Transferring IMovie clips into FCE

I have imported video clips using a CanonGL2 camera into IMovie6 and would like to drag some of the clips from the IMovie6 DV project into a FCE HDV project.
Is it that simple just to add and drop, or do I have to do any conversions? Or should I reimport the video clips into the FCE project over, I am trying to avoid having to reimport the video again, but not sure if I will lose any quality.

In FCE use File>Import>Files and navigate to the iMovie clips and import them.
You will have to render them to make them work properly.
Here is the manual's info:-
To open an iMovie project:
1 In Final Cut Express, choose File > Open.
2 In the dialog that appears, select the iMovie project you want to open.
The iMovie project opens in the Browser and contains the sequence and the clips as
they appeared in the iMovie Clips pane.
Important: Final Cut Express does not import iMovie sound effects, audio levels, or
transitions. All other applied effects are imported.
3 Double-click the sequence to open the iMovie project in the Timeline.
4 Render the sequence.
The imported clips are linked to the original media files captured in iMovie (found in
the iMovie project’s Media folder). These files are iMovie DV Stream files and are
encoded differently than the QuickTime files Final Cut Express captures. Keep the
following in mind: DV Stream files do not have timecode tracks, so media imported from iMovie
project files cannot be recaptured. All imported source media must be backed up
for future reediting.
Imported iMovie DV files might not play back or print to tape in real time without
being rendered first.
Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

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Ok Guys, I know this is a pretty hot/touchy topic around here but I thought I would start a new topic as I am not even getting past step 1 as discussed in several posts and in the way that apple advertise!?
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Hey Tom, Thanks for the speedy reply!
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Can't import ACVHD video clips into FCE?

First, I've read so many forum comments on this I'm blue in the face, but i've still not found a solution. I've spent the better part of a week reading on this issue and still no joy, so please don't ask me to search - I've done that. To set up my issue...
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I've already bought two video format softwares to change the MTS files to something else but that's not the route I want - I don't want to lose all the resolution. So amyone have any ideas how to get ACVHD files into FCE??? I'm about to shoot either the camera or me to put one of us out of our misery! This can't be that complicated as the ACVHD is a hugely common format.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I dowloaded the QuickTime 7 version but when I attempted to process the clip I was instructed to do a "Save As", but since I do not have the Pro version of QT that's not an option. Any way around that?
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Open the file in the QT player and report exactly what it says in the movie inspector. There is no such video frame size.
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Where can I get the codec to import iMovie clips into Premiere CS6?

I am running a PC with Win7 & PPro CS6
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They are all a special form of .mov
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Aza

Considering the last post was made in March last year, I've attached the feature request I made today, just so you know you're not alone on this issue, for anyone with the same problem.
MAC to PC Support:
There needs to be a comprehensive and readily supplied library of codecs to provide simple transitions between MAC and PC.
I'm currently working on my first feature film. I raised a little bit of money through Kickstarter, enough to buy a decent HD camera and a microphone. Basically, I'm not a professional and I'm learning as I go. The camera I bought is a Canon XHA1- it records to mini-DV. I do not have the money to buy an HDV tape deck, leaving me with the only other option of using the firewire port to capture footage off of the camera itself. I had a firewire-to-USB cable, which I used to capture footage to my PC, but after getting a new computer with Windows 8, the camera is now out of date and the OS has no drivers for it. I then decided to capture my footage on an old i-Mac my friend gave me, through i-Movie. After moving the files to my PC, I found that Premiere Pro CC was unable to import them.
Needless to say, the song and dance I have to go through every time I try to capture footage is frustrating, and considering the mission of Adobe Creative Cloud, to provide affordable opportunities and resources to independent artists, not to mention the fact that Adobe is for both Mac and PC (and especially not mentioning the fact that it is a service I am paying for monthly,) I feel like these kinds of problems shouldn't exist.
Of course saying "I pay for this, this problem shouldn't exist" is the rallying cry for every idiot who expects the impossible. But capturing on i-Movie... and importing to Premiere Pro? Really? Why is this an issue? Maybe i-Movie is out of date... but I'm not going to waste another weekend capturing; it probably still won't work.
I'm not asking for file conversion software. That's what I'm going to have to do on my own, for GBs upon GBs of footage just so I can get to the editing table. The problem is that I have to convert it in the first place. If there is any progress on this issue, please let me know.

