I can't get my movie files onto iMovie

I have my movie on my hard drive, but i have a problem. When i put the disk in my camera, then connnect it to my iMac G5 via USB cable, it asks me if i want to play the video. When i pick yes, it plays perfectly. But then when i try to play it later, or move the files onto iMovie, it says "The file could not be imported: The file “File Name Here” can’t be imported; QuickTime couldn’t parse it: -2048" i don't know what is going on. could i have some help.
Max

Hi Max - just to support what the others have told you:
the Apple chat people are wrong, and should know better! Unfortunately you have the wrong sort of camera if you want to be able to edit your footage and make movies in iMovie. If possible you should sell it and get a miniDV camcorder. Your camera records in MPEG2 format, which is designed more for viewing than for down-stream editing. The sales-pitch surrounding DVD camcorders is over-hyped and misleading.
You may need both of these:
MPEG StreamClip:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html
Apple MPEG2 PlayBack:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/

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Why can't i import .mov files into imovie

Everytime recently I've tried to import a .mov file into imovie, its come up with the optimizing video box but nothing happens, I used to import straight from the camera, but I've recently emptied my camera onto my hard drive after a trip to New Zealand and now, when I have tried to import the footage from my hard drive, it does the optimizing video freeze on me. I would like to be able to get these movies into Imovie without having to pay a rediculous amount of money for some little converting program. I originally bought a apple computer, because I thought everything worked with each other, but now, I'm not so sure about that anymore.
Also, I've tried MPEG streamclip and all that did was either freeze on me or make the video size smaller, as in, the sides were pushed in and it ruined the video.
Camera: Canon HD Legria HFR38

What codec are the files? .mov is a container that can house many different video codecs.
Is your camera supported?
iMovie 11 - cameras supported:
http://help.apple.com/imovie/cameras/en/index.html?lang=en_US
iMovie 9 - cameras supported:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290?viewlocale=en_US

How can I open a .mov file with iMovie?

Hi,
I keep trying to open a .mov file in iMovie and it isn't doing it. Is that not a recognized file extension? Should I convert the video file somehow?
Thanks!

.mov is just a container for a variety of video codecs, some of which are not recognized by iMovie. You will need to convert it first with a third party app such as Media Converter (which is free, see: http://media-converter.sourceforge.net).
Another free app VideoSpec (see: http://videospec.free.fr) is useful for identifying all the details of a video clip
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How can I get a movie file with no cmpression?

When I export the sequence in fcp, will I get a full resolution( no compressed image) if it's set on dv/dvcpro?
also, if I bring this file to toast, how I do know I am compressing it or not since toast makes a dvd anyway?
thank you!

if I bring this file to toast, how I do know I am compressing it or not since toast makes a dvd anyway?
I'm not sure if I understand your question's syntax, but let's assume you want to make a DVD-Video of your program. In doing so, the video and audio will need to be compressed rather heavily (depending on program length/bit rate). Toast, iDVD, Compressor and DVD-SP will all handle the compression/encoding, but among all of those, Toast has one of the lowest quality encoding outputs.
I'd recommend using a Compressor (for compressing/encoding) and DVD-SP (for authoring and burning) workflow for maintaining the best quality.
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I tried to create a new project by importing a .mp4 file from my account on Youtube. It copied the file to the event but didn't create a thumbnail. I did some research and I tried:
-Quitting imovie, changing the name of the event folder, then restarting imovie.
-Importing the .mp4 to a different event folder. Quitting/restarting.
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So it'd appear that there's something wrong with the audio in the .mp4 file. Tried other .mp4 files and none of them were able to be converted or imported. Tried extracting the audio from the .mp4 file via MPEG streamclip and there's the same "Audio Decoding Error." The audio on the .mp4 file is AAC.
OK... It'd appear that I'd need to just import the .mov (no sound) along with the audio from the clip (I've used AudioHijack for that) to edit both in iMovie. The problem is that when I try to export it in iMovie I receive error codes.
This just all seems way, way more complicated that it needs to be. Does anyone have any suggestions on something I haven't tried yet or perhaps some video editing software (non FCE) worth looking into?
Thanks

I was currently having the same issue trying to import into imovie. I have EyeTV Hybrid and when exporting a movie it asks you to select format in which to export it in. I selected m-peg4 and when I tried to import into imovie it was grayed in the finder, so what I did was return to the export feature in EyeTV and exported again under a different format - for imovie. It's exporting as we speak and I feel this will allow me to import properly now. Hope this helps.

Can't import new movie-files to iMovie.

I have used IMovie to redirect some movie materials. It worked just fine.
No I have started a new project. For this new project I try to import new movie material (mpeg). IMovie starts optimizing the material (even though I deselected this option). However: nothing happens. How big or small the file is, I try to import: no progress can be seen. (The estimated time is also blanc.)
After waiting for 15 minutes, nothing happened. What is going wrong, and more important: how can I fix this?

The best way to do this is to take a SD card out of your camera and insert it into a card reader. Then you can import directly from the camera. Do this for all future movies you shoot. There is no need for a third party converter. You can also connect your camera via USB and import directly from the camera. In this case, you need to hook up your camera to AC power, not batteries only.
If the only copies you have of your mts files have been removed from the camera and are out of context (you did not preserve all the folders from the camera), then your best bet is to use a converter. The two that I hear most often are ClipWrap and Voltaic HD.

Why can't I import .MOV files or Imovie project?

I converted a Power point presentation to a .mov and FCPX wouldn't recognize it. I got an alert that there were no importable files.
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I merely saved the PPT with its timings as a .mov from PowerPoint for Mac.
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You're welcome, and thank you for the reply.
2) Yesterday I made the subclips with the In-Out Points and Command-U, the benefit is that I've seen the clip before naming it. Now I'm using markers, it's benefit is that I can write comment and (the later) clip name at once, the drawback is that I have to view to the next shot's beginning before knowing what the shot contains.
But now I found out that I can reconnect my clips independently to the format I converted the master clip to. I reconnected the media to the original AVI file and it worked, too! The more I work with, the more I'm sold on it... - although it doesn't seem to be able to read and use the date information within the DV AVI.
1) Ok, I tried something similar within FCE. Just worked, but the file size still remains. Which codec settings should I use? Is the export to DV in MOV with a quality of 75% acceptable for both file size and quality? Or would be encoding as H.264 with best quality an option for archiving, knowing that I have to convert it back to DV if I (maybe) wan't to use it for editing later? Or anything else?
Thank's in advance again,
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You are welcome;
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Regards
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I can't get my movie files onto iMovie

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