List of iMovie HD 6 bugs:

Here is a list of iMovie HD 6 bugs, features and fixes, and my wishlist for iMovie. There is also a similar list of the iMovie 4 bugs and iMovie HD 5 bugs.

My setup: PowerBook G4 1.25GHz 15" FW800, Sony TRV320E, iMovie HD 6.0.3, iDVD 6.0.4, QuickTime 7.5.5, Mac OS X 10.3.9 and 10.5.6, no 3rd party iMovie plugins, PAL DV video.

Please send feedback to Apple if you can confirm these bugs with your setup. Or, sign up for a free online Apple Developer Connection membership and then report the bugs -- Apple pays much more attention to those than to the feedback messages.

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. History repeated itself and many well-known and old iMovie HD 5 bugs were never fixed <sigh>. 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: I consider iMovie HD 6.0.3 the best version right after v1.0.2, v2.1.1 and v2.1.2 because the remaining v6.0.2 bugs aren't actually SO bad :-|

Acknowledgements: I have got valuable tips for this page from the following people: Dennis Blake, John Cogdell, Ken Matthews, Iain MacDonald, Kevin McMurtrie, Evan Mitchell, Jeremy Nixon, Karl Petersen, RustyJames, Al Seper, Bruce Thompson and Glyn Williams.

iMovie HD 6 has some old and new bugs:

- Some analog to DV passthrough converters don't work in iMovie HD 6.0.2 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 6.0.3. Reportedly the same applies at least to Canon MV6iMC, Canon MV750i, too. This is why I still have a copy of iMovie 4.0.1 installed.

The same flaw was in iMovie HD 5.0.2, too: reportedly neither Sony DVMC-DA1, Sony DCR-PC110, Sony DCR-HC30E, Sony TRV-340E, Canon ZR80, Canon ZR200, Canon MV630i, Canon MV750i or Panasonic NV EX3 work in analog to DV passthrough mode to iMovie HD 5.0.2 while they work in iMovie 4.0.1 (apparently some models that don't work in iMovie HD 5.0.2 work in iMovie HD 6, though).

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 6.0.1 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 or v6.0). 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 6.0.2 -- 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 6.0.3 exports blank video to tape with new QuickTime versions

With new QuickTime versions iMovie HD 6.0.3 exports blank video to tape if the "Play DV project video through to DV camera" preference is selected.

Another thing: with this setup and preference only the Timeline clips play through to camcorder; the Clips Pane clips don't.

Setup: PowerBook G4 1.25GHz 15 FW800, Mac OS X 10.5.6, QuickTime 7.5.5, iMovie HD 6.0.3, Sony TRV320E.

This seems to be caused by new QuickTime versions because both of those things work with the same setup but with QuickTime 7.3.0. Updating to iMovie HD 6.0.4 doesn't help, BTW.

- iMovie HD 6.0.3 renders jaggy and flickery still images when sending them to tape or iDVD

1. Jaggies: Like iMovie 4 and 5, iMovie HD 6 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 forums!!

Here is an animated GIF 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 for jaggies is to turn ON the Ken Burns Effect before importing an image. (To eliminate any Ken Burns 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.

Workaround #2 for jaggies 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.

However, both workarounds for jaggies may leave disturbing flicker to the output when viewed on a TV:

2. Flicker: In iMovie both Ken Burns'ed and non-Ken Burns'ed images tend to flicker on a TV because iMovie doesn't properly blur the images for TV. This is caused by the fact that a thin and sharp 1-line horizontal object is visible only half of the time and even a 2-line horizontal object may seem to jump up and down on an interlaced TV (see interlace flicker, see also this related article about the issue). The flicker is most prominent with "high frequency" images, i.e. images with lots of thin and sharp edges (buildings, wires etc). Also vertical thin objects get an uneasy look unless they are blurred. On the other hand, "soft" images (faces etc) are not affected.

