Scale import preview Windows in iMovie 11 ?

how can I scale the import preview window in iMovie 11 ? It worked in iMovie 09 (iLife 09) but it does not anymore in iMovie 11 .
Actually I did not find out how to scale my import preview window in iMovie 11 when I connect an external Firewire Camera. The Import Preview- Windows stays fixed. This worked fine in imovie 09 !!
When I switch to the internal iSight Camera then You can scale the Import Preview Window as I was with other iMovie Versions.

This forum is for mobile iMovie (iPhone & iPad).
You may need the iMovie Mac forum:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/ilife/imovie

Similar Messages

How to scale Import Preview Window?

how can I scale the import preview window in iMovie 11 ? It worked in iMovie 09 (iLife 09) but it does not anymore in iMovie 11 .
Actually I did not find out how to scale my import preview window in iMovie 11 when I connect an external Firewire Camera. The Import Preview- Windows stays fixed. This worked fine in imovie 09 !!
When I switch to the internal iSight Camera then You can scale the Import Preview Window as I was with other iMovie Versions.

Now I have the proof. There is a Bug in iMovie 9 (iLife11) with the import preview window..
In iMovie 8 it is possible to scale the import preview window to any size You like while importing video. In iMovie 9 this is not anmore possible, except with the built in iSight camera. I have checked on different mac's with different imovie builts and I can reproduce this problem anytime.

10.5.3: No more preview window in iMovie '08

It was fine until I installed the 10.5.3 update, now I have no preview of what I'm editing in iMovie '08, basically rendering the program useless. It can't be used if I can't see what I'm editing.

hi
this worked for my Preview problem.
i deleted the following files:
com.apple.Preview.bookmarks.plist
com.apple.Preview.ImageSizingPresets.plist
com.apple.Preview.plist
it took a few minutes. but eventually, Preview went back to working normally and displaying the photos i opended.
maybe deleting the iMovie plist files would help you?
hope this helps.

IMovie + Preview Window = Garbled GUI

Hey everyone
Lately, I've been experiencing an issue with iMovie in which the preview window suddenly becomes a randomized mess of images from elsewhere on the screen (stuff from the menu bar, text, dock icons, pieces of the wallpaper, etc.) This is usually accompanied by a system freeze. After this occurs, it happens not only in iMovie, but any time I use quicktime (not VLC, just quicktime, so it's an apple-related issue). However, I've recently noticed that it also causes GUI issues, such as folder stacks and file icons also becoming garbled (there was even an instance where the address book icon ENGULFED HALF MY SCREEN).
A restart usually solves this, but does anyone know a permanent fix for this? Do I need to reinstall iLife?

I see you've had 50 viewers look at this question, but no one has answered it. No one commented on my post on the same subject two days ago either, but we both have a similar problem. Here's my situation:
I am not able to see my movie in the "Preview Window" of iMovie, after creating a project and event. I had just erased my hard drive, installed a new system directly from SnowLeopard and added iMovie09 (then updated it to v. 8.0.6). Before opening and importing photos to iPhoto, however, I downloaded a DEMO VERSION OF APERTURE, to see if I wanted to purchase that instead of using iPhoto. Next I opened iMovie and imported some photos from Aperture. Everything worked fine. After a few days of working with Aperture I decided to delete it and use iPhoto09. Here's where the problems started. I could bring photos into iMovie from iPhoto but when I tired to make them run as a movie, nothing appeared in the Preview window. I've made dozens of iMovies before, so I expected it to work as it always had.
I deleted everything I could find about Aperture, even the Library/Cache of Aperture. I deleted everything I could find about iMovie even the Library/Preferences/com.apple.iMovie08. I reinstalled iPhoto09 and iMovie09. I've emptied the iPhoto libraries and started over there too with photos only, no video even, but I still can't bring in even a simple photo and have it appear in the Preview window of iMovie.
There must be a bug somewhere. I'd just like to make simple old iPhoto work with iMovie without the ghosts of Aperture interferring.
I know I haven't answered your question or helped you with your problem, but by combining our efforts and complaint, maybe someone will help us both.
Best wishes.

