Fce or imovie 06

what are some advantages with using fce over imovie 06 ? i've only been using a mac for a few months now and have gotten pretty used to using i movie 06. i like imovie 08 for editing but it just does not have as many features as i like it to have. for only $200 it seems really tempting, i'm just not sure what it would add for me.
another thing for me is to be able to add a new track to a movie and be able to choose which track to listen to when played on a dvd player. i know imovie does not do this. does fce do this ?

I think you should read something about FCE: Final Cut Express.
Anyway FCE (and today a new version 4 was released) provides far more features than iMovie.
And it's also quite different from iMovie (either 6 or 08) and more difficult to learn: as a Mercedes is different from a... bike: with both you can move around, but you need a driver licence for a Mercedes.
About being able to choose tracks on the DVD player, it's not a feature for iMovie or FCE: It's up to the DVD authoring application. And, as far as I know, only DVD Studio (in the FCS 2 suite) can do that.
Piero

Similar Messages

  • Follow-up question to FCE vs. iMovie

    When I asked yesterday for a comparison of FCE to iMovie, and how they were different, I realized what I really I want to know is why FCE is considered better than iMovie. And what can FCE do that iMovie can't do? Thanks.

    Please don't start another thread on the same topic when you have one that you haven't responded to.
    The question is mostly answered in the thread that was linked in your original post. What about the discussion in that linked thread is not clear?
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13175828#13175828
    x

  • Backing up unedited family video: Should I capture using FCE or iMovie?

    I have >50 hours of family video (kids) that I'm not ready to edit yet. I would like to capture the footage in order to back it up because it is priceless. My plan is to buy some large hard disks and save video there, and then when Blu-Ray comes out, I'll buy a Blu-Ray drive and burn Blu-Ray disks as an additional layer of safety.
    The captured files will need to be in a format that lasts. As far as I can tell, both FCE and iMovie save captured clips as Quicktime files, which I'm guessing will be around for a while and compatible with future video editing apps. Both FCE and iMovie can import Quicktime clips. I'll be importing the entire hour of video from each tape, in a single capture.
    My question is this:
    If...
    (a) rendering doesn't bother me (like importing clips using iMovie then editing using FCE)
    (b) timecode isn't important to me (iMovie doesn't save timecode)
    ... is there any reason to capture the video using Final Cut instead of iMovie?
    The only feature that FCE has that iMovie doesn't, is the ability to detect dropped frames during capture. Are there other reasons?
    I like the fact that iMovie splits the capture into individual clips at each break and saves each clip as an individual file. If you're willing to do the work, FCE/FCP can do this to, using DV Start/Stop detect, making the segments into subclips, then exporting them as individual clips. FCP makes this a practical possibility using batch export, whereas FCE lacks that feature and exporting each clip one by one is impractical (I have maybe 200 individual clips per hour of tape). But this is a task I plan for later. Right now my concern is finding the "best way" to capture and save all this video for later editing.
    I guess I could also ask, should timecode be important to me? My tapes contain a lot of timecode breaks, so recapturing video from tape automatically isn't likely to work well. I don't know any other reason timecode might be important for consumer-level family video.
    PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5 GHz 3GB RAM   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT

    Anthony,
    while I fully agree with Al answer, let me add one note in favor of iMovie in answering your original specific question (note: I'm a quite happy user of FCE for all its advantages over iMovie, but for the point I'm going to make).
    The basic difference between FCE and iMovie in scene detection (based on the same principle of using date/time breaks as dividers), is that iMovie creates as many media files as clips during capture itself, while FCE Subclips are created AFTER the capture of a unique media file, using DV Start/Stop Detect and Make Subclip, that does NOT splits files.
    So you'd better consider now if recovering unused disk space, by trashing unused clips, will be a major issue for you in the future, when you'll be editing your movies. If so, keep in mind that this job is very simple if you captured with iMovie and then imported its clips to FCE (and if you confirm you don't mind about TC and audio rendering), while it is quite complex if you captured directly with FCE, and, I'd say, not recommended unless absolutely needed.
    Piero

