IMovie Import Time (Long) from iSight

I've noticed that after video is shot, there is an "import" delay - approximately 30 minutes for every hour of video. This means one can not begin editing until this has occured. Why can't iMovie simply import the video into a native format as it does with a Video Camera via DV port? This delay is troublesome.
Golan.

Hi Golan:
Welcome to discussions!
I read about a similar situation here:
http://www.macosx.com/content/faq.php/q377/Imovie-Hd-Unreasonable-Delays-And-Slo w-Performance.html/
Sue

Similar Messages

Importing time frame from DV camcorder

My wife needed to import some video for a presentation and it needed to have the original time signal shown on it. We were going to edit (titles etc) on iMovie HD but I could not find a way of making the time signal from the camcorder come up on screen. In the end we had to abandon the whole thing and use a VCR!! Just imagine!
Any ideas how I could get the time signal to show up if we need to do it again?

Hi Matt,
we had that issue here, seems so, many people need that timestamp...
the keyword searching it is "timecode", it gave my dozends of post in this forum concerning that matter, the search-field is in the upper right....
besides your method there's some plug-in mentioned:
http://www.stupendoussoftware.com/Stupendous/LabelsOverlays/Pages/gallery.html

Why doesn't iMovie import video directly from the iPhone 3GS

We here quite frequently that Apple offers a better overall experience than the competition because they make the whole widget... I was SHOCKED to discover that iMovie will NOT recognize my iPhone 3GS... Doesn't Apple make both products and their OS's (Yes, I know they make both)?
iMovie imports video from my FLip HD just fine... This is very disappointing... And yes, I figured out how to do it... Import it to iPhoto, export it as a .mov and import it to iMovie... This is crazy, Apple!

What I find shocking is that if you open iMovie and select "Import from Camera..." the iPhone doesn't show up.
For further clarification, I have turned off the option to open iPhoto or Image Capture automatically when a camera is attached. I don't that option to import photos from my camera because they are automatically imported to my computer via the eye-fi card in my camera.
I do expect that when I open iMovie manually and select to "Import from Camera..." that the iPhone will be recognized as a camera. My FLip mino HD is recognized and it is awkward to then have to open iPhoto, import the movies, export the movies and then import them to iMovie to modify them and move them to my Apple TV.
I have provided Apple my Feedback on both their iPhone and iMovie sites.

IMovie import looks compressed from DV?

I'm trying to import video from my Sony DCR-VX2000 DV camera. It will be projected on a large screen at 1024x768 resolution. When I hook the camera up to the projector with old school RCA Component Cables (Remember the Red White & Yellow ones?) it looks totally acceptable. Then, I import it into iMovie, do some very simple editing, and export with a bunch of different export compression settings, trying to find the highest definition export I can get with iMovie.
Result: Grainy video.
So, I went back to iMovie and viewed my project pre-export straight from iMovie in full screen and I see the same graininess. Hence, I conclude that iMovie is compressing the video feed upon import.
Then, I look all through every iMovie preference and option I can find to try to find something that deals with import compression or quality when importing from camera, and I can find nothing.
Is there a way to get a better quality import from iMovie?
Is there another program that will do a better job at importing the footage over firewire?
I have noticed that there is an option to import files at full 1080i... but that's only from files... not from the camera.
HELP!

What are your export settings? What dimensions?
Your file comes in at 720X480 so the largest export dimension would be 640X480 (in QuickTime format).

IMovie skips while recording from iSight

I record videos weekly and this recently started happening. After I finish capturing footage from the iSight and play it back I notice that it cuts and skips through the footage. So even though I was recording for 5 minutes only 4 minutes will be there with random bit cut out. It just skips around.
I originally thought my macbook was overheating as it only seemed to happen sometimes and shutting it down for awhile would fix it. But it's happening more and more frequently and now skips in about every 10 seconds of footage.
Any thoughts on things I could try?
Message was edited by: DearOlivejuice