Aspect Ratio Problem (black bars on top and bottom in the preview window)

I have iMovie 08 and I have been shooting video on my new Canon HF100. It appears that in iMovie preview window my 1920x1080 (and even the ones I bring in in 960x540) videos appear to be in wrong aspect ratio - they are stretched beyond 16:9 ratio horizontally. The problem persists if I export the movie through Quicktime - the videos are still stretched. In the preview window in iMovie I have the right 16:9 box but it has black bars on to and the bottom. The clips themselves in the time line seem to be the correct aspect ratio.

Also I have found this on the export video screen which narrows it down a bit...
Here's how the source tab of that screen looks...
compared to the output tab, with the black bars that are my issue...
So where did I go wrong here?

IMovie 11 projects no longer working, preview window is glitched or black, event library not playing imported vids

I am having a lot of trouble with iMovie 11. I bought a new MacBook Pro 15" for the sole purpose of editing surgical videos for work. iMovie 11 was working great initially for me (taking full length surgical video - up to 2 hours) and editing these down to anywhere from 5 to 30 min videos highlighting crucial steps for the surgeries along with transitions, ken burns, etc (with the plan of overlaying narrative voice-over later). I had about 15 of these videos edited sitting in my Project Library and multiple imported videos (dvd to m4v via handbrake then imported via iMovie 11) in my Project Library. Now none of my projects play in the preview window, it's either black or a weird glitchy picture (like messed up pic of my doc or desktop... really weird) and only about 2 of my imported videos play in the project library, otherwise they are just black when I roll over them. My projects are still intact as far as edited clip lengths and transitions, but nothing plays, even in full screen mode. I tried making a new project and the imported video shows in the event library but when I add it to a project it's black (but does play in full screen mode, but impossible to edit this way). I think the audio is actually intact although i'm not positive because these videos don't have any audio (there's some baseline level that fluctuates on the audio bars).
I tried finalizing and exporting a project as an m4v (one that was a combination of two edited imported videos - one of the source imported vids working in the event library and the other not working) and the first half is all glitched up with no surgery video, but the second half is there with the transitions and everything (the half that is working in the event library). This part does not show up when I am trying to edit the project.
fyi - I had deleted some of the videos from my event library to unclutter a little some time ago, the projects were still working after that.
I can find all of my imported videos (in .mov format) that should be working in the event library when I look in the folder:
users/me/movies/iMovie events
If someone could please help me resolve this issue, I would really appreciate it. I put a lot of work and time into these videos and it would be near impossible to start from scratch (which would probably be on some other movie editor like windows movie maker since my iMovie is not working properly even for new projects). I'm hoping this is just some sort of glitch that can be fixed and my projects are still salvagable. I can't remember if this started after I did a system software update or not. This will be a huge dissapointment for me in the Apple platform if I have to scrap my projects because I had just switched over from the PC platform.
I even got Norton antivirus and internet security to make sure I don't have some sort of weird virus.
I have a Feb 2011 15 in MacBook Pro 2.2 Ghz, 4 g RAM, 750 g HD, 1 g vid card. iMovie ver 9.0.4. Lion 10.7.2

Did you by any chance upgrade your Mac OS from version 10.6 (Snow Leopard) to 10.7 (Lion) during the time you were working in iMovie on all these projects?
If not, start by deleting the iMovie Preferences file.
Go to the Desktop
Hold down the Option key and choose the Go Menu > Library
Go to Preferences > com.apple.iMovieApp.plist
Move the .plist file to the trash and restart iMovie
See if the Project files react any differently. Failing that try doing a Repair Disk Permissions:
Restart the Mac, hold down the Option key continuously until 2 hard drive icons appear
Choose the Recovery Volume as your startup disk and let it run until you see the Desktop
Choose Disk Utility from the Recovery Menu
Run Repair Disk Permissions in Disk Utility
Reboot the Mac and when you see the Desktop appear launch iMovie
See if the Project files are the same or different. Next step after this is to one at a time take the Project folders out of users/me/movies/imovie projects. Move one to the desktop and start iMovie. Try skimming the projects that acted up recently. Moving one project at a time might help isolate which project may be causing problems. You can also place project folders back in their original location after doing this testing and iMovie will recognize them on the next relaunch. It won't hurt anything.

