Using iMovie 4 files in iMovie 5

My old home movies were deteriorating so I imported them into iMovie 4 and I now have a 500 GB collection of old and somewhat disorganized movies. iMovie 5 has the ability to cut and paste between projects which would be very helpful, so I upgraded to iMovie 5.0. Now I read that projects should be completed with the original program.
What are the problems associated with using iMovie 5.0 on 4.0 projects?
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

The conversion from iMovie 4 to iMovie HD is usually successful, but it can encounter problems if the iMovie 4 project had features not supported by iMovie HD. If iMovie 4 clips were made by certain third-party iMovie plug-ins, for example, I can imagine that might cause problems.
If your iMovie 4 projects contain only unedited video clips, there should be no problems. Nonetheless, always make a backup before converting any project.
Tip: do a Save As after converting the iMovie 4 project to iMovie HD. That creates a true iMovie HD project, avoiding user issues often encountered with converted projects.
(Save As creates a true iMovie HD package, not the hybrid folder created when converting. It's too easy to get inside the hybrid, open the wrong project file, and mess up the project pretty badly.)
Karl

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Using iMovie to save project files to external hard drive?

I have a MacBook Pro with very limited space on the internal hard disk drive. I also have a few FireWire external hard drives.
A friend recently gave me his Hitachi DZ-HS300A mini-DVD camcorder so I could copy footage off of it, load it into my machine, edit it and upload it (several minutes) to YouTube. He can't do this because he lives in a remote area where there is no broadband yet.
I almost never use iMovie. I was wondering if there is a way to save the project file to an external FireWire drive so that there will be no large video files clogging up my laptop's internal hard drive. Can this be done? Is there an iMove preference I have to change?

You should generally leave the iMovie Project file on the boot drive. The Project File is mainly a small text file with in and out points.
The iMovie Event file is where the video assets are stored. You can store events to an external hard drive in two ways:
1) As you import from the camera, you will see an import screen. You can select the external drive on the import screen
2) If the event is already on your internal drive, you can click View/Events By Volume. Now you can drag and drop the event to the external drive in the Events SOurce List in iMovie.
For your external drive to be visible to iMovie, it must be formatted HFS+ or HFS+ (journalled).

Using WindowsDV .avi files in iMovie and iDVD

I'm about to buy a Mac after using PCs for many years. I'm still deciding whether to buy an iMac 20", upgrade the Ram and use an external firewire drive or to get a Mac Pro and use internal drives. Initially I'll use iMovie and iDVD and I have some questions regarding using files I've already created on my PC. Up until now I've mainly been using Ulead Video Studio 10 and Ulead DVD Workshop. DVD Workshop does not do 16:9 menus and has now been discontinued and I've been impressed with iMovie and iDVD when I've seen it in Apple stores.
I have some unedited 16:9 .avi files that I've captured from my Panasonic GS-400 camcorder as well as some already edited .avi and .mpg files. Will iMovie and iDVD recognise .avi DV files when accessed through my network or copied onto the Mac hard drive? I'll load unedited clips into iMovie for editing but anything that's already edited I'd like to put straight into iDVD, add chapters and make a menu etc.
Is this going to work easily or will I have to convert the files to an apple compatible format?
Thanks for any advice you can offer.
Ken
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Hi Ken and welcome to Apple!
You should not have a major problem. The AVI files should (repeat should) be recognized by iMovie. If not, conversion should (I love the certainty of that word!) be easy.
An iMac will do all you ask, but I recommend not less that 1GB of RAM.
At this stage, go get your iMac, and try to import the AVI files into iMovie. If that is not successful post back!
Remember: iMovie expects to be 'fed' by digital video through a firewire connection.
Any more questions, we are here to help!

Hi I have created a movie using iMovie 10.0.6. I cannot save the movie as a complete file to be able to burn on to a dvd.

