What bit rate to record for editing with iMovie?

I just bought a Sony hd pj260 video cam and need to know what to set the bit rate for shooting to edit on a MacBook pro using iMovie (snow leopard). I have a choice of 60p (28 M), 60i (24 M) or 60i (17M). I'm sure these will mean something to someone. They currently are Greek to me. Can someone advise me please. Leaving for vacation in a couple of days....
Thanks
DJ

60P wlll not work with iMovie, unless you are comfortable hacking the internals of iMovie.
60i will work and the higher bit rate, the better.
Best would be 30P.

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What is the best workflow for AVCHD with iMovie/iDVD 09?

I am recording AVCHD video with a Sony HDR-SR11. I don't have a blu-ray burner yet, so I want to create the highest quality DVD's I can from this source video using my MacBook and the software I have (iMovie 09 and iDVD 09).
Currently I am importing the video clips into iMovie 09 at the 1920x1200 setting. After creating a 16:9 movie I choose "Share to Media Browser" and export at the highest setting I see (I think 1280x720, I'm not on the MacBook at the moment).
After a long while this completes and I launch iDVD 09. I drag the movie I exported above into the theme and burn at Professional Quality. After another long wait I have my DVD but I'm quite disappointed with the video quality.
Even taking into account that DVD is not a hi-def disc format it seems like the video quality should be better. Is there a better workflow I should be using with this combination of software? Maybe some way to avoid scaling/compressing the video twice? Or is this as good as it gets with iMovie 09 and iDVD 09? I may have access to iMovie 06, if that would help.
Thanks,
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3) Share to Media Browser with Best Quality
For folks like me that wonder exactly how did you do this:
(I don't know what Media Browser is yet.)
I did this: (I got some warnings - did you?)
In iMovie:
Selected my 1280x720 "HD" video in the Project panel,
Share->Media Browser...
- if HD is greyed out, you already shared this size to Media Browser, go to next step,
or select "Remove from Media Browser, check HD, click Remove"
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select Computer icon, then uncheck Mobile, Med, and Lrg, leaving only HD checked
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Double click a theme - for example under Revolution, choose Chapters.
At bottom right, select Media, At top right, select Movies
Under iMovie should be your iMovie project - mine says "My First Project" (I didn't name iMovie proj)
Select your iMovie Project,
you should see a thumb of your video with dimension, size listed
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Drag the thumbnail onto the iDVD preview window (I don't what that window is officially called)
drop it under the theme title "Revolution Chapters" for this example
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Ok re-encoding warning, close Proj Info window.
File->Burn DVD... Popup says "Warnings in Project", select Continue Burning
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I used Staples 4x DVD-RW first.
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My DVD-R120 player-recorder would not load the disk. It played fine on iMac, a WindowsXP laptop, and a Windows XP desktop. This DVD machine only likes old 1X RW media for some reason. I wish someone made a standalone Blu-Ray recorder/player. I burned a second copy to some gold Sony 1X/2X DVD-RW media, and this disk played fine.
Picture quality is soft compared to HD material, but the moire patterns on some edges is only somewhat reduced over the Share to iDVD version. This Share to Media Browser version is acceptable for folks that won't go to Vimeo or YouTube to see my videos in HD.

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For example is the "Iomega 160GB Portable Hard Drive with Dual Interface" suitable ?
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I haven't seen that point.
I worked on my old iMac using just the hard drive for a while. Performance is not the issue, but space can be, which is why I moved to an external drive.
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On the other hand, if you are memory constrained and are using other i/o intensive applications at the same time, the external may perform better. You definitely want to avoid excessive swapping of your virtual memory while using iMovie or anything else. (and this is best handled by having sufficient RAM. I have 2GB.
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Hi I have just finished a 55minute documentary and would like to know if anyone could advice me on what bit rate I should use when compressing (I am using Mpeg2 90minute best setting) so as to avoid jumpy images later on certain dvd players.
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I want to make a SD DVD. I mistakenly was looking under the HD options earlier. I just encoded a DVD with the following:
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can videos not recorded on the new ipad be edited with imovie?

Hi
Please rephrase Your Question - I'm not clever enough to get it
There are lot's of Cameras that record in lot's of different ways that can be edited in iMovie.
No iMovie can not use all Video-Codec's in the World - they are zillions and many needs to be converted to something iMovie can open and work with.
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• miniDV tape Cameras - connects only via FireWire - then just Import from Camera into Event's
• SD-Card or Hard Disk Cameras Connects most ofthen via USB and Import from "File or other"
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I recently purchased QuickTime 7 Pro to convert avi files to mov files for editing on Imovie. However, QuickTime won't play the files. How can I get them to play and how can I convert them to mov files?

I recently purchased QuickTime 7 Pro to convert avi files to mov files for editing on Imovie. However, QuickTime won't play the files. How can I get them to play and how can I convert them to mov files?