Audio Disappeared in iMovie Event Preview Window

I've been using iMovie 09 for about 2 years with no major issues. Today I added some new clips, and for some reason I can no longer hear audio in ANY of my "events" in the preview window (or whatever it's called--I'm talking about the box where you look at your clips and decide which parts to add to your project). If I select a section and add it to a project, it plays fine (ie with audio) in the project window, but nada still in the preview window. Anyone know what's going on?

Are you able to check the Volume setting for those imported clips? I've had clips that I've dragged from the Event Library into a project suddenly lose their audio. When I looked at the audio waveform it was flat. But I could drag the volume up to get it back to 100% where it should have been when I dragged it originally.
Try this: Click on the clip in the Project time line, where the little 'gear' icon appears on the clip. From that pop-up menu choose Audio Adjustments:
You will see the iMovie Inspector window open with a whole series of audio adjustments you can perform on just the audio track iself. The one you want is Volume, near the top of the window. That should always be 100%.

IMovie 11 - Black/Empty Preview Window

This is a problem that arose yesterday and after searching the Internet I can't seem to find an answer other than "You need to re-install the OS" - but obviously that's a last resort for me.
Basically whenever I import a clip in to iMovie 11 the preview window on the right shows up as black - sound doesn't seem to play either.
I'm using iMovie 11 on a 13 inch MacBook Pro using a 2.4Ghz dual core processor (the model that came before the current quad core ones) with 4GB RAM. I've happily been using it without any real problems up until now.
I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software but that doesn't work.
Any solutions? I'd really rather not have to install OS X all over again. Random, nonsensical issues are the reason why I jumped ship to OS X.
Update: The preview box now shows a preview image, but it's a frame of a video that I did not import in to iMovie. http://i51.tinypic.com/2mg3uh.jpg

well... after a lot of trial and error, with a similar problem...
I have narrowed mine down to 2 differnet approaches that work (anything else results in black/blank video in preview and export)
If the photos already fit the proper aspect ratio (i.e. cropped in iphoto to 16:9 already)
- setup project with NO transitions when you define it to start with
- before you import anything, turn ken burns off, set it to "fit image" or whatever
Regardless of size/shape of image
- setup the project WITH transitions (i've just used the default Disolve i think it was)
- leave ken burns ON...
Bottom line, if i try to turn off Ken Burns AND have it Crop the photo.... i'm dead in the water... and the transitions seem to be tied with Ken Burns.... either take em both or neither....
of course your mileage may vary... but maybe that will help someone .... or maybe apple will read it and fix it

I went to import special characters in imovie '11 and now the character window comes up on every application, yet won't open in iMovie at all, it flashes across every screen on each key/mouse click

I went to import special characters in imovie '11 and now the character window comes up on every application, yet won't open in iMovie at all, it flashes across every screen on each key/mouse click, stops the other software from running, and won't shut off, ever.

Try trashing the .plist in Home/Library/Preferences which has CharacterPalette in its name.

Cannot Edit Imported Objects in Preview Window

Greetings,
I am having a strange problem with Premiere CS5. In the picture below I have a video on the video1 layer and a static .png picture of a badge on the "Badge" layer. I want to move the badge from the right side of the screen to the left side of the screen.
No matter what I try, I cannot click or edit that badge in the preview window above the sequence window. I have double clicked, single clicked, right clicked. Two experienced video editors have also looked at it and they cannot seem to figure it out either.
This is a new installation of CS5, so we are thinking it is some kind of strange setting we are not aware of. Also it's not exclusive to this project or file type. We have tried .gif files, .avi files, etc. We have opened new projects and tried importing a video or static object there and you cannot edit the placement of it. Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Select the PNG in the time line by clicking on it, go to the effects control panel and use motion/position to place it in the location you want..

