iMovie 3.0.1 Users "Upgrading" to 2.1.2 88
gsfprez writes "It seems that the general consensus is that iMovie 3.0.1 really sucks bad. Compaints range from randomly splitting cuts when importing, audio/video syncing issues, random crashing, and most common - performance issues so bad that capture and playback at full framrate is unattainable - and that's on DP machines. My experience is all this and worse on my previously very useful iBook 800. One can only wonder how galactically awful iMovie 3.0.0 was. Can anyone give a positive report on iMovie 3.0.1?" It looks nice. I just wish I could use it without it crashing.
I did this (Score:1)
Props to the team!
My iMovie 3.0.1 examples. (Score:3, Informative)
So far I've noticed iMovie is faster than before, transitions seem quicker(full screen seemed to have issues with audio, and multitasking in general, hence why it was probably made as a full screen app.)
The previews for effects are a bit misleading to when I apply them (thinking Rain effect here). Generally all over it's faster for me, it (or previous versions) are yet to crash, or act in an unusual manner.
I find it easier to edit clips than in previous versions. I'm pleased with how quickly the transitions are applied to the DV res footage I import. My athlon 1.4ghz couldn't do it anywhere near as fast.
I also use final cut pro, which I believe is infinitely better than iMovie, but with a respectable extra level of difficulty.
This Story is baloney (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the people having problems are ones using obsolete imovie2 plug ins or camera drivers.
I would say that rest of the people are posting some non-problem but simple issues thay are discovering unexpectedly
like
- "imovie3" cares about file permissions more than "imovie2",
or
- it complained it could not locate my mp3s on my fire wire disk that was turned off. Or
- it was slow the first time I ran it.
Or
i accidentally dragged the sound track and my audio became out of synch (well duh!).
Whoop tee doo. this also sounds like the false alarms sounded when safari came out.
Strange (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Strange (Score:2)
Re:Strange (Score:1)
Re:Strange (Score:2)
not good for slideshows (Score:4, Informative)
The main problem was that 80% of the PSD files came in wrong.. they were "folded over" as if you shifted the pixels over and they wrapped around. Bizarre.
Also at random times (maybe when an effect was still rendering) it gave me an error message about "unable to convert to JPEG, but was imported anyway" which means it couldn't apply the pan & zoom, but it still showed up in the movie. Bizarre again...
I also couldn't figure out an easy way to turn OFF the pan & zoom and just have a static still image.
Finally, I just exported a plain slideshow from iPhoto and left it at that.
On a related note, I hope Apple takes a look at Photoshop Album [adobe.com] for ideas for a future version of iPhoto. Album looks like iPhoto on steroids.
Re:not good for slideshows (Score:3, Informative)
I'll attest to slow, as well. My PowerBook G3/400 is practically worthless for anything but the Ken Burns Effect in iMovie 3.
Re:not good for slideshows (Score:1)
Re:not good for slideshows (Score:2)
Oh well (Score:3, Insightful)
In the mean time, Final Cut Express does as much for me as Final Cut Pro, is within my price range, and supports my hardware. iMovie is nice, but it's still a free (as in beer) product coming from a commercial company.
Those buying from Apple because of the good things they've heard about the video editing should really consider shelling out some money for a better video editor. I've been a mac user for 15 or so years, and I know they're often pricey. Paying a little more to get more functionality than iMovie provides should make sense to those who want a decent looking video.
And to those who want a more refined iMovie, go ask for a refund. Really.
I thought it was just me... (Score:3, Informative)
If I were Ken Burns, I'd want my good name back... Importing an iPhoto seems to take forever, and there seems to be a 33% chance of crashing.
The only good thing, that I can tell, is the easy import of iTunes Library as a soundtrack. It actually works as described.
I'm not that much of a iMovie user (the lack of a digital video recorder is the primary reason). Oh well, 4 (Keynote, iPhoto, Safari, and X11) out of 5 aint bad.
