Importing analog to imovie

Man what a pain! I have 10 or 15 years worth of analog 8mm video tapes. I was able to digitize them and burn them to DVD (another story for another time). I then used handbrake to take the audio and video .ts files created from the analog tapes and made mp4 files, thinking that was the way to get it into iMovie. Boy was I wrong! It takes about 7-8 hours to create the thumbnails for one DVD that iMovie 08 needs.
So where did I go wrong? Should I convert to another format besides mp4? All I know is I am trying to do is edit about 18 hours of analog video before Christmas- that is Christmas 2008, not 2015.
I just need a little guidance. Thanks.
Terry

If you like to make DVDs, give iMovie 06 a try.
iMovie 06 does not make thumbnails, (an hour of video imports in one hour).
I use both iMovie 08 and iMovie 06, if I want to make a DVD I prefer iMovie 06. iMovie 08 is not as DVD friendly as iMovie 06.
iMovie 08 has replaced "Share to iDVD" with "Share to media browser". Also iMovie 08 cannot set chapter markers, this has to be done with another program.
When using iMovie 06, one mouse click will set a chapter marker EXACTLY where you specify. In just a few seconds set all your chapter markers. When you are done editing just "share to iDVD 08" and all of your chapter markers will be there!
iMovie 06 and iDVD 08 is a terrific combination.
Apple includes iMovie 06 as a free download to iLife 08 owners. (THEY WANT YOU TO HAVE IT!)
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html

Similar Messages

Will FCE 4 Import Analog 8mm Tapes (unlike iMovie '08)

Hello--
I've had a heck of a time importing my older analog 8mm tapes onto my MacBook and was wondering if dropping bigger bucks on FCE 4 will help.
Since iMovie '08 for some reason won't import analog 8mm tapes from my Sony TRV-330 Digital8 camcorder, I've had to import the tapes using iMovie HD. The problem is then I have to save the iMovie HD project before I can import the video into iMovie '08 where I want to tag and edit it...and this takes a lot of extra time (hours per tape).
On other discussion boards, people have suggested using other video importing applications such as Vidi, iDive, and QuickTime Pro. The first two didn't seem to work out for me, so I just spent $30+ to get QT Pro...that was a mistake because the video and audio quickly got out of synch which was completely unacceptable (some of my older tapes have periodic video and audio dropouts due a problematic camcorder at the time, which I understand can cause that problem...but it didn't seem to be a problem for iMovie HD).
So, since I've read on these FCE discussion threads that FCE uses QuickTime it makes me wonder if I'd have the same video/audio synch problems in FCE (if it even would import analog 8mm video at all).
BOTTOM LINE: Has anyone successfully imported analog 8mm videotapes from a digital camcorder into FCE 4? I'd really like to be able to catalog, tag, and edit ALL my tapes (analog 8mm and Digital8) in iMovie '08 (but am willing to try to do it in FCE 4 if that's a better comprehensive solution). When will Apple fix iMovie '08 to make the lives of those of us who want to transfer old analog 8mm tapes easier??

Thanks for the response, M.R. I didn't know QuickTime was also the import engine for iMovie HD...if that's the case, I don't know why iMovie HD would import my analog 8mm tapes while iMovie '08 doesn't (assuming iMovie '08 also uses QuickTime as the import engine).
I haven't really considered a converter box since the Sony TRV-330 camcorder does the analog to digital conversion...seems like it'd be unnecessary. Do you think there's the possibility that the output from a converter box would look different than the output from my digital camcorder to iMovie '08?
--Bill

Import Analog Video

Hi,
I would like to import analog video into my Mac so that I can edit and extract video. I have many analog video tapes and I would like to import into my Mac. I can output video to my analog video camera or to a VCR but can't input. There is a unit, Elgato's EyeTV, for viewing TV that imports but I don't plan on watching TV on my Mac. I hear you can burn to DVD with a VHS-DVD deck and Extract from the DVD using software (Hand-Brake).
I saw a cheap unit that works with Windows which interfaces through, I believe, USB 2 port but it didn't seem to be Mac suported.
Looking for suggestions I have open slots on my G4 Mac for PCI cards.
Richard
1.25 GHz Dual G4 Desk Top Mac OS X (10.4.9)
1.25 GHz Dual G4 Desk Top Mac OS X (10.4.9)

There is a unit, Elgato's EyeTV,...
It is possible to use the Elgato EyeTV devices (and EyeTV software) to capture analog video. The Elgato devices record mpg-2 video on your hard drive and you can then use something like DVDxDV or MPEG-Streamclip to convert the mpg-2 content to DV video for use in iMovie,
Since you will be starting with VHS tapes, you shouldn't loose any additional quality in the process.
F Shippey

Import dvd to imovie

I converted home viedos from a vhs to dvd. what do i need to import dvd to imovie so i can edit and combine?

