List of iMovie HD 5 bugs:

Here is a list of iMovie HD 5 bugs, features and fixes, and my wishlist for iMovie. I have mainly tested 4:3 projects because I don't have good 16:9 material. Bugs that were fixed with iMovie HD or QuickTime updates were removed from this list (QT 7 finally fixed distortion in interlacing with added titles, for example). There is also a similar list of the iMovie 4 bugs and iMovie HD 6 bugs.

My setup: iMovie 5.0.2, iDVD 5.0.1, QuickTime 7.0.4, Mac OS X 10.3.9, no 3rd party iMovie plugins.

Please send feedback to Apple if you can confirm these bugs with your setup. iMovie 4 got one lousy bugfix and several well-known annoying old bugs persisted. iMovie HD 5 fixed some v4 bugs and introduced some new ones. iMovie 1.0.2 and v2.1.2 were OK but the quality of later versions has been a disappointment. I hope these bugs will be fixed ASAP.

Update: history repeated itself and these iMovie HD 5 bugs were never fixed <sigh>. Let's hope iMovie HD 6 has better quality control!

Acknowledgements: I have got valuable tips for this page from the following people: Dennis Blake, John Cogdell, Ken Matthews, Kevin McMurtrie, Evan Mitchell, Jeremy Nixon and Karl Petersen.

iMovie HD 5 has some old and new bugs:

- Some analog to DV converters don't work in iMovie HD 5.0.2 like they do in iMovie 4.0.1.

1. For example, my Sony TRV320 can convert analog video to DV in passthrough mode in iMovie 4.0.1, but not in iMovie HD 5.0.2. Reportedly neither Sony DVMC-DA1 converter's, or Sony DCR-PC110, Sony DCR-HC30E, Sony TRV-340E, Canon ZR80, Canon ZR200, Canon MV630i or Panasonic NV EX3 camcorders' analog to DV passthrough work in iMovie HD 5.0.2 like it does in iMovie 4.0.1.

2. It is also not possible to record live DV with no tape in the camcorder (i.e. the camcorder in Rec mode, so that what goes in the camcorder's lens, imports in real-time to iMovie) from a camcorder (Sony TRV320, for example) to iMovie HD 5.0.2 because iMovie complains "Camera No Tape". In iMovie 4.0.1 and BTV Pro this works OK with no tape in the camcorder.

Analog-to-DV workaround #1: Import using $20/40 BTV/BTV Pro or iMovie 4.0.1. Then import it to iMovie HD or, to save time and HD space, drop the .dv file in the Media-folder (see below here and here).

Analog-to-DV workaround #2: (This worked with my Sony TRV320 with iMovie HD 5.0.1 but not anymore with v5.0.2). Put a tape in the camcorder and press the camcorder's PLAY-button to play the tape in VTR mode (usually the tape must be OUT when doing analog-DV conversion!), then in iMovie hit the Import-button (so iMovie starts to import from the tape), then press the camcorder's STOP-button. iMovie should then continue importing from the analog source as usual.

Live import workaround #1: Import using BTV/BTV Pro or iMovie 4.0.1. (Remember to disable the camcorder's demo mode).

Live import workaround #2: Put a tape in the camcorder and put it into CAMERA mode. Launch iMovie HD 5.0.2 -- its import mode should show the live feed from the camcorder. Remove the tape -- iMovie HD should continue to show and import live feed from the camcorder. The drawback with this approach is that it produces wear and tear to the camcorder. If you keep the tape in the camcorder, it may also go into standby mode if the tape is paused.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2's Reversed Effect deinterlaces video when iMovie 4 correctly preserves interlacing by changing field dominance

With iMovie 4 and interlaced material the movements remain smooth because interlacing is preserved. With iMovie HD 5.0.2 the motion is jerky when watched on an interlaced TV.

Workaround for the reversed clips: Use JES Deinterlacer or iMovie 4 for reversed effects if the video is interlaced.

iMovie HD's slow-motion effect is OK (it deinterlaces the frames and then duplicates them) but you get smoother motion with JES Deinterlacer.

iMovie deinterlaces its Fast-motion Effect when it sends the project to tape or iDVD. You get smoother motion and more options if you speed the clips with JES Deinterlacer.

- Some transitions have interlace-related flicker or distortion in iMovie HD 5.0.2

The Overlap transition doesn't deinterlace the freeze frame like it should. If the freeze frame remains interlaced, then there is flicker or jitter when it is viewed on an interlaced TV.

Also the Scale Down transition doesn't deinterlace the scaled clip so it has ugly interlacing artifacts (if it is interlaced and if it contains motion).

It can be debated whether the Twirl and Warp Out transitions should also deinterlace the transition clip so there would be no interlacing artifacts. It is a matter of taste whether distortion in interlacing is part of those transition effects or not.

- In iMovie HD 5.0.2 the transitions duplicate and drop frames in NTSC projects

In NTSC projects the very first frame of a transition is duplicated and the very first frame after the transition is dropped causing jerky movement. This is more apparent in some transitions than others. This bug doesn't seem to affect PAL projects.

You can verify whether the bug affects your setup:

- Add a transition (Scale Down, for example).

