Using different formatted clips in imovie

I am a teacher and through the years I have collected a large number of video clips from various sources. These clips are saved in a variety of formats. The formats include: .mov, .mpg, .avi, .vob, .wmv. I am new to imovie and I want to be able to use these clips in imovie and arrange them into movie presentations. I am aware that imovie works with DV clips and MPEG-4. What do you recommend. If I need to convert these clips, please tell me what program I should use and where I can go to download it. If I do convert all my clips, what format should I convert them to.

Streamclip and Quicktime with MPEG playback option will convert all the MPEG based files.
http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html
For the Windows Media I suggest conversion
http://flip4mac.com/wmv_upgrades.htm
Daniel C. Slagle
Keeper of the "Unofficial" iMovie FAQ
http://iMovie.danslagle.com

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Using different format video than the sequence.

I am a total newbie to FCP, though quite experienced with avid, premiere and vegas.
I've created a sequence in FCP with setup: 640x480 25p with quicktime settings photo-JPG 75%. I want to do a quick rough edit of tons of random footage I have, all using a variety of different format videos, some quicktime PJPG, some MJPEG, and some DV (no hard to edit mp4, mpeg etc.). I understand that to preview my edit properly I need to render my selection with command or option + R, but at the moment I cannot preview my edit at all without rendering. This is the first time I encounter something like this, other editors will at least play the edit - even applying basic effects, but just dropping frames - I'd need to render to play without dropping frames. But in FCP if my source footage is DV or any other format i just see a big UNRENDERED screen. Is there any way around this without converting all of my footage into P-JPG (which is definitely not a feasible solution).

Yea sorry I should have mentioned, its version 5.1 and its not my machine I'm using it on (Mac Pro 3Ghz 2x dualcore)... hence my profile not showing it. I am considering buying a Mac Pro and FCP (at the moment I have only the Macbook Pro).
I've heard so many positive things about FCP now that I thought the switch was inevitable - and this project I thought would be a good test to try out FCP. But from what I understand I picked a really wrong project to try it out! All the footage is already captured, some captured years years ago - and I need to do a quick edit. ... some of my source files are DV, some are MJPG, some are 640x480, some are 320x240, some are 720x576 etc.
To convert all of this footage to one res/format would require hundreds of gigs, and take way too long... I'd probably finish the edit in premiere on PC before the conversion of the media finished! The point of this edit is to get an idea of the finished piece, to narrow down the areas which I need to extract from all of the footage - i.e. in premiere I would do this rough edit, then 'trim' the project with a massive handle (a couple of seconds), and THEN convert all the trimmed media to one resolution/format (Which would be waaaay quicker, as its only 30-40mins instead of 50 hours) and then finish the edit/grade, work on individual shots in aftereffects, combustion etc. I really don't know much about FCP when it comes to setting up, options, performance etc... so I"m really hoping that I've set something up wrong somewhere. I"ve done DV edits on this machine before and they were very straightforward (DV files, on a DV timeline, DV project etc - nothing out of the ordinary)
MacBook Pro C2D 17" Mac OS X (10.4.9) Week 46 Build

How do use different formatting for a distinct "Section"

I have experienced formatting problems with an older document after upgrading to Pages 2.
There was a distinct "section" within that document with a different "top" and "bottom" border. I find myself unable to change the top and bottom borders within just the Section I want to revise. When I try dragging the ruler on the page in question, it changes the settings for the entire document.
Questions:
(1) How do I ensure that one of my document's pages is, in fact, a distinct Section with its own formatting?
(2) How can I change the page setup of that Section independently of the rest of the document?
PowerMac G5 dual 2.0 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hello David,
now I'm back for your problem. You are right: the settings "Before" and "After" of the Layout Inspector are only for the areas at the Layout Breaks unlike the "Left" and "Right" number fields. If you have long Sections you have to use a workaround.
You have to insert a placeholder at the top and at the bottom of the pages to "simulate" the wider margins. But don't be frightened, you don't have to do it for every page. For that, Pages has the Section Master.
If you have a "Facing Pages" document, place rectangles (the placeholders) with no outline and with no filling at the top and at the bottom of a left and a right page. This rectangles should be adjusted in that way, so they have the same width like the text area and the same height you want to have for the wider Margins. Give the placeholder the "Fixed on page" setting in the Wrap Inspector and no "Extra Space". If you have a none "Facing Pages" document, you have to position the placeholder only on the top and the bottom of one page. Please notice the settings "First page is different" and "Left and right pages are different" of the Layout Inspector.
After you have placed the rectangles, select them and choose the menu item "Format/Advanced/Move Object to Section Master". Now you have the space at the top and the bottom of every page in that Section. Only the Section with the oversized images may not have the placeholders.
Excuse me, that I haven't mentioned the workaround the first time, but to write the Layout Border thing. I have forgotten that only the "Left" and "Right" border settings are for all pages.
Frank.

