Why doesn't iMovie export at 1920*1080?

'Export Movie..' uses the max res. which is supported by AppleTV..
'Export with Quicktime...' and approbiate settings should allow you 1080i ..

It is true, but I am afraid that is doing an upscaling, because when exporting through QT, the "current" resolution is said to be 960x540. Why? iMovie 08 can not export at full HD?

It is true, but I am afraid that is doing an upscaling, because when exporting through QT, the "current" resolution is said to be 960x540. Why?

Did you change the default Preference setting for import of HD content from 960x540 to 1920x1080? If not, you have your answer.

What's the use of saving at a lower resolution when we all buy these fancy 1080i cameras? I understand that there are needs for lower and medium resolutions (for iPod/web etc) but why not include 1080 mode as well?

The pre-sets are optimized for specific target devices and/or uses employing the H.264/AAC compression format. Individuals exporting at "full HD" are either targeting local playback on their computer or non-apple devices. Since the export codec and specific settings will probably be dictated by the targeted use as "colored" by a specific user's demand for quality, storage, frame rate, intra/key framing rate, frame types, use of filters, and/or other possible options, it is next to impossible to create a "one size fits all" preset. Most users exporting such files fall into the advanced or professional category and are frequently very "touchy" about such matters and simply don't like anyone else taking such decisions out of their hands.

Yes, the import was done at 1080.
I am almost sure that iMovie 08 downscale to 560 when editing, and if one choose the HD 1920x1080 preset, it does an upscaling. That's not HD.

The solution is to import from camera at 1080 with iMovie 08, then to import the clips in iMovie HD (06). Edit there (anyway, there are much more editing possibilities in 06), and export to QT; the exported movie will be H.264, 1920x1080. That's HD!

I am almost sure that iMovie 08 downscale to 560 when editing, and if one choose the HD 1920x1080 preset, it does an upscaling. That's not HD.

Not sure what editing you are referring to here. All editing is done "by reference." No physical file actually exists until it is assembled for export. Would agree with Winston here that this assembly phase may very well be dependent on the video card/firmware involved but it seems to me that this is a rendering pipeline problem -- not an editing problem.

Since the same files, on the same machine, can be exported as full HD in iMovie 06, but not on iMovie 08, I can not blame the video card.

Since the same files, on the same machine, can be exported as full HD in iMovie 06, but not on iMovie 08, I can not blame the video card.

Strange! Mine come out exactly as they went in (using QT export at "current" dimensions) and even the full sized preview thumbnails are at the same resolution. The only things that seem to be scaled in my projects are the still images which are reduce to a maximum height of 1080 with proper width aspect dependent on original image orientation and which, of course, do match my project preference.

After much experimentation I can confirm that no matter HOW you input HD, the EXPORT frame-size is limited to 960x540. More specifically, 540p29.97. This format, is of course, the closest Apple TV gets to HD.

Yes -- you can request a 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 movie, but it will wind-up a poor quality upscale. With one exception, you can't get HD from "08." Just like you can't get HD from ATV!

It seems that Apple's intention is to not support HD output from either 08 or ATV. This, of course, goes against the rapid move to FULLHD HDTVs. But, it does make sense from an iTunes download and a UTube upload times. And, that's the way to understand 08 and ATV. ATV has only one job -- present iStore material that you pay for. And, 08 has only one job -- create movies for ATV, iPods, and Macs you buy from Apple. They serve Apple's marketing goals -- not your needs.

Until Apple rolls-out blu-ray burners in its computers, I doubt we will see anything change. So, simply accept that Apple does not see 08 supporting camcorders (HDV or DV) or BD or HD DVD. In fact, Apple's iLife product manager is vocal that DVDs "are boring" and so we see little about 08 working with iDVD. No need for Chapter Marks on Utube! Of course, with a little understanding you can use 08 and iDVD and make great looking DVDs, but it's not what Apple is pushing this year.

Two last points: do you own a BD or HD DVD burner and player? If not, Apple's logical question is what HD media to you plan to export TO?

And, if you really want HD output -- use the Export to FCP option. It's designed for pros who want to use 08 to gather visual media from Events and iPhoto and then "finish" in FCP.

Thanks a lot Steve for your highly informative post. You confirmed my suspicions.