- View the result frame by frame in a) iMovie or b) in the exported .dv file or c) by burning the project via iDVD (you can check the burned .VOB frame by frame via QT Player or MPEG Streamclip if you have bought Apple's MPEG-2 Playback Component):

- Notice how the very first frame of the transition is duplicated.

- Notice how the very first frame of the regular footage after the transition is dropped, producing a sudden jerky movement. (This is very well seen in smoothly moving objects. You can also compare the video around the transition to the original clips to verify that a frame is indeed dropped).

- On the other hand, both reference movies of the iMovie project are OK: no duplicated or dropped frames there!! But if you import the reference.mov or export it to a .dv file, THEN the frames are duplicated or dropped. Smells like a bug in the reference movie handling routines.

There is a 11 MB sample iMovie HD NTSC project illustrating the bug here.

(You find the reference movies inside the iMovie project package at /Cache/Timeline Movie.mov and at /Shared Movies/iDVD/*.mov (iMovie sends the latter to iDVD and the latter contains also the chapter info)).

Workaround: Add the transition. Then, if needed, split the clip before the transition so that a title can be added. Add a long (10 seconds seems to be enough) textless title before the transition so that the title spans some or all of the previous clip, the transition and into the next clip. Notice that if the title is too short (about 4 seconds or less), then the duplicated and dropped frames are moved to the beginning and end of the title! Using a longer title seems to fix also this.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2's transitions are always about 1.2x longer than they should in PAL

For example: if you add a 2 second Cross Dissolve, it ends up being 2 seconds 10 frames. A 10 second transition ends up being 12 seconds. 1 second 17 frames becomes exactly 2 seconds once rendered in the timeline.

The frustrating thing is not being able to set the exact timing of transitions using the slider (or direct typing) - you have to wait for the render before seeing the final outcome in the timeline. To get the desired length you have to test the transition lengths by trial and error. The ratio is about 1.2; some lengths slightly deviate from this due to rounding.

It can't be a coincidence that NTSC/PAL fps ratio is also 30/25 = 1.2!!

It seems that this bug stems from the 30 frames/s timebase that QuickTime uses also for PAL! AFAIK QuickTime has had this anomaly since v6 and v5, obviously even longer. You can see this anomaly in action by opening a PAL .dv clip in QuickTime Player, choosing Window/Show Movie Info and noticing how its Current Time display skips 5 frames/s so that there are 30 frames/s for PAL, too!!

AFAIK Apple chose to use 30 fps also for PAL because QuickTime format (unlike DV or AVI formats) does not support a global frame rate, so there isn't a single place in the file where you can retrieve the overall frame rate of the movie. DV movies have fixed frame rate, but when opened in QuickTime Player, DV movies are turned into QuickTime movies, and lose the overall frame rate information. So Apple, to avoid any problem with frame rate, decided to use a fixed 30 fps counter so NTSC users are fine, and PAL users are screwed.

- Adding effects to a clip with titles may make it become gray or tinted

This is mentioned in the Apple docs:

If you apply a title to a clip in iMovie 4 or 5 and then add an effect to the same clip, it's possible that the clip may unexpectedly become gray or tinted with the same color as the title text after the effect finishes rendering.

For example, if you add a title using the default white text and then add an effect, the clip might look white or gray. If your title text is blue and you add an effect, you might see that the effect and the clip have taken on a blue tint. This only happens if you use certain combinations of titles and effects.

If this happens to one of your clips after you add an effect, try these steps as a workaround:

1 Undo the effect: From the Edit menu, choose Undo (or press Command-Z).

2 Save your iMovie project.

3 Quit iMovie.

4 Open iMovie.

5 Add the desired effect back to the clip.

The effect should render normally at this point without causing any color shifts. If it's too late to undo the effect, you can either restore the clip back to its original form (from the Advanced menu, choose Revert Clip to Original), or bring a fresh version of the clip into the timeline.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2 renders jaggy still images when sending them to tape or iDVD

Like iMovie 4, iMovie HD renders jaggy still images when exporting to iDVD or tape! This is a very old issue and a frequent complaint in Apple's iMovie discussion forum!

Here is an example illustrating the problem (205 KB. 100% part of a) an original still image imported to iMovie HD and b) after rendering in iMovie when exporting to iDVD).

iMovie HD obviously deinterlaces still images just by duplicating the fields when it renders them for export to tape or iDVD. Now, this prevents flicker on a TV screen but the rendered still images are jaggy because vertical resolution is halved.

Workaround #1 is to turn ON the Ken Burns Effect before importing an image. (To eliminate any zoom, set the Start and End settings to the same setting. The easiest way to do that is to set the Start setting to what you want, then Option-click on the End side of the Start/End button). When the image(s) are imported, that causes iMovie HD to immediately use the Ken Burns Effect to render the still images into video clips. That eliminates its request later to render them when you send the project to tape or click the Create iDVD Project button. It's in THAT rendering that the jaggies are added. The images tend to flicker (see below).

Workaround #2 is to convert still images to good quality video with Photo To Movie or Still Life. These applications have more features than iMovie's built-in Ken Burns effect. Photo To Movie's High Quality setting renders still images into very good quality video that doesn't flicker.