How to export iMovie clips for import to Windows video editing programs?

What export format creates an exact digital copy of mini-dv video which can be recognised and imported by Windows video editors?
I need to give editable copies of DV to Windows users, The lowest common denominator is Windows Movie Maker, which does not recognise .dv files created by copying from the project's Media folder, or Sharing a Movie to DV stream.
I want to burn data DVDs with clips or complete projects from iMovie which are equivalent to copying back to mini-DV tapes.
Is Share to AVI my only option?
If so, is there any loss in quality?
iMac G5, MacBook, iMac 233 (R.I.P.) Mac OS X (10.4.7)

after spending a few minutes on the net concerning that WindowMovieMaker, my guess is:
WMM does NOT accept a "file.dv" ...
but is does accept that same dv within an avi container... "file.avi"
avi and mov are just containers, not formats, as a box of chocolate, "wrappers" for many codecs...
try to export your clips as avi, and choose under compressor "DV"...- give that a try...
DV is the same codec which is in use on miniDV tapes, and the same, iM uses internally... so, it should be no quality loss.. just a "wrapping"...
(me no PCuser, just read that...)

IMovie, some photos on timeline will not play in preview window

There are a bunch of photos on the timeline that will not play in preview window.
I've tried all the tricks that were suggested in other posts. (moving photo to the desktop and then reimporting, etc)
several hours have been lost on this problem.
IOS 10.7.5
iMovie '11 rev. 9.0.9

I think it's a bug. It happens to me as well. You have to switch between windows, refreshing it.

My experiences of importing different formats into IMovie...!!

