IMovie bugged

Hi everybody,
I did some videos with iMovies, then all of a sudden it started acting weird: apparently my project library is empty, but clicking where the projets should be works, somehow.
But the interface is messed up, most buttons won't answer and as I try to use it or resize the window, things get worse!
if I minimize iMovie, then it will pop back up as a blank window, leaving the minimized icon in the dock...
I tried trashing iMovie and reinstalling it from my macos 10.5 CDs but still had problems; updated again, and back to this mess!
please help me!
thanks in advance..
Daniele

Hi
Not knowing the origin to Your problem - General approach when in trouble is as follows:
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk if it is less than 10Gb should rather have 25Gb
• Hard disk is untidy: Repair Permissions, Repair Hard disk (Apple Disc Util tool)
• Delete iMovie pref file - or rather start a new user/account - log into this and re-try
• Third party plug-ins that doesn't work OK (not relevant for iMovie’08)
• Program miss-match: iMovie 5.0.2, up to Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK
• Program miss-match: iMovie 6.0.3 or 6.0.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK (might work under Leopard)
• Program miss-match: iMovie’08 v. 7.0.1, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK (might work under Leopard)
iMovie pref file resides: Mac Hard Disk (start-up HD)/Users/"Your account"/Library/Preferences
and is named: com.apple.iMovie.plist
While iMovie is NOT RUNNING - move this file out to desk-top.
Now restart iMovie.
Yours Bengt W

Similar Messages

It's not clear to me why within the Apple eccosystem of products something as basic as editing a MOV file recorded with an iPhone requires any 3PV software for conversion so that it may be edited in iMovie09. Is this an iMovie Bug?

Is this a bug within the iMovie? This seems as if it should be extremely simple. I recorded a movie with my iPhone 4. iPhone records that in the standard apple MOV format. I can play the file in Quicktime. However, when I try to drag and drop it into iMovie09 or import it into iMovie09 it is not allowed. It used to be said that Apple just "Works".
Sean

I own the movies and I want them to stay in my iTunes library basically forever.
But in both cases the file name no longer shows in the movie list, so I don't know how to re-download it from the Cloud.
iTunes prefs > Store > Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases.
This will show all your iTunes purchases in your library with a cloud icon down arrow. Click the icon to redownload or click on Play to stream without downloading.
Also see this , -> Download past purchases
and techncially, you don't "own" the movie, You simply have a license to use it.
Yet the first thing iTunes does when you hit the delete key is tell you that it will remove the movie forever from all devices and the library.
Actually, no it does not tell you that.
FYI: You should keep copies of all yoru iTnue spurahses as the labels/movie studios/copyright owners can pull their product at anytime and it won't be available to redownload.
Suggestions here -> http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Several iMovie Bug Fixes Released

A new update to iMovie 11 contains several bug fixes.
Fixes an issue where stabilization would not be applied correctly to some video clips from iPhone and iPod touch.
Fixes an issue that prevented use of some valid Facebook passwords that contained non-alphanumeric characters.
Improves compatibility with some cameras that create content in multiple formats.
Improves performance when scrolling the Project Library.
Available through software update.

Improves performance when scrolling the Project Library.
That's a huge improvement! Can't believe the difference in scrolling speed! Mine was laboriously slow prior to the update and now scrolls rapidly with no stopping and starting. A very welcome improvement!
Thanks AppleMan for alerting us to the update!
John

Some imovie bugs, and a work-around for one!

CRACKING OF AUDIO IN CROSS DISSOLVES:
This one's been documented a lot - the crackling noise when cross dissolving two clips (anyone been following New Scientist? The podcast on 'crackling' is hilarious). I originally thought it was just a preview glitch, but the movie was actually exported with the sound error as well. It also applies to the titling.
Try this if this if: http://discussions.apple.com/post!default.jspa?forumID=858 doesn't work.
In my movie, I dissolve between shots with virtually the same ambient noise in the background. To fix the problem, I extracted the audio of the clip before the dissolve, copied and pasted it into the timeline after, and clipped it down to a size to cover the cross dissolve. Place it over the transition on the track below, and drop the sound on the transition to zero.
I appreciate this won't work in dissolves between sound fields or scenes and takes some time, but it sorted the problem for me.
OTHER BUGS:
- In the titling pane, the small thumbnail window does not always reflect the time and pause of the final render / 'preview' in full mode. the best example of this seems to be 'scrolling text' - its way out.
- as mentioned, sound dies when titles are added over moving clips. See fix above.
- copy and pasting of extracted audio seems random on the timetime - had to search up and down for where the program dumps it. Should paste at the playhead?
I'm sure some or most of these errors have been documented before. However, I found them all in a single use of imovie, and considering the programs in its 6th version, I consider it a poor performance... the audio problems particularly are unacceptable... does Apple presume that if you don't fork out for Final Cut, you don't need an editor capable of exporting a clean movie? From what I've read, some of these glitches have existed for a while.
If I've documented anytihng new, I hope someone who can relay them further does!
Regards,
Tom
PB 12" G4 1.5ghz Mac OS X (10.4.4)

What I do is lock the punch-in in time, move it to an adjacent track, make a split in the track I punched in over and roll that track back to the extent of the punch-in and then move the punch-in back down to the original track.
Like your method it also sounds harder than it actually is :-)
It just goes to show there's more than one way to .....

