Cannot Import.

Question

Hi,
I'm new to Mac, to iLife and to iMovie '08.
Here's my situation:
Yesterday, I opened iMovie '08 for the first time. The interface was amazing and tools are easy to use. Then, I decided to try it by editing some videos. I wanted to use iMovie to put together some of my short videos (taken with a digital camera) with nice transaction effects between them and a song in the background.
The problem is that it doesn't allow me to drag them into the iMovie library. There isn't the little + sign when I try to drag my videos. My clips are in different formats: .mpg .avi
I thought it was a format problem so I converted them (using QuickTime Pro) to lots of different formats including: .mov .mp4 .DV ,etc. But still, none of them allowed me to drag into iMovie.
What should I do ? Can iMovie only import from devices such as camcorders ??
I need help with this, I really like iMovie, but what's the point if I can't use it.
Thanks. (sorry for this long text)
Conan.

Answer 1

The problem is that it doesn't allow me to drag them into the iMovie library. There isn't the little + sign when I try to drag my videos. My clips are in different formats: .mpg .avi
First off, files cannot be dragged to an iMovie '08 "Events" window whether they are edit compatible or not. They must be dragged to the "Event" name (in the Event Library List) instead. MPG (MPEG-1) files are "muxed" files and as such are not iMovie '08 compatible. AVI is a generic file container which can hold any number of combinations of audio and video compression formats. Some (like M-JPEG/Unsigned Integer) are compatible in their AVI file container. Others (like M-JPEG/DVI ADPCM are not importable simply because the audio is not compatible. These files would require conversion of at least the audio track to a compatible compression format. (Many user simply convert both audio and video here but, in this case, that is not entirely necessary.)
I thought it was a format problem so I converted them (using QuickTime Pro) to lots of different formats including: .mov .mp4 .DV ,etc. But still, none of them allowed me to drag into iMovie.
MOV like AVI is only a file container. It can contain anything from incompatible WMV 9 to MPEG-1 content as well as compatible DV, AIC, M-JPEG, Photo-JPEG, MPEG-4, H.264, etc. video with AAC, Big Endian, Little Endian, etc. compressed audio formats. Both MP4 (MPEG4/AAC or H.264/AAC) and DV (either DV or MOV with DV compressed video) should have been compatible. My guess here is that you tried to drop your files directly to an "Event" window rather than to its "name." In any case, the suggest "Import" menu option is also a viable alternative.
How can I convert them to a editable format ?
In the case of the MPEG-1 (MPG) files, use an MPEG-based, third-party application like iSquint (free), MPEG Streamclip (free), FFmpegX (donation-ware), Visual Hub (pay-ware), etc. to convert your content and retain any audio content.
Why isn't the drag and drop option working ?
My initial guess would be for continuity sake. The "Event Library List" names had to be made "dropable" so users could drop a clip from one "Event" to another. Rather than make both the "shared" display window and the event names "hot/dropable," Apple technicians settled on the simplest approach of using just the "names" in the library list. (Just a guess though.)