  • More about FCE vs iMovie import

    Everyone should remember that FCE originally only supported HDV. And, as Steve writes in his book, HDV is always RECORDED as 1080i by both FCE and iM. Makes no difference what you set you camera too.
    There are no 1080P settings for FCE -- only 1080I and 720P. This is the world of HDV.
    When FCE first supported AVCHD it only did 1440x1080i. Then they added support for 1920x1080i.
    Steve found that 1080p30 AVCHD was converted to 1080i60 AIC. He assumed FCE missed the fact the video was PROGESSIVE. I think he mat be wrong. I think FCE saw 1080p30 and said "I don't support 1080p30" so I'll convert it to INTERLACE when I compress it to AIC.
    So I Goggled MPEG-2 and learned that progressive has a HEADER per FRAME while interlace a HEADER per FIELD. WOW!
    That means when P becomes I the number of Headers doubles. Since each Header is a bunch of bits, the I file must become larger -- without any increase in image quality.
    This may explain why you found 20% more bits but no difference in picture quality. What do you think?
    Can you give us the data rates for 1080i60 for FCE and iM. This is where yu can really see if there is any quality difference. If the bit rates are the the same then the video is the quality is the same.
    And, can you post the picture that you used to compare FCE vs iMovie. I'd like to see if I can SEE any difference.
    PS: does imakefullhd support 10.6 yt?

    Both 1080i50 and 1080p25 are RECORDED on AVCHD as 1080i50 at 25fps.
    Although this is different behavior from the Region 60 Canon's, it is not incorrect. FCE and FCP will convert this to 1080i50 AIC with a frame rate of 25fps. The difference is that the video SHOT at 25p will never show combing!
    How does iM09 convert (Optimize) them to AIC?
    Both 1080i50 and 1080p25 are converted to 1080i50 AIC.
    A) If you add a Swap FX to 1080i50 (shot at 50i) and export as 1080i50 you'll see NO combing because iM sees the 50i and deinterlaces.
    That's not what happens! Adding a Swap FX to 1080i50 (shot at 50i) and exporting as 1080i50 you WILL see combing because iM did not deinterlace. This indicates that iM09 is "seeing" the video as PROGRESSIVE and passing all 1080-lines through.
    Either iM09 is ignoring the QT 50i tag or it is checking the 25fps tag and calling it 25p or it is ignoring both QT flags and working internally with all 1080-lines -- just like iM08 and iM09 v8.0.0. I suspect that Apple only changed the Region 60 code when they released 8.0.1.
    B) If you add a Swap FX to 1080i50 (shot at 25p) and export as 1080i50 you'll see NO combing because no combing is possible with Progressive video.
    PS1: what will FCE do with 1080p25? Since the AVCHD recording claims it is 1080i50 it will pass it through as 1080i50 AIC just as does iM09. This will make no problems for FCE.
    PS2: Just as a reminder: 1080i60 and 1080i60/24p are recorded as AVCHD at 1080i60. Both FCE and iM09 pass both through as 1080i60 AIC. However, 1080p25 is recorded as AVCHD at 1080p25. iM09 passes this through as 1080p25 AIC. FCE converts it to 1080i50 AIC.

  • Why is so hard for FCE or iMovie to read AVCHD files?

    I have some AVCHD files (.MTS) on a hard disk. No camera. And no, the directory format has not been preserved. The files were just copied, and renamed for backup purposes. "Log and Transfer..." in FCE gives me an error about the directory structure. And I can't import with iMovie (just won't let me select the files.)
    Now, I think I would have a better chance of finding a solution, if I knew why Final Cut Express 4 or iMovie 7.1.1 can only read the AVCHD file format from the camera directly, or when the directories are setup in a particular way.
    Why can't it just read the file? Like how any program can read a JPEG without having to plug-in a camera or create a folder called "PRIVATE" or whatever?
    I've wasted several hours on this problem today, and the the only conclusion i can come up with is that Apple has some seriously incompetent or just plain lazy engineers.
    There must be a proper technical reason... right?

    Hi -
    Jason Moore3 wrote:
    It's just so weird that all FCE and iMovie can read the files - they just require you to "connect the camera". Why is the camera so important to reading the file?
    It's not. It's just an easy way to insure that when FCE or iMovie are looking at the file storage directory, FCE or iMovie will see all the files, the metadata, the media, etc.. It also makes for an easier work flow- just plug in the camera, no need to off-load files and remember where the are stored, etc.. And, it helps develop a workflow where people are not just copying the media files to another disk without the metadata, as in your case, or make a mistake and copy the metadata without the media.
    Imagine this: three big tractor trailers pull up outside your house loaded with stuff. As you go out to meet them a driver hands you a small package. You open it up, and inside is a complete description of what is packed, how each item is packed, where each item is in the container, and how best to unpack the containers for the easiest installation in your house. That is what the metadata does. Could you unpack the containers without it? Yes. Is it the optimal way? No.
    Many threads discuss how it's possible to backup the whole directory and making a disk image and then "tricking" iMovie/FCE into reading the files, which leads me to think that this stupidity is intentional.
    This is not a trick. iMovie has the "Archive All" button on the import window. To later access those files you would use the menu File > Import > Camera Archive. In FCE, where one would expect a slightly more computer savvy user, you can use Disk Utility to create a disk image of the contents of the camcorder files, then later, use Log and Transfer from within FCE to import the footage from that disk image.
    Someone doesn't want people to actually have a HD video format that is easy to work with (OMG pirates!!) and so it's been crippled to make it a PITA to work with.
    Hmmm, well, all you have to do is follow the recommended workflow - connect the camera, import the footage, and edit. FCE and iMovie take care of the footage conversion from AVCHD which is a format incredibly difficult to edit in to a format that allows easy editing, all without user intervention.
    The end result is, I can't view my own content.
    The system Apple developed of converting AVCHD to either AIC or Pro Res is probably the best way to make the editing process as painless as possible for the end user.
    Having said that, Sony Vegas, a windows application, will natively edit AVCHD files, without any conversion. I don't have any experience with it so can't say what the experience is like, but it might be an alternative for you if the iMovie/FCE workflow is not working for you.
    Hope this helps.
    Message was edited by: Meg The Dog to fix typo