Workaround #3 is to turn OFF the Ken Burns Effect before importing an image. Then remember to ignore iMovie HD's rendering prompt when you send the project to tape or click the Create iDVD Project button.

If iMovie's rendering prompt is ignored, then the images tend to be TOO sharp so they may flicker when viewed on an interlaced TV (interlace flicker). A good workaround is to slightly blur the stills in some 3rd party application, so that there are no 1-line horizontal lines that flicker on an interlaced TV screen. For example, 1 pixel 90° (vertical) Motion Blur may be a good way to reduce still image flicker on a TV (the 1 pixel value applies to PAL/NTSC 576/480 vertical resolutions and if the vertical resolution of the input still is larger you have to increase the filter's pixel value accordingly. For example: if the input still is 2048 x 1536, use 3 pixel value in the filter because 1536/576=2.7).

- In iMovie HD 5.0.2 exporting via the expert settings as a DV stream or .avi deinterlaces video and loses the timestamp

1. It now deinterlaces the video, which is a BAD thing!! Notice that also material exported as DV-encoded .avi is deinterlaced.

2. It also strips the timecode from the exported .dv which is a BAD thing, too!! If you export such a clip to a camcorder and import it back, then iMovie can't split scenes into clips because there are no timecode breaks to make this work.

Workarounds: Export .dv via the Full Quality preset. Exporting as .dv (or DV-encoded .avi) via QuickTime Player Pro also preserves interlacing and timecode.

- Some iMovie HD 5.0.2 QuickTime export presets export different resolutions than they claim to

Email 160x120 exports as 160x110 instead, Web 240x180 as 240x170, Web Streaming 240x180 as 240x170, and CD-ROM 320x240 as 320x230.

- Some iMovie HD 5.0.2 projects fail to burn in iDVD 5.0.1

iDVD 5.0.1 sometimes has obscure errors if it tries to encode an iMovie HD project. I have very often experienced the errors with iMovie HD projects with slideshows. There is an error #-1, #-34506 or no error # at all at the very end of the encoding process.

For example: I can produce the error when trying to burn this very simple project: Create a PAL-DV project with iMovie 5.0.2. Import two 2048x1536 JPEGs to it with Ken Burns turned off. Send the project to iDVD 5.0.1 and let iMovie render the stills when it prompts it. Then encode the project as a disk image. At the very end of the encoding process there is an alert "Encoding Video. Error during rendering/encoding:" and making the disk image fails.

Workarounds: Unfortunately I don't have a definite answer how to prevent those errors but you might try these:

- Delete all unnecessary iDVD-related *.dvdproj documents before starting a new project. By default iDVD saves to the ~/Documents folder.

- Set "iDVD/Preferences.../General/Delete rendered files on closing a project" ON.

- Try setting "iDVD/Preferences.../General/Best Performance/Enable background encoding" ON. This limits the project length to 60 minutes, though.

- Some people have had success after trying another iDVD Theme. I don't know which themes are "good" or "bad", though.

- The error #-1 can sometimes be prevented if a short video clip with audio is inserted to the beginning of the iMovie project. Sometimes this doesn't work and iDVD's error message at the end of the encoding is: "Errors were found during the burning process. The error #-1 was reported". (This applies to iMovie 5.0.1 and iDVD 5.0 -- I haven't seen this in later versions).

- An Apple document indicates that you may get an audio encoding error message when you try to burn a DVD in iDVD 5 that contains an iMovie HD project without any audio (such as an iMovie project that contains only still images). Adding a short audio track (even a non-audible track!) to the iMovie project will fix this error.

- There are single whiter frames with iMovie HD 5.0.2 slideshows burned in iDVD 5.0.1

This is mentioned in an Apple knowledgebase article: If you create a slideshow movie in iMovie HD 5.0.1 containing chapter markers it may produce white frames when burned to DVD using iDVD 5. In iMovie HD 5.0.2 the frames are not all white anymore but whiter than they should be.

For example: I can produce the error with this simple project: Create a PAL-DV project with iMovie 5.0.2. Import ten 2048x1536 JPEGs to it with Ken Burns turned off. Add a chapter marker to every 2nd still image so that there are 4 chapter markers. Send the project to iDVD 5.0.1 and don't let iMovie render the stills when it prompts it (iMovie HD renders jaggy stills so the rendering prompt must be ignored). Then encode the project as a disk image. Mount the disk image and play it via the DVD Player.app or inspect the encoded .VOB frame-by-frame via MPEG Streamclip or QuickTime Player: There is a single whiter frame (i.e. white flash) at every spot where there is a chapter marker so there are 5 white flashes in this 50 second DVD (there is an additional whiter frame at the very beginning). The whiter frame pattern is always the same at the chapter marker spot: previous image - 1 frame of the next image - whiter frame - the rest of the next image and so on.

Workaround: Share the movie as Full Quality .dv and import it to a new iMovie project. Add chapter markers in the iDVD pane. Export to iDVD and burn your disc as usual.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2's File/Share/iDVD's "Share selected clips only" option loses chapters

If you want to export only a part of the iMovie project to iDVD you can use iMovie's File/Share/iDVD menu option with "Share selected clips only" selected. Unfortunately this doesn't export the chapter markers to the iDVD project.

