No iMovie Support for MPEG 1 Muxed Video?

Question

When I installed the new iMovie as a part of iLife 08, my iPhoto video's were imported into iMovie...I thought. However, only six of my 400 video clips came across. I called Apple Care and was informed that MPEG 1 Muxed video - the format used by virtually every high end Sony compact digital camera I've owned - is not supported. I was told that, using QuickTime Pro, I could individually convert each video clip in my iPhoto database to MPEG 2 or 4, 4 being the most robust format. That's a major hassle, to say the least. It doesn't seem that Apple would intentionally exclude the video taken by a vast number of iPhoto/iMovie users - Sony camera owners - but it looks like I may be mistaken. Thoughts? ideas? workarounds?

Answer 1

Apple is meant to be about plug it in and work with it, not spend 2 weeks of ** trying to find information on how to do stuff.
What you say is essentially true. However, IMHO there is a reasonable expectation that the item "plugged in" will be of the same form of technology as that into which it is plugged. For instance, I would never expect to "plug" a V2 rocket engine into a 1969 XKE Jaguar in place of the standard 6.2 liter gasoline engine and expect it to simply "work out of the box." Not all video is equal. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 muxed compression was not invented by Apple, the exclusive right to its use does not belong to Apple, and the spatial synchronization technology involved is different than Apple's own temporal synchronization technology.
How about apple just buy streamclip MPEG and integrate it into imovie 08 so that it is possible for it go say "this is a video I can't work with, please wait a moment whilst I reconvert it for you"... **, why not add it to iPhoto as well, so that it would do it when u add these videos from your camera and avoid the nasty iMovie issues.
Not a bad idea, but who pays for it? First of all, the QT structure does not reside within the applications themselves. They are now a fully integrated part of the operating system. (Ever wonder why you can't "downgrade" a QT update that is causing problems on your system or why people advise that you "wait and see" before installing?) So essentially, the operating system itself, as well as, all sub-systems and applications will have to rewritten, or at least modified, to properly interface with this new "hybrid" engine that you propose that Apple create. And if Apple is to integrate 2-decade old MPEG technology that pre-dates Apple's own technology and which has never been fully supported previously, should they not also include support for similarly aged interleaved compression formats (yet another synchronization technology) which are no longer supported even by their own creators? What about support for other current but proprietary codecs like VidX or WMP? While you may not want all of these different things supported, the man standing next to you probably does.
How much are you willing to pay? Surely Apple is going to pass the cost of research, development, and software maintenance on to the users. Will you spend an extra $225 to $250 to have muxed MPEG, DivX, WMV support "built in?" I'm not. Nor am I willing to foot the bill for outdated/abandoned AVI technology which I don't even use. I personally prefer to embrace the current modular approach and purchase/add only those components which I need on a daily basis but the person down the street doesn't use at all. Call it "freedom of choice" or call me a "cheapskate," but it is the way I feel about the matter. To me, it seems to boil down to a matter of "dollar$ & $ense." (Frankly, I would much prefer that Apple fix the current problems with its own supposedly "fully" supported compression formats before "mucking" about in the back yards of other manufacturers'. Of course, that is only my own personal opinion and I'm sure every reader out there as his or her own agenda here.)
This is not a technical issue. This is a usability issue. i refuse to trawl through my photo collection, re-encode them (even by batch process) and save back to their original locations.
Oh, I can agree that this is a usability issue, but only if "usability" includes the choice of hardware, choice to use/not use it, as well as, the choice to use/not use a workflow that avoids/gets around the problem.
1) If viewing and sharing of files is your only concern, then the choice of camera employing MPEG-1 compression is fine. However, the limited support for this format is well documented and of long standing (although I agree that Apple is not particularly "forthcoming" with that fact that is only "playback" supported).
2) I personally would never use any "still" camera to shoot video clips nor use a video camcorder to shoot "still photos. I.e., you should always use the best tool available for any given job. (E.g., I would not normally us a .22 to go rabbit or dove hunting nor a shotgun to go deer hunting or fishing either.) But, if your MPEG-1 still camera is the only "tool available," then the user must accept the problems that have always accompanied use of partially supported compression formats. (I.e., nothing has changed here.)
3) Am a bit more concerned about those who did their research, picked a camera that supposedly takes "fully" compatible QT video clips, and now find that iMovie '08 will not accept such clips. (E.g., Kodak cameras which take MPEG4/µ-Law clips and even places them in an MOV file container.) Makes me feel almost as if they were somehow cheated. However, at least these individuals can still use iMovie '06 in this case.
4) If you have a viable option that corrects the problem or gets around it and you choose not to use it, then that is a matter of personal choice and one should accept the consequences. Since these files were never audio supported in any iMovie version, I don't really understand why this incompatibility issue is suddenly such a big problem.