IMovie bugged?? Trouble importing

Hi all,
I have the following set-up: G5, 50Gb available on HD, hooked to a Pyro AV/Link with USB. I use the A/V link to transfer my Hi8 material to the iMOvie program. I have been doing that since 2004. No problems. It is the only way for me to import video (Final Cut Express bugs while importing).
Now, when I open iMovie, I don't even have the icons to import or cut (left hand side, below the screen and above the timeline). I have a camera icon that does nothing when I click on it. Then if I try to click around to wake the program, the wheel spins and the application crashes.
Now it seems that I can't even open the application as it crashed upon launching.
Any idea what's wrong? All other applications seem to be working fine.
Cheers
Eric

Hi again,
I just created a new user account, logged in, opened iMovie and get the same issue. I am sorry, I can't try and import a clip as it is exactly the problem I have, the camera icon which you click on to import does not do a thing... zit! Nothing! It does that in the new user account as well as in all other accounts. The interface is different and the button is not active. Further, when I move the mouse around this icon, I get info messages on what an icon does without seeing it!!! If I try and click on it (the icon I don't see), it still does nothing.
Must I re-install iMovie?
Thanks
Eric

HUGE iMovie bug?

Ok so I was doing this major video editting project, and was playing around with speed settings, trying to speed up and slow down the entire video. Aftewards, I return the entire video back to 100% speed. So after I'm done with that, I finish choosing clips for the second half of my video.
To my utter dismay, I go back to find later that the entire first half of my video project (the one that had the speed effects applied onto it), ALL the clips are out of time. Every single one. They all start at the wrong place, are the wrong duration, and end at the wrong place. Basically, iMovie has now selected all the wrong clips from the master track to be in the project.
I closed iMovie between since then, so I no longer have my undo option. So I'm asking, is there any way to save me basically restarting this entire project from scratch (as half my video as unusable now). If there isn't it would be highly disappointing as I would have just lost many many hours of work.

I know that other people have had this bug, and I have it too. It is quite annoying-- you may want to report it by going to the iMovie menu (the one on the top menu bar to the right of the apple logo on the menu bar) and from that menu, submit a bug report. That may be the only fix possible until Apple fixes this if they get a lot of pressure from users.

IMovie Bug

Since I've installed that new versions, (8.0.2) I've never had as much as bugs ! This version is awful ! Now there is one bug i can't find a way to fix :
When i open iMovie, i import from my DV camera, i copy paste some evenements in the project then make my video then close, then i come back later to open it again and now what ? It doesn't want to respond, it starts, then the logo of "waiting" still going to find evenements, i force quit, never works, i shut down my mac, doesn't work i force shutdown, now when i restart, all my permissions disks are bad, i have to fix everything and go again same thing over again... How can I delete this version ??

I was having a similar problem. I was recording a lot of voice overs into an iMovie project. As we worked it seemed to get slower and slower. To record another voiceover I would click and then have to wait 30 seconds for the beach ball to go away. Then it would start recording. I tried to empty the trash a few times and it got worse! Finally the project would not open at all! Just a beach ball followed by a force quit!
I read in some other forums that emptying the trash during a project is a bad idea, so I dug deeper and it seems when you empty the trash during a project it can corrupt the undo files, and write negative integers for clip start points into the project file in the project package. Here is how to fix it.
1. Download a trial copy of BBEdit.
2. Go into the iMovie projects folder, and control click on the project. Select "Show Package Contents". There will be some folders and some audio files.
3. Find the project file and make a copy of it.
4. Open the original Project file with BBEdit. Here's where the detective work comes in. Open the Search menu and click "Find...". In the text box type in ">-" then click "Find All" I found 4 occurrences of text that looked like this: <integer>-1</integer>, or this: <real>-0.47999998927116394</real>.
3. Delete the "-" in front of the numbers.
4. Save the file.
4. Open iMovie and see if your project works!
It worked for me after 4 hours of trying to fix this problem. iMovie with many voice overs is still a bit slow but at least it works and I can finish the project!
Use at your own risk! I don't actually know what this does but it worked for me, and resolved a major issue. (The talent I used for the voiceovers was gone, so I could not redo them!)
I think it references the negitive startpoints of clips, which for obvious reasons iMovie does not like!
Let me know if you find out any other info about this bug.
P.S. For # 2 you could just go into BBEdit and select Open Hidden... and find the project file.

IMovie bug erased my movies?

I'm not sure if this is just my computer, or iMovie in general, but I was editing a project and tried to import a MOV and got back a dialog box that basically said the file didn't exist. I closed iMovie and reopened it and all my movie files for that project were gone. You can imagine my dismay. Anyway, after retracing my steps, I believe I figured out what caused the problem.
1. I went to File->Import->Movies...
2. I accidentally hit import without selecting my movie.
3. A dialog box came up that asked if I really wanted to import everything in the current directory, and I said no, since I just wanted the one movie.
4. At this point, the Event folder in user/Movies/iMovie Events disappeared without a trace.
So basically all the videos I had placed in that event folder were deleted, although I suspect what really happened is they are still there, but the pointer to their folder is gone, so I won't be able to recover them without special software.

Unfortunately it is a little more serious than that. The files were not moved to the trash - I looked in the trash and did a spotlight search. They are simply gone.
Most of the videos I had been working with were still on the digital camcorder, so this ended up not being the end of the world, but iMovie did erase all my files with no trace.

10.4.5 iMovie Bug?

I just received my new iMac Core Duo and wanted to play with the time-lapse feature in iMovie using my isight. My first problem is when I create a new project, there is the status window that appears with a progress bar. It sticks half way through, and says "loading save thumbnails" (This is the first time I've created an iMovie project. Then, if I double click the project file the iMovie interface opens, but the loading window is still present. When I select my isight as the video input, nothing comes up.
I played with this feature in the Apple Store today and it worked fine. Any suggestions?