- The quality of imported still images which are saved back as frames is bad in iMovie HD 5.0.2

I admit that there is seldom point in importing and then exporting a still image with iMovie but anyway:

The quality is very bad and jaggy if you import a still image to iMovie HD (Ken Burns off or on), and then save it back as a frame. It looks like iMovie deinterlaces such images so the output image's vertical resolution is halved.

The quality drop is very similar compared to the bug where iMovie renders jaggy still images when sending projects to tape or iDVD.

On the other hand, iMovie saves decent quality still images from the actual video content. But you still get slightly better quality by the following method:

1. Open the DV clip in QuickTime Player and save it as a frame via File/Export.../Movie To Picture (Compression Settings: None, Millions of Colors, Best). 2. Then open the image in some 3rd party image editing application and deinterlace it if there are moving objects with comb artifacts: Eliminate Even Fields and create new fields by interpolation. 3. Finally resample the rectangular pixel video to a square pixel image (use bicubic smoother for upsampling and bicubic sharper for downsampling). With NTSC, scale 720x480 to 656x480, then optionally crop it with 8 pixels from both sides so that the final image is 640x480. With PAL, scale 720x576 to 788x576, then optionally crop it with 10 pixels from both sides so that the final image is 768x576.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2 deinterlaces the video and loses the time stamp when pillarboxing or letterboxing.

1. This happens when importing 4:3 material to a 16:9 DV Widescreen project (pillarboxing), or when importing 16:9 material to a 4:3 DV project (letterboxing) from a camcorder:

In both cases the video is deinterlaced and the time stamp (a.k.a. timecode) of the video is lost. Deinterlacing makes the video jerky if it is interlaced originally. If you export a clip with no timecode to a camcorder and import it back, then iMovie can't split scenes into clips because there are no timecode breaks to make this work.

2. The same happens also when importing 4:3 or 16:9 flagged .dv clip files to iMovie project if the project is of the other (4:3 or 16:9) aspect ratio than the imported .dv clips.

A workaround is to set the High Quality flag (and no other playback quality flag) of the imported .dv file. THEN the interlacing is preserved. IMO the imported clip's playback setting should be just a PLAYBACK setting. It should NOT alter the behaviour of the .mov or .dv file in any other way!!

(Unlike .mov files, the .dv files can't save the playback quality setting but applications like Toast and MPEG Streamclip can store the playback quality info in the .dv file's resource fork).

Another workaround is to use MPEG Streamclip for the 4:3<->16:9 conversion.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2's Full Quality DV export preset doesn't set the 16:9 flag when exporting from a 16:9 project

iMovie HD 5.0.2's Full Quality DV export preset doesn't set the 16:9 flag for the exported .dv file when exporting from a 16:9 project. If you re-import such a clip to a 16:9 project it is treated as a 4:3 clip and letterboxed.

Workaround: Re-export the .dv file via QuickTime Player Pro 7 and set its 16:9 flag (File/Export.../Movie to DV Stream/Options...16:9). Then import the .dv to iMovie HD.

(A bad option would be to open the iMovie_project/Cache/Timeline Movie.mov reference.mov with QuickTime Player Pro 7 and export as .dv with the 16:9 flag set, but currently the quality is worse with this approach even with teh reference.mov's High Quality flag set).

(Another bad option would be to export via iMovie HD's expert settings but currently this approach deinterlaces the video and loses the timecode).

- iMovie HD 5.0.2 letterboxes some 4:3 .mov files when importing them to 4:3 projects

Obviously this happens with .mov files saved with older than QuickTime 7 versions.

Workaround: Open the .mov with QuickTime Player Pro and export it as a .dv stream with 4:3 flag set. THEN iMovie HD imports it OK.

- You may hear a pop or gap during a title or transition in iMovie HD 5.0.2

This is mentioned in the Apple docs:

After applying a title or transition, you may sometimes hear a pop or brief period of silence between the transition and the next clip.

This can happen when using iMovie versions 3, 4, and 5.

If you experience this, try extracting the audio from your video clip to a separate track before applying the title or transition. Follow these steps:

1. Select the affected clip.

2. To undo the title or transition you have added: From the Edit menu select Undo, or from the Advanced menu select Restore Clip.

3. Select the video clip in the timeline.

4. From the Advanced menu, select Extract audio. The audio for the selected clip will be moved to its own audio track in the timeline.

5. Add your transition or effect.

iMovie HD introduced some new features and issues the user may want to be aware of:

- iMovie HD's maximum clip size is increased from the previous 2 GB (=9 minutes 27 seconds). The maximum clip size is now at least 13 GB (=65 minutes). I haven't been able to test larger imports because analog-to-DV passthrough doesn't yet work with all devices, even with the v5.0.1 update. The maximum editable clip size is reportedly at least 33 GB and probably even more but beware that, like in iMovie 4, handling so huge clips might be unreliable.

The larger clip size makes certain things easier but as a side-product it also tends to make the iMovie projects to take somewhat more disk space because the Trash routines are also changed.

I think there should still be an option to use a custom maximum clip size, too!