DVD is a finish format. Its primary purpose is for viewing. It doesn't lend itself well to further digital editing.
You'll have better results inporting the original VHS into iMovie through an analog-digital converter. Do you still have the VHS tapes?

How to import analog audio into garage band

I have an iMac with 2.5 GHz Intel Core 5i 8 GB memory OSX 10.7.5 and I am trying to import analog audio from a reel to reel tape deck so I can edit it and burn to a CD. I have a elgato video capture device with RCA female plugs on one side and USB on the other. (I've used this device to import analog video and audio to iMovie and Adobe Premiere Elements). I am told that I could import analog audio to Garage Band to edit and burn , however when I launch Garage Band I am not sure what part of the program I should be selecting and how to go about importing the analog audio. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Teddy

teddyfromhauppauge wrote:
I am not sure what part of the program I should be selecting
http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#selectinterface
(Let the page FULLY load. The link to your answer is at the top of your screen)
teddyfromhauppauge wrote:
how to go about importing recording the analog audio.
http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#recordusingaudiointerface
(Let the page FULLY load. The link to your answer is at the top of your screen)

Importing video while iMovie generates thumbnails

I am in the midst of importing analog video via my Canopus ADVC110. My question is this: Once you've imported the video and iMovie starts to generate thumbnails, is it possible to begin importing a new tape during this time?
Russ
Altadena, CA

Not to my knowledge.

Importing video in imovie is jumpy!

When I import video into imovie the video gets jumpy. I play it while I try to edit and the film jumps around. It is like the film is missing milliseconds of the video. Does anyone have any idea about this or ever have this kind of trouble?

I've had the same problems using imovie '08 but it is infrequent and has only happened when importing certain analog not digital video tapes. I can watch the video flowing without interuption on the camcorder but intermitantly the actual imported film hangs up with intermitant breaks in the recording process with as you say milliseconds lost. I have tried closing all other programs for fear they may be interupting without success. And as I said it has only happened a few times , only with analog manual imports and the extent of the footage lost is variable.... Any suggestions????

Error while importing music in iMovie 11 From itunes 10

Error while importing music in iMovie 11
I have the same error explained in a other post which was still left unanswered
I have this sound problem after reorganising folders by itunes, i tried to delete al files in itunes and also
deleted the xml file in the itunes dir, created new playlists, but still i have no music sound in imovie timeline
after dragging a mp3 into it. When i preview the file in imovie it souds ok.
Also i see the red dot with the number 1 in the itunes logo while dragging the mp3.
Is there a solution for this problem?
Former post;
Re: Error while importing music in iMovie 09 from iTunes 09
Posted: Jul 24, 2010 8:08 AM in response to: vincentplaces
I'm having the exact same issue, but still haven't figured out what it is. I note that at the top of this thread it indicates that there are two "helpful" entries and one "solved" entry, but I can't find the solved one, so maybe someone will repost it here or kindly link to it.
There is one icon missing though.
As I read through the excellent tutorial at http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/imovie_09stone.html I scroll down to the point where he talks about dragging music in from iTunes, which is what I'm trying to do. I can see, in his screen shot, the extra little icon that is a red oval and a white "1" in it. I don't get that icon when I am trying to drag my music into the video. I do get the green and white plus icon when I try to drag my music in. Also I DO get BOTH the red 1 and the green plus when I try dragging in a sound effect, which I can do with no problem. But why not the music?
I've been able to drag in music with no problem in other productions, so I can't figure out what is going on with this one. I'm sure there is a setting somewhere that got flipped, but I can't figure out where.
In desperation I also tried adding an extra title slide at the end of my video just to make sure there is more video time than music time in the production, but that didn't help at all.
Any help guys?
iMac 27" Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Hi
Due to some kind of copy protection in iTunes - I don't copy directly from this in iMovie
to my projects. (Most often the result of doing it in iMovie is a DVD without any sound)
I do
• In iTunes - collect needed audio into a new Playlist
• then burn this out as an Audio-CD .aiff (NOT .mp3)
• This CD I copy into a folder on my Mac (often containing other material that's connected to the project)
• And then I drag and drop these .aiff files into my movie project in iMovie.
This works Greatly and even more so when I do my DVD.
Yours Bengt W

I need a digital camcorder that imports direct to iMovie - any ideas

I have been using a MiniDV JVC camcorder to import direct into iMovie - worked great but the camcorder heads are now worn out. So I use an Hitachi HD flash card camcorder that outputs AVI files. I then have to convert through Handbrake to get a useable file for iMovie.
This is much too slow as I produce lots of short video for customers - is there a better direct camera to get files straight into iMovie or should I use different software on the mac?
Last resort, I have been told to buy a pc to use for producing edited DVD movies - I don't really want to move off the mac - HELP?