Problem in using different format for Image files

We are generating a report wherein the logo (Image File) is changed with respect to the company's location.
Here, we are making use of a Text field using a formula column as its source for getting the file path.
When the Size is kept as "Expand" or "Variable", then, when the image size changes considerably, it gives problem, wherein the logo is not displayed.
Then we increased the size of the logo field and kept thte size type as Fixed. But the probnlem which we face is because of the .bmp format which the report accepts.
This is because, when the format type is bmp, upon increasing the resolution or size of the bmp increases the size by several folds( say from 70kb to almost 1000 or 1500kb) which leads to the error "Memory cannot be read" and leads to abrupt application termination.
Is their any way by which i can make use of GIF format for the image file and at the same time change the file name at runtime.
Eagarly waiting for an early solution.
Thanking you in Advance,
Ramnath Balasubramanian

Hi,
You can only use one Apple ID with iTunes match. Purchasing another match subscription using wife's Apple ID is not a solution. I can only suggest that you use your ID for match and all iTunes music purchases.
Jim

Appointment Letters with different formats

Hello Experts,
I want to generate appointment letters for different departments using different formats. How to create different formats for each department.
Kindly advise.
Regards,
Devendra.

The first question is can I do this with Reports?Yes, its possible in Oracle Reports. You can create multiple layouts in one report.
Also sometimes I will need to print some forms with
one format and not others. It can be done in reports. You have to use format trigger to hide or show a layout.
Is there a way to configure the report to print some
forms with their format if they have data and others
not if they don't have data.You can create a summary column on a group to check how many records it has and in format trigger of the particular layout (frame) hide and show the layout based on this summary column.
--- You have to use frame's format trigger to hide or show a layout
http://www.oracle.com/webapps/online-help/reports/10.1.2/state/content/navId.3/navSetId._/vtTopicFile.htmlhelp_rwbuild_hs%7Crwrefex%7Cplsql%7Ctriggers%7Ctr_format_trigger%7Ehtm/

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

Using .wmv clip in iMovie 6

How do I use a film clip, currently in .wmv format, in iMovie HD 6? I am using iMovie for the first time, and when importing a new clip with a .wmv extension, the clip has text across the middle of the screen 'Created with Flip4Mac Trial' 'www.Flip4Mac.com'.
I did have Flip4Mac, but have deleted it completely from the MacBook.

Sounds like you, at one time, converted a wmv to a .mov, cause wmv will not import into iMovie without converting it first. The watermark on it says that you didn't have a paid version. The free version allows you to convert up to 30 seconds of a clip, but lets you know that it's in trial mode with that watermark.
If you indeed want to use wmv stuff in your edit, then you'll have to buy F4M or there's another thing called Visual Hub...F4M is the better of the 2, but VH is about twenty bucks cheaper.

Importing old project creates different formats in clips

I imported an iMovie 3 project to continue working with in iMovie 6. It turned out that approx 1/3 of the clips were in 16:9, the rest in 4:3. I´d rather have all clips in the same ratio. They were originally imported in 4:3, at the very same occasion, from the same shoot. So, what can be wrong? I can of course re-import, as the tapes aren´t erased, but I prefer not to.
Anyone?