- iMovie HD's Saving and Trash routines have changed. Saving the project now just, erm, saves it. Emptying the trash now deletes unreferenced clips (i.e. clips that no scene in the timeline or in the shelf references to) so it equals iMovie 4's Save-command which also deleted unreferenced clips. The important difference is that while iMovie 4 immediately and undoable deleted unreferenced clips when saving, iMovie HD now moves them to the Finder's Trash so you can retrieve them from there if you change your mind. Notice however, that for some odd reason the very last deleted clip(s) AREN'T moved to the Finder's Trash but they are deleted instantly.

Unlike earlier versions of iMovie, iMovie HD doesn't trim the actual imported media clips anymore. I.e. unreferenced frames aren't anymore trimmed off when emptying the trash, and once a huge clip is imported it by default remains huge!

This means that the iMovie project can't be squeezed as small as it was previously possible. This approach combined with a new-style project file structure is safer (i.e. project files should not get corrupted as easily as in the past) but it also tends to bloat the iMovie projects.

For example: if you import analog footage, then the clips tend to be quite large because the scene detection doesn't work with analog footage (the maximum clip size is now up to 13 GB when it previously was 2 GB). So it is very possible that in the edited movie some very few scenes always reference to that huge 13 GB clip, so the project size remains the same even though you edit it down considerably.

Also, as a side-product of this new trash behaviour and the increased maximum clip size: if you copy a small segment of a big clip to another project, then the whole referenced clip must be copied to the other project (it can be at least 13 GB!). A workaround is to export selected edited clips as a Full Quality .dv file, and then just drop (or save directly) the .dv file into another project's Media folder.

Similarily, if you want to copy the whole movie, but nothing but the movie, into another project, then import the iMovie_Project/cache/Timeline Movie.mov to another iMovie project. Then only the relevant, edited scenes are imported to the other project.

The new Trash behaviour enables you to Cut a clip and Save; you can then Paste that clip back into the same project or even to another project (iMovie 4 deleted the clip if it was not referenced elsewhere). The downside is that now the projects need more disk space.

- iMovie HD copies or drags the whole media clip instead of its trimmed part

After you have trimmed unnecessary material off and copy the trimmed clip to another iMovie project, the WHOLE underlying media clip is copied instead of just the trimmed part. Also, if you drag the trimmed clip to the desktop, then the WHOLE underlying media clip is copied instead. ...And that underlying media clip can now be VERY big (13+ GB!) so this is a great waste of HD space and time!

Yes, this is a feature of nondestructive editing, but IMO the copy and drag-and-drop should also optionally trim the clip to the size it appears to be.

Workaround: Select the desired contiguous clips, Share them as Full Quality .dv and import THAT back (or drop or Share the .dv straight to the Media folder, see above here and here).

- iMovie HD now stores its project folder as a "package". You can see the old iMovie 1-4-style folder structure by control-clicking (or right-clicking) the project package.

The actual media clips are in the "/Media" folder. You can also take advantage of the "/Cache/Timeline Movie.mov" which corresponds to the old tiny reference.mov iMovie 4 used. (BTW, there is another reference.mov at "/Shared Movies/iDVD/*.mov", too). Remember that the tiny reference.mov doesn't work by itself and it needs those huge clips in the Media folder to work! (I guess one reason Apple hide the project components inside a package is that it prevents newbies from sending the tiny reference.mov to relatives and then complain that it doesn't work!).

If you dislike continuously having to open the package, you can permanently open it by simply renaming the *.iMovieProject suffix to something else like *.movie or by stripping the suffix completely off (you must first set the Finder to Show all file extensions via Finder/Preferences.../Advanced. Or simply in the Finder choose File/Get Info on the package file and then change its extension in the Name & Extension text entry box). You must then open the /*.iMovieProj file manually the next time you open the project (apparently the *.~iMovieProj file is used as a backup so don't open it unless you want to go back to the previous saved version!).

(An XML entry in iMovie HD/Contents/Info.plist maps "iMovieProject" suffix to be shown as a bundle. Add that extension to any folder and it turns into an iMovie HD project).

- iMovie HD accepts .dv files straight into its Media folder in a different way. It is still possible to bypass iMovie's DV import and put a .dv file straight into iMovie_project/Media -folder (open the project package by control-clicking it first), but iMovie now complains that "Some stray files were found in the project, and were moved into iMovie's Trash. Would you like to view the Trash contents?". Previously iMovie prompted the user to put such files to the shelf. Now the user must move the clip(s) from the Trash to the Timeline or to the Shelf. iMovie HD seems to sometimes incorrectly sort .dv files imported this way, while previous versions always automatically correctly sorted them in alphabetical order. This can be a pain when handling numerous .dv files because the sorting order must now be manually verified!

BTW, this import procedure is nice for archived .dv files because it allows you to copy .dv from the archive in the background via the Finder, and at the same time continue to work in iMovie. Unlike iMovie-import, the Finder-copy has a progress-bar so you can estimate how long it is going to take. When the Finder-copy is finished, just quit iMovie and put the copied .dv file in the Media folder.