Welcome to the forum!
It sounds like iMovie is getting "stuck" as it tries to open a project. Usually a project just opens, so that's strange.
When we click on the iMovie HD icon in the Dock to launch iMovie -- or double-click on the iMovie application icon -- iMovie automatically re-opens the project that was open when we last quit iMovie. So my guess is iMovie is trying to open the same project you're double-clicking on. Apparently there's some sort of problem with that project.
iMovie will continue to try to open that project unless you 1) you launch iMovie by double-clicking on some other project in the Finder, or 2) trash the flawed project so iMovie can't find it, or 3) trash your iMovie HD preference file so iMovie doesn't know to look for that project.
#2 is the easiest, so I'd try that. After trashing the project, launch iMovie and it should offer to create a new project.
As for the iSight problem, I'm not sure whether that problem is caused by the project's failure to open or whether it's a separate problem. After you create a new project, try iSight again to see if it works. If it still doesn't work try looking in iMovie Help for iSight instructions. (Look for the title "Creating a time-lapse effect".) If still no luck, describe exactly what steps you take and what happens -- or fails to happen -- with iSight.
Karl

IMovie 09 voiceovers silent - another iMovie09 bug

Hello,
in addition to all the iMovie bugs reported, I now observe from time to time, that iMovie changes volume of the latest voiceovers on its own. I did the following:
1. I changed some things in my iMovie project. Especially I added some voiceovers.
2. I closed iMovie
3. I made a backup copy to another drive
4. I re-opened iMovie again
Result: Some voiceovers are randomly very very silent and the volume an not be changed anymore.
5. I check my backup copy on another Mac: Same result.
What happened? Who can support me?
Apple works always on new fancy stuff, but seems to forget the simple things.
Jürgen

Sorry to post again, but I can't find any other post about this problem. Have you found a solution for this. I have the same problem. Can't change the volume of voiceovers in some projects...... but had no problem doing it before.

