Fastest iMovie Video Import Fromat for iDVD Processing

Which iMovie video import format will end up being converted the fastest when I export the final result into iDVD?
Should I use DV? MPG4? Or one of the others?
Just what format DOES iDVD convert iMovies into? Seems to take a REALLY long time, even with my iMac G5. If I could initially import the raw video into the same format, seems logical it would take less time for iDVD to do its thing.
Thanks!
iMac G5, Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

DV is the native format for iMovie and iDVD. Encoding contents to mpeg2 is a looong process in iDVD.
Of course authoring a DVD in an app like DVD Studio Pro with mpeg2 files would be a time saver, however unlike DVD SP, iDVD does not except mpeg2 files. (it only encodes to mpeg2).
I usually bring my iMovie project into iDVD as a flatten project.
Meaning all the A/V tracks, transitions, effects, titles, etc. comprising a iMovie project is shared/exported as a DV file(s) into a new project.
I check to make sure the DV file(s) play correctly in the new project and just add chapter markers save and close iMovie. Open iDVD, import the iMovie project, author the DVD and wait for it to finish.
I find iDVD works more efficiently/faster encoding when it doesn't have to deal with mulitple audio tracks, transitons, effects, titles etc.
It also reduces the number of encoding errors that can occur in iDVD.

Similar Messages

Sharing iMovie not taking video with it for iDVD

I have created a movie in iMovie that has video that was recorded and some still shots at the end. When I am in iMovie and review what I have done, the entire movie is there (opening title shot, video & sound, still shots with song from iTunes playing in background). When I share the movie so I can create an iDVD, it seems to be doing everything that I need. Then when I go into iDVD to make a project, the movie that I shared is there and everything is contained in the movie EXCEPT the video part! I have all of the audio that goes with the video, the titles, still shots, etc. What am I do wrong???? Thank you for your help because it is driving me nuts to not be able to figure it out.

Then when I go into iDVD to make a project, the movie that I shared is there and everything is contained in the movie EXCEPT the video part! I have all of the audio that goes with the video, the titles, still shots, etc. What am I do wrong?
Check the compression format of you source video. If it is Apple Animation or Apple Video, you have found your problem.

IMovie video import: It only finds videos in iPhoto?!

Based on Jobs' roll-out presentation, I expected iMovie 08 to find "all" my video files, as he stated it would. In fact, it only found and displayed my low resolution still camera videos that had been imported into iPhoto. (Does anyone actually use iPhoto for video files from DV or HD cameras?)
Granted, this is a really cool way to collect and view all those iPhoto videos that I've never really looked at before, but what I want to edit with iMovie is my DV video that is dispersed on a few drives and in many folders. I expected iMovie to search for and provide access to all of those files too.
Apparently the only way to access my DV video files is to either copy or move them. Neither is practical. Copying all that video would be a huge waste of disc space. Moving them would destroy all my existing FCP and iMovie HD projects.
Why can't iMovie find all my existing videos wherever they are and in whatever format? Then I could view their content and import (and thus copy) only the individual clips I want to use in an iMovie project. That would only duplicate the video files that are actually being used.
iMovie 08 has great potential for a consumer video editing tool, and it will obviously grow in features and capability over time. However, the release version is quite obviously a work in progress. Once again it is clear that Apple considers its software users to be beta testers...and they let us pay for the privilege.

+I can't import any video into iMovie. It imported 2 videos from iPhoto and that was all. I have about 30 videos in iPhoto. I've tried it all.+
Search trough this forum a bit. Some people have reported problems with certain characters in file names. It also only imports certain video formats. Some still cameras produce video clips in "unusual" formats that require conversion before iMovie '08 accepts it.

How do I save a movie from iMovie 10.0.2 for iDVD

How do i save an movie made with iMovie 10.0.4 such that I can open it in iDVD?
I don't want any of the options to upload, I still have iDVD but can't get it from iMovie 11 (I guess it is?)
to iDVD.
Do I Share to File (whatever that is.)?
Thanks,
Hal

Hi,
See if the old version of iMovie is still in your Applications folder. I re-activated mine. Evidently, in their infinite wisdom Apple decided that they want to force their followers into the Cloud and that DVD operations are yesterday. Frankly, I think it very presumptuous of them to make that decision for us. I intend to lodge an official complaint.

IMovie Video Import

Sorry to sound dumb but I can not find the information I need.
Can you only import video taken on iPhone or iPad to iMovies or can you use the lightening SD Card Reader to import videos from your SD card?
If you can import from lightening SD card reader, what format does the videos have to be in?
My camera is AVCHD .MTS format and I would like to view these videos on my iPad. IS THERE AN EASY WAY TO DO THIS?
I have tried to convert them to .MOV but the quality is realy bad compared with the original.

