iMovie 3.0.1 Users "Upgrading" to 2.1.2

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.

Comments

positive report

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Can anyone give a positive report on iMovie 3.0.1?

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.

Factors

[clem.dickey]

According to entries in the Apple support area (and some personal experience): Old (iMovie2) projects are trouble. "Reverse clip" is trouble. 800x600 resolution is simply not possible - real trouble for 800x600 LCD displays.

On the bright side there is probably a non-crashing code path in there somewhere.

Re:Fine on Graphite iMac 600

[Erik K. Veland]

iPhoto speed tip: Turn off borders in the appearance preferences. Without shadows, lots of people are noticing a huge boost.

Hit or miss

[DebianDog]

I am an Apple help and run the "Unofficial iMovie FAQ". I believe it is either works pretty good or runs like crap. Symptoms seem to vary based on CPU and memory. The most happy group are the dual processor folks. I have a movie here that shows me running top, playing a QT movie and also editing and playing with the new iMovie 3, on top of that there was the overhead of doing a 6 FPS screen capture. So when it is running right, it is fast!!!

I have also received e-mails for 3rd party plug-in manufactures that state:

"Some of the other plug-ins have a problem with screen redraw using NavServices (open/save dialog), but other parts of iMovie have this same problem. Some of the titles have the same centering problem as the Apple plug-ins, so we'll need to see how to address this."

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:

1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities).
2. Type: sudo sh /etc/daily
3. Press Return.
4. Enter your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
5. Quit Terminal when the task is complete.
OR
Run Mac Janitor to be sure every is nice and clean
AND
1. Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/).
2. Select the Mac OS X startup disk in the left-hand column.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click Repair Disk Permissions.
IF ALL ELSE FAILS and your still running slow
-Update Your Prebindings
1. Open up Terminal (Applications/Utilities)
2. Type: sudo update_prebinding -root /
3. Press return
4. Enter your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
4. Wait... (you will see text-glore scroll by for about 10-20 minutes)
5. Quit Terminal when the task is complete.

I am personally not having any issues other than the following:

o Cannot center titles
o Cannot "always" reverse a clip
o Transitions add a black or white frame
o Timecode date/timestamp defaults to today

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

Re:Working great but some questions

[Twirlip of the Mists]

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?

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.