Stutter in iMovie 5 & 6 - causes and workarounds

This topic discusses the problem of stutter in the playback of iMovie 5/6 projects — where the playback pauses repeatedly. The cause of the stutter is discussed here, with possible workarounds.
Over the last several weeks I've examined several stuttering projects, one provided by Marilyn Hudson and three by Benny Alford. Thanks to you both. They were very helpful.
I also examined several projects I created myself, after discovering how to force a project to stutter.
The tests I ran suggest that stutter is caused by the number of audio clips in the timeline of the project. When a large number of audio clips have been added to a project, the project begins to stutter. The stutter worsens as more audio clips are added, eventually causing the project to play very poorly, if it plays at all. The stutter improves as you remove audio clips, eventually allowing the project to play normally.
Frank Farmer, whose forum topic about stutter describes the problem nicely, is a good read:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=495288&tstart=0
Benny's topic is also very helpful:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=511773&tstart=100
BEFORE WE BEGIN, A CAVAET OR TWO...
Identifying software problems is never easy, especially when you don't have the code to read. So my conclusions may not be accurate in every respect. There may be "gaps" still to fill.
Certain features of the stuttering problem can vary from user to user and from project to project, so what I say may not apply to everyone or to every project. Likewise, your experience may not apply to others.
In light of that uncertainty, I hesitated a bit to even post this message, for some conclusions may be "wrong" for some users. Hopefully they will be "right" for most.
If your experience is hugely different than mine, please say. We will all benefit.
THE PROBLEM
Stuttering takes several forms. It may include pauses in video playback, pauses in audio playback, audio distortion, or some combination. I believe these all have the same cause, creating a variety of playback symptoms. (The behavior may vary because of a difference in video cards and other hardware features. The amount of RAM doesn't seem to matter. I didn't have lots of Macs to test.)
Stutter is not simply an inconvenience or nuisance. Stutter can make it impossible to edit a project. Playback becomes so poor you can't view the editing you've done.
Severe stutter can also make simple tasks impossible to do, like moving the playhead, starting/stopping playback, selecting clips, undoing changes and saving. Your editing grinds to a halt.
HOW THE PROJECTS WERE STUDIED
When I began I didn't know what I was looking for, of course. I had never seen stutter in any of my projects, but had read reports by others and had some guesses. I poked and prodded the projects looking for clues, aided by software I wrote to help evaluate the type and number of project clips. I tried to explore as many possible causes as I could think of, ruling out possible causes.
THE CAUSE
Every project I tested could be forced to stutter by adding a large number of audio clips. Conversely, every stuttering project could be made to stop by removing audio clips. The exact number of audio clips that caused stutter varied, but not the pattern.
Based on what I saw, the major contributing cause to stutter — perhaps the only cause — is the number of audio clips in the Timeline of the project. That will definitely cause the problem, not the length of the project, nor the project size, nor the iMovie version, nor the number of video clips.
I was unable to find any other contributing factor. You can't prove a negative, however, so I cannot be certain other causes don't exist. As we discuss this topic more perhaps other factors will emerge.
SEVERITY
The severity of the stutter varies by the number of audio clips in the timeline. Stutter begins with a few simple "popping" sounds, and gets worse as more audio clips are added. The popping is replaced by pauses and audio distortion. Stutter continues to worsen as you add more audio clips, eventually making the project hard to edit.
WHAT KIND OF AUDIO CAUSES STUTTER?
All kinds of audio clips cause stutter. The type of audio you add doesn't seem to matter. It's the total number of audio clips that matters, not the type.
The audio can be any of these types:
1) Songs imported to the project from iTunes or elsewhere;
2) Audio extracted from video clips; and
3) Voiceover clips — narrations you record in iMovie.
WHAT COUNTS?
It's the number of audio CLIPS in the Timeline that matters, not the number of audio files you import or create. Importing a song adds one clip to the timeline and one file to the project. Splitting that clip adds additional clips, increasing the likelihood of stutter. Splitting extracted audio clips adds to the clip count too.
Every audio split you do adds to the total, increasing the likelihood of stutter.
WHAT DOES NOT AFFECT STUTTER?
I saw no evidence that these factors contribute to stutter:
1) The number of audio and video files (files stored in the project's Media folder).
2) Overlapping clips in an audio track.
3) The length of audio clips.
4) Which audio track the audio clips reside on.
5) The number of video clips.
6) The length of the project.
7) The size of the project (file size).
8) The size of the iMovie Trash.
HOW MANY AUDIO CLIPS WILL CAUSE STUTTER?
It varies a bit, so it's hard to say exactly. Projects I tested from one user began stuttering at 60 audio clips. Others began at 125. The number seems to vary from Mac to Mac. My guess is a typical maximum is 90-100 audio clips, but that's just a guess.
Although the number of clips may vary from user to user, my guess is the number may be relatively constant for all your projects. Your projects might tend to start stuttering at about 60 clips, 90 clips, 125 clips or whatever. But that's just a guess.
One of the reasons a precise number of clips is difficult to say is that the stutter itself varies from occasional popping to long pauses, affected by the number of audio clips. It's sometimes hard to know exactly when stuttering begins. As you remove audio clips from a stuttering project, for example, the stutter may appear to go away, but you may later hear occasional popping. Then when you remove five more audio clips you achieve perfect playback.
COUNTING AUDIO CLIPS
Note that iMovie 5 and 6 lets us count the number of audio clips in the Timeline. When you select clips with the mouse, iMovie displays the number of selected clips at the bottom of the iMovie window.
Unfortunately, the clip count is not displayed when the "Select All" menu command is used to select clips. You must physically drag across the audio clips to see the total.
HOW CAN I FIGURE OUT THE CLIP LIMIT FOR MY STUTTERING PROJECT?
It's not hard to figure out how many audio clips your Timeline can hold without stuttering. You can do a simple test where you remove audio clips until the stutter stops.
First Save the project. (Do NOT Save the project again during the test.) Then select ten audio clips or so, and hit the Delete key. Check for stutter. If the project stutters, remove more clips. Continue removing audio clips until the stutter stops, then count the remaining audio clips. To count the remaining clips, select all the audio clips with the mouse and check the total reported at the bottom of the iMovie window. Subtract a few — just to be safe — and that's your clip limit. (If you hear occasional popping sounds later, subtract another five clips.)