Hi I have created a movie using iMovie 10.0.6 on a macbook pro using Yosemite 10. I want to burn this movie to a dvd to use on any dvd player.
I have "shared" to a file and saved it to a named folder, but it just disappears into thin air. I cannot drag this file into an application because there is no file.
This is very frustrating, Help.

iOS: Importing personal photos and videos from iOS devices to your computer
iOS: Unable to import photos to computer
You have a 2G iPod and the can play/sync only SD videos.
If necessary use a converter app to convert to compatible format. I use the free HandBrake

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Can I copy one frame of a movie using iMovie and save the frame as a file that can be printed like a picture? If so, how do I do that?

You could if you want a postcard sized print.
Printers need a lot more "dots" per inch and even a 1920X1080 video doesn't have enough "dots" to make more than a postcard.
Look at the "More Like This" links at the right side of this page for instructions.

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Unfortunately, you cannot upgrade to Safari 5 or 6 on Mac OSX 10.4.11 and that is what you need to access iCloud (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4759). I am not sure, but maybe you can install another and newer browser version of Firefox or Chrome to access iCloud.

Using iMovie 08 .dv files in FCP 5.0?

Does the DV format need to be changed to quicktime because it wants to be rendered as soon as its put onto the timeline. and then it shows an error when trying to render.
I imported a whole tape to iMovie because I was curious about the new ver. and well I was pretty disappointed. So now I wanna use the imported files and from iMovie 08 and use em on FCP 5.0
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LS

#20 Using iMovie to Capture for FCP edit
Shane's Stock Answer #20: Using iMovie to Capture for use in FCP.
iMovie handles the media differently from FCP, specifically where audio is concerned. So it is not a recommended workflow. Here's why...
iMovie captures using DV Stream (.dv) standard which does not use timecode. That is a big disadvantage over the way that FCP captures in that you can't go back and recapture the material at a later date if you need to revisit a project.
The DV/NTSC specification (the one FCP uses) also calls for seperate tracks for audio and video, even if you capture it as one clip. iMovie' DV stream format is muxed audio and video, which means that they are tied together (I can't get into specifics because I ain't no engineer or programmer). FCP is a bit more demanding and captures the seperate audio/video tracks, either in a single media file or as seperate video and audio files. With FCP you could capture video only or audio only because each is defined by the DV specs. while with iMovie you can't.
Also, if you drop the iMovie footage into the timeline, your will get the RED render bar forcing you to render the footage in order to see it. You can use either QT Pro or Compressor to convert the .dv footage into DV/NTSC in order for FCP to work with it without needing to render.
Shane

I have a 1.5 hour video of a concert from which I need to extract several 'tracks' as individual files, and then join them together in a new video. How do I do this using imovie?

I have a 1.5 hour video of a concert from which I need to extract several 'tracks' as individual files, and then join them together in a new video. How do I do this using imovie?

Adobe has made this process much simpler in recent years.
No need to re-install any version earlier than the current version (CS6). All installers (upgrade or full) contain the full program code. The difference between full and upgrade is in the serial number.
All you need do is download (link below) and install CS6, enter the CS6 upgrade serial number then enter the CS5 serial number (even if that too is an upgrade).
Download CS6 products

My daughter created a movie using iMovie, which she has worked on for a month, when trying to save it on a jump drive she was asked to "finalize" the movie...now there is no record of it at all. Any ideas how I could try and retrieve the file?

My daughter created a movie using iMovie 11, which she has worked on for a month. When trying to save it on a jump drive she was asked to "finalize" the movie, and while this was running (quoted 13 hours!) she received an error message. Now there is no record of it at all, I have looked in trash etc. Any ideas how I could try and retrieve the file?

The file cannot be reloaded in iMovie using File > Open Recent ??
There is no trace of the file in a Spotlight search?
The project files are not under <user>/Movies/iMovie Projects ??
Finalizing creates small, medium and large version of the finished video. It does take a long time, but it should not destroy your project files.
Oh, and you really MUST have a backup of your files. You can expect to lose files if you have no other copies of them.

Using the Sony CX550VE to import 1080p-Files the right channel it louder then the left channel. Using iMovie everything is fine. Do you know this problem?

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Thanks Tom, that did the trick. Appreciate your help and love your DVD and style. Cheers.

