Stutter...issues with audio/video...and this is a common glitch?

Question

Okay...sorry to start another thread, but I don't want what I'm coming to understand to get buried in another thread, as I'm getting at the gist of this now I think.
My experience of my 55 minute movie getting dogged down, out of sync, video freezing and such...(after reading the link Karl provided) seems to infer that this is a common problem and one that is frustrating quite a few Mac/iMovie owners. I read over the number of threads on "stutter" and should I buy a stand alone Intel Duo 2 Core computer with iMovie6 and Final Cut Express loaded... I'm likely to have the same problem regardless, because this seems to be an issue and bug...
It was something else reading members suggesting to "try this"..."try that"...export the film back to the digital camera but in small portions. Turn small sections into Quicktime...and then try to load them into iDVD as chapters. Good grief.
If I've got the money allocated to me to purchase this new Intel...plus an external hard drive...I'm wondering why not instead invest in Adobe Premier 2.0 and Adobe Encore DVD for our PC's in the PC lab? We already have Adobe Photoshop 7.0 on those anyway..and it must be a good program as Apple goes, as I understand Adobe is making a future come back with this software for Mac.
Any thoughts why THAT direction might not be the best way to go?
I can't see trying to teach my kids to play this jump around try this...try that game with iMovie if this "stutter" thing is as common as I was reading.
You know...life gets a little this versus that. Harley folks versus the Honda. Chevy versus the Ford....but, we have both a Mac and a PC lab. I'm an artist and teacher and only interested in what's going to work...so, I share that not because I am biased one way or the other. I'm looking for solutions and don't want the school board and administration breathing down my back...if you know what I mean... $$$$$$
thanks

Answer 1

I've heard it said a couple times (me...I wouldn't
know as I'm somewhat a newbie to this stuff), but
that iMovie is kinda a basic fun level not too
serious video editing software. Good for your 3-6
minute YouTube variety videos, but not more
professional. Then again, I read one member here
saying they produced a six hour video with 400 still
images. Didn't say what they had for sound though.
People say lots of things about iMovie, sometimes with little or no knowledge. Suggesting that iMovie can handle only 3-6 minute movies is an example.
iMovie can do lots of things, but iMovie isn't a professional application so there are things it can't do. You can't create a multi-layer video clip, for example, where one video image slides across another behind it. But you CAN create multiple (static) layers of video in QuickTime Pro — which every serious iMovie user should have, in my opinion — and import that clip to iMovie. So if you want a picture-in-picture effect, you can have it in iMovie.
The success of a movie made with iMovie depends more on creativity and knowledge of the software than anything else. And like any application, you gotta learn the bugs, and how to deal with them.
Don't forget the huge advantage iMovie offers: the learning curve is not nearly as long or steep as professional editors. If you want to spend most of your time teaching about the software, use a professional application. If you want to spend your time teaching about making great movies, iMovie may be a very good choice.
One thing I haven't done is to look over my Sonar 3
music producing software for which we record music.
You know how it is...you get into this routine that
works again and again, and mindlessly I just save to
wav. format. I'll have to look...but I'm sure there
are any number of audio formats that could be burned
as voiceovers. Not familiar with AIFF...
AIFF is one of many audio formats supported by QuickTIme, the system software iMovie is based on. It is the audio format used by commercial audio CDs. It's what iMovie uses too. Any audio file you import to iMovie is (automatically) converted to AIFF. The audio of all video imported from a video camera is converted to AIFF.
Some audio files convert better than others. Sometimes non-AIFF songs imported from iTunes convert poorly, for example, and can cause stutter. I suspect it has to do with the compression of those files by iTunes, but I don't know that for sure.
I take it AIFF must be a bit like a .gif or .jpeg
photo image over a large .TIFF image? Condensed and
smaller. Is there much detectable noticeable
difference in quality?
Actually, AIFF is like the .TIFF image. It's the large, high-quality audio format.
Now...also Karl, you say you've never seen this
problem so...it could be that we'd clear this issue
simply by getting a stand alone machine and external
drive...but unless perhaps I go about producing my
audio tracks differently...we might still have the
same problems.
No, if the number of audio clips is causing the stutter, a standalone machine may not prevent it.
Have you tried moving your iMovie project to your local machine and testing it for stutter? That should provide a clue whether stutter is caused by, made worse by, or not affected by the network.
What...do most people use some kind of microphone
plugged into the computer to make voice overs?
Yes. Our voiceovers are automatically added to the iMovie project as AIFF files.
For voiceovers I use a simple Radio Shack combo headphone/mic plugged into a Griffin iMic, plugged into a USB port. Total cost: about $60.
With a professional studio, I can remove silence
noise, master sound and so forth. Garageband does
all that quite easily?
Sorry, no idea. (I don't use GarageBand.)
You've not heard much about the "stutter" issue...I
think it was oe of the posts where I was advised to
check out a link. When I searched "stutter" I got a
feeling for what others are doing, but no real SIMPLE
solution seemed to have been resolved to go about
dealing with it. Certainly nothing that I could
realistically teach HS students. They need a user
friendly option pure and simple.
I agree you need a user friendly solution. But the first step is to figure out what's causing the problem. then decide whether that's going to be a common problem in your lab. If the stutter you see is caused by having 100 audio clips in the project, but 99% of your projects have fewer than 80, it won't be a big problem. You can use a workaround if/when stutter occurs on the occasional project. (I wouldn't want to waste lots of time teaching workarounds, it doesn't hurt for students to learn a bit about workarounds too.)
One last thing...you mention "exporting the audio
clips" and then "importing them back" to convert to
AIFF...
you are doing this right from iMovie..and then what
or where are you doing this conversion?
Yes, it's all done in iMovie. iMovie lets us export the audio from a portion of the Timeline to an AIFF file, then re-import it.
The large "stutter topic" linked to earlier describes Workaround 4, how to combine audio clips.
Here's a link to that workaround:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2597029&#2597029
If that link doesn't work, click on the "more options" link above the search box on this page. Then do this:
Search for: +WORKAROUND +"combine audio clips"
Forum: All
Date: All
Username: Karl Petersen
That message is part of the much longer "stutter thread". If you haven't read the first message of that thread, you should. It describes how to test your project to learn whether the number of audio clips is causing stutter.
You mentioned you are importing .wav files to the iMovie project. That MAY be causing the problem. iMovie converts them to AIFF, and like a few iTunes songs, it's possible that conversion isn't going well. You need to rule it out as the cause. Your audio software should let you create AIFF files too.
Karl