Importing clips from Imovie into FCE - Clips don't match

Hi
OK I have been successfully importing Imovie clips into FCE, but have recently hit a problem. I make a rough edit in IMovie but when I open the imported file in FCE I get different footage to that which sits in the IMovie project.
Yes I am opening the right clips

nothing?
ok I have worked around it a little by importing all the footage and that way I get most of it but still not all of it makes it through

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Dear members:
How can a clip be split in two or more clips using FCE ?
I have just recently moved to FCE from iMovie and this was a rather simple procedure to accomplish in iMovie. I have searched but haven't been able to find instructions on how to do it.
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Hi, Piero:
Thank for the many pointers and helpful tips you shared. I have found them extremely helpful. I do have some other questions:
I understand your point about the lack of ability to free up unused disk
space in FCE, while in iMovie it is standard and easy practice. I think this is
the result of the FCE design approach: a cut down version of FCP where the
FCP Media Manager (that to my knowledge addresses this issue) is
completely removed... while a simpler iMovie-like subset of its functions
should have been left in FCE.
I would be willing to consider an upgrade to FCP if this will address the limitations I have found in FCE. However, it would be important for me to be able to import all the footage I have already captured in FCE into FCP. Is it possible for FCP to import projects directly from FCE in a simple manner ? Do you know if Apple offers an upgrade path for FCE owners to move up to FCP or Final Cut Studio ?
Anyway, the answer to your question: would it be possible to capture the
footage in iMovie and then transfer it to FCE ? is yes, as long as you accept
some limits and take some precautions.
Limits:
- no time code is recorded by iMovie; as a result FCE won't be able to
recapture project in the future, if this is a point for you;
- if you simply import iMovie clips into FCE, in FCE you are forced to render
all audio before any editing.
In order to avoid audio rendering you must first convert the .dv clips (as
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do it with QuickTime Pro, MPEG Streamclip or iMovie itself using the
Export/Movie to QuickTime Movie (NOT DV stream) and applying the
correct compression (DV-PAL or DV-DVCPRO/NTSC), frame rate (25 or
29,97) and audio options (uncompressed/linear PCM, stereo, 48 kHz, 16
bit).
Piero
The solution above sounds very time consuming and I would prefer to maintain the timecode in the captured footage. From your explanation it seems FCP with its media manager would be the perfect solution to address my individual needs.
Thanks again for your help and suggestions.
Joseph

Imovie locks up/crashes every time I drop a film clip into the project

Almost every time that I drop in a film clip to my current project, iMovie locks up and crashes producing a long readout for Apple. I've made plenty of projects, but this one is due by Friday. I have to keep waiting to close it and go back in. Every so often, a clip will drop in perfectly. Sometimes, just the audio drops in (no video). This will take forever at this rate! Any ideas?

You could try converting the clips to DV using MPEG Streamclip, then import the resulting QT DV clips into FCE. In MPEG Streamclip, select Export to QuickTime, then select Compression = "Apple DV/DVCPRO NTSC" with a 720x480 frame size. I don't think that selecting "Other" frame size will work, I suspect it would still require rendering once in FCE.
Alternatives
You could also try using MPEG Streamclip to convert the video to Apple Intermediate Codec, selecting the 1280x720 (HDTV 720p) frame size .
You might look into whether your camcorder can downconvert the video to DV during playback, and recapture the video in FCE using the DV-NTSC easy setup.
Provided one of these 3 techniques works, it will be better & faster than rendering your existing video clips in FCE.

Capturing with iMovie and importing into fce 4

Hi, everytime I try to capture mini dv footage from my Panasonic camcorder using final cut express, the transfer/capture crashes.
However, capturing using iMovie 08 gives me no problems at all.
Before I spend more time looking into the errors, if I capture using iMovie 08 and then import that into fce 4, am I losing any audio / video quality? I read somewhere that iMovie works off raw dv files - is this what would get imported into fce?
Note: I would import the iMovie project into fce and not be exporting first from iMovie and then importing into fce.
thanks

My video is on mini-DV. The camera I used to record was a panasonic ag-dvx100 PAL. I am using DV-PAL easy setup. I am playing back with a panasonic nv-ds30 camcorder (I rented the other one).
I have now managed to get past the dropped frames - that seemed to have been the test tape. I am now using a different tape, the actual tape i used for the footage. Now everytime I capture (using either mark in/out or capture now) the capture stops with a locating timecode and then breaks. I can't seem to capture it all in one go. This scene when I shot it was a single scene so there were no stops/pauses during the recording.
There seemed to be some discussion on this in the thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4183209#4183209) but that was a different camera.
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Importing from Imovie 08 to FCE 4 - problems