You can import AVCHD MTS 1080p 30p videos to iMovie, however, you cannot directly import 1080/60p or 50p MTS videos to iMovie, you need to convert MTS to imovie compatible mp4 or mov first.

IMovie video import format questions

I'm a new user to iMovie, I tried to import a .AVI file into iMovie and I could not drop and drag the file into the edit window. Ok.. iMovie must not support .AVI files, so I thought I would use Toast 9 to convert the files to .mp4 and .mov and even tired divx format. I burned these files into the movies folder and went back to imovie and used "File" "Import movie" browsed to the movies folder but no luck the files were grayed out. But other files that were .mp4 were available for use. Has anyone seen this before? Do I need to head over to Toast help. But just now I pulled up a .AVI file from na external HD and I was able to drop and drag the file into iMovie. Going file nuts here....

The problem with the MPEG 4 export from Toast is that it writes a text track. I've used QuickTime Pro to delete that track and the MPEG 4 is then recognized by iMovie 08. (By the way, iMovie HD recognizes the Toast MPEG 4 export without deleting the text track).
A different option is to use Toast to export as DV. This should work with iMovie 08.

IMovie file too long for iDVD

I created an iMovie (4 1/2 hours long of Hawaii vacation) that is too large to transfer to one DVD in iDVD. I know this must be simple but, please would someone tell me how to break up my completed movie into two more easily digestible movies that would become DVD part 1 and DVD part 2?
Thank you!!!

Hi c
Catspaw - are exelent.
My way are more tedious but.
If You have a very larg hard disk. Copy Your project.
(Will need about 70Gb free space)
Edit project 1 to less than 2 hours of the beginning
Edit project 2 to the following 2 h
Yes it is tedious and hard disk demanding.
If You by any chance doesn't have any editing to Your movie the You could
make it very easy.
Move the first 2 h to Your time line from Shelf
Close iMovie and Save
Locate the QT ref mov in the project icon and make a copy of it on the desktop. Drop this into a folder named part 1
Start iMovie and replace the clips with what follows - and re do but put
the QT copy in a folder - part 2
Keep on till all clips are used.
Now burn Your DVD's with the new QT ref movie copies.
One DVD per QT mov.
It really works.
Yours Bengt W

IMovie camera import issues

I am unable to import mp4 video from new Canon HF M50 into iMovie 11 on my MacBook Air. The camera shows up in system profile as connected and is shown in iPhoto, but not in iMovie. I want to avoid adding large videos to my photo library and use iMovie to import clips. This process worked one time, but I am unable to replicate. Any suggestions?

So, I played around with the options and now I am able to import video directly into iMovie. I erased all media from the internal flash and the sdhc card. I was recording in 9mbps mpeg-4 format. I changed to AVCHD format (SP mode). I recorded a clip, switched to playback mode and plugged in camera to power and USB. A prompt came up on the camera screen to select the memory source (ALL-PC Only, Internal, or Card). I chose Card and then iMovie (already open) opened up the Video Import box. I tried this with a clip saved on the Internal memory and that worked as well. Before, I was not getting the prompt to select which memory to read.
Overall, this is good I think. I was concerned I would not being able to edit AVCHD clips in iMovie, but now it seems like that is the only clip I am able to import.

Imovie media browser only has one option, "Mobile". other videos had option for medium and small. mobile option wont import into iDVD. other videos gave me the Medium option, why not this one?

help! imovie media browser only has one option, "Mobile". other videos had option for medium and small. mobile option wont import into iDVD. other videos gave me the Medium option, why not this one? need answers ASAP!

That is your answer then.
Large is 960x540
Medium is 640x480 (or 720x480)
Mobile is probably 480x272.
It is offering you the sizes that make sense given the size of your source material.
As a trick, you might try this. In your project, put a short 640x480 clip in the project as the first clip of the project. Then keep the rest of the project as is. See if it will let you share now in Medium. It will not look as good, because there are not enough pixels to cover the Medium size, but it might work.

How can I import an project .imoviemobile file to imovie 10.0.6 on my mac book for further processing

How can I import an project .imoviemobile file to imovie 10.0.6 on my mac book for further processing?

You can't. (http://www.macworld.com/article/2057972/imovie-for-ios-projects-no-longer-work-o n-the-mac.html)
Geoff.

Demuxing error right at the end of the iDVD process - iMovie file bad?