I recently purchased QuickTime 7 Pro to convert avi files to mov files for editing on Imovie. However, QuickTime won't play the files. How can I get them to play and how can I convert them to mov files?
Both the AVI and the MOV file extensions refer to the file container and not the compressed data the file contains. Both are generic file containers in that each may contain any valid combination of audio and/or video data that is compatible with the codec component configuration of the system on which the file was created. On the other hand, whether a file is playback compatible, conversion compatible, and/or edit compatible depends on the data actually contained in the file container. So, you are basically dealing with two separate issues here—the container and what is inside it.
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Background: AVI is a file container originally developed by Microsoft back in 1992 but for which official support was discontinued about 11 years. Despite its limitations, Windows users still tend to use this file based on its open source ease of use and generic nature, thus, making its use so popular that most users are unwilling to switch to more modern but less generic file types. Since some AVI legacy compression formats have never been transcoded for the Mac or use beyond OS 9 or OS X PPC platforms, it is often important to know what specific compression formats are contained in the AVI file to know which codecs to add to your system and which not to add in order to avoid possible codec conflicts.
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1) Try checking the Finder "Info" window,
2) Use the "Inspector", "Media Info", or "Properties" window of any player app that will open the file, or
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Hello MacHeads: I downloaded Handbrake 0.9.1 for Tiger, so I can upload a homemade DVD for editing in imovie. Problem is I can't even access Handbrake Help book, because I think my firewall settings are preventing me. I tried turning off all my firewall

Hello MacHeads: I downloaded Handbrake 0.9.1 for Tiger, so I can upload a homemade DVD for editing in imovie. Problem is I can't even access Handbrake Help book, because I think my firewall settings are preventing me. I tried turning off all my firewall settings.? IDK if I'm even doing that right. Can anyone help out here?

You don't need Handbrake for that if it is your own DVD.
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When you have finished doing that, you then have to turn the project back into a DVD.
mpegStreamclip can be downloaded from here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html
which is free, but you must also have the Apple mpeg2 plugin :
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
which is a mere $20.
Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:
http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm
which costs $25.
For the benefit of others who may read this thread:
Obviously the foregoing only applies to DVDs you have made yourself, or other home-made DVDs that have been given to you. It will NOT work on copy-protected commercial DVDs, which in any case would be illegal.

Screen Recording and Edit in iMovie

Alright, I record my screen with Quicktime X and when I import it into iMovie I click full quality but when I place it in the timeline it cuts off the dock and menu bar and makes the video horrendously terrible compared to the original HD file. I am using iMovie 09 and I was wondering if I can get it to be full screen and have full quality so I can edit it and add titles.

You need to convert the VOB files back to DV which iMovie is designed to handle. For that you need mpegStreamclip:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html
which is free, but you must also have the Apple mpeg2 plugin :
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
which is a mere $20.
Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:
http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm
which costs $25.
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It would be far better to import the the video directly from a VHS player into iMovie via an analogue to digital converter such as, for example, a Canopus ADVC110, which can convert the VHS analogue format directly to a digital DV stream that iMovie wants.
I have done it this way for at least 35 VHS tapes (old family movies) with minimal quality loss - dependant on the quality of the original tape.

WHAT KIND OF FILES CAN YOU EDIT IN IMOVIE!

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http://www.formac.com/webapp/productsavwatchandgo.php
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Video Problem - Cannot "Edit with iMovie"

In Aperture 3, when I right-click a video and select "Edit with iMovie", iMovie starts up but my video file does not appear. iMovie just sits there.
I have tried switching the "Edit with" program under Preferences to Final Cut Express, and FCE is able to display and edit the video. Just not iMovie.
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Like you the idea of using Aperture to manage my video appeals to me, in my case though it is not practical as I could not keep the amount of vision I shoot live on the system.
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Set up a location for the video to be stored, a fast drive is needed for video editing.
Set up Aperture so that it imports the video by reference and store it on the aforementioned drive.
Sort, review and rate your videos using aperture.
Create an album containing the vision you want to use in a program.
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Tony

What DVD burner is recommended for burning an iMovie?

I would like a recommendation for a DVD burner app that will burn quality movies. What does everyone use? I downloaded a couple of free ones from the App Store, but I was not satisfied with the quality of the movie that I created in iMovie.
Thanks!

babowaNov 4, 2014 7:32 PM Re: What DVD burner is recommended for burning an iMovie?
Re: What DVD burner is recommended for burning an iMovie?in response to mikmarjas
I use Roxio Toast as well as iDVD. The quality is also dependent on a) the camera/quality used, b) the process used in iMovie (which version?), and c) which method (quality settings) is used to export it from iMovie. Every process/step (including the encoding for burning) will compress the video and may result in a slight loss of quality.
babowa, how do I go about knowing the correct steps that you mentioned to produce a good quality video? My videos look good on my computer, but on the tv the quality is greatly diminished.
Thank you for your response and help!

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You can see here real video rendering tests between the I5 and i7 macbook Air
Here is an excellent video comparison between the 11” I5 vs. I7 2013 Macbook Air.
http://www.apple-tubes.com/apple-macbook-air-11-mid-2013-haswell-i5-vs-i7-compar ison/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-465 0u/2
I5 vs. I7 performance 13” Macbook Air 2013
Boot performance
11.7 I5 ……11.4 I7
Cinebench
1.1 I5….1.41 I7
IMovie Import and Opt.
6.69 I5….5.35 I7
IMovie Export
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Adobe Lightroom 3 Export
25.8 I5….31.8 I7
Adobe Photoshop CS5 Performance
27.3 I5…22.6 I7
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What bit rate to record for editing with iMovie?

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