Workaround #1 for flicker is to make the Ken Burns effect with Photo To Movie. Photo To Movie has 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 when viewed on a TV.

Workaround #2 for flicker is to bicubically downsample the input stills to some 480 vertical resolution (Photoshop features bicubic downsampling and downsampling done via iPhoto produces similar results). I recommend downsampling to 640x480 for 4:3 or to 875x480 for 16:9 iMovie projects. The result is comparable to the Photo To Movie approach but the downside is that these low-resolution input images badly tolerate extreme zoom-in because then the images get too blurry.

Workaround #3 for flicker is to slightly blur the stills in some 3rd party application with a small (1 pixel or so) Gaussian blur, so that there are no 1-line horizontal lines that flicker on an interlaced TV screen. This reduces the flicker but not as well as with Photo To Movie approach.

- Updating Ken Burns stills works only until you empty the trash in iMovie HD 6.0.3

After emptying the trash, and then selecting the still to be updated via the Media/Photos/Show Photo Settings tab, the appropriate Ken Burns update window appears but the view screen is black and the still isn't updated.

The reason for this bug is that iMovie HD 6 discards the source image(s) of the imported clip when we empty the iMovie trash. In all previous versions of iMovie, that source image was retained in the Media folder, allowing us to later Update the rendered clip. That's no longer true. The image is being tossed out of the iMovie trash, making a future Update impossible. And because the source image is gone, iMovie displays nothing but black in the Preview window.

Workarounds: To reliably use a Ken Burns Update on a clip imported with the Ken Burns checkbox ON or OFF is to:

1) Never empty the iMovie trash.

2a) Re-import the photo with new Ken Burns settings, then delete the old clip.

2b) Copy the original still image to the iMovie project package's /Media folder. ( In fact, you can put ANY other JPG there and name it "image.jpg" and Ken Burns successfully updates THAT JPG image!!)

3) When you apply or update the Ken Burns effect, a clip is put to the iMovie trash. Move and keep ALL the clips Ken Burns has EVER put to the trash on the Clips pane (although this makes the Clips pane a mess). Keeping them there prevents the bug.

Thanks to Iain MacDonald, Al Seper and Karl Petersen for spotting this bug.

...The reason for the bug is that iMovie puts the original imported image (lets's call it here image.jpg) to the trash when it really should put some intermediate video clip to the trash instead. iMovie also reports the trash contents in a misleading way.

For the terminally interested: from a fresh start the bug goes like this:

- Import "image.jpg" to iMovie with Ken Burns ON. This creates three files to the Media folder:

image.jpg = a bit for bit copy of the imported JPG image (I had a 1.9MB JPG). iMovie creates it with Ken Burns OFF, too.

Still 01.dv = the original image converted to a single-frame DV clip (144KB PAL). iMovie creates it with Ken Burns OFF, too.

Clip 01.dv = the video clip that Ken Burns created (a 5 second PAL clip was 17.1 MB in my example). iMovie creates it only with Ken Burns ON.

...at the same time a clip called "image" is moved to the iMovie trash. Notice that its size is 140KB (PAL). Hmm... but there is no such file in the Media folder! I guess iMovie erroneusly referes here to the original image.jpg which is 1.9MB! I think iMovie really should report a file named "Still 01.dv" to be in the trash instead!

- Then empty the trash: Only the "Clip 01.dv" is preserved, and subsequent Ken Burns updates fail because the original "image.jpg" was erroneusly trashed. Ken Burns needs the original JPG to render a new video clip. The JPG is missing so the update fails with a black screen.

You can fix the problem by putting the original "image.jpg" to the Media folder (no need to relaunch iMovie)! In fact, you can put ANY other JPG there and name it "image.jpg" and Ken Burns successfully updates THAT JPG image!!

The fix 3 (move and keep all the clips Ken Burns has put to the trash on the Clips pane) works only because the intermediate clips protect the original JPG to be put in the trash. If a SINGLE intermediate Ken Burns clip is trashed, boom, the JPG goes with it.