  • Widescreen from FCE to iMovie

    How do I ensure that widescreen in FCE exports to widescreen in iMovie. The iMovie project is created as widescreen, but when I export from FCE which is also in widescreen it open in iMovie as a small rectangular box with a very large border of black.
    Thanks

    What are the sequence settings & clip settings in your FCE sequence? You can check these in the FCE Browser.
    How are you exporting from FCE? To QuickTime Movie ... or to QuickTime Conversion?
    What versions of FCE and iMovie are you using?

  • FCE Vs iMovie. Quality Difference?

    hello there.
    i'm just wondering whether such emphasised phrases as "high quality effects/transitions/rendering/etc" in the FCE manual or general description mean that, for instance, iMovie's quality, as far as rendering, effects and transitions are concerned, is worse. am i correct in understanding so?..
    the problem i am facing is that, although i'm in the middle of switching to FCE from iMovie for doing all/most of my video work, i still find that i've got much-much more effects and transitions in iMovie than in FCE, due to having 7 of the 10 Slick-GeeThree packages. so what i'm thinking is that i could share the work between the two applications, using the best features of each to the benefit of my projects.
    however... the thought that suddenly occurred to me was - would the quality of my video footage suffer in iMovie? or has iMovie got the same quality parameters as FCE?

    thanks for your replies.
    i don't think i'll be having any problems with audio, as most of my projects are music videos, which means i won't be using the sound of the original footage: the soundtrack is added separately.
    as for the quality of some effects. yes, that's exactly what i meant. the captured video looks great in iMovie. but as soon as i add such effects as colour correction, for instance, or saturation, the sharpness of the picture disappears and it starts to look edgy. for example, if it's a human face, the original oval curve of a cheek or a chin will look slightly saw-edged, i.e. i can spot square pixels...
    which is why i thought that perhaps the "high quality" bit in the FCE official description meant that i won't be encountering similar problems in FInal Cut?

  • FCE to iMov to iDVD = generation loss

    The only way I have found to burn projects on the internal iMac DVD drive is to
    a) export using QT
    b) import into iMovie
    c) burn from iDVD
    It's so frustrating bec the newly burned DVD looks like it was all shot
    on an ancient VHS camera and is fuzzier than a youtube video....
    1. how to maintain clarity all the way through? OR
    2. is there a way to burn right out of FCE?
    thx, Hil

    I don't know settings/codec of source footage;
    I expect gen loss between old format tapes
    transferred to DVD then off DVD into FCE.
    What I'm talking about is the diff betw
    FCE to finished DVD.
    There are two options FCE offers for export:
    export ---> QuickTime movie
    ---> Using QuickTime Conversion
    The former, which I always use, never offers export settings
    (once, as an experiment, I tried the latter,
    gen loss was even worse).
    Yes, burning SD.

  • Best way to import video to iweb??? FCE or imovie?

    I am putting a video website together and create the videos in FCE -- I have found that I can save as QT and drag to the page I am making or I can post it thru iweb (am I correct?) I wasn't sure if uploading to imovie then posting it would make it more web friendly???
    is there a preferred export setting thru FCE QT conversion to use??
    THanks
    you can see how I have the videos set up now. www.piercemediaproductions.com
    BTW. is there a prefered way to post videos on the iweb templates. ( meaning I use the blog and the podcst area as well as just blank pages to post clips as well. I wasn't sure if search engines find you based on where the video is???
    TIM