Tested it just now... (Score:2, Informative)
positive report (Score:5, Informative)
Yes.
First things first: the machine I'm using to run iMovie is a dual-processor 1 GHz with 512 MB of RAM. A faster machine will undoubtedly run it better, while a slower machine will undoubtedly run it less well.
I've used iMovie 3.0.1 to import a fair amount-- about 40 minutes, I think-- of DV footage from files I had on my computer. I don't have a camera myself, so I can't comment on how well or poorly the camera interface works, but I do have lots of DVCPRO footage left over from a previous project. The footage plays back in real time from the timeline with no problems at all.
I have about 5,000 songs in my iTunes library, and the first time I clicked the "audio" button I had to wait about five seconds, maybe ten, for the list of songs to appear. After that, there was no noticeable delay.
The effects and transitions seem to work just fine. I don't think I've tried all of them, but I haven't had one fail or work in an unexpected way yet.
Integration with iPhoto is, in a word, incredible. Just click a picture, set a duration, and poof, there's a clip on the timeline.
Do I have any complaints? Not really. Sure, this is just the free iMovie; it would be nice if it supported multiple video tracks on the timeline or such, but that's what Final Cut Express is for.
So, to summarize, iMovie 3 does not really suck, and no, I have had no problems with it at all.
Working great but some questions (Score:2)
but that's to be expected when you are heavily multitasking I think.
But I would not regress to 2.0 the feature set and the ease of use are fantastic.
I've been playing with exporting to different formats. the odd thing I have noticed is that quicktime format when compressed to the same level is superior to Mpeg-4. I find this odd. is not quicktime now mpeg-4 under the hood?
the other thing I am puzzling over is that when I export a movie in quick time I got two files one was the 4.4 megabyte file I asked for and the other was a 156KByte file hiding in the project directory. When I play them they are identical. What the heck is this lite weight 156K movie or why is the 4.4MB one so bloated. I suspect this has something to do with the export settings for "movie, self contained" versus "movie only" but cant confirm this. can anyone shed any light?
Re:Working great but some questions (Score:2)
Re:Working great but some questions (Score:5, Informative)
Hoo boy. This is going to get a little complicated.
See, there are two issues here: file format, and codec. A file format defines how bytes are arranged on disk to make up a movie file, or whatever. A very simply file format might consist of a 32-bit integer that's the length of the file data, then a whole lot of 32-bit integers that comprise the encoded video data.
A codec is basically an algorithm that takes uncompressed video (and audio) frames and encodes them for storage on disk. Most codecs include a compression algorithm, although it's not technically necessary-- "codec" used to mean "compressor/decompressor," but it's really come to mean "encoder/decdoer," which isn't the same thing.
So in order to have a media file on disk, you have to have two things: a file format, defining how the bytes are laid out, and a codec, defining how one turns uncompressed data into the bytes on disk and back again.
The MPEG forum adopted the QuickTime file format as the standard file format for MPEG-4. Read that sentence carefully: it's not that QuickTime is now MPEG-4; it's just the opposite. From the point of view of the file format, MPEG-4 is QuickTime.
The codec, on the other hand, is an entirely different question. The MPEG-4 standard defines a codec, and you can use that codec to generate MPEG-4 data files. But the MPEG-4 codec is not the only one. There are lots of them. There's Cinepak, H.263, Motion JPEG, and so on. What is widely considered to be the best codec out there for low-bit-rate applications is the Sorensen 3 video codec. But a QuickTime file can be encoded with any codec, including the MPEG-4 codec, and still be called a QuickTime file.
If you took high-resolution data, like DV data, and encoded it into a Sorensen 3 QuickTime file, then compared it to a similarly encoded MPEG-4 file, you would find that the Sorensen 3 file is superior. Both are QuickTime files. Technically, both are in the MPEG-4 file format, although you can't call a file MPEG-4 compliant if it doesn't use the MPEG-4 codec, but since the MPEG-4 format is the QuickTime format, you'd be technically right.