- In iMovie HD 6.0.3 added titles render the underlying video slightly fuzzy with SD PAL or with 16:9 SD NTSC; with HD projects added titles and effects render the underlying video slightly fuzzy

Added titles render the underlying video slightly fuzzy. This is most easily noticed in sharp vertical lines. This happens with 4:3 or 16:9 standard definition PAL, or with 16:9 SD NTSC projects. This didn't happen with iMovie 4.0.1. This seems like a scaling bug.

In high definition PAL and NTSC projects added titles and effects render the underlying video slightly fuzzy.

Here is an example illustrating the difference without and with a title in a 4:3 SD PAL project (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.

- In iMovie HD 6.0.3 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.

Workaround for .dv export: Export .dv via iMovie's Full Quality preset.

Workaround for .avi export: As a bug, exporting as .dv or DV-encoded .avi via QuickTime Player Pro 7.1 (at least up to 7.1.3) occasionally duplicates frames (QT 7.0 didn't do this). You can export without duplicate frames via MPEG Streamclip (File/Export to AVI..., Compression: Apple DV - PAL or DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, Quality: 100%, Sound: Uncompressed).

- iMovie HD 6.0.3 deinterlaces the video and loses the timestamp 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.

The 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).

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

- iMovie HD 6.0.3 distorts widecreen footage if the user has not correctly set the video standard preference

This bug has hit some careless PAL users:

The user neglects to set the video standard to PAL so iMovie defaults to NTSC. Then s/he creates a new Widescreen DV project. If a PAL camcorder is attached, iMovie is smart enough to auto-switch the project to PAL. But iMovie forgets that the user wanted widescreen and sets the new project as 4:3 PAL.

The result: a) 16:9 is letterboxed and deinterlaced if the "Automatic DV Pillarboxing & Letterboxing" preference is checked or b) 16:9 video is squashed as 4:3 if the "Automatic DV Pillarboxing & Letterboxing" preference is unchecked.

- iMovie HD 6.0.2'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. On the other hand, iMovie HD 6 renders deinterlaced video when it exports to iDVD or to a camcorder so 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. (Skipping rendering in iMovie HD 6 doesn't help because the field dominance is still wrong, and this produces a zigzag effect when watched on an interlaced TV).

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

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

- iMovie HD 6.0.3 extracts audio at 44.100 kHz instead of 48.000 kHz

DV works best with 48.000 kHz, 16-bit audio (32.000 kHz, 12-bit audio can produce problems).

If the DV audio is 48.000 kHz (as it should), and you use the Advanced/Extract Audio -command, the extracted audio is 44.100 kHz.

(You can find the extracted *.aiff audio files at iMovie project package's /Media -folder).

Thanks for RustyJames for spotting this bug.

- Some transitions have interlace-related flicker or distortion in iMovie HD 6.0.2

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 Warp Out transition 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 that transition effect or not.

- iMovie HD 6.0.3 doesn't update the progress bar in Mac OS X 10.3.9 when importing .dv clips

Importing huge .dv clips can take minutes and some users may think iMovie has freezed because it doesn't update the progress bar when importing them in Mac OS X 10.3.9.

In Mac OS X 10.5.1 the progress bar appears as expected.

- iMovie HD 6.0.2's File/Export/iDVD's "Share selected clips only" option puts chapters to the wrong places

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 correctly export the chapter markers to the iDVD project.

- iMovie HD 6.0.3's Create Still Frame -command produces jaggy stills

The "Edit/Create Still Frame" -command creates a very noticable blurry still compared to the video frame it was created from. The quality is unusable if that command is used to make the "freeze frame" effect, for example.

A workaround (thanks to Karl Petersen):

This isn't pretty, but it should work, delivering a clip with no change in quality.

