Imovie runs choppy after 10.6.5 software update

Question

Hi all,
I've been running Imovie HD on a MacBook Pro ever since I got it this fall for college. It has performed exceptionally thus far, up until this afternoon. I downloaded the latest software update, and now when I play project files, or watch video clips they run choppy as if the processor or video card or whatever is cutting frames to keep up with the playhead. Any idea of why this would be? A 2.4Ghz intel duo and 4 GB of ram should be more than enough to handle an Imovie file of a couple gigabytes right? It has up unto this point at least, and I'm very ticked that my favorite program is now running slow, and it makes me now want to use it.
I tried everything from restarts to disk repairs by Apple Jack, but nothing but setting the video rendering to the lowest quality or whatever smooths out the videos when I play them, and up until today I was able to glide through them at the highest quality.
Help please?

Answer 1

Hi
First thing that runs to mind is
• Free space on start-up hard disk. How Much ?
• Movies with lot's of audio clips eg > 50 use to stutter - medicine is to mix down
audio to one Audio-clip and it'll run smooth again.
Else
*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
• Delete iMovie pref file
iMovie pref file resides.
Mac Hard Disk (start-up HD)/Users/"Your account"/Library/Preferences
and is named. (one or more of these)
com.apple.iMovie.plist
com.apple.iMovie3.plist
com.apple.iMovie7.plist
com.apple.iMovie8.plist
and find
com.apple.iApps.plist
While iMovie is NOT RUNNING - move this/these file/s out to desk-top.
Now restart iMovie.
• Hard disk is untidy. Repair Permissions, Repair Hard disk (Apple Disc Util tool)
• Garageband-fix. Start it, Play a note and Close it. Re-try (Corrects an audio problem that hinders iMovie)
• Screen must be set to Million-colors
• Turn off Mac and disconnect Mains/Power for 20-30 minutes - will at least re-set FW-port
• Third party plug-ins that doesn't work OK (not relevant for iMovie’08 or 09)
• Problems in iPhoto Library can affect iMovie to crash on start-up. Re-build this first then try to re-start iMovie.
This You do by
_ close iPhoto
_ on start up of iPhoto - Keep {cmd and alt-keys down}
_ now select all five options presented
_ WAIT a long long time
• iMovie updated ?
• QuickTime updated ?
• Mac OS version ?
• Program miss-match. iMovie 4 - will not work under Leopard
• 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 (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
• Program miss-match. iMovie’08 v. 7.1.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.5.5 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
• Program miss-match. iMovie’09 v. 8.0.6, Mac OS X.5.8 AND QuickTime 7.6.4 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
From LKN 1935. (in this case = iMovie HD (5), I tried it all, but nothing worked.
Your answer (above) has been helpfull insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that
there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled
iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos)
to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before.
Lennart Thelander
I run "Cache Out X", clear out all caches and restarts the Mac.
Yours Bengt W