo-JPEG, MPEG-4, or H.264.
Can anyone help me?
I've wasted such a lot of time on this.
I have Flip4Mac (free) and I can't export a wmv file on it unless I buy Quicktime Pro but I'm loathe to buy it on the offchance by converted file still won't open in imovie
I hope to hear from someone soon.
Many thanks,
Emily

Hi Em and welcome to the forums!
On this one issue I may be able to help:
I have Flip4Mac (free) and I can't export a wmv file on it unless I buy Quicktime Pro
Nope, QT Pro does not export to wmv, but the PAID FOR version of Flip4Mac does that conversion!

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http://unofficialimoviefaq.com/tutorials/tutorials.html

Edit .avi in iMovie

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