Clear as mud?
What the heck is this lite weight 156K movie or why is the 4.4MB one so bloated.
If you look closely at the small QuickTime file inside your project directory, you'll see that it's in DVCPRO format. This movie is actually a representation of your project timeline. It's small because it consists largely of pointers to the movie files in your Media folder. The 4.4 MB movie is the rendered, self-contained file that you created when you exported your project.
Re:Working great but some questions (Score:1)
so then I'm guessing that "quicktime" in addition to defining a file format also defines a codec.
that is to say while a sorensen codec with mpeg-4 file format might be said to be a "quicktime file" it is merely in "quicktime format".
conversely a true and pure "quciktime file" uses a bonifide quciktime codec and stores it in quicktime format.
this might be clearer if I cut to the chase. I want to find a format that generic Windows users can view by low bandwidth streaming video without having to download and install apples quicktime plugin.
My first guess was that maybe they could view MPeg-4. But even if this was true I was not happy with the quality. Next I tried AVI. but the file size was 10X larger. I tried to make a jpeg sequence but this turned out to not be what I expected it was not a single jpeg motion picture file but instead about 5 thousand individual jpegs in a directory; one for each frame. I haven't tried anything else yet, but my next guess would be to try a sorenson codec in mpeg-4 format on the export setting panel.
I'm a bit of a newb on this and I've been hunting around for tips on this but it seems most of the tips are imovie-1 or 2 specific and dont quite translate. even apples help for imovie 3 referes to a jpeg movie which seems to be absent feature.
Re:Working great but some questions (Score:2)
No. There is no such thing as a QuickTime codec. There are lots of codecs, none of which is called "QuickTime."
When you create a QuickTime file, you're given the opportunity to specify a codec. Different programs may have different defaults.
that is to say while a sorensen codec with mpeg-4 file format might be said to be a "quicktime file" it is merely in "quicktime format".
Um... that's not really right, either. Remember that the MPEG-4 file format is the QuickTime file format. So there's really no such thing as "MPEG-4 file format." It's QuickTime.
When a person says, "QuickTime file," he means "file in QuickTime format." The codec is hardly ever mentioned, because it just doesn't matter. QuickTime abstracts the codec away from the data structure on disk, so any QuickTime-savvy application can access media encoded with any codec in the QuickTime library transparently.
I want to find a format that generic Windows users can view by low bandwidth streaming video without having to download and install apples quicktime plugin.
Not going to happen. For reasons that baffle me to this day, Windows doesn't ship with QuickTime installed. If you want to use QuickTime media on Windows, you have to download QuickTime (for free) from Apple.
It's kinda insane, if you ask me. It would be like shipping an OS that doesn't include any support for TIFF images, or ASCII text files. QuickTime is the media standard format. I simply can't understand why Microsoft doesn't just bundle it.
even apples help for imovie 3 referes to a jpeg movie which seems to be absent feature.
No, a "JPEG movie" is just a movie where each frame is compressed with the JPEG codec. You can create one of those by exporting to a QuickTime movie and choosing the JPEG 2000 codec.
Re:Working great but some questions (Score:2)
I am aware of none. Maybe there's an easy and obvious way that I simply don't know anything about. I don't know jack about Windows media support. I just know that, for reasons that continue to escape me, Windows does not include QuickTime.
On the other hand, if you remove the "without having to install QuickTime" condition from your question, then the answer is easy. Just use the "Export" feature in iMovie. Choose "to QuickTime," and "Web Streaming" from the pop-up menu controls. Click "Export." Done.
Since anybody with Windows and an Internet connection can install QuickTime for free in a few minutes (varying depending on their connection), it seems like this is the right way for you to go. If there's anybody left out there who doesn't have QuickTime on their Windows box, they'll thank you for giving them the opportunity to install it.
Re:Working great but some questions (Score:1)
Ummm, maybe this is a bit obvious, but have you thought of Windows Media format?