Hello!
I am getting a demuxing error right at the end of the iDVD process. I am posting here because one comment I received is that the issue could be the iMovie file?
I am using:
QT 7.6.2
iMovie 6.0.3
iDVD 7.0.4
OSX 10.5.7
Are these compatible?
All my "apps" are on a 10K main drive, the files on another 7.5k - have been using this for two months with no problems.
It is a big project pulling a number of clips from 4 imported VHS (I have been doing this successfully for years). I do a lot of "split clip of video head" to distinguish the clips.
The first project using about 25% of content worked fine creating a VIDEO_TS file (I always use pro quality setting). The second project trying to use another ~25% gave the aforementioned errors. One symptom is went I begin to create DVD process, the Time Remaining is 5+ hours, which is higher than normal. After about 20mins processing it drops down to the usual 2hr or so.
I create the iDVD project first, then import video.
To resolve: I am making sure I dont have index points close to anything etc., reinstalled both apps, fix this and that, removed pref file, themes, ALL the fixes I could find on all the discussions.
I even exported all the project clips as one .dv file, didnt split at video head, just put index points, and entered into new iMovie project, and started over. No good.
How can I tell if the iMovie file is bad?
Help - thoughts?

It might be that you have mixed audio formats in your movie, one or more of which is incompatible with iMovie/iDVD.
Make a copy of your movie and try using the free download Streamclip to demux to aiff. Drag the copy of your movie into the Streamclip window and then File > Demux to Aiff.
Don't know if that will work, but it is worth a try.

IMovie 11 DV video import quality

I have a lot of VHS and mini DV tapes I want to convert to digital to preserve them. I have been frustrated with PC issues for the past 15 years and I just made the switch from PC to Mac. All I have ever heard about is the quality of video editing capabilities of a Mac! So I bought a new Mac mini and was planning to get the Elgato video capture cable for the VHS tapes, but thought I would try the DV tapes first. I Hooked the firewire up to my JVC mini DV camera and was anticipating a great import into IMovie only to be sooo disappointed by the grainy dingy results. The transfer quality is better in my dinosaur HP using Arcsoft Showbiz! From what I have been reading this may be a problem with the new IMovie version. Mine is a new Mac Mini so I believe it is IMovie 11. I was hoping someone could tell me how to change some settings but I think I may have made a mistake switching to a Mac! Can anyone help me here???
Signed, very disappointed and frustrated New Mac User

but I think I may have made a mistake switching to a Mac!
You did not.
and was planning to get the Elgato video capture cable for the VHS tapes
A USB device (like Elgato) can't "keep up" with a video stream, unless it uses single-field processing. This means every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, which reduces the sharpness of the footage.
I have done LOTS of this. Here is how to do it.
To get your VHS video into iMovie, look at the Grassvally ADVC300. Audio and Video go in, FireWire comes out. It also comes with a nice Macintosh application that works flawlessly with iMovie 06 and iDVD 09/11 (I have used it a few times with iMovie 09 and 11).
The program that comes with the ADVC300 has some nice filters that can improve video and audio of the source material. The ADVC300 will take Audio and Video from any source (VCR, Tivo, Satellite Receiver) and convert it to FireWire (iMovie will treat it like a camera).
http://www.grassvalley.com/products/advc300
I would use iMovie 06 with iDVD 09/11, why?
iMovie 09/11 uses 'single field processing' meaning every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, which reduces the sharpness of the footage. iMovie 06 uses ALL of the image to form the video.
If your primary workflow is editing DV clips and making DVDs, iMovie '06 is better suited. Your movie will arrive at iDVD in DV format, which is an ideal match for making a DVD: same resolution, same pixels aspect ratio, and original quality. If you share your movie from iMovie 09/11, it gets re-rendered at 640x480 or less, and then iDVD upscales it back to 720x480. The end result is obviously not as good.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 09/11 is a "lossless" combination. My movies are diamond sharp, with the same quality you get from Hollywood.
You can get iMovie 06 in a number of ways. You cannot download it FROM APPLE any longer (it was free for a time). You can also find iMovie 06 on the iLife 06 install disc. You can buy iLife 06 on Amazon or eBay.