Hi
Why cant I import projects from Imovie 08 into FCE 4. According to the manuel it should be possible. All I get is a "File error, wrong type" ????
The manuel:
To open an iMovie project:
1 In Final Cut Express, choose File > Open.
2 In the dialog that appears, select the iMovie project you want to open.
The iMovie project opens in the Browser and contains the sequence and the clips as
they appeared in the iMovie Clips pane.
Important: Final Cut Express does not import iMovie sound effects, audio levels, or
transitions. All other applied effects are imported.
3 Double-click the sequence to open the iMovie project in the Timeline.
4 Render the sequence.

Look at FCE tutorial page:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/tutorials/
Michel Boissonneault

AVCHD ingestion into FCE

Recently bought a Panasonic HDC-HS300 video camera. Attempts to ingest HD video clips into FCE 4.0.1 using the Log and Transfer method described in the FCE manual (beginning pg 220) failed. When moving clips from the preview pane to the queue, they start but then go idle. Tried deleting them and starting over as the manual suggests, but further attempts still fail.
Suggestions anyone?
Teddi

Tom, I'm hoping you can help me with this same problem. The configuration details are:
= Camera JVC Everio GZ-HD300SAA
= Footage shot at XP setting, and displaying in the Log and Transfer browser at format 1080i50 (25fps), PAL format
= iMac details as per my signature
= Easy Setup settings set to HDV - Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i50
= One minor concern is that the device control description in that setting still shows HDV FireWire PAL; but I figure this is unlikely to be a problem since the clips all play just fine with the playback controls in the Log and Transfer viewer (but I can't find where to modify that device control setting if I need to).
= In the context menu on the clip, the Preferences pop-up is set to transcode to Apple Intermediate Codec and audio to Plain Stereo (changed following your hint earlier in this thread).
= The drive is an external WD MyBook 2TB (new, still has 1.96TB free), formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I already have some other clips imported into this project from the hard disk, where they had been previously captured from a different camera using iMovie. These other clips are also in the Apple Intermediate Codec, in HD (1440 x 1080). They can also be previewed in the FCE viewer with no problems. They are on the same drive.
Observed behavior:
= When I connected the camera, all the clips appeared automatically in the Log and Transfer (L&T) browser, as expected.
= Every clip can be selected in the L&T browser, and then appears in the L&T preview area. They respond completely normally to the viewing controls, scrubbing (as per manual, only updating when you stop etc), play, jumps etc for all buttons working as normal)
= The correct bin is selected, and confirmed with the Reveal Logging Bin button. Up to here, everything is good and normal.
= When any clip is dropped into the Queue (by either button or drag&drop), the Status column shows a spinning icon for about 12 seconds, then stops. The status message above the Queue now says "1 clip queued - Idle". The progress bar has never illuminated. And if I click on that item, the status icon changes to a red shriek error icon, with the tool tip "Error: No Data".
I've run out of manual references, help, and online searches to solve this one.
Incidentally, I'm an absolute newbie to FCE (installed only this very evening! ), but a veteran of Premiere, iMovie, and ULead products, and a video veteran going back into the 1980s working with 2" broadcast tape! So I have a clue about what I want to do, but am currently very frustrated with the tool settings to get it right. Will certainly appreciate any help to get me going over this initial speed-hump.

Rendering imported iMovie clips in Final Cut Express

I'm learning FCExpress with a previous iMovie project as my footage. The clips/edited sequences dragged/dropped to the browser from an iMovie need to be rendered, but when I click "render all" a menu appears with a list of checkmarked and uncheckmarked options that I cannot find explained in either the Help window or the hardcopy manual. Maybe there somewhere, but haven't found it. Is it detailed somewhere? Or can you briefly explain the menu options and what the checks mean? Thanks. This has gotta be a dumb question, but I'm stuck there.
ibook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6) LaCie hard drive

Dear Tom,
I did the exact thing of importing iMovie Clips to FCE HD and I had to render the clips before I could add any effects to them.
1) I did this because I had problem with capturing clips from my DV camera using FCE. I had error message like "bad source tape". Any advice for this?
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Transferring IMovie clips into FCE

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