"Oh...and there is one more thing..." (Score:3, Informative)
===========
You people stayed for the entire speech, right?
Ok, so here's how it worked out for me. I tried it on my G4...just tried it. It ran, is all I can say. No big tests, so I'm afraid I can't comment otherwise, sorry. But no crashing or lockup, slowdown, etc. Remember, use 16 bit audio (camera setting) and keep lots (+/- 10gb min for me) of free space on the boot drive. Make sure not to use weird image file formats for slide shows and have tons of patience. The good news is that blank DVD's are still going down in price.
Factors (Score:5, Informative)
On the bright side there is probably a non-crashing code path in there somewhere.
Real programmers are artists (Score:1, Interesting)
A real programmer is an artist.
Have you seen that Microsoft movie editor? It may not be that buggy but is so minimalistic is totally unsuable.
Some companies become dedicated to what their doing so they give all efford on 1 or 3 projects so they are good at it. Still can't compare on a 6 months' work of a programmer doing it at home for him/erself
Like Alias Wavefront, they give all efford on projects like Maya so they're good at it. Or Adobe, they are good at After Effects. But still, they take 1 or 2 years for a single year or 3 months to fix 2 or 3 bugs.
True programmers are artists, and it will be some day, where we all respect programming as self expression and personal efford.
Re:Real programmers are artists (Score:1)
Well... Perhaps you're right: it is the only application ever produced by Microsoft that nobody will sue them for
El Ganzo Loco
it seemed pretty good to me (Score:2, Interesting)
imovie 3 has been way better than imovie2 for me. I've used it to capture a few hours of dv just to see. it actually captured better, and even captured in the background while i was working in photoshop7, Dreamweaver, and graphic converter and downloading in chimera, ichating and running mail.
the bin scrolling and moving of clips was remarkably more responsive too.
I do agree that the ken burns effect needs a little improvement, it seemed to frame blip a little while zooming and panning.
Also it does take curiously longer to open imovie projects.
Hardware (if you care)
Quicksilver G4 DP 800, 1.5Gigs ram, 80 gig ata, 9 gig Ultra2scsi, 320 gig ata raid, geforce3, radaeon 7500.
Camera: Sony VX2000 miniDV
just my 3cents. -Si
quicktime 6.1 (Score:2, Informative)
Apple greatly improved their DVcodec (speedwise)
-S
Fine on Graphite iMac 600 (Score:2, Informative)
Text effects are enhanced and the the new FX (of limited application I hope!) are gee whizzie like aged film and electricity but where it really shines now is in audio control with vector like user determined points. Resizing the window is restrained and I'd like to be able to resize each pane individually but at least the desktop is that much closer now.
iPhoto is dog slow. Couple iPhoto with iMovie = double dog slow. Why is this so on Mac of all platforms? Hell, I still use PS 4.0 in classic over iPhoto. Is iP 2 altivec enhanced?
So yes, I've had quite positive experiences with iM 3 even on my humble hyzer G3 600/256 10.2.3
Re:Fine on Graphite iMac 600 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Fine on Graphite iMac 600 (Score:1)
Re:Fine on Graphite iMac 600 (Score:1)
On a powerbook 800.. (Score:4, Interesting)
The major reason I wanted to upgrade to iMovie3 was the audio volume levels so I upgraded once it came out for download (incidentally didn't Jobs say that it would be available on the 25th Jan?)
I loaded in the old project and hit play - unwatchable jerky playback and choppy audio. I actually had to export the movie just to be able to show it to people at a party the other night.
Very disappointing.
Re:On a powerbook 800.. (Score:2)
I'm making my own Scrubs DVD collection (John C. McGinley positively makes me piss my pants and double over) and i couldn't even pretend to watch my previous captures - i record the shows onto DV tape from my DirecTiVo, and then transfer them to my iBook 800 - then put the iDVD-ready
I was thinking it was me, but then that's when i noticed the complaint stream starting to build out there.