Welcome to Discussions, DearOlivejuice
DearOlivejuice wrote:
I record videos weekly and this recently started happening. After I finish capturing footage from the iSight and play it back I notice that it cuts and skips through the footage. So even though I was recording for 5 minutes only 4 minutes will be there with random bit cut out. It just skips around.
I originally thought my macbook was overheating as it only seemed to happen sometimes and shutting it down for awhile would fix it. But it's happening more and more frequently and now skips in about every 10 seconds of footage.
Any thoughts on things I could try?
Message was edited by: DearOlivejuice
Consider the suggestions offered here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=13274102#13274102
I think you need to free up as much hard disk space as possible:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8358.html
I like to keep at least half (no less than one third) of my startup disk free for best OS X and video performance. You can do with less, but, generally, the more space (and RAM) you have, the better things work.
EZ Jim
Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz Mac OS X (10.6.6); MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.6)
LED Cinema Display; G4 PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11); iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9); External iSight; iPod4touch4.2.1

Importing Time Capsule from Japan to Norway?

My cousin is going to Japan in a few months, and he's considering buying Time Capsule there and taking it back to use here in Norway. Is there any reason why he can't do this? Can he just change the plug on the power-supply as with other Apple gear?
(Japan has 100V, Norway has 220V)

Power issues aside, there is one other thing to consider. In Japan, 802.11b/g connections use channels 1 to 14. In Europe, only channels 1 to 13 are allowed. Therefore, it will be necessary to make sure the Time Capsule is only transmitting on channels 1 to 13, otherwise the possibility exists that a Mac purchased in Norway may not be able to communicate with Time Capsule if Time Capsule happens to be using channel 14.

IMovie can't import any video (from Sony cam or iPhone or iSight)

iMovie worked yesterday with my camera (Sony HDR-XR200) just fine. Today imovie will see the camera and pull up the clip selection menu but no clips ever load. I tried to connect my iphone as well to see if it was the camera or the software and imovie also can not recognize my iphone (for importing video) or isight. Any ideas?
I have tried
-different cables
-complete shut down on macbook and battery pull from camera, reconnect everything, same problem.
-software update, restart.
-deleting the preference file (something recommended in this forum)
If I try to import video from isight, imovie stops responding and I have to force quit.
Thanks for any help, I'm stuck.
Sarah

I think iMovie is corrupted. I would like to try to uninstall iLife 11 but when I put in the disc there is no uninstall option. I tried trashing iMovie from applications and reinstalled all of iLife (I believe wasted space on my HD) but the issue remains. (Maybe because I didn't delete the receipts?) iMovie can not see any devices or use iSight for capture...

Imported Photo's from media pane within iMovie no longer centered?

Hi, I am using iMovie 6.0.3 to build a slideshow within iMovie. I am using the media pane within iMovie to access and import my photos from iPhoto. The photos are of various sizes, they have been cropped in iPhoto and work well as a slideshow in iPhoto. When i import them into iMovie the photos are no longer centered.... they are oriented to the left and up with asymetrical letterboxing and cut off heads. I need to bring in over 400 photo's and dont want to have to go and recenter/crop each photo from within iMove..... shouldn't they remain centered when i bring them in?
Thanks
Chuck

Welcome to the forum, Chuck.
It sounds like the Ken Burns Effect may need to be re-centered. By default, Ken Burns centers the image. But if Ken Burns has been set to crop a photo off-center, that's how future photos will arrive.
To re-center the start/end positions, turn ON the Ken Burns checkbox. Stop the preview. Click on the Start side of the Start/End thingy. Drag the Zoom slider—the top slider—a bit to the right, then all the way to the left. Repeat for the End side of the thingy. Now Import the image. New imports should now arrive centered, as you wish.
Karl

Problem with importing a clip from another iMovie project

Hello
I want to import a clip from one iMovie project to another iMovie project.
Both projects are in 16:9, but when I import a clip it's no longer in 16:9.
The clip is croped and I have a black bar on the right and left side.
How can I solve this ?
Jufke

Have you tried Copying the clip in Project A and Pasting it into Project B?
When you Copy and Paste clips, try to Copy and Paste all at the same time. More here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2356757&#2356757
Karl

Importing .mp4 files into iMovie takes too long. Is there a quicker method?