To restore the project to its previous state, choose File > Revert to Saved.
IS THIS JUST AN iMOVIE 6 PROBLEM? OR JUST AN iMOVIE 5 PROBLEM? OR WHAT?
Stuttering occurs in both iMovie 5 and iMovie 6. I saw the same stutter in both.
There were indications that stutter begins earlier in iMovie 6 — with 10% to 20% fewer audio clips. That may explain why some users report that stuttering began when they upgraded to iMovie 6. iMovie 5's tolerance for audio clips seems a bit higher, so projects that play okay in iMovie 5 might begin stuttering when upgraded to iMovie 6. They may have been "on the edge" in iMovie 5, but when upgrading to iMovie 6, they start stuttering.
Stuttering also occurs in iMovie 3 and 4. I could create stuttering projects in iMovie 3/4 too.
The only version of iMovie that refused to stutter was iMovie 2. (I stopped the test after adding 400 audio clips.) Note that iMovie 2 may use very different QuickTime routines than later versions of iMovie, which may explain its reluctance to stutter.
SO, WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
In spite of what I just said about iMovie versions, I suspect this is not an iMovie problem. The problem may lie elsewhere. Here's why:
1. It's possible to create stuttering movies in QuickTime Player too, completely independent of iMovie. I used QuickTime Pro to add audio tracks to a movie, and found that a normal QuickTime movie can be made to stutter. It behaves just like iMovie. (QuickTime Pro's "Add" command lets you add multiple audio tracks to a movie. Each audio track is equivalent to an audio clip in iMovie.)
2. QuickTime Player also stutters when it plays the small QuickTime reference movie iMovie places inside the iMovie project. (iMovie 2 has no such movie, suggesting its reliance on QuickTime is different.)
The existence of stutter in both QuickTime Player and iMovie suggests the problem is in the QuickTime software itself, not iMovie. iMovie and QuickTime Player both use QuickTime system routines to edit/play our movies. I suspect that's where the problem lies. (I mean the QuickTime system software underlying both the QuickTime Player and iMovie, not the QuickTime Player application.)
CAN I EXPORT PROJECTS STUTTERING PROJECTS TO THE CAMERA?
No, a stuttering projects cannot be successfully exported to the camera. The copy on the tape will stutter too. If iMovie can't play the project smoothly, it can't export smoothly to the camera.
CAN I EXPORT STUTTERING PROJECTS TO QUICKTIME?
The stutter does NOT affect exporting to a QuickTime movie. That export succeeds, I suspect, because the export to QuickTime is not a time-sensitive operation, unlike the export to the camera. The QuickTime export can take as long as required.
The ability to export successfully to QuickTime lets us use some of the workarounds described below.
CAN I BURN A DVD OF A STUTTERING PROJECT?
Yes, you can successfully burn a DVD of a stuttering project. The iDVD encoding acts a lot like exporting to QuickTime, apparently. iDVD takes whatever time it needs to encode the project; it's not a time-sensitive operation.
CAN STUTTERING PROJECTS BE REPAIRED?
Projects cannot be repaired so they will never stutter. The only permanent fix is for Apple to fix QuickTime, if that's where the problem lies.
Workarounds can remove the stutter, however, allowing you edit the project successfully.
IS THERE AN EASY WORKAROUND?
The workaround ADJUST PLAYBACK SETTINGS below is pretty easy to implement. Trouble is, it doesn't always work, and the improvement may only be temporary. But the workaround is easy to do, so it's worth a try.
This workaround adjusts your iMovie playback settings and Mac monitor settings to make it easier to play the movie. That reduces the playback burden on your Mac and may raise the number of audio clips the project can contain before stutter begins.
This workaround may also make it easier to edit your project, making it easier to apply OTHER workarounds. So it's a good first step before implementing (better) workarounds.
ARE THERE OTHER WORKAROUNDS?
Yes, there are several effective workarounds. They all eliminate the stutter in the iMovie project.
The workaround to choose depends on the amount of editing yet to do, and whether or not you want to preserve all the clips in the project as discrete clips. And, of course, the workaround must be convenient for you. Some require more "expertise" than others.
It goes without saying that the simplest workaround is to try to limit the number of audio clips you include in the Timeline. That's not an ideal solution for all projects, obviously, but when you can do it, that's the best solution.
The other workarounds are posted below, one workaround in each message. As you try them, please reply to that message when suggesting changes and reporting errors. Future readers should check for updated versions of workarounds posted later in this topic.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
• The type of stutter we see varies quite a lot. One project I tested, the large project authored by Marilyn, showed considerable VIDEO stutter when played on her iMac. The audio played fine. There was so much stutter the project could not be edited. When I moved Marilyn's project to my PowerBook 1.5 GHz G4, worse video stuttering occurred.
But when played on my desktop Mac (Dual 1 GHz PPC G4) the VIDEO played just fine but the AUDIO stuttered. The audio slowed down, as if playing in slow motion. A clip's audio could sometimes be heard well after the playhead moved beyond the end of the audio clip.
• It's easy to create a stuttering project. Here's how: Create a new project, record a few seconds of audio voiceover, Copy the voiceover clip and Paste it at the end of the project 9 times. (To move the playhead to the end before you Paste each time, press the End key on your keyboard.) Then select all 10 audio clips, Copy them, and Paste at the end of the project 9 times. The project now has 100 audio clips. Try playing the project. If it fails to stutter, Paste again at the end of the project. Repeat Pasting at the end until the stutter begins. Stutter will get progressively worse the more clips you Paste.
• I saw some strange window behavior when editing badly stuttering projects. The iMovie window began behaving strangely. Activating windows in OTHER applications windows stopped working normally. Clicking in the window of another application would activate the window — allow me type in it, for example — but the iMovie window refused to allow it to come forward. The iMovie window remained on top, although its three red, orange and green window titlebar buttons were disabled. It was as if the iMovie window had changed into a palette that refused to go to the background. Re-launching iMovie resolved the problem.
WHAT ABOUT iTUNES MUSIC?
There are reliable reports that (some types of?) iTunes music may affect stutter. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reproduce that problem, no matter what music I tried. I can't suggest what type music to use — or avoid.
There is a workaround that has worked successfully for some. That is to use iTunes to burn an Audio CD of the songs you want to use, then import the songs directly to iMovie from the Audio CD. See the workaround "BURN SONGS TO AUDIO CD" below.
THIS IS GETTING LONG
There's more I could say, but it won't add much value. We'll learn more as we gain more experience, I'm sure.
Good luck with your projects. Let's hope the underlying problem, whatever it is, is fixed soon. In the meantime, share your insights and discoveries.
Karl