Can't burn dvd that plays on dvd player. seems to be in file format. do i need extra software? using iMovie and final cut pro trail..both same result. have macbook pro 2012

can't burn dvd that plays on dvd player. seems to be in file format. do i need extra software? using iMovie and final cut pro trail..both same result. have macbook pro 2012

NStrange wrote:
... confused about which video format(s) to use (e.g.: SWF, MPEG4, etc.), and whether or not I should use 3rd party compression software (e.g.: Sorenson Squeeze, Compression Master, etc.) along with / in addition to Final Cut Express (among other similar issues)...
FC/e is based upon the Quicktime-engine; so, on 'Export using QT', you'll get all codecs & settings.
but which one..
due to sheer popularity, YouTube became a 'standard' - I'm happy with the convenience, YT and the 'embed'-code offers - excellent quality, automatic adjusted to the watchers connection&hardware.
my export settings are 720p, h264, 6MBit/sec - gives a - imho! - superb quality.
(example of a 'screen-test' from my latest project CLICK )
for creating so-called 'flash video'/.flv, you need 3rd party apps.
Sorenson Squeeze is more of an pro-tool, .. you need some background knowledge to get noticeable 'better' quality.
.. and the question is: are you willing to pay $.$$$ for that 0.x% more quality .. ? does your source offers such a 101% quality, which needs such affords?
if bandwidth is an issue, because you're hosting on your own servers, consider the free codec xh264, you can install as a free QT-plug-in.. with low or super-low bitrates, it offers a superior quality compared to h264 ...

I use imovie to create videos. When I burn the video to DVD and play it back there is digital breakup in the playback from the DVD It does not shoe in p[layback on the computer. I understand there isd some file I need to delete and reboot the imovie to co

I use imovie to create videos. When I burn the video to DVD and play it back there is digital breakup in the playback from the DVD. The digital breakup does not show in playback on the computer. I understand there is a file I need to delete and reboot the computer and imovie will rebuild the file in the program. Help!

My method is to use the DAW in standard recording mode, and set up the camcorder entirely separately. After recording, I automate the audio mix with fader moves and effects, then export ("bounce to disk") a full-fidelity AIFF, 16-bit 48 kHz stereo file (most videos use 48, not 44.1). I use iMovie '11 to import the video from the camera, then import the stereo audio file and match it up to the camera audio by dragging it into the iMovie Project. Make the waveforms visible, it's not too hard to align.
Then, use iMovie's "Export as Quicktime" feature. Here, by going through the menus and options, you can control the audio compression (for example, 256k instead of 128, although 128 seems to be enough for YouTube).
AppleMan1958 posted a YouTube video about controlling iMovie's export options that may help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vJg-909lx2s#!

Using Imovie clip files on a pc

Hi
I used Imovie to log and capture from dvcam then i copied everything from the clips folder to dvd. the problem is my doesnt recognise the format.
Is there anyway i can use these on my pc?
I intend to use premier pro1.5 and i dont mind re-rendering them to a PC friendly format so any help would be appreicated.
Thanks

Your iMovie clips are probably in DV Stream format, which is basically raw data straight from the camcorder. Here's some info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV#Applicationsoftwaresupport
You should probably go back into iMovie and export them properly, either to DVD or to QuickTime. If possible, choose a pretty high bit rate so you don't lose quality.
AlBook 15

Using iMovie to view AVCHD files. Is this this only way?

Video clips taken from my JVC camera are in AVCHD fromat. I find it difficult and limited using iMovie to view, sort and send clips. I don't want to use iFrame as ther is a significant loss of quality even though iFrame is a much more manageable format for a Mac.
Can anyone tell me if there is a simple way of viewing and sorting AVCHD clips? Is ther some way they can be viewed the same way as iFrame from the finder menu?

Mantas65 wrote:
... Is ther some way they can be viewed the same way as iFrame from the finder menu?
on your 'antique' system: No.
(G4 and 10.4 were invented way before AVCHD arised ... )
On any Intel-Mac/Mavericks (or higher), you just double-click in Finder, and get each clip as a preview...

Using iMovie 4 files in iMovie 5

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