Surprized at the total choadability of watching older iMovie projects, i tried importing last weeks episode - and i was MAYBE getting 15 fps capture. Plus getting random splitting of clips... it was totally unusable.
I understand that newer software sometimes doesn't run all that great on old hardware - but please - iMovie 2.1.2 (running now in the background) is a absolutely fine. A little slow with the UI, but the things that must work - capture, playback - never a single issue.
Im getting the drift in here that iMovie 3 seems to be okay on most 1Ghz and better DP machines. And if that's the case - maybe Apple's phasing out iBook (read: G3) users. I can deal with that. I didn't buy my iBook for its video editing prowess.. but at least i thought it would run iMovie okay as long as it ran. (iDVD does not run on G3s - i can accept that totally)
So maybe i'll have to get off my but and get the 12" PowerBook.. okay. I can handle the truth - and it might be that Apple is now building to the G4 - fine - i even understand that.
Just let us know that you're phasing out G3 machines when making new apps, Apple. Most of us can deal with that.
I'll try doing all the steps mentioned in that othat +5 post - permission repair, daily junk file cleanup, etc. I'll see how it goes.
for those that can't get 3.0.1 to work - just delete the app, and delete whatever permissions you have under ~/Library/Preferences that have the word "iMovie" in them. Then reinstall iMovie from the CD's that came with your machine/from your Jagwire CD #2/AdditionalApplications.pkg. It won't overwrite iPhoto 2 - do you'll be okay.
Re:On a powerbook 800.. (Score:2)
the word "iMovie" in them. Then reinstall iMovie from the CD's that came with your machine/from your Jagwire CD
#2/AdditionalApplications.pkg. It won't overwrite iPhoto 2 - do you'll be okay.
damnit. should read...
delete whatever *preferences* you have under ~/library/preference... not permissions.
i was running permission conjunctifyer (Disk Utility) and had the word "permissions" on the brain.
Very Positive Experience (Score:4, Informative)
As soon as I d/l iMovie 3 I tried to re-import the xmas videos that I had unsuccessful attempts at before.
Ahah! It worked flawlessly! The only problem was that the camera's fully-charged battery died at 40 min (the first time I've gotten far enough for that to be an issue). Plugged it in and got the last 20 minutes, and all are in sync and wonderful.
My only complaint - the widescreen (16:9) mode of the camera is not recognized - the video is still imported as 4:3 and is just squeezed so everyone is tall and narrow. Does anyone know of a way to get iMovie to do 16:9, or must I upgrade to FC{E,P} to get that capability? (It works great with plain-old RCA jacks on my 16:9 TV).
Dan
Re:Very Positive Experience (Score:2)
Re:Very Positive Experience (Score:2)
There are at least 3 ways, all mentioned in the apple.com "support discussions" for iMovie and iDVD. (1) Apply the Virtix letterbox filter. You still get a 4x3 format, but the image is squeezed back to 16:9 with bars added top and bottom. (2) Export the movie (still in "squeezed" aka "anamorphic" form) and modify the resulting Quicktime file to have 16:9 attributes. (3) Export and burn to a DVD, read in the DVD and change the attribute byte to 16:9, and burn again.
2 and 3 give you a "real" 16:9 image; 1 gives you a 16:9 image letterboxed in a 4:3 format.
Not Insanely Great (Score:2, Funny)
Just not "insanely."
Works great on a DP800 and Canon ZR20 (Score:3, Interesting)
My review of iMovie 3 (Score:1)
Works fine for me (Score:4, Interesting)
The machine I used is a PowerMac G3/333 (an old Beiege tower).
I imported ~30 minutes of video from my JVC DVM-70 via my OrangeMicro FW/USB card, no problems. Clips were only split where I had paused the recording.
The preview window was choppy during import, but that's happened on every video app I've used.
Playback of clips from the timeline was fine. Clicking on certain interface buttons led to a lot of disk churning and some delays and lessened responsiveness. Inserting a transition or an effect took sime time. The app is certainly useable, and reasonably fast on my system.