    I'm going to answer the last part of your post and leave the rest to those that know something about movies!
    If you put more than one movie per page, the download time will be slow.
    I personally wouldn't use the blog or podcast format because you are dependent on the iWeb standard navigation. If you want the search engines to "read" your website, you will have to build your own navigation.
    The SE spiders can't watch movies so it would be better to have a page with a frame of each movie, a text description and a (descriptive) link to the individual movie page. The "descriptive" links will show up in your sitemap and should contain key words about the movie to help with SE ranking.
    To keep your navigation menu down to a reasonable size, the individual pages would not be contained in the main menu. You can use sub menus for this.
    Example of main and sub menus....
    http://roddymckay.com/PlanetRoddy.html

  • Application quit in FCE and iMovie

    During capture sessions, I am experiencing application quits in both FCE 2.0.3 and iMovie HD. Since both programs did this. I thought this might be a hard drive issue. Maybe? Since both programs were effected I did not see how crashing preferences could help.
    Info
    eMac 10.3.8 RAM 1GB
    My hard drive has 90 of 150GB available. The first external HD had 58 or 200GB available, so I changed external drives to one that has over 250 GB of 500GB available, but the quits continue.
    Here is my workflow.
    I like to do my first rough edit in iMovie for the destructive editing ability (I can not store a whole season of my son's sport on any drive so I make a first pass to reduce size.) Then I import into FCE in April to make a team video.
    I have not upgraded to 10.3.9 because I heard of Safari issues. I had no need to buy 10.4, but would consider it more stability ( I'm not interested in Widgets.)
    To any kind souls, please comment on any of the above, however the main issue is stopping these quits. (At least in iMovie it saves files created since the last save in a trash bin, but they are out of sequence. In FCE, they are lost.)
    Thanks
    Bill

    Bill, welcome. This forum is for neither of those applications. But let me ask you this: are your externals firewire drives or USB's?
    I suspect that a whole lot of quits in both apps mean you have corrupted preferences. Have you trashed prefs and repaired permissions?

  • Exporting from FCE to iMovie

    I am making a movie through iMovie, but changed a clip in FCE. But, now I can't get the clip back over to iMovie. I have tried exporting with Quicktime, but it just exports a frame of the movie. What should I do?

    I wrote without thinking it out carefully - I hadn't seen your answer.
    Both ways will work but yours is probably better - with mine, iMovie has to convert the file as it imports it.
    (As you can guess.........my mind is on other things at the moment!)
    Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

  • FCE rendering iMovie clips

    Is there a loss in quality when FCE renders an iMovie clip? I still have some of this footage on DV tape and could import directly to FCE, but I would rather not take the time if importing from iMovie maintains the same quality.
    G4 Dual 867   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

    There is probably no loss of quality but you can have other problems when using iMovie footage.
    You would be safer capturing everything you possibly can straight into FCE.
    Ian.

  • Dark footage is darker in FCE than iMovie HD

    using the same dv clips, iMovie HD displays brighter and lighter than FCE. I'm working in FCE and would like to lighten so its easier to see for editing. Suggestions?

    Hey there,
    Try playing around with the *Brightness and Contrast* filter. You can find it in +Effects > Video Filters > Image Control > Brightness and Contrast.+

  • Capturing HDV worse in FCE than iMovie 08 - why?

    I'm just curious why the capturing process of HDV material is worse in Final Cut Express 4.0 than it is in iMovie 08?
    The latter has a proper capture window where it's possible to control the camera (forward, rewind etc.), while the former only has a simple "capturing window" that captures whatever is playing from the camera (a Canon HV20 in my case). No controls of rewind etc.?
    So - why? Isn't FCE supposed to be a superior product to iMovie 08?

    Hi(Bonjour)!
    That's the way FCE HD capture HDV because there is a conversion to Apple Intermediate Codec upon capturing and because FCE HD is a stripped down version of Final Cut Pro that allows cam control on capture.
    But this behavior is okay as you can position your tape with your camcorder remote and start the capturing process. You'll get a bunch of movie clips, like iMovie.
    Michel Boissonneault

  • Which Imports Faster HDV or AVCHD in FCE and iMovie?

    I'm planning on getting my first HD camcorder and I'm leaning towards the HV-20 or HG-10. I'm leaning towards the HV-20 HDV. Tapes are cheap and a good archive medium and I'm leery of small hard drives being robust. Do AVCHD camcorders use similar drives as the iPod?
    I've read AVCHD takes some time to import. Does HDV import faster to AIC?
    Does FCE 4 import faster than iMovie 8 for both formats?
    Thanks for any advice.
    Kelvin

    Import speed depends on your computer, but I think the the AVCHD and the HDV transcoding is about the same. It's all being done by QuickTime. AVCHD transfer gives you more options in terms of selecting clips and portions of clip, which is more difficult to do manually off tape. But, as you said, tape is cheap and a good archive medium.

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