Wow...good question.
Do your FCP setups have capture cards? You could send a signal from the toaster machine to FCP via the capture card and recapture the footage in FCP. Will take a while, but it should work.
Tough working with proprietary formats.
Shane

No sound after importing mpeg from imovie

Hello, i'm new to IMovie and i have the problem that all my video files made with my photocamera loose the sound when i import them into Imovie. the FAQ's tell me it is because they are in mpef-muxed structure. Can anybody help me with the solution on HOW to get my movies with sound into Imovie ???

I have exactly the same problem and took your advice, downloading MPEG stream clip. But it is not clear to me how to do this.
Previously I dragged the MPEG clips from iPhoto ( which played fine in QT with sound) into my iMovie and there was no sound ( as the OP describes).
So if you could spell out the exact procedure, I would be most grateful

Importing Video from iMovie HD - What's the Trick?

Hello brilliant Mac Fans,
I've been working steadily to create a cool demo reel for a client using iMovie HD (6) and Keynote '08. Well, the file in iMovie is Widescreen DV, and looks great. When I export it at full quality (as a dv file,) I play it in Quicktime and everything looks dandy, but when I drag that same file into Keynote, it has the wrong aspect ratio and has skips here and there...
I guess my question is, for Widescreen video, what are the ideal settings? Does anyone know the best frame rate, kind of file, etc. that plays well with Keynote?
Thanks to all for reading...

Hello Carol,
you can create slideshows in iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD. In iPhoto you can create your slideshow in a few simple steps with music and transitions, then export it to iDVD for DVD authoring. One drawback (for me) is that you choose the duration for each picture and a transition, and these will be applied to all the pics in the slideshow, so not much room for customisation. On the other hand, if you want something quick and simple, this might be the right approach.
In iMovie you can import the pictures from your iPhoto library and create a slideshow. Here you have the possibility to completely customize all the settings (length of each pic, different transitions and music) and you can add titles and effects if you like. The process in iMovie will be longer as you'll have to import the pics one by one and change settings everytime you want a different outcome, but it will be a more personalised creation.
In iDVD you can create slideshows more or less like in iPhoto with more or less the same options. You can import your pics from the iPhoto library or from a folder and set duration and transition type and add music.
There have been several posts on this forum regarding problems with pic quality when played from DVD on TV - one problem is that pictures and video are not the same (pixels vs. lines, interlacing etc.). I personally have had the best results by importing photos into iMovie and applying a Ken Burns effect to each, but have to say that I don't work much with pictures (mostly video), so you'll probably get other sound advice from other users.
hope this helps
mish

Importing clips from iMovie HD to FCE4

Hi. Have read with interest a couple of questions on this same issue, with the advice from Tom Wolsky seemingly being to not mix the two applications and just get stuck in with FCE. However, i'm finding FCE difficult to like/get to grips with. But more importantly, after attending some Apple onetoone sessions, it seems my Canon camcorder might be a little long in the tooth and there may be some tape slippage as I was getting time code errors when trying to import directly to FCE. The fix seemed to be to capture the footage via iMovie and import to FCE using 'show package contents' route. Having now though imported some footage from a second tape, I have some of the clips showing as Offline for some reason. Is the trick to import clips from IMovie as per Tom's suggested route on 9/8/08?

