iMovie For Free

Graymalkin writes: "Apple has finally released iMovie (the really easy video editor) for the non-iMac DV customers; the best part is that it's free. You can get it over at iMovie's Web site. I've used demos of this package and compared to professional packages like Premiere it really packs a punch. You need OS 9 and at least 64 megs of RAM (unless you want to do Web quality video, then 64 is fine). It's nice to see Apple responding to their customers (like myself) who wanted iMovie but didn't want to go out and buy an iMac to get it. fnord. "

Comments

Interface Issues

[Hrunting]

What is it with Apple these days (and every other software manufacturer, for that matter)? The screenshots of this program, except for the handle Apple menu bar at the top, look like they could've been taken on any system. Why can't software manufacturers design programs that actually use the interface of the system they're being used on? Why does a Macintosh program have to look like a strange new foreign interface and why does Microsoft's new Media Player have to look like a retarded Pocket PC or something? This is especially disconcerting coming from Apple, which has made great headway in the designs of consisten UIs that make people feel at ease. I do not want to have to learn a whole new set of of UI images, methods, and layouts every time I open up a new program.

Sheesh.

Re:iMovie's lack of features

[maggard]

Credits are created almost instantly if you feed a properly formatted text file directly into QuickTime. You can then take the resulting movie and drop it into your project in under a minute, including setting fancy effects.

As to crashing while MacOS 9.04 isn't going to set records for stability it's probably the most stable MacOS in years (and more stable then Win9x.) I'd suggest taking a look into your settings and see if there's not something odd someplace (patched a few too many traps in the system with 3rd party add-ons is most common.)

You'll also learn to save before doing anything dramatic with any editing package on any platform. This will become second nature to you eventually. Indeed I've seen professionials who freak out if they can't do their usual cycle of save-sip coffee-plan the next step-resume (not naming names.)

-- Michael

Which is it? 64 or 64?

[Surak]

"you need OS9 and at least 64 megs of RAM, unless you're doing Web quality video, in which case 64 is fine."

Huh? Do you need 64 or 64?

See Macintouch

[the eric conspiracy]

2 week old news. Actually it works with System 8.6 or later. There is a report with user experiences on Macintouch, including a lot of hardware compatability data.

iMovie's lack of features

[AgentRavyn]

I do a lot of video editing work at school, and have done it all with an analog editing setup. We finally got some digital equipment (1 Sony digital-8 camera and 2 iMacs with iMovie). When I started using iMovie, I thought it was a God-send: it was so easy to use. When I dove deeper into it, though, I found out that it lacked a few essential things that can be done with relative ease on the analog setup we had:

--Dubbing video over another video segment and keeping the original audio.
--Taking audio only from the video footage.

Also, the sound effects that it has don't move with the movie track when you add another clip, and they're had to put back into the right place. The worst, however, is that iMovie has crashed several times, and it doesn't haev an auto-save feature. You lose EVERYTHING since your last save, which makes things time consuming. Adding credits can take upwards of 15 minutes, and if you lose that, a lot of time is wasted.

Just my 2 Euros.
~AgentRavyn
___
A requirement of creativity is that it contributes
to change. Creativity keeps the creator alive.

Re:iMovie's lack of features

[Wyatt Earp]

Thats because it's the consumer version.

It's a free package meant to get people into doing cheap and quick videos for friends and family.

Sounds like you want Final Cut Pro or Premire.

iMovie punches? Not quite

[drix]

I've used demos of this package and compared to professional packages like Premiere it really packs a punch.

Oh I heartily disagree. iMovie really is missing some crucial functions that any good video editing app shouldn't be without. Namely, there is very little in the way of audio manipulation. You can't separate the audio and video tracks of a clip, period. This might sound like an advanced feature but you'll be surprised how much you wish it was there even when making simple vacation movies for the family (I did).

Memory managment is horrid; during our last project our 15 minute short movie gobbled so much RAM and hard drive space (and we have 128mb) that it ended up literally frying the computer; I had to reinstall MacOS because iMovie had thrashed some system files. This is just not cool.

I think iMovie is a neat little app, but it doesn't leave you very much leeway in the editing process. In other words, you can create a good movie, but you have to time your shots just right and be sure that the audio is just as you want when you are actually filming. There isn't much in the way of dubbing and clip editing to help you out.

On a related note, what is everyone's experience with FinalCut Pro. I was using Premiere for a while, but on Mac it's more like an ugly port of a PC app than a good package. The DV support in Premiere is horrid unless I'm using it completely wrong. What do people have to say about FinalCut on iMac?

--

Re:Apple should not be praised for this.

[Macdude]

switched to an Open, Compatible, Supported movie format

What part of a DV stream do you consider closed, incompatible, and unsupported?

iMovie is designed to edit DV Video, you can convert the finished product to QuickTime but you can also convert it to MPEG, VHS or whatever you want.