WORKAROUND 3: Divide and Conquer.
BEST SUITED FOR
This method is best suited for projects where you still have quite a lot of editing to do, and the project is stuttering badly.
This is my favorite workaround, for it allows you to continue to edit the clips normally as discrete clips, but in a stutter-free environment.
SUMMARY
To reduce the number of audio clips in the project, this workaround divides your project into two smaller projects. Each project — each Part — contains a smaller number of audio clips so it plays smoothly. You can edit the clips normally, for the project plays smoothly.
Later, when you have finished editing the Parts, you re-assemble the Parts back into a single project. The method of reassembly we use will not cause stutter in that project.
As you add more audio clips to each Part, you may see a Part begin to stutter again, just like the original. You've hit your audio clip limit again. It's not a big deal. You simply divide that Part in half again to reduce the number of audio clips, and the new, even smaller Parts will play smoothly.
Usually it's necessary to divide a stuttering project just one time, but more may be needed.
ADVANTAGES
Each Part of the divided project contains half the clips of the original project. The clips are preserved as discrete clips, which allows you to edit clips normally. (Other methods join the video clips, audio clips, titles, and transitions into a single clip so they are no longer editable as discrete clips.)
DISADVANTAGES:
1) Because the project has been divided into two (or more) Parts, it's not possible to play your project from start to finish.That's not a big problem, but it's not what I would prefer. (If playing everything is important to you, see the MODIFIED DIVIDE AND CONQUER paragraph below.)
Of course, you'll be able to play all the Parts together when you re-join the Parts later.
2) This workaround can require significant amounts of disk space, especially if the clips imported from the camera are long-running clips. (An hour-long lecture, for example, with no scene breaks.)
If the clips are small, dividing a 10GB project in half will use an additional 10GB disk space (the total for the two Parts). As you split the Parts, it will temporarily use more.
If the clips in the original project were long-running clips, each Part may require the same disk space as the original project. If the original project was 10GB, each Part may use 10GB. This is because of iMovie's non-destructive editing feature, which copies the long Media file for the long clip in the original project to each Part.
Later, when joining the two Parts into one project, allow 13GB for each hour of total run time.
3) If the project contains many clips, it may be difficult to divide the project's video and audio tracks accurately. iMovie bugs may make it difficult to correctly select and delete clips. Care must be taken when selecting and removing clips. More details below.
TO DIVIDE THE PROJECT, FOLLOW THESE STEPS
• Open the stuttering project.
• If you haven't done it yet, adjust your Mac and iMovie settings as described in WORKAROUND 1: Adjust Playback Settings. This may make it easier for you to divide the stuttering project. (Return your settings to normal after dividing the project.)
• In iMovie preferences > General, turn ON the checkboxes "Snap to items in Timeline" and "Play sound effects when snapping." We will create bookmarks in a moment, and this makes them easier to use.
• From the iMovie menubar, choose View > Switch To Timeline Viewer. (Ignore if the Timeline already uses that view.)
• Locate a good place to divide the project in half. In a moment, you will move the playhead to that place and create a bookmark. Later, you will divide the project there.
(If the project already has many bookmarks, consider removing all the bookmarks to make it easier to find your new bookmark. Use the iMovie menu command Markers > Delete All Bookmarks.)
• If your audio clips are heavily grouped in one area of the project, split the project in the middle of that area, not the middle of the project. You goal is to divide the number of audio clips roughly in half.
• Look for a location like this, which is ideal:
- At the start (or end) of a video clip.
- Where that end of the video clip has no audio clip below it.
If you can't find a clip end that has no audio clip below it, move the playhead to the start/end of a video clip, select the audio clip below it, and split that audio clip.
If the video clip is so long you must split it, split the video clip where there is no audio clip directly below it.
• Place the playhead where you want to divide the project, precisely at the start (or end) of a video clip. Create your bookmark.
• Write down the location (the playhead position) of the bookmark you created. If you've moved the playhead away from the bookmark, first re-locate the playhead exactly over the bookmark. Use the menu command Markers > Next Bookmark (or Previous Bookmark) to go there.
The playhead position is displayed just under iMovie's video Monitor. The time shown will be something like "33:52:10". Write it down.
• Save the project. Quit iMovie.
• In the Finder, click on the project and choose File > Duplicate. The Finder will require several minutes to duplicate the project. The Finder will name it "<Project Name> copy.iMovieProject", where <Project Name> is the original name of your project.
• When the Finder is done duplicating it, rename the duplicate project "Part 1 <Project Name>.iMovieProject". (We'll refer to this part now as "Part 1".)
• Open Part 1 in iMovie.
• In a moment, you will remove all the video and audio clips AFTER the bookmark, leaving the video clips and audio clips BEFORE the bookmark intact. They will comprise Part 1. iMovie sometimes makes it hard to select the clips you want to remove, so go slowly and carefully here.
• Read this paragraph and the three after it before you continue. Starting at the end of the project and moving towards the bookmark, select groups of audio clips in the bottom Timeline track and delete them. (Select the clips, then hit the Delete key.) After removing a group of audio clips from the bottom track, remove (any) audio clips above them in the middle track, then remove the video clips above those. Removing the video clips makes the timeline shorter, easier to work with.
• As you approach the bookmark, be careful. When you select an audio clip that's located close to the bookmark, iMovie sometimes (inappropriately) selects an audio clip or two BEFORE the bookmark, even though you don't drag over it. (I suspect those are audio clips where Direct Trimming has been used, and iMovie gets a bit confused.) It's important you not remove any selected audio clip located before the bookmark. You must unselect those before hitting the Delete key. To do that, hold down the Command key — the Apple key — and click on any selected clip located before the bookmark. Make sure only the audio clips you want to delete are selected, THEN hit the Delete key.
• If you mess up, don't worry. Use iMovie's Undo command. Or to undo all your changes, choose File > Revert to Saved, which reverts Part 1 back to when you opened it.
• Sometimes iMovie fails to delete all the video clips you've selected. (Another bug.) As you approach the bookmark, zoom in on the Timeline to view the bookmark area more closely. After pressing the Delete key to delete the video clips you've selected just beyond the bookmark, make sure all the video and audio clips after the bookmark were removed. If not, press the Delete key again.
• How go back and do what you just read.
• When all the audio and video clips after the bookmark have been deleted, save Part 1.
• Play Part 1. If it doesn't play smoothly, it still contains too many audio clips. That's unusual, but it happens. Later, you will have to divide it again, but don't worry about that now. You can divide it again after finishing Part 2.
• To discard the clips no longer needed in Part 1, empty the iMovie trash. Emptying the trash will save the project again, automatically. (It may be necessary to also empty the Finder trash to recover the disk space.)
• We now move on to Part 2. It's a bit different, so don't skip reading these instructions.
• Quit iMovie, closing Part 1.
• Duplicate the original project again. Name this copy "Part 2 <Project Name>.iMovieProject".
• Open Part 2 in iMovie.
• IMPORTANT: For Part 2, it's crucial that you lock the audio at the second half of the project before removing video clips in the first half, which you are about to do. Locking prevents the audio from sliding over when you remove the video clips in the front half, losing sync with the video.
To lock the clips , move the playhead to the start of the first audio clip you'll keep, then select all the audio clips and choose Advanced > Lock Audio Clip at Playhead.
• Starting at the bookmark and moving back towards the start of the project, select audio clips in the BOTTOM audio track and delete them.
• Repeat for the audio clips in the TOP audio track (the middle timeline track.)
• You are about to remove the video clips before the bookmark. There's a couple of things you need to know first.
1) Removing the video clips will dislodge the bookmark. Ignore its new position. The bookmark will no longer be located next to the dividing clip. That's okay. You won't be using the bookmark again.
2) iMovie may not actually remove all the selected video clips when you hit the Delete key. A few video clips may remain, still selected, at the (new) beginning of the project. Do not click the mouse for clicking it will unselect those clips. Before clicking the mouse, use the zoom slider below the timeline to zoom in on the (new) start of the project. If you see selected clips there, hit the Delete key AGAIN to remove them.
• If you don't understand what you just read, read it again. Then select all the video clips before the bookmark and delete them. Zoom in to check for any selected clips that were not deleted, and press the Delete key again, if necessary.
• Save Part 2 and empty the iMovie trash.
• If everything worked as it should, the Part 2 audio and video should still be in sync and the project should play smoothly. If it doesn't play smoothly, Part 2 still contains too many audio clips. You'll have to divide Part 2 again later.
• If either Part 1 or Part 2 needs to be divided again, use the same technique we just used, but instead of duplicating and dividing the original project, duplicate and divide Part 1 or Part 2. First read WHAT IF THE PARTS BEGIN STUTTERING LATER? just below for a naming suggestion.
WHAT IF A PART BEGINS TO STUTTER LATER?
As you add add more new audio clips to Part 1 or Part 2, these projects may eventually start to stutter, just like the original project did. That's okay, for now you know how to eliminate stutter by dividing the project. When dividing Part 1 or Part 2 use new names like "Part 1A" and "Part 1B", or the names that work for you.
HOW TO RE-JOIN THE COMPLETED PARTS
When you are done editing all the Parts, you will likely want to join the Parts back together in a single project that you send to iDVD, export to QuickTime, or export to the camera. (See below when exporting to the camera.)
Don't worry, the method we use to join the Parts won't increase the number of audio clips, so the joined project won't stutter.
FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO RE-JOIN THE PARTS
1. Create a new iMovie project. Name it "Joined <Project Name>.iMovieProject" or something. Save the project.
2. One by one, locate the movie "Timeline Movie.mov" that's inside each of your Part projects and drag that movie into the Joined project timeline. (Dropping the movie on the Timeline imports Part 1 to the Joined project.) First import Part 1, then Part 2, etcetera.
To locate the Timeline Movie inside the Part project you must first open the project package to see what's inside. In the Finder, Control-click on the project icon and choose "Show Package Contents" from the popUp menu. A Finder window will open, showing the contents of the project package.
Double-click on the Cache folder. Inside you'll find the QuickTime movie "Timeline Movie.mov". (It's a special kind of QuickTime movie, called a reference movie, that has no audio or video of its own, just pointers to files in the project's Media folder.)
Drag the Timeline Movie.mov into the Joined project timeline. That will import the audio and video of that Part as a single clip to the Joined movie. Because all the audio clips are "flattened" as part of one video clip, the Joined project has no audio clips, only one video clip for each Part. So the Joined project won't stutter.
When all the Parts have been imported, add your Chapter Markers for iDVD to the project, if desired, and send the project to iDVD.
EXPORTING TO THE CAMERA
When exporting the divided project to the camera you may prefer to export the individual Parts projects instead of the Joined project. The reason is that the Parts projects contain discrete clips, just like the original project, while the joined project contains only a few clips, one for each Part.
When exporting a project to the camera iMovie preserves the clips as clips. Later, if you re-import that tape back to a new iMovie project, iMovie returns the exported clips as clips.
If you want your tape to contain all the clips of all the Parts, export the Parts to the camera, not the Joined project. The clips will return as discrete clips when the tape is re-imported. Clips like titles and transitions will no longer be editable, but they will return as discrete clips.
(Some clips in the Parts don't return as discrete clips. Any adjacent clips iMovie has edited are merged into one clip when exported to the camera. So two adjoining title clips will return as a single clip.)
MODIFIED DIVIDE AND CONQUER
If you want to able to play Part 1 as you edit Part 2 — instead of playing one Part at a time — you can modify the Divide and Conquer method to include Part 1 in your Part 2 project. This requires more disk space, but that may not matter.
When you done editing Part 1 and are ready to start editing Part 2, drag the Timeline Movie.mov from Part 1 to the beginning of the timeline in Part 2 (after locking the audio clips in Part 2). That delivers all of Part 1 as a single clip in Part 2. That lets you play Part 1 as you edit Part 2. (When joining the Parts, skip importing Part 1 to the Joined project. It will arrive with Part 2.)
FINALLY
This is the most complicated workaround, but for some projects, arguably the best. If I've missed something, please say so we can avoid problems.
Karl