I’ve been through a lot of pain with IMovie for the last 6 months, and cracked it a couple of days ago. I therefore feel the need to write about my experiences.
I have lots of old footage on:-
1. DV tape
2. HI8 tapes
3. Sony mini-DVDs
4. DVDs
5. Sony standard def hard disk camcorder files.
1. DV tape
This was a joy to import. OK, so I had to invest a small amount of cash to buy a new cheapie DV camcorder (as my old one broke years ago), but the import itself was easy. Just connect the camcorder, the import window appears, and away to go. Events are imported with the correct date and time, and it even creates a new event for different days imported.
2. HI8 tapes
As I’ve only got a few of these, I decided to ‘cheat’, so I’ve recorded them onto DVDs using my domestic DVD recorder sitting under my TV. So the problem is shifted from HI8 tapes onto DVDs.
3. Sony mini-DVDs
I’ve been trying to crack this issue for months. Clips are imported in random order, even though they are shown in the correct order in the preview. Hopefully it will get sorted. See the following thread:-
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9404421&tstart=0
4. DVDs
Haven’t tried this yet, until the mini-DVD issue is sorted. I might go down the road of converting the VIDEO_TS folders into DV files using MPEG Streamclip from squared5.com but I’d rather wait and import them ‘properly’ as the software intended.
5. Sony standard def hard disk camcorder files.
Now this is the biggie…..
I had about 1,000 MPEG2 files on my hard disk, that I’ve moved from my camcorder over the years. To my annoyance, when I switched from a PC to the Mac, I needed to buy the MPEG add-on to Quicktime. OK, so no big deal, but even then, all I could get was the video with no sound. After weeks of digging about, I found out that the reason there was no sound is because apparently Quicktime can’t handle MPEG files with AC3 dolby digital sound. As all of my files are recorded in this format, this was a major hurdle.
I then dug around and discovered that on the Sony CD that comes with the camcorder, there is a utility to down mix the AC3 audio to stereo. But it can only do one file at a time – no good for 1,000 files.
Even so, I tried a few files, and yes – they now played under Quicktime WITH audio.
But when doing an import into IMovie 09, the files are greyed out and cannot be selected. So back to the drawing board...
I then looked into various bits of software, finally deciding to get MPEG Streamclip, in order to convert the files in something more Apple friendly.
I did lots of experiments over many weeks in converting files to different formats for import into IMovie, and even though some of them looked excellent, when exporting to different sized export files (e.g. IPod, AppleTV), some of them had artifacts and shimmering all over the place.
Reluctantly I took the helpful advice of someone to convert them into DV files. I say ‘reluctantly’ because the files are HUGE. So much so, I then shelled out (even) more cash on a Drobo to store all the converted DV files.
Next problem...
Because MPEG Streamclip converts the files into DV files, the original date and time information is lost. This is a real pain and means IMovie thinks all the files are 2009.
I then purchased the excellent ‘A better finder renamer’ and ‘A better finder attributes’, to see if I could rename the files. Unfortunately there is no easy way to say ‘change the date/time on the new DV file to be the same as the old MPEG file’ a thousand times over.
I then approached a company about writing a bespoke automator script to do this for me. But it was going to be expensive.
I then set about manually changing some of the dates of the files.
Even then, IMovie was getting confused during the import, and putting some of the scenes in the wrong order. Looks like because MPEG Streamclip is so quick at doing the conversion to DV, that some of the files have the same time stamp, so IMovie gets confused.
I then looked into software to slow my Mac down, so that MPEG Streamclip would run slower (I wanted to guarantee that each file out of the thousand that it created was created in a different MINUTE to the last file). This was proving fruitless however.
I then had useful discussions with Appleman1958 - see thread -
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1979095&tstart=0
who suggested that I could rename the files with the IMovie notation, i.e.
clip-yyyy-mm-dd hh;mm;ss.ext
I even worked out how to do this automatically using ‘a better finder renamer’.
But there was still one more issue.
When the files were imported into IMovie, the thousand files would just come in as one event (unlike importing DV tape where it splits into days).
Being unhappy with this, I had a brain wave and decided to try something else. AppleMan1958 helpfully suggested putting the files into different folders “behind IMovie’s back”, something I was open to doing, but wanted to try something else first...
I resurrected my old camcorder from my attic, and filmed a few minutes of footage.
I then plugged the camcorder into my Mac. To my AMAZEMENT, the import window appeared in IMovie (just like it does for DV tapes), AND the audio played as well as the video. I was absolutely staggered.
I then noticed an ‘archive’ button within the import window, so decided to press it. It then copied the MPEG file from the camcorder onto the hard disk. But it did so in the structure of the original camcorder (i.e. it creates a series of specially named folders, just like on the camcorder).
I then decided to copy all 1,000 of my MPEG2 files into the new special structure that had just been created.
All 1,000 files were then accessible using the standard import function!!!!
(By the way – I’m sure people already know this information – and I’m in no way taking credit for any of it, as it’s probably been suggested by other people in the past).
I’ve now happily imported all of the files.
(Interestingly, a couple of times it said ‘Error!’ on importing some of the files. The third time I tried it, it worked. How random!!)
What amazes me is that now the Mac CAN seemingly handle MPEG video AND ac3 audio, whereas it can’t handle it by double-clicking the files in the finder. I can’t see why this should be the case. Also, it’s really annoying that when importing the files from hard disk, the files are totally greyed out – but it CAN import them by fooling IMovie into thinking it’s a camera archive.
Ofcourse now I’ve spent all this extra money, it’s time to dust off the old camcorder and use that for a few more years, until I pluck up the courage to go hi-def...
Hope you enjoyed reading – thought I’d share my experiences incase there are any newbies out there with similar issues. It’s annoying that Apple make it seem like childsplay to connect your new shiny camcorder to IMovie, but seem give little help in the more technical issues.
Now, if only they’ll fix the mini-DVD import bug too...!
Brad

Hi Brad,
when you use Streamclip to convert media, use the same name for the exported file (only with different extension). Then make a shell script calling
touch -r origFileName.mp2 newFileName.mov
This will copy the exact time and date from origFileName.mp2 to newFileName.mov
The script may look like this (save the file, give an exec permission to it and call it in the right directory):
#!/bin/bash
for i in `ls *.mp2`; do
NEWNAME=$(ls "$i" | sed -e 's/mp2/mov/')
touch -r $i $NEWNAME
done
You may need to adapt the extension names used (in the example above .mp2 is input file to get the date/time stamp from and .mov is the output file to stamp.
Have fun and cheers

Import Previews are very poor/pixelated ... D90 RAW

When I am importing my NEF files from my D90 with a card reader, my import previews are of a very poor image quality. Once the images are imported, previews look great.
Is there any way to improve the quality of import previews from the SD card?