The Easy Setup affects a set of presets for your sequence settings, capturing, device control and external video. When you change your Easy Setup it affects the creation of future sequences & captures. Your existing captured clips & sequences are not altered when you change your FCE Easy Setup. So, yes, you can have two different projects that use different Easy Setups, like your example - one HDV and the other DV.
Just be careful about using your clips & sequences if you have more than one such project open at the same time. For example, putting an HDV clip in a DV sequence will cause some gnashing of teeth ... unless you have FCE 4.

How to use different video formats in the one timeline?

Hi everyone,
So I am in the middle of stringing together a rough cut for a surf flick/documentary shot in some remote Indonesian islands…
Things so far are going well, but I am slightly confused regarding the best way to tackle a slight issue (hopefully slight!) of video format compatibility.
The main shooting for the film was done with .mov video format and this has been imported/captured into final cut pro 7 using the correct settings, which has now formed the basis for my rough cut.
However, I did a lot of filming with some other cameras (underwater, POV etc) and so also have some crucial footage in different formats that to my knowledge will not be compatible with the timeline that I have already created in FCP.
The files are as following:
AVI
MOD
MP4
I am assuming the best way to go about things is convert all these different files into a compatible form that I can then drop straight into my existing timeline.
Unfortunately, I am just beginning to learn the more techy aspects of editing and I don’t have the first idea of how to go about doing this…?
Any helpful feedback would be greatly appreciated…
Thanks in advance,
m

Although there are kinds of standard workflows for best quality in final product, it helps to know a bit more about your setup... what is your primary format? Without knowing that, the best way forward is to convert all of your footage to Apple ProRes. Especially the MP4 stuff. There are different ways about doing that, but I personally recommend Compressor. This can take some time depending on the amount and lengths of your shots, but it is well worth the process.
Make sure you choose 48k / 16bit AIF for all of your shots that have audio. If some of your footage is 1080p and some is 720p, I personally leave that alone because when you have this type of a difference in footage, I like to set my sequence to 720p giving me the option to move or pan the 1080p clips inside of the 720p sequence. Final Cut Pro is very good at handling that difference.
Hope the edit goes well; sounds like a nice project!

Using PNG format with max width without clipping top and bottom of image?

I am using PNG format to preserve the transparency and drop shadow I am trying to incorporate to give the illusion that this slab object is floating above the other layers. I first tried file>place to position the menu object on edge of header/beginning of content. Doing that leaves no options to force the image to span the width of whatever screen. I need that so I've tried using object>fill> and then clicking the max width of the rectangle (which does solve the max width problem), but I am now dealing with a clipping problem of the top and bottom of the image. The next thing I can think of is to go back to Photoshop and distort the image so it isn't as tall. I feel there has to be a simpler way to accomplish this that won't also give my image a unnatural look. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Thanks, that helps. I also found that I cropped to much of the canvas. After increasing the canvas area AND setting to fill all is well now. I think your suggestion may help with the scrolling affect problem I'm having when using different resolutions. I am going to try to set the size in one dimension (height) so that different resolution screens see the same scroll actions. Thanks Mylenium!

Procedure and Format for emailing a short video clip from iMovie 08

I use one of the new Panasonic HiDef AVCHD digital video cameras. iMovie 08 works great, no complaints there. From time to time I would like to email very short (5-20 second) video clips, rather than putting them up on iWeb, YouTube, etc.
There are so many "sharing" options, and I haven't had much luck with emailing these short clips. Many of the recipients are Windows users, so I'm not sure QuickTime is the answer. What is the best way to email short video clips from iMovie 08?

What is the best way to email short video clips from iMovie 08?
Assuming you and your recipients' mail clients all allow attachments up to 10 MBs, then a 20-second clip can have a combined data rate of up to 500 KB/s (4.0Mbit/s). This means you can use any share/export compressions format option available to you from within iMovie '08. Therefore, the real question becomes, what compression formats can your recipients play. Have you tried asking them to see if there is a single compression format that everyone can play? If no QT compression format is compatible everyone, then you will likely have to perform a secondary conversion to one that will be compatible. H.264/AAC would provide the smallest files for a given level of quality but require QT 7 (or similar multi-media player). MPEG4/AAC would probably be the most compatible format you can export directly from within iMovie '08. (Would have recommended Sorenson 3/IMA but data rate limitation appears to be ignored.) MPEG-1 files can probably be played by everyone but have higher data rate requirements which may restrict files to SD dimensions and require additional software to create external to iMovie '08. DivX or WMV would probably make your Windows users happy but requires Mac users to have a compatible component for viewing in the QT Player.
Try the "Export using QuickTime" Share menu option ("Movie to MPEG-4") settings:
Video
MP4 File Type
MPEG-4 Improved Compressor
Data rate in the range from 1,000 (640x480) to 3800 (near HD dimensions)
Current (or user specified) dimensions
Current Frame Rate
Key Frame every 24 frames
Audio:
AAC-LC Music
Mono
64 Kbps Data Rate
44.1 KHz Sampling Rate
Better Quality