Getting slideshow photos in imovie to fit audio

I have spent too many hours tonight trying to get all my pictures (with the Ken Burns effect on) to fit perfectly to a song that is 6 minutes and 18 seconds long. Now all the pictures stay on the screen for different lengths of time. Is there any way to highlight all the photos in my slideshow within imovie and have them all be adjusted in one fell swoop to stay on the screen for the entire length of the song I have chosen...without me needing to do the math to figure out how many pics I have and how many seconds each should stay on screen? I really want the computer to do this for me. Is there a way???? TIA

This link describes how to synchronize images to the beat of music. That's not your goal, but some of the techniques it describes may apply:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?128@@.68a8c722
Note that until you render the images into video clips, it takes just a moment to Update all the images to a new duration. Turn OFF the KB checkbox, select all the images in the timeline, apply the same KB duration to each, then tweak that duration and Update until they match the play time of the music. THEN turn on the KB checkbox, adjust the zoom(?), and Update to render the images.
(You want them rendered to avoid an iMovie bug adding jaggies to the images when you press the Create iDVD Project button. iMovie will ask to render them, and if you permit it, iMovie will add lots of jaggies.)
And don't miss iMovie HD's new Edit > Select Similar Clips command.
Karl

Just too many problems, iMovie, iDVD

After working with the same project for the past 2 weeks and getting nowhere, I finally gave up in total frustration and deleted the entire project, one piece at a time. I spent the last hour today starting at, 10:45 Am Alaska time and tracked down every piece of my project, iMovie and iDVD and deleted the whole shebang. Problems kept happening over and over and each time, were getting worse than the last time.
This time, iDVD froze up. It did it last night and again today. After waiting for 9 hours over night, and again 5 hours today for it to finish encoding and to finally burn the project, I ended up doing a "force quit", because iDVD wasn't responding at all. It was highlighted in red on force quit, with the words, ("iDVD not responding") in parenthesis. This told me that the program was locked and would not be able to complete the assigned project, so I force quitted the project and scrapped the entire thing.
Now I'm forced to make another decision. Do I go on and re-enter the video into my computer and start over? Or, do I just say forget it and trash the entire idea of producing an DVD from my video footage all together? I'm ****** off and frustrated at how poorly this new and expensive program is not operating like it was designed and supposed to do. Why did I spend all that money, for a program that doesn't work the way it was designed to? Is anyone else feeling the way I do right now?
Froglips from Alaska