In the hour+ that I used iMovie 3 for my tests, there was not one error, and no crashes, quits, hangs or anything unexpected.
I can only imagine that with even a mere 400MHz G4, things would zip along much faster. A newer machine with duals, and around 1GHz should certainly run this app like a champ.
Perhaps you don't have QuickTime 6.1 installed as the installer for iM3 strongly suggests?
Re:Works fine for me (Score:2)
True, true. The digitsing window in Final Cut Pro 3 is choppy too, but it still captures perfect DV streams.
The only app I've seen that doesn't have a choppy preview monitor is Media 100 - but only because all the video is handled by a very expensive custom capture/DSP board.
Story totally wrong (Score:2, Insightful)
I edited a one-hour VCD project the day iMovie3 came out. No problems whatsoever.
Those of you who are having problems might try repairing permissions and defragging the drive.
At what point does Slashdot rescind a story that is so obviously mistaken?
Re:Story totally wrong (Score:2)
I a not a enlightened OS X user... so some of the comments in this thread have been usefull.
iBook is repairing its permissions right now
Looking at the output, there is a lot of iMovie, iPhoto, and StuffIt permissions that need correcting.
Maybe 3rd party apps are getting in the way as well?
Re:Story totally wrong (Score:1)
I have an 800Mhz iBook with 640 MB of RAM.
iMovie 3 runs really slow and crashes frequently on my machine. I performed the system cleanup and prebinding sugestions, but that did not help.
I looked at all the Plug-ins in ~/Library/iMovie/ and they are all from Apple.
Nothing worked, so I went back to iMovie 2 and it runs great.Hit or miss (Score:5, Informative)
I have also received e-mails for 3rd party plug-in manufactures that state: So some folks have "fixed" there system by removing all third party plug-ins.
Some people say that shrinking the window to the smallest it can be "helps" with performance.
Some people have reported that running your Unix cleanups and prebinding "fixes" everything up: I am personally not having any issues other than the following:
With all that being said Apple should have released this as a beta or done a a better job in QA. I have told them so too! I urge everyone to keep on Apple's backs and report all errors to them. They must have expected this in some way because "Report feedback to Apple" is a menu option!
Dan Slagle Keeper of the "Unofficial" iMovie FAQ [danslagle.com]
Video Performance Problems (Score:1)
iMovie 2 was totally excellent on my G3/350... (Score:3, Interesting)
For instance, in the clip shelf, to select 3 clips, I hold down shift and click clips 1, 2, and 3. On iMovie 2, they would highlight as I clicked them. In iMovie 3 it takes about 5 seconds after I click them for them to highlight. Seriously now, what can it possibly be doing during that 5 second period when the computer's not doing anything else, but trying to highlight 3 icons? There are some seriously bloated architectural models/algorithms being used here. Yes, I know my computer is three years old, but iMovie 2 is proof that it's plenty of computer for the task.
Also, I find iMovie 3 to slow down my workflow.
In iMovie 2, to edit out a part of a clip, I bring the controller to the first frame, hold down the shift key and select the stuff to edit out, then hit delete. Very Mac-like. This functionality appears to be gone in iMovie 3. Instead, one must drag the start and end controller independently, then use Edit..Clear. The end controller must be dragged first, so you wind up having to scroll past your first edit point, go to the end of the edit, drop your marker, go back to the first edit point (wait, I was already there) and drop the second edit point. This is completely backwards.
Also, of note for Toast VCD users, the option to export to a Toast VCD can now be found after selecting "Export to Quicktime" and "Expert Settings". Previously it was available on the first screen. Yeah, I know, VCD's cut into DVD-drive sales...
I'll be re-installing iMovie 2 since it satisfies all my requirements. I was hoping for something great and snazzy in iMovie 3. No complaints, for the price, but if I had spent $50 (iLife) on it, I'd be far less pleased. Of course, I suspect that 10.3 won't run iMovie 2, then they'll be wanting me to buy a new computer.
