MJPEG HD and 24 fps

Question

I use iMovie 5 because I like it better than 6 and because I use of ton of picture correction plug ins since I do a lot of film transfer work.
I am considering having an old 16mm film transferred into high definition. The film is 24 fps. The transfer company uses Motion JPEG HD as the codec and will maintain the 24 FPS speed.
Will iMovie 5 accept this codec? Will I be able to import the file, do my picture corrections and then export the file and maintain the 24 fps speed throughout? Lastly, will QuickTime play this codec at this speed?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Providing a 24fps facility in video-editing programs is really for working in the opposite direction: it's primarily ..or was originally.. for people who want their cheaply-shot video material to be capable of being easily copied to film for showing in movie theatres. (..It was for documentary makers, and was introduced as a gimmick on cheaper home camcorders, although now mainstream movie makers - e.g; Danny Boyle and "Slumdog Millionaire" - use the facility to shoot hi-def video at 24fps and then transfer that to film after editing..)
If you're starting with film - e.g; 16mm at 24fps - but want to show that film on video equipment (..Blu-Ray, computer screen, whatever..) there's no need to keep it as 24fps, as long as the transfer to video at some other frame rate doesn't spoil the clarity or resolution.
iMovie can't handle 24fps, because it's a normal camcorder video editor. And MJPEG isn't a normal video codec.
But QuickTime can handle all sorts of MJPEG, because it's a Playback/Editing/Preparation program which deals with almost every sort of moving image you can throw at it: its specs ..or the specs of QuickTime Pro.. list all these varieties of image handling (click that blue link).
"..will QuickTime play this codec at this speed?.." ..Should be able to.
Here's the QuickTime Pro FAQ ..just ask in the QuickTime Discussions for further info ..or QTKirk will give you more info here in iMovie Discussions.
But you're unlikely to be able to edit your MJPEG/24fps transfer in iMovie. You can edit, however, in QT Pro. Final Cut Pro can edit just about anything.
iMovie, though, is for common video codecs, such as DV, HDV, AVCHD, H.264/MPEG4 as used in various movie camcorders, and it isn't intended for specialised codecs which aren't found in common camcorders. iMovie 5 certainly won't handle 24fps. The current iMovie '09 (which doesn't support the various effects plug-ins for earlier versions up to iMovie HD 6) accepts the widest range of codecs of any iMovie version, but can't handle 24fps.
You won't get very high definition from "..an old 16mm film.." because the frame is small, most 16mm optics (the lens for shooting the film, unless it's very recent) weren't especially good, it'll have to go through further optics to be captured, and the quality will probably be not appreciably higher in HD than it would be in standard definition video. Unless, when you say "..an old 16mm film.." this is a reduced version of a 35mm original, such as, say, Bessie Smith singing St Louis Blues. (That's a poor quality YouTube version.)
If it's a home-shot 16mm, then there's probably little point in transferring it to hi-def, and not much point in keeping it at 24fps.