Basically what the title asks. Would it be quicker for me to burn the mp4 onto a dvd and then rip it into iMovie? Currently, my import wait is 1784 minutes, and I really don't have this long to wait.
Help would be wonderful.

I'm not sure how many songs your importing, nor how much cache your Mac has...But In case this is your first time using Itunes M4p files in your Imovies, I'll give you this heads up....Imovie will let you import M4p files from Itunes into your movie and you can watch it and listen to the song fine. When you try to export it to IDVD and burn a movie, you might have problems. It will b*tch about "this computer is not authorized" for this song or something. Unless Imovie '08 fixes this, you have to burn the songs you want to use in your Imove to a CD, then import them back into Imovie. It will not let you burn a DVD from Imovie/IDVD with songs you paid for directly from your Itunes Library. Unless you're importing from a slow external hard drive and have low system memory on your Mac, I don't see why it should take so long to import songs from your Itunes library. If you already knew of the copyright problem Imovie has, my apologies.....And it is a problem. You shouldn't have to burn to disc and re-import songs from Itunes, that you already legitimately paid for with your Itunes account.

HT3905 importing iFrame files from my Panasonic HX-DC2 to iMovie?

importing iFrame files from my Panasonic HX-DC2 to iMovie?

After searching the internet I ended up buying VoltaicHD for $30 by downloading it from the "Shedworx" website. The way it works is: you attach the HDC-SD9 to your MAC with the supplied USB cable. The HDD and SD card will show up on your desktop. If you open each one, you'll find a file called "Stream" which will contain all of your video clips. Drag and drop each file to the Voltaic window and start the decompression process by simply hitting start. Tell Voltaic where you want the files to be stored on your computer and then be very patient, because the process can take a long time. But it does work. The MTS files in your camera are converted to Quicktime files which can be imported to Final Cut or iMovie. It's time consuming, but you do get HD files out of the process, although the audio is only stereo and not 5.1 surround sound.

Import time - why so long?

How come it takes so long to import a movie clip into iMovie? I've tried it using the same clip in mpeg4 and dv format. I'm trying to import a clip that's about 25 minutes in length, yet it's taking over 70 minutes just to bring it into iMovie? Is this normal? I'm also a new Mac user, just switched from PC. I'm used to working with clips that load almost immediately in whatever editing program I used on my PC. What is the best codec to use for iMovie and how can I shorten the import time?

Hi Mike,
welcome to this forum
as Graig said:
iMovie is meant to work with firewire-connected mini-dv camcorders
that insults to stay with some standards, as PAL/NTSC (and their specific settings...) and to stay with "dv" as codec..
importing mpeg4 into iMHD needs a conversion (into Apple Intermediate Codec) because any mpeg isn't editable. That conversion is done automatically by iMHD.-
the import of .dv-files should be done faster; you haven't told us, what your workflow is: do you make use of any external drives? how are they connected (usb/fw)? how are they formatted? do you stay in ONE video standard, or do you (incidently) make some video standard conversion? is this "plain dv" or some "handmade, beside-the-standards" pseudo-dv, ... we had that on some other topic here, where someone was able to generate 30fps PAL on a PC... very weird..
this (shortened) list of Qs should show you: use iM as intended.... for some basic function, even editing in QTpro could be easier then to teach the dog new tricks ;-))
besides: here's a how-to for importing DVD's footage into iM

Why can I no longer import EDITED photo from my iPad to my Mac using Image Capture from Snapseed app?

Why can I no longer import EDITED photo from my iPad to my Mac using Image Capture? This is farcical and a real problem having to email them individually to myself and is totally inefficient time wise compared to previously using image capture! Why change this when it was working well and very quickly until the latest change. Now I have to move files from downloads into an appropriate folder, after emailing each individual edited image to myself, then I have to open in Photoshop and rename the file. This is ludicrous and takes forever to do!

Thank you! I suppected it would be in the settings somewhere. I' ve much to learn...get myself into trouble pushing buttons I don't really understand.