On the plus side, I can export directly to MPEG4 now, without having to save to DV first.
No (Score:2)
Works great on G3 350 and G4 867 (Score:2, Informative)
The KBE filter on photos is REALLY slow but you can hit the escape key which cancels rendering.
I would say people need to check permissions, look at any third-party plugins, and slashdot editors need to check their stories out completely.
iMovie3 survival hint (Score:3, Informative)
I experienced a lot of trouble with iMovie - in fact as it appeared after software update had done its tricks, it was indeed unuseable.
I then deleted the entire iMove app from the Mac, and downloaded the entire install from Apple's web. today I captured six hours from a DV camera directly to a FireWire harddisk on a 700MHz iBook with no appreciable problems.
in particular, updating from 3.0.0 (which has circulated on the net) to 3.0.1 (which is a very small download) is not a good idea.
For a better 'Ken Burns' effect... (Score:2, Informative)
Getting an older version (Score:1, Informative)
Finding an older version of iMovie Several readers note that iMovie 2.1.1 is available on the Apple iDisk (if you have a
Just a little testing... (Score:1)
I've only been toying with iMovie 3.0.1 (no current video projects, sorry), and for the most part, it's fine for me. I'm running a stock G3 450MHz iMac DV+ with 386MB of RAM.
Some of the functions are a bit slower -- the Ken Burns effect, while neat, takes a while to render -- but nothing has caused any crashes or been a showstopper. Titles, effects, and transitions are all as expected. I had a problem getting iMovie to recognize my iPhoto library for a while, but that was due to me using multiple iPhoto libraries, and I can't blame Apple for that. Haven't noticed any sync problems, though maybe that won't appear until I work on a larger video project.
My only concern so far are the scattered reports that iMovie 3 won't export to digital/analog converter boxes -- I've got a Sony converter for the job, and if iMovie 3 borks with it, I'm hosed. But to be fair, Apple has been historically good at responding to major showstopper bugs in their software, and I wouldn't be surprised if iMovie 3.1 shows up in a week or three to address the avalanche of complaints.
Can't import movies made by the Sony Cybershot P9 (Score:2)
but I can't import the Muxed MPEGs that the Sony Cybershot P9 makes without splitting out the audio to an aiff file using Audacity (which often just crashes), then openng the movie in the quicktime player, saving it as a standalone .mov file, then opening that .mov file, pasting in the aiff audio and resaving the whole lot as a .mov file. this is hardly the sort of plug and play of quicktime movies I was led to believe iMovie3 would provide.
I mean the quicktime player plays those Muxed MPEG files perfectly, with perfect audio, but iMove doesn't recognise them and the Quicktime player won't export them with their audio. Perhaps Apple and Sony should get together for a beer and work this out - would save me many hours as I have many hundreds of these Muxed MPEGs as source material.
audio edititng crashing about 50/50 (Score:1)
No problems here... (Score:1)
Not a single problem here. I can capture DV to either my internal or FireWire drive with NO lost frames or other jerkiness. I can even do this while switching between multiple apps, playing MP3's, etc.
The new features are awesome! Importing music/sfx tracks in iMovie 1/2 was a pain, and if you wanted to do any sort of custom fading (fading out to catch a line of spoken dialogue or whatever), then forget it! MUCH nicer in iMovie 3, where you can edit volume levels in music clips at will,.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of my installed iMovie plugins still worked perfectly with 3...
Also the integration with the other iApps is great. I spoke earlier about the iTunes integration. And the iPhoto stuff with the Ken Burns effect is great as well. I was able to enhance some of my older video footage of family birthdays, Christmas, etc. by adding Ken Burns-ized pictures from my iPhoto library with some music and/or narration. I can't really comment on the iDVD integration, since I don't have a SuperDrive, but it looks pretty neat.
Rendering (transitions/titles/etc.) seems *slightly* slower, but not really a big deal to me. That's about the only downside I noticed.