Can anybody help a Newbie?

Question

I have Logic 6 and am trying to import some Quicktime movies.
I down loaded some Real player movies of the net and tried to open them in Logic. result it did not work.
Can anyone advise me of the best way to take some adverts (off the television, either that i have recorded to dvd, or as i said off the net in Real player format) into Logic so that i can add music to them.
This is a work project and need to complete it soon!!
I also have imovie and idvd if it can be done this way.
I have no idea what is possible on the Mac using idvd, imovie or quicktime and Logic. Any ideas or advice?

Answer 1

You'd first have to download a RealPlayer for Mac.
Then you'd be able to play your Real Player net movies. I've no idea about Logic, as I've never used that. However, if you've recorded ".. some adverts (off the television, either that i have recorded to dvd.." then anything that's been recorded directly to a DVD recorder will have been recorded (..almost certainly, though some record in DivX format as well..) in MPEG-2 format.
To use these MPEGs in iMovie you'll have to convert them to DV (Digital Video) format using something like Streamclip, which correctly encodes MPEG-2 as DV.
You don't say in which format you'll "..take some adverts (off the television..", and the method you use to get them into iMovie depends on what format you've recorded them in. If you've used a TV tuner on a Mac, something like an Elgato eyeTV it'll have been recorded in either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2. If you've recorded onto a DVD it'll normally be in MPEG-2. If you've recorded to a VHS tape, then that'll be in ordinary old traditional analogue video, and the best way of getting that into iMovie is to connect the VHS machine's output to a camcorder's analogue (RCA-shaped round yellow plug) input, and either copy it onto a DV tape, or some camcorders have a "pass-through" facility which lets the incoming analogue video be passed straight out through the cam's FireWire cable and straight into iMovie.
Another way to record from a TV, or TV tuner, if it has an S-Video (small round 4-pin socket) is to feed the S-Video into a compatible camcorder ..one with an S-Video input.. and record the video that way, and the audio through a pair of red-&-white RCA audio leads into the camcorder's audio-in socket. Your broadcast video would then be encoded into DV, and you could import that straight into iMovie.
You can then add music in iMovie ..music which you've created yourself, for instance, with GarageBand or Soundtrack.. but I know nothing about Logic, or the format in which it exports its audio. If it can export in .AIFF format, then those .AIFF files can easily be imported into iMovie and laid onto either of iMovie's audio tracks ..er, simple!
P.S: You can do much of this importing, and adding audio files, in QuickTime Pro ..but if you've got iMovie, you'll probably find it simpler, or more intuitive, to do it there. Otherwise you'll have to read up all about using QT Pro ..maybe in one of these books. I know the review mentions QT 5 & 6, and iMovie 4, but all these will have been updated by now - try Amazon - to deal with the latest QT Pro 7 and iMovie HD.