I import video from my camera into iMovie 4, because that is the last version of iMovie, I believe, that was capable of flushing unwanted video off the hard drive, and I can bring an entire tape into iMovie, trim it down for FCE, and then get rid of the unwanted footage. iMovie 6, like Final Cut Express, is a nondestructive editor and can't erase unwanted footage from the hard drive, and as you know, video uses up hard drive space FAST. To get rid of discarded edits, you either have to use iMovie 4 or Final Cut Pro.
iMovie is also much easier to import video into than Final Cut Express, with all the latter's complicated controls. With iMovie, you just plug in your camera, iMovie then says "Camera Connected," and you hit Play and Import. Stone simple. Also, in iMovie you can hear the audio as it comes in, and if I remember right (it's been a while since I did it in FCE), you can't hear your audio tracks as your video imports into FCE. Not a big deal, but an annoyance.
Once the video is in iMovie, then I cut and trim the video to get rid of all substandard/unwanted stuff, and then Empty Trash, which erases the unwanted video off the hard drive, saving mucho space over the course of a project. Otherwise, you're just stuck with the unwanted video, and all it does is fill up your hard drive. Then you export (or "Share," in iMovie parlance) your video from iMove as a QuickTime movie, and drop that QT movie into Final Cut Express's Browser. Then create your FCE project from it.
The only objection I have ever seen to this procedure is people complaining that their QuickTime movie from iMovie has to be rendered in FCE before FCE can use it, and this takes a bit of extra time. Well, that's true, unless you export your video from iMovie in a form that FCE can use natively. Then it doesn't need to be rendered at all--it's just as though you had imported it from the camera directly into FCE. Most people don't know how to set up iMovie to do that.
Here's how I do it: (this is iMovie 4; I assume other versions are the same), Select Share > QuickTime and choose Expert Settings. On the next screen, select Export: Movie to QuickTime Movie, and click the Options button. In the Movie Settings window that this brings up, on the upper (video) part of it, under the Video checkbox, click the Settings button there, and for Compression Type choose DV/DVCPRO-NTSC, and under Compressor Quality, move the slider to Best, and click OK. Under the Sound checkbox, click Settings, and then choose Linear PCM, Stereo, and 48.000 kHz for Sound Settings. Under Render Settings, choose Qualty: Best. Just below that, uncheck the "Prepare for Internet Streaming" box. Then click OK, and the window will go away, and you're ready to export.
Give the video a name, and a place to save to, then click SAVE. The QuickTime movie that results from this can be dropped straight into FCE and requires no rendering; it works just as though you had imported it directly into FCE from your camera.
Tom B.

Importing movies from iMovie 6

I followed the instructions in David Pogue's manual "imovie '08..The Missing Manual" but with no results.
I export the movie project from iMovie 6 in QuickTime, however when it appears on the desktop it is in the .mov format, not Quicktime.
So when I try to import it to iMovie '08 the project is on the desktop, but is dimmed.
I then tried to save the desktop movie (save as) in Quicktime, but the same thing happens. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong.

If you have any intention of creating DVDs from those projects, according to what I've been reading, don't do it. Use iMovie HD 06 and iDVD 09 to create your DVDs.
I've read that iMovie 09 is fine for posting videos online because of how it treats the export but 06 is the way to go to create content to be viewed on a TV.
I've read about this on these Apple boards and these boards: http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=80

Importing clips from iMovie - jittery

Just got Final Cut Pro 5 and I'm having a problem with importing clips from iMovie into FCP5. The clips were fine in iMovie, but the images are jittery in FCP. I tried Apple Care, but they wanted to charge me $200 to answer my question eventhough I just bought the software yesterday!
any ideas most welcome - thanks

Nowhere is it advertised that iMovie is compatible with FCP.
One is a consumer format, with less features, like lack of timecode. The other is a professional format, which relies heavily on timecode.
Yes, output to tape from imovie, then capture with FCP.
#20 Using iMovie to Capture for FCP edit
Shane's Stock Answer #20:
iMovie handles the media differently from FCP, specifically where audio is concerned. So it is not a recommended workflow. Here's why...
iMovie captures using DV Stream (.dv) standard which does not use timecode. That is a big disadvantage over the way that FCP captures in that you can't go back and recapture the material at a later date if you need to revisit a project.
The DV/NTSC specification (the one FCP uses) also calls for seperate tracks for audio and video, even if you capture it as one clip. iMovie' DV stream format is muxed audio and video, which means that they are tied together (I can't get into specifics because I ain't no engineer or programmer). FCP is a bit more demanding and captures the seperate audio/video tracks, either in a single media file or as seperate video and audio files. With FCP you could capture video only or audio only because each is defined by the DV specs. while with iMovie you can't.
Also, if you drop the iMovie footage into the timeline, your will get the RED render bar forcing you to render the footage in order to see it...
"There's no need to fear, UNDERDOG is here!"

I want to automatically extract my iphone-videos from the iPhoto library since I have way over 25 000 objects in there. Afterwards I would like to import them into iMovie. Anyone having an idea?

Dear all,
I want to automatically extract my iphone-videos from the iPhoto library since I have way over 25 000 objects in there. Afterwards I would like to import them into iMovie. Anyone having an idea? Or is there no possibility to do so?
Thanks in advace
Andreas

File -> New Smart Abum
Photo -> Is -> Movie
and export those:
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.

Importing analog to imovie

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