It may sometimes save a lot of HD space because it allows the user to export selected edited clips as a Full Quality .dv file, and then just drop (or save directly into an opened package) the .dv file into another project's Media folder. Yes, a simpler option would be to just copy & paste from one project to another in iMovie HD, but this pastes the whole media clip behind the scenes instead, and that media clip can sometimes be accompanied by a quite large part (13+ GB!!) that is already edited off.

Just remember to take care that the .dv clip you are dropping in the Media folder is REALLY a plain DV stream .dv clip and that it is of the same video standard (PAL/NTSC) as the iMovie project. Some gotchas: iMovie HD 5 accepts even DV-encoded .mov files or wrong video standard .dv clips straight to its Media folder, but adding titles to such clips produces colorful artifacts to the rendered clip. Also notice that iMovie 4's Full Quality DV export preset exports a file with the .dv suffix but it is, in fact, a DV-encoded .mov if the source iMovie 4 project has chapters in it (this is not an issue with iMovie HD's Full Quality DV export anymore).

- The Full Quality DV export preset no longer exports chapter markers to the .dv file, which was a feature of iMovie 4.

- iMovie now deinterlaces also saved PICT frames. iMovie 4 saved PICT as interlaced and deinterlaced JPEG. Sometimes it was handy to save interlaced PICTs so that they could be reassembled as a new interlaced video sequence.

- iMovie HD uses new routines when importing a still image and when saving as a still frame

- iMovie HD uses a new scaling algorithm when importing still images. iMovie 4 imported 4:3 images with no added borders. iMovie HD now adds black borders to 4:3 still images when importing them (with Ken Burns turned off). Now, this is the correct thing to do and iMovie HD does it almost right:

For example (NTSC): when converting a 2048x1536 (or 640x480) square pixel still image to NTSC 720x480 rectangular pixel video, the image should 1st be resampled to 702x480, then padded with 9 black pixels to the sides so that the final image is 720x480. iMovie HD now resamples to 704x480, then pads the sides with 8+8 pixels to 720x480 instead.

For example (PAL): when converting a 2048x1536 (or 768x576) square pixel still image to PAL 720x576 rectangular pixel video, the image should 1st be resampled to 702x576, then padded with 9 black pixels to the sides so that the final image is 720x576. iMovie HD now resamples to 703x576, then pads the sides with 8+9 pixels to 720x576 instead.

If you want no black borders to the imported still images in 4:3 video projects, their aspect ratio must be NTSC 720x528 or PAL 788x576 or some larger multiple of those figures (NTSC 1024x751, 2048x1502, 2095x1536 etc, or PAL 1024x749, 2048x1497, 2101x1536 etc).

If you want no black borders to the imported still images in 16:9 video projects, their aspect ratio must be NTSC 875x480 or PAL 1050x576 or some larger multiple of those figures.

- iMovie HD uses new resolutions when saving video as a still frame. iMovie 4 saved frames as NTSC 640x480 or PAL 768x576, which slightly distorted the images' aspect ratios. The new resolutions are almost correct:

iMovie HD now saves NTSC 720x480 rectangular pixel video as a 720x528 square pixel JPEG or PICT image. The correct resolution when converting rectangular pixel NTSC 720x480 DV to square pixel image should be 656x480 instead. Another correct alternative would be to 1st scale to 656x480 and then crop it with 8 pixels from both sides so that the final image is 640x480.

iMovie HD now saves PAL 720x576 rectangular pixel video as a 784x576 square pixel JPEG or PICT image. The correct resolution when converting rectangular pixel PAL 720x576 DV to square pixel image should be 788x576 instead. Another correct alternative would be to 1st scale to 788x576 and then crop it with 10 pixels from both sides so that the final image is 768x576.

I wonder what the logic behind this new behaviour is. Maybe Apple wants to save the still images to a resolution which doesn't have to be upsampled in any direction when re-importing it back to iMovie (640x480 must be upsampled and padded to 720x480)?? FWIW, the chosen NTSC 720x528 is near the 720x540 oddball resolution (or 704x528) which should be avoided because it needs vertical scaling that distorts interlacing.

There is a small error in 16:9 projects, too: iMovie HD saves PAL still frames as 1040x576 instead of 1050x576 and NTSC as 869x480 instead of 875x480 (these may then cropped to the actual active picture size of PAL 1024x576 or NTSC 864x480).

- The new Burn Project to Disk isn't very useful without disk spanning. iMovie HD can burn the projects to data-DVDs or data-CDs which is a great new feature (File/Burn Project to Disk...). Unfortunately iMovie can't span big projects to several disks so the project must be no longer than 20 minutes for a DVD or 3 minutes for a CD! And in practice the burnable projects are even shorter because those clips that are not in the timeline take their space also. So at the moment this new feature is of very limited use only.

...I was eager to test this new and useful feature... How was the disk spanning accomplished? How were the media clips distributed across disks? Were some clips chopped to two disks or were the differently sized clips intelligently distributed so that each disk would get filled to its maximum capacity? Was some sort of compression used? Could I grab a random clip from the archive disk and insert it to another project?

No, at the moment there is no disk spanning. Maybe in the next update? :|

- iMovie HD 5.0.1 preference label for PAL/NTSC has changed

Some users have been confused because iMovie HD's "PAL/NTSC" video standard preference setting has been re-labeled as "25/29.97 fps".

iMovie automatically detects a connected camcorder's video standard, and iMovie HD now detects the video standard automatically when importing from a .dv file, too.