Well Kevin, did you take look to the Aperture tutorials like this http://www.apple.com/de/aperture/tutorials/#organizeimport-importbasics ?
I am using a Nikon D100 and since few Weeks a D300 too and I do not have such trouble with the previews as you describe. Well, I do ever take a look to each image at full screen size and zoom it in to 100 % of size before I delete a photo. Thats can not be done in the simple preview window at import.
Yes, Adobe Lightroom has partly some advantages over Aperture, but what I ever saw and tried out with Lightroom - for me - only the printing capabilities are the one, of which Aperture has to pass.
I do have now over 15 thousend of photos in my Aperture library and do not want to switch over to Lightroom because of better printing features. If you like to switch over, do it - there is no reason to stay on with Aperture. Except you are using many of Apple Apps.
I use iMovie 09 and Final Cut Express for creating slide shows of my photos, more seldom I use iPhoto for this. I do a lot of lay out work with Pages, use iWeb for some of my sites and so on. Within all of them I use without any pain the photobrowser with photos from my Aperture library. That can not be done with Lightroom, for example.
Message was edited by: Adrian Wackernah
Message was edited by: Adrian Wackernah

Photos not previewing properly in iMovie hd6

From an external HD I import jpeg photos into imovie hd 6.0.1 to make a slide show. If I do anything else (move slider in frame view) in iMovie using preview goes blank or may revert to the last photo in my iPhoto library (which I am not importing from). Also, after emptying the trash in iMovie mulitiple photos lose the ability to preview (black screen). iMovie 5 never did this. Any suggestions? I'm not sure I understand the 'plist' referred to in other threads.
power mac G5 dual 1.8 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Updating Ken Burns stills works only until you empty the trash
After emptying the trash, and then selecting the still to be updated via the Media/Photos/Show Photo Settings tab, the appropriate Ken Burns update window appears but the view screen is black and the still isn't updated.
The reason for this bug is that iMovie HD 6 discards the source image of the imported clip when we empty the iMovie trash. In all previous versions of iMovie, that source image was retained in the Media folder, allowing us to later Update the rendered clip. That's no longer true. The image is being tossed out of the iMovie trash, making a future Update impossible. And because the source image is gone, iMovie displays nothing but black in the Preview window.
One workaround, of course, is to never empty the iMovie trash. If you never do that, you'll always be able to Update your rendered images. The bug won't have a chance to bite.
A better way is to trick iMovie into retaining the source image it stores in the Media folder and never discard it when you empty the iMovie trash. If you can force iMovie to retain that source image, you'll always be able to update the rendered clip that uses the image. (Remember, it's only the source image of RENDERED clips that iMovie discards when it shouldn't.) How to force iMovie to keep the image? Make an unrendered clip of the image by importing it with the Ken Burns checkbox OFF, then drag that clip to the Clips pane. Leave it there. Later, to create your animated still-image clip, either import the image again, or Option-drag its twin from the Clips pane to the Timeline. (Option-dragging copies the clip. Then Update it with the Ken Burns checkbox ON. iMovie will render it normally.)
Why does the first clip "protect" the rendered clip? Because this bug is not the smartest bug in the colony. If the source image has been discarded the bug is too dumb to notice, and substitutes black. (That's the bug.) But if the Media folder contains a source image named "Image xxx" the bug uses it, even if it's not officially connected to the rendered clip. So the UNrendered clip protects the RENDERED twin.
Thanks to Iain MacDonald, Al Seper and Karl Petersen for spotting and explaining this bug.

Scale import preview Windows in iMovie 11 ?

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