Why can I no longer import EDITED photo from my iPad to my Mac?

Why can I no longer import EDITED photo from my iPad to my Mac using Image Capture? This is farcical and a real problem having to email them individually to myself and is totally inefficient time wise compared to previously using image capture! Why change this when it was working well and very quickly until the latest change. Now I have to move files from downloads into an appropriate folder, after emailing each individual edited image to myself, then I have to open in Photoshop and rename the file. This is ludicrous and takes forever to do!

There has been a change in where Firefox searches for plugins and the plugins folder in the Firefox program folder is no longer scanned for plugins, so Firefox won't find them anymore if they are installed in the plugins folder instead of the "browser\plugins" folder that Firefox now scans.
You can set the plugins.load_appdir_plugins pref to true on the about:config page to make Firefox scan the "<install>/plugins/" directory for plugins like the WMP plugin (np-mswmp.dll).
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config
You can alternatively move plugins from "<install directory>\plugins\" to "<install directory>\browser\plugins\" (create this folder when missing) to make Firefox find them again.
*http://www.ghacks.net/2013/05/15/why-you-may-have-lost-access-to-plugins-or-extensions-in-firefox-21/
*http://mike.kaply.com/2013/04/24/major-changes-coming-in-firefox-21/

Huge HD file sizes in iMovie when importing AVCHD files from HD Camcorder

Although several answers have been given on different ways to import HD files from a AVCHD camcorder, in this case a Sony one, the issue is what to do with the HUGE files it creates. I recorded 2 hours of HD content in about 30GB on the camcorder. I can burn those native HVCHD files on DVD's, took 6 of them, and play them on a Blue Ray player in HD. To edit, I tested a sample 50MB file that was about 3 minutes in length. It convered to quicktime file in the same 1920x1080 quality resulted in a file that was about 800MB, looked great, but how do I store or play a 20 minute version of it? iMovie is inadequate to do anything other than produce smaller size files for an iPod or lower quality, unless it is going to be a very short HD movie if doing true HD quality. One of the reasons I took the MAC plunge was the better multimedia capabilities. In this case, Apple (iMove and Final Cut) is behind.
I ended up shifting my HD editing back to a PC with $100 Sony Vegas software that can edit the AVCHD files and author in it. I can produce a DVD with about 25 minutes of edited HD in AVCDH file format and play it. I can also store the finished product in a much smaller space using AVCHD files. I have a 1 TB drive on my Mac that would be consumed if I worked in iMovie with converting all these AVCDH files and kept them in HD quality since it looks like it needs to expand them 12-16 times the AVCHD file size.
Yes, I know I could lower the quality to better work with them in iMovie, but that makes no sense to me. I want to record and edit in the HD format. Seems like these AVCHD cameras are becoming a standard since they are so efficient at storing HD content, iMovie needs to figure out how to edit and store them the same way. Very disappointed in how iMovie handles HD, to me it is NOT very good at handling HD, no good way to store or distribute it.
Am I missing soomething here? I have spent hours looking for a different answer, but have not found one yet? Maybe the next version of iMovie will be better. I like using it for SD DVD authoring, but for HD, did not work at all for me.
Jon

Interesting you say it is not meant for editing, but there are about a half dozen editor's for windows that will work on these exact files. I know with Sony Vegas that I have the same level of control with frame precision as I do with iMovie so I think there must be more to the story why Apple has not been able to support it like other software manufacturers who support windows. Don't get me wrong, i would love to do the work in iMovie and not have to learn something new. I don't have the storage space to use the HD apple format, that 2 hr of HD in AVCHD would turn into about 500GB then what do I put it on to play it. If the BlueRay standard calls for 25 or 50G disc's and we can get full two hour movies on them today, then they must be using a file format similar to AVCHD to fit on a disc, they cannot be using anything close to what Apple uses for HD files, it is just simple logic and math. So why doesn't Apple finure it out before everyone who starts working in HD comes to the same conclusion that the Apple QT file formats for HD is going to be an issue with space, you can create content, but cannot afford the disc space to store it or play it.

IMovie Import Time (Long) from iSight

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for