HT3130 trying to export a 4 minute video to desktop. Only 1:08 seconds exports. I've tried other clips and they all cut at 1:08. Used different exports like Quicktime with the same results.

trying to export a 4 minute video to desktop. Only 1:08 seconds exports. I've tried other clips and they all cut at 1:08. Used different exports like Quicktime with the same results.

Good to hear that you've had some success with the import.
I tried 3 times to do it before I finally changed it to H.264, and it worked on the first try. The quality of the compression was terrible with those settings compared to my standard settings, but I'm just glad it worked.
Rather than Share>Export using QuickTime and then choosing your own settings for H.264, you may get a better result if you simply use the Share>Export Movie option. Alternatively, use the Share>Media Browser option (as I mentioned in my earlier post). You will be presented with a range of sizes to choose from. Depending on your target, it's usually best to select the highest size available, such as Large, HD 720p or HD 1080p. However, for producing a DVD it's best to not go beyond the HD 720p size, as the DVD will be downscaled during encoding to Standard Definition in the appropriate size for either PAL or NTSC.
In my experience, both these options (Export Movie or Media Browser) produce a video file of excellent quality. The files will be in H.264 format and will have the file extension .mov or .m4v depending on the size of the export. I'm assuming that your camera records HD video in AVCHD format.
These files work well with iDVD (or other DVD authoring programs). The export process for the presets is optimised by Apple to produce high quality video files at a reasonable file size. So, selecting a preset may give you a much better result. Choosing your own H.264 settings when using the "Export using QuickTime" method could be why "the compression was terrible". You may have selected a data (bit) rate that was too low. There is always a trade-off between quality and file size when compressing video.
So, to summarise, try one of the Apple presets using either Share>Export Movie or Share>Media Browser.
John

I use photo stills in my iMovie. I want them to last longer than a minute, but when I input 01: 45: 00, to signify one min. and 45 seconds, it doesn't accept it. What is the proper format for inputting minutes?

I use photo stills in my iMovie. I want them to last longer than a minute, but when I input 1:45:00, to signify one minute and 45 seconds, it doesn't accept it. What's the proper way to input it?

There are 30 frames in one second of video. So you can specify down to the frame level, which is 1/30th of a second.
Is the Duration box switching to some other time every time you type in 1:45:00?
For instance this is a 5 second clip plus 3 frames. To get this set properly I would type in 1:45:00, then click done. I don't know if it is different under older versions of iMovie, as I'm using iMovie '11 for thisi example.

Print different format files using java API

Hi All,
I need to print documents ( MS-DOC, PDF, Plain Text ) using Java API. I do not need window for configuring number of pages to be print etc etc.. Whatever the file specified should be printed.
I checked with printerJob.print(); from java API and able to print simple text. I need to approach same for files of different formats.
Any other API's ? How do i approach?
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Praveen

Which of the LiveCycle products are you looking at? (there is no Java API to Acrobat)

This message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Ask the sender to send it again using a different format or email program. multipart/alternative

When trying to read messages on one email account I often get the following error message: This message cannot be displayed because of the way it is formatted. Ask the sender to send it again using a different format or email program. multipart/alternative
IMAP Email account is with Telus Shared hosting. I have been through set up with their tech support and everything is set up correctly.
Of course my gmail account and icloud account works perfectly.
Any ideas?
Thank you.

My iPad not working with hotmail and all Microsoft it working only with icloud ,Google,yahoo mail you andestandyou me or not system not working with this divies

Using different formatted clips in imovie

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