So if you have a blank PAL document, you can import a NTSC .dv file to it and the project switches to NTSC (and naturally does not allow importing PAL .dv clips!!). So importing the 1st clip from a camcorder or from a .dv file sets the standard accordingly for the rest of the project.

The user must be careful to import the first clip as the desired video standard!

- iMovie HD can now import NTSC .dv file to a PAL project and vice versa. This is a nice feature but you get much better PAL <-> NTSC video standards conversion quality with 3rd party applications like JES Deinterlacer. iMovie uses poor quality QuickTime routines for the conversion so interlacing is lost and frames are skipped (NTSC -> PAL) or duplicated (PAL -> NTSC).

- iMovie HD 5.0.2 has a preference setting for Automatic DV Pillarboxing & Letterboxing

This setting matters when importing 4:3 material to a 16:9 DV Widescreen project (pillarboxing), or when importing 16:9 material to a 4:3 DV project (letterboxing) from a camcorder.

Unchecking the "iMovie HD/Preferences.../Import/Automatic DV Pillarboxing & Letterboxing" setting doesn't do those actions automatically after importing and when switching to edit mode.

If for some reason that settings doesn't seem to work, you can try to save and quit the project immediately after importing (do NOT switch to edit mode!). When you then open the project, there should be no pillarboxing or letterboxing.

- iMovie HD no longer shows the timecode in its main window

Workaround: double-click the clip or select the clip and choose File/Show Info... to check the Capture date. I think this info should be shown in the main window like in iMovie 4 so that the user can easily see the date of each clip.

- iMovie HD converts old projects to a new format

iMovie HD 5 uses a different project file format compared to iMovie 1-4. When iMovie HD converts an older project, it does the following:

1. Make a backup of the old-style project file *.iMovieProj and rename it *.iMovie2Project.

2. Create a new-style XML project file *.iMovieProj and a backup file *.~iMovieProj for it.

3. Create "Cache" (for the reference movie Timeline Movie.mov and Timeline Movie Data.plist and Thumbnails.plist) and "Shared Movies" (for the reference movie *.mov for iDVD) folders.

4. iMovie HD may also re-render some effects (like slow-motion and reversed).

It seems that it IS possible to open the old-style *.iMovie2Project project file with iMovie 4 even after the conversion, but it reverts the project to an old state and this may not work at all if there are considerable changes to the project.

Sometimes the conversion may not properly succeed and it may go into a loop where a tilde character (~) is added to the project name every time it is saved. You can get out of the loop by doing a File/Save Project As... and continue the work on the saved copy of the project.

It is best to finish iMovie 4 projects, and start new iMovie HD projects from scratch. Another alternative is to import iMovie 4 project's reference.mov into a new iMovie HD project. Or export the iMovie 4 project as a .dv file (PAL users must remember not to use iMovie 4's buggy Full Quality DV preset when exporting to .dv file). Yet another alternative is to use iMovie 4 to export to a camcorder, and import it back to a new iMovie HD project (exporting & importing to & from a camcorder may drop a few frames, but going that route will automatically keep scenes split into scenes, if one so desires). It is best to only do rough editing in iMovie 4 (straight cuts, no effects etc) because exporting to .dv or tape "flattens" the movie so that the added effects are undoably "burned" into the movie.

- iMovie HD defaults to field blending in playback

iMovie HD defaults to field blending in its playback quality preference. Some users have been confused by the apparent fuzzy appearance which this setting produces when two fields are superimposed on each other. Note that sometimes iMovie needs to be re-launched for this preference to take effect.

- iMovie HD's Playback Quality setting doesn't always apply

Sometimes iMovie HD doesn't honor its Highest Quality Playback preference and switches to the deinterlaced playback mode instead. I can provoke this by just saving the project.

- In iMovie 5.0.2 added titles render the underlying video slightly fuzzy in PAL

Added titles render the underlying video slightly fuzzy in PAL. This is most easily noticed in sharp vertical lines. This happens only with PAL, not with NTSC, and it didn't happen with iMovie 4.0.1. This seems like a scaling bug with PAL.

Here is an example illustrating the difference without and with a title (132 KB animated GIF). The difference isn't big but it is noticeable.

The difference isn't very big so you don't get to see it via iMovie's low-quality display. The difference can be seen with the fuzziness of previously sharp vertical lines when comparing .dv clips via QuickTime Player (high quality, both fields playback with no deinterlacing must be turned on). Also when viewed on a TV screen there is a difference: with the title the underlying video is slightly fuzzier than without a title. When the title goes off, the video turns crisper.

I've also noticed that sometimes the underlying audio's high frequencies may slightly dampen during the titles.

BTW, in iMovie 5.0-5.0.1 added titles (and transitions and effects) distorted interlacing lines in the underlying video (this happened if a title was used before adding any transitions or effects after iMovie was launched). This was fixed in iMovie 5.0.2 for NTSC and with iMovie 5.0.2 & QuickTime 7 for PAL.