I don't have AppleTV, but I think it support 720p. If that's correct, than iM08 should also export to that; at least, 720p is within HD specifications.

You are right also about what to do with HD movies. For the moment I don't have even an HDTV, because I consider the market to be immature (at least in my part of the world); I will wait another year or two, till then technology will mature and standards will settle (hopefully...). But till than I can archive my full HD movies, in order to use them latter for burning on Blue discs, or whatever they will propose us.
As for going up to FCS or alike, I am doing that; I was only surprised to discover that iM08 is less usefull in what concerns HD than iM06.

Hi rogerwaters,

I don't have 10.5 or iMovie 8 but if you go to Terminal and following the "$" type in:

defaults read com.apple.iMovie

copy and paste what it says I may be able to help you.

Sweet Polly

I've just imported into iMovie '08 a short PAL (25 frames per sec) HDV movie, shot with a Sony HC1E (same as Sony A1E) camcorder in hi-def 1440x1080i (interlaced) format.

To import it as a new Event, I chose:



"Full 1920x1080" - instead of the other hi-def option:



.."Large 960x540".

I dragged the footage into a new project, then exported that project via 'Share'>'Export using QuickTime' and then chose 'Compression Type HDV 1080i50'.

I then opened the exported movie in QuickTime, which reported the Video Track as being '1888x1062 pixels', with the format, in 'Movie Inspector', being

'Apple HDV 1080i50, 1440 x 1080 (1888 x 1062), Millions' ..etc.

So perhaps it's not quite accurate to say "..no matter HOW you input HD, the EXPORT frame-size is limited to 960x540.."

My exported movie fills - well; overflows! - my hi-def monitor, and it's certainly bigger than 960x540 pixels.

I think you missed this important sentence in my post: "Yes -- you can request a 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 movie, but it will wind-up a poor quality upscale."

The point isn't that you can't make a movie that fills your HDTV, but the resolution of the movie BEFORE you export it. Obviously you can blow-up any movie to 1920x1080. But that doesn't make the movie HD.

I too thought the Export to HDV offered a way to output HD, but then I took a close look at the QUALITY of the blow-up compared to a 960x540 movie and realized it wasn't acceptable to me.

Deinterlacing 1080i to 540p simplifies FX calculations and speeds them up by a factor of 4. Thus there is an inherent advantage to working in 540p30 since that makes 08 always real-time.

However, during export I'd be willing to wait 4X longer to get HD because I burn HD to red-laser discs that play on Toshiba players. But, I'm in a tiny group. I suspect that Apple felt that since 08 supports NO camcorders and most folks don't have BD or HD DVD burners -- what would be the point in writing code to support HD export. I don't believe there is any inherent reason 08 can't be enhanced to export HD.

PS1: Apple TV supports only 24fps/25fps 720p. At 30fps, only 960x540 is supported.

PS2: does the "Export XML" option work with FCE?