Preparing movies in iMovie for iDvd

Hi All: I'm using the latest iMovie & iDVD versions. Can anyone point me to information on how best to prepare your movies for iDVD creation? After a trip to Africa I have imported the events which are already listed as day 1, 2 etc. However many different scenes appear in each day. Any suggestions as to articles to read etc are welcomed!
Thanks, Jill

Hi
Do You have iMovie HD 6 ?
What kind of Camera did You use ?
If miniDV tape 4x3 Camera (interlaced TV-standard) then I would use iM6 and
when edited and done just close iM6 and start an iDVD project and IMPORT the
movie into this.
This to obtain max quality.
iM08 and 09 discards every second line yielding in a quality equal to VHS.
Never figured out howto get around this - I got the impression that it could
be done but never succeded in doing it.
Karsten might know.
Tutorials
iDVD 5. http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/idvd_5stone.html
iLife6. http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/
iMovie HD 6. http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieHD_6_GettingStarted.pdf
iLife08 and Mac OS X.5. http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials
iMovie08 and Mac OS X.5. http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie
iDVD08 and Mac OS X.5. http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#idvd
Karsten Schluter . http://karsten.schluter.googlepages.com/im08tricks
Podcasts Apple
- Find Out How - Document Apple
- Find Out How - Mac OS X Apple
- Find Out How - Movies Apple
- Find Out How - Music Apple
- Find Out How - Photos Apple
- Find Out How - Web
Books.
David Pogue's books.
• iMovie HD the Missing Manual
• iMovie 6 & iDVD The Missing Manual
• iMovie’08 & iDVD The Missing Manual
• iMovie’09 & iDVD The Missing Manual
• Final Cut Express, Video Editing for the Digital Enthusiast. Apple Pro Training Series. Diana Weynand
• Making iMovies. Scott Smith
• Final Cut Express User’s Manual
• Final Cut Pro User’s
Yours Bengt W

What is the best iMovie codec for iDVD quality

Hello all,
I am importing analog video from an Alchemy pci card in MPEG4.
I've played around a bit but would like to know what you think is the best codec for my iMovie import that will then yield the best quality video end product from iDVD.
I am currrently using the dv codec.

yepp, that is the right choice, iM uses internal the dv-codec, same is with iDVD
any other codec has a much higher compression =>lower quality
does your pci card offer the export in dv too? would be much better in terms of pic quality, any mpeg flavor is meant as transport or playback format, not for editing/converting....

Importing Images into IDVD for Slidshow

I am at a loss as to what is the best image size, resolution size, etc. when it comes to importing images into IDVD. I usually size my prints
4 x 6 @ 300 dpi.. This looks fine in the slideshow preview. After I burn the dvd and view it, the images lose quality, etc..
Any help would be appreciated

What you're creating in iPhoto is a movie file that will get cut off in iDVD because of the TV over scan issue. Only stills imported and assembled into a slideshow in iDVD can be scaled to avoid the over scan.
So to get what you want you'll have to import the stills into iDVD from iPhoto and create the slideshow there.
If you have Quicktime Pro you can mask the QT movie with a black mask and cause the iPhoto QT movie to be scaled to the TV safe area. The steps are below. You'll have to experiment with the final sizes to get it exact:
Masking Movies to the TV Safe Area for iDVD
The mask should be 640 x 480 pixels and the movie at approx. 580 x 386 (I arrived at this figure by making a snapshot of the TV save area of an iDVD project with Snapz). You can set this size after you’ve joined it with the mask movie with Quicktime Player Pro.
Import the black mask jpg file into iMovie and and export it as a .mov file at the same length as your movie (there may be a way to not have to create a specific length mask for each movie but I haven't found it. If the times do not match the movie file will be synced to the length of the mask movie).
Open the mask movie in QT Player Pro and then open your regular movie and make it the front window of the two. Now you'll need to run a QT Player AppleScript titled "Merge Movie 1 into Movie 2". You can get it from this Apple site: Quicktime Player Scripts.
Then run the script. You can then run the merged movie to check it out. Your movie will be located in the upper lefthand corner of the window when played.
When you open the Movie Properties window from the Window menu for the combined file you’ll see the following:
Video Track 1: the black mask
Video Track 2 : you movie file
Tween track: Have no idea what this is.
Sound track: self explanaotry
Black mask.
To set the size of your movie to the correct size select it in the Properties window and click on Visual Settings pane. Then enter 580 in the first field and hit enter. With the Preserve Aspect Ration box checked the other size will automatically be set.
To center the video track in the center of the mask select the Video Track 2 item and plug in a offset of about: 70 & 45. You'll probably have to play with that to fine tune the centering. Doing the math and subtracting the movie dimensions from the mask dimensions and dividing by two just didn't get it perfectly centered bit with a little eyeballing and trial and error it got there.
Now save as a new self contained movie after checking the High Quality box at the bottom right.
You can now import it into iDVD for preview and burning. One drawback is that you can't invoke the TV save area for a movie in iDVD to check it out. But you can mark it on the monitor screen while viewing a menu or slideshow and then play the movie to see how close you came. I found that the size was still a little under the TV safe area when burned and played on my TV. It may be the difference in normal CRT screens and flat screens, etc.

Fastest iMovie Video Import Fromat for iDVD Processing

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