- iMovie projects corrupt if they are saved to PC/UNIX-formatted volumes

iMovie can't properly save its projects to PC- or UNIX-formatted volumes. Also copying existing iMovie projects to such volumes via the Finder corrupts them. Many unsuspecting users have been bitten by this when not realizing that their FireWire disk was PC-formatted.

Workaround: Remember to use Mac OS Extended a.k.a. HFS+ volumes for iMovie projects. You can try to fix the corrupted project files with Lennart Thelander's file fixers or other utilities that can modify files' TYPE/CREATOR info.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2's share selected clips to camera doesn't stop exporting at the end of the selection

When exporting selected clips to the camcorder the selected clips play, but then iMovie HD keeps on playing (and the camera keeps recording) the clips following the selected ones, until the user clicks Stop.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2 sometimes loses permissions to access its project folder

I haven't seen this error and don't know whether it is an iMovie or a system related issue.

A suggested fix is to create a new project folder in the Finder by choosing the Finder's "New Folder" command. Like this:

1. Create a new folder anywhere OTHER THAN inside the old project folder. Name the new folder "Replacement" or something.

2. Create a new folder inside the Replacement folder. Name it "Media".

3. Open the Media folder of the old iMovie project. Choose Edit/Select All.

4. Option-drag all the selected files (hold Option key down while dragging) to the new Media folder. That creates a duplicate of the files instead of moving them. (I'm assuming there is sufficient disk space to duplicate them. If not, simply drag them instead of Option-dragging.)

5. Option-drag the files inside the iMovie project folder to the Replacement folder.

You now have a new project folder named Replacement that contains all the files from the original project. Double-click the project file inside Replacement (be careful not to open the backup project file, i.e. the one with ~ in its name). If the project opens successfully, Quit iMovie, rename Replacement and you're done (you can add the ".iMovieProject" suffix to the project folder name to make it a package).

If it doesn't open successfully, trash the project.mov file that's inside Replacement and try again.

Another approach would be to tweak the permissions via Finder's Get Info or via the Terminal.

iMovie HD 5 finally fixed some old annoying iMovie 4.0.1 bugs:

- iMovie HD's volume slider no longer affects the volume of rendered clips.

- iMovie no longer converts audio in imported .mov (or TYPE MooV) files to 32 kHz.

- Full Quality DV export preset now correctly exports PAL-DV (as a bug, iMovie 4 exports PAL-DVCPRO)! So there is no longer need to use the expert export settings (which are now buggy instead, see above).

- Full Quality DV export no longer doubles the file size if there are chapters in the movie. BTW, the exported file has a .dv suffix but there is no TYPE/CREATOR info (iMovie exported .dv but uncorrectly used TYPE MooV).

- iMovie HD refreshes the passthrough info to the camcorder somewhat faster than iMovie 4, but iMovie 2 is still the best in this regard. This feature is important when editing the movie in passthrough to camcorder (and to TV) mode, because this allows the user to see the correct interlacing, overscan and gamma on a TV screen. A computer display can't correctly show how the video will end up showing on a TV screen.

- Audio sync issues are now fixed? In iMovie 4.0.1 it was necessary to extract audio before sending the project to iDVD (this prevented out-of-sync audio in iMovie 4). So far so good.

...and finally, my wishlist for iMovie:

- FIX THE BUGS FIRST!!

I DON'T WANT ANY MORE FEATURES UNTIL THE BUGS ARE FIXED!!

- It would be nice if iMovie could optionally start a new clip at each scene break when importing from a .dv file (if there are timecode breaks inside the imported .dv file so the scene detection can work, that is. This could work just like it does when importing from a camcorder).

This feature is high on my wishlist because it would better allow one to archive .dv streams to large FireWire disks and DVDs, and then import them back in a more editable form.

- Custom maximum clip size. It is nice that the maximum clip size seems to be at least 13 GB and probably even more. This is what users have been whining all these years!

But I think there should be a way to force the maximum clip size to some smaller custom size, too! Sometimes handling and editing huge media clips can be a pain. Especially analog capture clip files tend to be large because there are no timecode breaks so the automatic scene detection can't work. And now iMovie HD can't anymore trim unreferenced frames off when emptying the trash -- this means that a huge imported clip remains huge by default!

iMovie 1 and 2 allowed the user edit the preference file with a text editor so that the maximum clip size was automatically something less than the 9 minutes 27 seconds which was the default size then. Something similar is still needed, either as a real preference item or via editing the preference file!

- Logging of dropped frames

It would be very useful if iMovie could log dropped frames when importing from tape or when exporting to tape.

It is often claimed that DV is digital, and copying it to tape and back is lossless. Well, dropped frames is the fly in the ointment. I once had a whopping 5 seconds of dropped frames per one hour. I discovered this only after burning it as DVD and seeing the jerky movements caused by dropped frames. Usually there are 0-14 dropped frames per hour but it would be useful to know when there is a huge amount of them.

- Pitch preserving audio scrubbing would be better than the current audio scrubbing method.

- MPEG import. MPEG2 files are shown in the import dialog but they are not imported. VOB files are imported with no audio and with PAL only every other frame is imported, so 3rd party applications like MPEG Streamclip are still needed for MPEG import.

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