Imovie or final cut express, which one works best?

I am sick and tired of all the bugs in imovie. And I feel bad for everyone who are going out of their minds with soooooooo many problems with imove. I'm ready to buy final cut express, but does any one know if final cut express will run alot smoother and more relieable than imovie?
Thanks, ED

Hi M
I also use iMovie (pref v6) and FinalCut Express (3.5.1) and FCP (5.x.?).
FinalCut Express and Pro are rather same in work flow. iMovie is mentally
somthing completely different.
You need to be a very organized person to get the best of FCE eg. numbering all
Your tapes (tape unique numbering), preparing a structure from beginning etc.
BUT: The freedom of about 99 video and audio tracks. Resizing a video track
above another (pic-in-pic), rotating a slightly off horizon eg 2 deg, color-
correction (much better than in iMovie), Green/blue screen and so much more
that needs plug-ins to iMovie (with a cost) as standard.
Can give Your creativity a real spinn.
Yours happy with both worlds: Bengt W

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Bizarre results importing imovie into final cut express?

I have filmed different interviews which were captured in imovie. I am now trying to import them into final cut express. But when I import one interview called, say, Gavin I get Karen's interview instead. The clip is labelled Gavin but the footsage is from a different interview. No matter who I import I get a completely different project and there is no rhyme nor reason to the footage that opens up.
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Exasperated,
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I bought Final cut express just after capturing all my files in imovie (having heard that it was supposed to be easier to cature and trim in imovie before sending the files to fce - is this what you have heard?). If it weren't for a solid week capturing and trimming 40 hours of film I would recapture in fce!!
I have even replaced the captured media within the scratch folder but still it opens the wrong files.
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I have tried various methods of importing, opening and even dragging a clip straight from imovie into the browser of fce - which works but opens an original untrimmed version rather than the short trimmed version and again it will be an interview of the wrong person.
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Message was edited by: floridakid

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Flip mino or flip ultra HD to use in imovie and final cut express

i am contemplating either flip mino HD, Flip ultra HD or creative vado HD. Which one has a good video quality and design style? Is it necessary for 2 hrs movie or actually i like the flip mino coz its slimmer but only takes 1 hr video. By the way, What kind of format the flip camcorder will save as coz someone says its .avi but some says Mp4 format? If in Mp4 format, is the quality still good? most of the time i will shoot in ultra hi definition setting. I will use imovie and final cut for edit and does the Flip compatible to imovie and Final cut? How about creative vado? any recommendation?
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The Flip cameras are easy to use and pocketable.
Unfortunately it is their very simplicity that drastically limits what they can do.
They are OK for someone who wants to take daft pictures of their friends and post them on YouTube but for serious film-making they are non-starters.
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The lens is a small aperture fixed focus with no zoom.
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New Question as well. It took ages to render the project clip sequence in the timeline. Then I was attempting to experiment with zooming into a scene. Set Motion Key frame, then marked an in point and noticed everything on the timeline is now unrendered again. What? I noticed that before in short shots on another project, but this is so huge to re render again and again. what have I done wrong to "unrender the sequence?" Do I need to cut up the section I;m working on first in the wireframe, so it doesn't affect the entire clip/project and unrender it?
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IMovie vs Final Cut Express

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My goal is not for broadcast but rather to putting these on my website or YouTube.
I find Youtube is a bit buggy (The most famous bug is the inability to post a text comment).
These work better.
http://www.the-top-tens.com/lists/best-alternatives-youtube.asp
http://www.youtubealternative.com/

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My question to you: with my experience with Pinnacle will Imovie 09 apply for video editing or should I also get the FCE. And what about my projects done in Pinnacle Studio.
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Ron