Instead of creating/exporting a still frame, grab 1 frame of VIDEO from the original clip, then "stretch" that video. Something like this:

1. Duplicate the clip from which you want a frame. (Option-drag it somewhere to duplicate it.)

2. Move the cursor to the frame you want to keep. Choose Edit/Split Video Clip at Playhead.

3. Press the right arrowkey once to move the playhead 1 frame right. Split the video again. You now have three clips, with a 1-frame clip in the middle. Keep the 1-frame clip and discard the rest.

4. Use the special effects to lengthen the play-time of the 1-frame clip, stretching it to a playtime of 5 frames (Editing/Video FX/Fast-Slow-Reverse/Slower).

5. Copy and Paste that clip a few times until its length is as desired (1 second will generally do).

6. For interlaced material you have to use this step (skip this with progressive material): Do a fake export to camcorder (with no camcorder attached). This will force iMovie to render (i.e. deinterlace) the slo-mo clip (not doing so would produce an awful zigzag effect when that slo-mo frame is viewed on an interlaced TV).

(Notice that usually THAT iMovie render process makes jaggy still images, but this is one of those instances when it does some good instead!)

7. Select the clips comprising the freezed video and export it to a Full Quality movie. (Use the "Share Selected Clips" checkbox in the export dialog window to export just those clips.)

8. Import the exported video back. Copy and Paste that as many times as you need. Export/re-import again if desired.

- The quality of imported still images which are saved back as frames is bad in iMovie HD 6.0.2

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). You can also copy the frame and paste it to a 720x480 (for NTSC) or 720x576 (for PAL) canvas in some 3rd party application. Or export as unscaled TIF via MPEG Streamclip. 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.

- (How can I revert to an earlier version of iMovie?)

If you want to revert to iMovie HD 5.0.2 and keep iMovie 6.0 as well, do the following: 1. Move the iMovie HD (6.0) out of the /Applications folder. 2. Open /Library/Receipts folder and delete iMovieThemes*.pkg and iMovie.pkg. 3. Re-install iMovie HD 5.0 and update it to v5.0.2. 4. You can now go into the /Applications folder and re-name "iMovie HD" (5.0.2) to something like "iMovie HD 5.0.2". Then move iMovie HD (6.0) back into your /Applications folder. Keep the newest version named as plain "iMovie HD" so the current updaters can see it.

Then you can run whichever version you like. Never double-click on an iMovie project you want to edit in an older version of iMovie. Instead you drag the project to the older iMovie application. Or open whichever iMovie application version you like and open the desired project from it.

I did the iLife 06 install the following way because I anticipated I'd need an older version: I renamed "iMovie HD" (5.0.2) as "iMovie HD 5.0.2" before installing iMovie HD 6. I did the same for iDVD (5.0.1), too. (I have also iMovie 4.0.1 on my system because some analog to DV passthrough converters don't work in iMovie HD 5.0.2 or v6.0 like they do in iMovie 4.0.1). Then I installed iLife 06.

BTW, as a habit I installed iLife 06 first on a test partition (I do this with any suspicious software...). iLife 06 install went without errors but iDVD 6 refused to open at all because it didn't find any themes. I tried to re-install iDVD (as the iDVD error message told me) or search the HD for any iDVD related "theme"s but it didn't help. No themes anywhere on the HD (at least the Finder search didn't find any -- apparently some old themes were inside application packages). THE fix for me was to delete or move /Library/Application Support/iDVD -folder to another location (apparently it contained iDVD 4 Tutorial with children making a snowman). I hope this helps someone with a similar error.

iMovie HD has some features 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. 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.

Fortunately there is now 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 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 (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. It is 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). When you then open the project iMovie says "Some stray files were found in the project. Files that iMovie can understand are moved in iMovie's Trash. Any other files have been moved into the Finder's Trash. Would you like to view iMovie's Trash contents now?". Then move the clip(s) from the Trash to the Timeline or to the Shelf. iMovie HD 5 sometimes incorrectly sorted .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 6 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 somewhat broken feature of iMovie 4. The chapter info is now more conveniently stored in the reference movies for iDVD and GarageBand at iMovie_project/Shared Movies/.