Your not alone. I just spent over a week trying to
burn a project. I have a new iMac and the latest
iLife.....thought I'd be set for awhile however while
trying many different possible solutions for my
problem have spent the last week dancing around
iMovie bugs, iDVD bugs and Quicktime bugs forcing me
to do "workarounds" which take extra time again. I
like alot of things about Apple however people pay
for a workable product and iLife should not cause
people this much pain. I've used software that is 98%
bug-free so I know it can be done but Apple does'nt
seem to be willing to test its software thouroughly
enough on a wide variety of systems and different
circumstances to eliminate the bugs....and so we
....its faithful followers end up being its
"bug-testers". Perhaps it also has to do with the
desire to "pump-out" new versions every 9-16 months
however I would much prefer to wait longer and even
pay reasonably more for a new version that worked
properly. I want a company and software that is
usable, reliable and responsive to its customers.
This is the kind of company I'd be willing to be
faithful to. I've noticed that Apple has a tendency
to either be non-responsive alot of the time to
problems brought up in these forums or to deny that
problems exist. (It's hubris).Thats why sometimes a
new version of iMovie will carry over some bugs from
a previous version. Of course the right way to handle
this would be to acknowledge the problems , then do
everything you can to make sure they dont come up
again.After doing some testing myself between iMovie
2 and iMovie 5......I find iMovie 2 to still be the
fastest and most reliable version however it does"nt
have the "extras" that version 5 has. Instead of
building on the firm foundation of iM2 ....the
foundation was ripped up and we got the disasterous
iMovie 3.(To be fair...iM4 and 5 are at least better
than 3). When phoning Apple Support for assistance
with my latest problem .......my "helper" was trying
to tell me that my Mac was"nt capable of burning a
DVD over 1 hour . I ended up having to read some
passages out of the "Missing Manual" to convince him
otherwise. Apple often tends to say that the people
in these forums only represent a small percentage of
all its users ....tending to dismiss the
problems.......however its also true that only a
fraction of the people having problems come to these
forums for help. Alot more struggle on their
own....ask other people.....or just give up and move
on to some other software that works.As I said
earlier...I'm generally a fan of Apple.....but they
really should wake up and test their products
thouroughly before releasing. I have Final Cut
Express but I like the beauty in the simplicity and
ease of use of iLife. iLife is a great
concept............if only it worked properly.
Having said my say.......all I can suggest is that
if you persist and keep trying different possible
solutions found in this forum, theres a good chance
you'll eventually work it out (as I did). Only you
know if its worth the effort. Good luck.
Thanks Mr. Thompson, for your input. I agree completely with many of the things you said. I too, am a fan of Apple products, the computers especially. But that entheusiasm I once had about them has diminished considerably in light of the problems that seem to be ongoing. I finally gave up completely on the project that I was trying to edit, and I deleted the whole project. Right now I'm trying to decide if it will be worth the effort and time, to reenter my video and try again. I commend you for your diligence and willingness to keep trying and thank you for encouraging me to keep trying, but for now I'll take a break and rest on it before I decide what to do next.

Distorted stills in a slideshow created in IMovie

Hello everyone. I have created a 3 minute slideshow with stills from IPhoto, transitions, and music and I have noticed when I view the project in full screen mode there is very noticeable distortion in the video. It looks like a bad tv image, wavy lines moving horizontally and only in one section of the screen. I have burned it to a CDRW disc and it is just as bad on a television.
What would be causing this, and how do i correct it? Thanks for the help.

James, viewing an iMovie project at full size is not a fair test of image quality. It forces iMovie to display the movie image larger than its natural size, which reduces the quality. It's like viewing a 1600 x 1200 iPhoto image at 6400 x 4800.
Be aware too that iMovie never shows you all the quality that's actually there, even when played at the best size.
There are many threads here that discuss image quality. Search the forum for "blurry", "jaggies" and related terms.
Watch out too for the iMovie bug that adds jaggies to the images when you press the "Create iDVD Project" button in the iDVD tab of iMovie. (Search for that.) If quality was reduced when you pressed the button, that may be the cause of the problem.
Karl

IMovie 09 downgrades movie quality

Hi,
I am importing an mp4 file that is 1080p60p into imovie 09.
Two things happen immediately on import:
a. The video is downgraded to 30p
b. The video becomes pixelated and of lesser quality, as if its bitrate was dramatically reduced.
Using a sample file, I measured the following results in the following cases:
1. Open the native file directly in QT Pro, edit by cut/paste and finally export. Results look great. Video retains 60p and does not become pixelated.
2. Import the same native file in iMovie 09. The file immediately looks pixelated, and is already in 30p. No matter which way I choose to export, either iMovie native or via QT - the results maintain the 30p and pixelation.
The interesting thing was that when I exported the same 10sec edit in both ways, using the exact same QT settings - the two produced files were exactly the same size, but totally different quality!
Any suggestions how to overcome this? (other than using QT Pro instead of iM )
Could this possible be an iMovie bug?
Btw, I am using mp4 files produced by Sanyo FH1, original samples can easily be found on vimeo.
Thanks

Hi Steve,
At first I too didn't notice the difference, but once I discovered it, its hard to avoid
The easy way to see it, is to use a clip with some shadows, or low light. See how it plays in its original format, then play it within imovie 09 - the pixelation will become very evident and way more emphasized compared to the original file. To me this looks like a serious imovie issue.
Thanks

IMovie bugged

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