I migrated from using a PC and Pinnacle Studio 11 to a MacBook Pro and Final Cut Express about 9 months ago. I had no previous experience with a Mac, so it has been a very steep learning curve for me. But I have been studying the bright minds on this forum for awhile and have also been taking advantage of various Final Cut tutorials on the web. I eventually stopped regretting leaving Pinnacle behind and I have come to love Final Cut and the greater creative control it offers. As for iMovie, I found it a little too basic for what I want, but it may be suitable for your needs.
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Hi
There are no 100% way to do this.
If You want Your Timeline with edits (transitions etc) to come over to FCE in a
still editable version.
• Not possibly - transition, text- tools are to different
If You want Your TimeLine movie over and accept that spelling errors etc. if fixed
and can't be altered.
• Best way is to connect Camera and insert a new miniDV tape and Copy to Camera
Use this and You'll get best quality possibly
To open the iMovie project and drag material over to FCE will partly work but
1. unedited raw material
2. Audio doesn't work the same way but needs to in FCE be rendered (every time anything
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My penny to this
Yours Bengt W

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I bought Final Cut Express 4.0 in 2008 and recently I bought a new MacBook Pro 15" around Oct 2013 and updated to Mavericks 10.9. I copied all the contents and apps from the old macbook to the new one and when using the Final Cut Express, it asked me for the serial number and when I tried to add it, it says serial not valid. What can I do to be able to use my Final Cut Express? Please any suggetions?

Three thoughts,
1. It is usually better to re-install pro apps (like FCE) from scratch instead of migrating them from an older Mac. If you migrated FCE from your old Mac, this could be the reason for the hiccup with the serial number.
2. The serial number is very long, and it's very easy to mistype a character. Try entering it again, being very careful typing and check the serial nubmer visually before you hit the enter key.
3. Keep in mind that FCE was discontinued in June 2011, even before Lion was released. It is no longer supported and there is no guarantee it will run, or run properly, on later versions of OS X including Mavericks. Users have had spotty success with it on Lion, Mt. Lion & Mavericks. YMMV.
Final Cut Pro X is the currently released & suported video editing app from Apple. You can download, install & try it out free for 30 days.

How do register for final cut express which came pre-installed? i'm being asked to provide a serial number - how is that possible?

how do i find the serial number for software that was pre-installed on my imac? it's the final cut express software - which i can't use without the serial number .... help, please! d.s.

When you purchase a computer from Apple with pre-installed software it comes with the OS install discs, the iLife install disc, and any other installation discs. You should have an FCE installation disc. The serial number should be on the disc.

IMovie Vs Final Cut Express/pro and making$$$?

Sorry, another post from us (interchangeably Graeme or Leanne).
We have been making home movies with various versions of iMovie for about 5 years now and for the most part (except the bugs) love it. Recently we have decided to try and start using our filming and editing skills to earn some money in our spare time (not that we have much of that with two kids 3 and under...).
We have done a couple of weddings, baby movies and a little corporate function work so far and are just at the point of registering a business, domain name, buying better equipment etc - in other words, getting more serious. My question is as wannabe (semi) professionals, should we be making the effort to learn and use FCP or is it OK to keep using iMovie?
We do get a little frustrated occasionally with the limitations of iMovie but on the whole, it usually produces fantastic (and seemingly impressive) results to our clients. I guess we feel reluctant to learn a whole new complicated package when iMovie seems to be doing the trick. We just worry that maybe we're being lazy and not very professional by using such an 'off the shelf' consumer product.
In some ways, we think our filming and techniques and editing creativity are what's important and the editing software is just the tool that allows us to put it all together so we shouldn't be software snobs.
Are other people using iMovie to make money?
I would really appreciate any thoughts about this?
I think I have read posts in the past (by Karl possibly - to the effect that iMovie is not to be sneezed at...)
Sorry for the ramble,
Leanne
PS We do have a copy of FC Express by the way - just never used it because iMovie is always so invitingly easy every time we start a new project.