- 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. Workaround: Extract interlaced stills with QuickTime Player Pro.

- 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 Burn Project to Disk -command 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's preference label for PAL/NTSC is 25/29.97 fps

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 QuickTime routines for the conversion so frames are skipped (NTSC -> PAL) or duplicated (PAL -> NTSC).

- iMovie HD 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 embedded timecode info should be shown in the main window like in iMovie 4 so that the user can easily see the date of each clip. Notice that the displayed time is the value of the very first frame of the underlying media clip. I.e. if you split the clip at the playhead, all the splitted clips still point to the same time. iMovie 2.1.2 did this right by always showing the correct time even with splitted media clips.

- iMovie HD converts old projects to a new format

iMovie HD 5 and 6 use 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.

iMovie's File/Revert to Saved... -command reverts to the file that does NOT have the tilde, so it reverts to the last saved version of the project. The tilde file is the PREVIOUSLY saved version of the project, -- if iMovie sees a problem when it opens a project it may ask you to open that previously saved version of the project.

3. Create "Cache" (for the reference movie Timeline Movie.mov and Timeline Movie Data.plist and Thumbnails.plist) and "Shared Movies" (for the reference movies *.mov for iDVD and GarageBand) folders -- the latter reference movies contain the added chapters.

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 (or any older project), and start new iMovie HD 6 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.

- 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.

- What is iMovie HD 6.0.4?

iMovie HD 6, previously distributed with iLife ’06, is available as version 6.0.4 for download for those who have purchased and installed iLife ’08. AFAIK iMovie HD 6.0.3 and v6.0.4 are otherwise identical.

- What is iMovie '08?

Despite its similar name, iMovie 8 of the iLife '08 bundle is a completely re-written application with a different GUI and features.

It lacks some features of the older versions like chapters or an easy way for frame accurate editing. Some think that it should have been named "iTube" or something like that because it is targeted for those who want to quickly make a short video for the Internet. There is now support for MPEG2 editing for many devices. AVCHD is now also supported.

The system requirements are quite steep: iMovie 8 requires a Mac with an Intel processor, a Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0GHz or faster), or an iMac G5 (1.9GHz or faster) and Mac OS X v10.4.9 or later.

iMovie HD 6.0.2 finally fixed some old annoying iMovie HD 5.0.2 and v6.0.* bugs and issues:

- In iMovie HD 6.0.2 added effects no longer make iMovie display a wrong aspect ratio

Added effects (titles etc) caused the iMovie 6.0-6.0.1 display to switch to a wrong aspect ratio of all clips until the user saves the project so this is a cosmetic issue. This happened with NTSC and PAL and with 4:3 and 16:9 projects. This caused the image to be squashed and leaves a black bar to the side of the image display area.

- The jerky PAL export to DV tape was fixed with iMovie HD 6.0.1. In iMovie HD 6.0 exporting PAL DV to tape duplicated and dropped frames in bursts so the movements were jerky.

- iMovie HD 6's PAL transitions now have the correct length

- iMovie HD 6.0 transitions no longer duplicate and drop frames in NTSC projects

- iMovie HD 6's Full Quality DV export preset now sets the 16:9 flag when exporting from a 16:9 project

- Some iMovie HD 6.0 QuickTime export presets no longer export different resolutions than they claim to

- iMovie HD 6.0 and iDVD 6.0 seem more robust with their cooperation

- The whiter frames bug with iMovie HD 5.0.2 slideshows burned in iDVD 5.0.1 is fixed

- iMovie HD 6.0 no longer letterboxes some 4:3 .mov files when importing them to 4:3 projects

- iMovie HD 6.0 added custom maximum clip size. 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 for iMovie 1-4! And now there is a custom maximum clip size, too! Best of both worlds!! 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. iMovie HD can't anymore trim unreferenced frames off when emptying the trash so a huge imported clip remains huge by default!

...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.

- 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.

-end-