Imovie09 compatible formats

Question

I have video in .mpg format and want to use imovie09. What is the recommended conversion format to create best quality iMovie projects? Is it .mpg2? What is the recommended Mac Os10.6.3 compatible video converter? Can MPEG Streamclip be used to make the video compatible with iMovie? Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

iMovie cannot read MPEG2. Convert your clips to Apple Intermediate Codec.
Here are some instructions:
0) Drag your clips into MPEG Streacmclip. You can do this one at a time, all together, or in batch mode.
1) Use FILE/EXPORT USING QUICKTIME to convert the files to Apple Intermediate Codec (or h.264 if you prefer)
2) Optional steps.
2a) Optional: You can deinterlace your footage in this step, if you like
2b) Optional: If you know the date and or time of the footage, name your file
clip-yyyy-mm-dd hh;mm;ss
(let mpeg streamclip provide the extension). This will provide metadata that iMovie will use to put the event in the right year and month.
2c) Optional: If you don't want to make one huge clip, you can make smaller clips by using MPEG Streamclip. Move the cursor to the "in" point of the clip, and press i. Move the cursor to the "Out" point of the clip, and press o. Then do steps 8 through 10 and repeat until you have done this for all clips you want.
3) Save the resulting file in a place where you can find it, like your Desktop.
4) Open iMovie.
5) In iMovie, choose FILE/IMPORT/Movies... and choose the file you saved in steps 8, 9, 10.
6) iMovie will generate thumbnails and you can edit.