I'm not a video professional so my opinion doesn't count for much. (Which won't stop me from expressing an opinion. :-))
I love simple tools. My bias is always to use the simplest tool I can find, if it does the job. I don't like spending days or weeks learning software, or having to re-learn it if I haven't used it for a while. I dislike the nuisance and the cost.
You see where I'm heading here...
But wait. That tool can't limit my imagination. It has to be able to deliver, create the stuff I want to create. It has to meet whatever demands I place on it, not get in the way.
Since I don't consider myself a particularly imaginative guy, it also has to inspire me. Show me what's possible. Help me discover what's out there that I can do.
(Great software is like seeing an Ansel Adams collection for the first time. It lets you see what is possible with a simple camera and a simple darkroom.)
David Babsky, perhaps one of the more creative and artistically sensitive people here, creates wonderful stuff with iMovie, as do many others. He doesn't seem limited by iMovie. He's probably a lot less limited than I am, for he's more creative.
Other people create great stuff too. I'm constantly amazed at the wonderful videos created by novice users. iMovie hands us the tools to make great-looking stuff. Even more so with iMovie 6's Themes.
If there's a bottom line, it may be this: The "best" tool is the one that works best for you. For users who revel in complexity -- who are perhaps inspired by it -- Final Cut warrants a good, hard look. If complexity just gets in your way and your creative juices aren't stymied by iMovie, its simplicity is wonderful.
One other thought: If iMovie doesn't offer a feature I need I can usually create it with QuickTime Pro. I recently needed to create video-over-video, not a feature offered by iMovie. It was a short video of a seated woman talking into the camera -- a talking head. I wanted a series of photos to fade in and out inside a small picture frame on the wall behind her. (The pictures were a kind of subplot which, as the talking head fades to black, reveal an inside joke.)
I built two iMovie projects, one containing the photos and one containing the talking head, exported each to a Full Quality DV movie, then using QuickTime Pro, "placed" the photos on the wall behind her. It worked perfectly. With simple tools.
It's a very subjective call. If the software inspires you and lets you do good work, it's the one to choose.
Karl

Downgrading to iMovie from Final Cut Express - exporting?

My husband and I used to be into video editing before the kids were born. We have two 6 year old macbooks and one is dead and one is dying so we are forced to make a decision here on how to procede. My husband does one or two hobby type movies a year, but we mostly use our video editing software for home movies of the kids now. We don't have the money to spend on these things we used to, or the time to really be trying to tinker around with Final Cut anymore. So we decided to buy the $600.00 Mac Mini instead of a new laptop. We are thinking about switching back to iMovie as well, since buying the newer version of Final Cut will be pretty spendy, and iMovie seems to have come a long way since we last used it. We have a really old version of Final Cut right now, so I think upgrading would be necessary if we stick with Final Cut.
I am really confused about the new iMovie though. We have been using a Sony Digital 8 camcorder and storing our movies on tape. I talked to the guy at the Apple store about the Mac Mini and asked why there was no 'export to camera' on the new iMovie (I'm actually using '09, but I am told 11 doesn't have it either). He looked stumped and actually said he had never heard of doing that and why would I want to do that. I asked where I was supposed to store our final movies and he said the hard drive. I was surprised and told him that hard drives crash, but tapes last much longer. He said tapes degrade, and I said yeah, but not for like 30 years or longer, our hard drives have only lasted on average 5 years. But later I was thinking that maybe it wasn't a bad idea to back up our tapes on the hard drive. We have a 1 TB external which we would probably fill when all is said and done. I am thinking of getting some cloud storage from BackBlaze as well, so I started thinking that maybe tapes are becoming obsolete and we should really do this HD thing (for now, until a better storage option comes out in a few years because HD's are obviously not ideal).
But then I started looking at the new iMovie and I have no idea how to export a final movie into a file that won't lose any quality. In final cut there is the 'self contained movie' setting which is a full quality version of the final movie. But in iMovie, I can't find an equivilent. How are you exporting your final movies in iMovie and where are you storing them? And if we downgrade to iMovie, will there be a loss in quality? I saw another thread that says that iMovie 11 is exporting movies that lose a lot of quality. Has Apple fixed this yet? When we started using iMovie years ago we were told that it imports and exports the exact same quality since it is all digital there would be no degradation. But now that I read that there is a loss of quality in the new iMovie I am nervous to downgrade to iMovie. Can anyone shed some light on these issues for me? Should we stick with Final Cut, or can we make iMovie work?

Is this a really slow board, or did I ask a silly question? Why no responses?

Imovie or final cut express, which one works best?

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