Last login: Fri Jan 4 08:44:25 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
Steves-MacBook-Pro:~ steve$ defaults read com.apple.iMovie
{
ApplicationCrashedAfterRelaunch = 0;
DefaultDirectory = "~/Movies";
DefaultShareWindowTab = Camera;
DefaultVideoFormat = HDV1080I2997;
DefaultVideoFrameRate = 0;
IMPreferredMailApplication = Mail;
MasterVolumeLevel = 256;
MediaBrowserCategoryTableExpandedItems = {iPhotoLibrary = 1; iPhotoiPhoto = 1; iTunesGarageBand = 1; };
MediaBrowserLastAudioCategory = 0;
MediaBrowserLastMoviesCategory = 0;
MediaBrowserLastPhotosCategory = 0;
MediaBrowserMediaType = 0;
MediaBrowserSongSearchPaths = (
"/Applications/iMovie (previous version).localized/iMovie HD.app/Contents/Resources/Sound Effects/Standard Sound Effects",
"/Applications/iMovie (previous version).localized/iMovie HD.app/Contents/Resources/Sound Effects/Skywalker Sound Effects",
"/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/iLife Sound Effects"
);
MediaBrowseriTunesSplitViewPosition = 154;
NSFontPanelAttributes = "1, 0";
NSFontPanelPreviewHeight = 0;
NSNavBrowserPreferedColumnContentWidth = 186;
NSNavLastCurrentDirectory = "~/Movies/Video Samples";
NSNavLastRootDirectory = "~/Movies";
NSNavPanelExpandedSizeForOpenMode = "{519, 401}";
NSNavSidebarSnapPosition = -100;
NSNavSidebarWidth = 115;
NSOpenGLAutoscaleBounds = 0;
NSRecentDocumentRecords = (
{
"_NSLocator" = {
"_NSAlias" = <00000000 01960002 00010631 32302047 42000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000c32f 2d1f482b 0000000c 241a1c4d 79204772 65617420 4d6f7669 652e694d 6f766965 50726f6a 65637400 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000015 ba03c372 71f20000 00000000 0000ffff ffff0000 09200000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00064d6f 76696573 00100008 0000c32f 8f8f0000 00110008 0000c372 e2720000 0001000c 000c241a 000a07b5 000a071f 00020036 31323020 47423a55 73657273 3a737465 76653a4d 6f766965 733a4d79 20477265 6174204d 6f766965 2e694d6f 76696550 726f6a65 6374000e 003a001c 004d0079 00200047 00720065 00610074 0020004d 006f0076 00690065 002e0069 004d006f 00760069 00650050 0072006f 006a0065 00630074 000f000e 00060031 00320030 00200047 00420012 002f5573 6572732f 73746576 652f4d6f 76696573 2f4d7920 47726561 74204d6f 7669652e 694d6f76 69655072 6f6a6563 74000013 00012f00 00150002 000cffff 0000>;
};
}
);
"NSTableView Columns NSNavOutlineColumnSettings.v1" = (
<040b7374 7265616d 74797065 6481e803 84014084 8484084e 53537472 696e6701 8484084e 534f626a 65637400 8584012b 1c4e534e 61764469 73706c61 794e616d 6546696c 6550726f 70657274 7986>,
225,
<040b7374 7265616d 74797065 6481e803 84014084 8484084e 53537472 696e6701 8484084e 534f626a 65637400 8584012b 184e534e 61764d6f 64446174 6546696c 6550726f 70657274 7986>,
118
);
"NSTableView Sort Ordering NSNavOutlineColumnSettings.v1" = (
<040b7374 7265616d 74797065 6481e803 84014084 8484084e 53537472 696e6701 8484084e 534f626a 65637400 8584012b 184e534e 61764d6f 64446174 6546696c 6550726f 70657274 7986>,
0
);
"NSWindow Frame NSFontPanel" = "513 77 445 270 0 0 1024 746 ";
"NSWindow Frame iMoviePreferencesWindow" = "38 484 466 288 0 0 1440 878 ";
"NSWindow Frame iMovieTrashWindow" = "251 331 487 331 0 0 1024 746 ";
"NSWindow Frame metalwindowframe" = "0 25 1403 851 0 0 1440 878 ";
NextUpgradeCheck = 2007-12-03 21:45:01 -0800;
PrefsFileVersion = 5;
ProjectFilePath = "/Users/steve/Movies/My Great Movie.iMovieProject/My Great Movie.iMovieProj";
ShowAdvancedOptions = 1;
ShowTimelineAtLaunch = 1;
TitleBlock = {
length = 99;
text = "<<copy/paste or type a block of text here, for use by some title effects that use a block of text>>";
};
TitleInfo = {
back = (0, 0, 0);
dir = 1;
font = "Arial-Black";
fontSizeScale = 127;
fore = (-5632, -5632, -5632);
hangTime = 89;
overBlack = 0;
slider1 = -1;
speed = 165;
tvSafe = 1;
};
TitlePairs = (("My Great Movie", "by Steve"), (Starring, Me));
TitleSettings = {
back = (0, 0, 0);
dir = 1;
font = "Arial-Black";
fontSizeScale = 127;
fore = (-5632, -5632, -5632);
hangTime = 89;
isDefault = 0;
length = 99;
overBlack = 0;
pairs = (("My Great Movie", "by Steve"), (Starring, Me));
slider1 = -1;
speed = 165;
text = "<<copy/paste or type a block of text here, for use by some title effects that use a block of text>>";
tvSafe = 1;
};
TransitionInfo = {dir = 4; speed = 23; };
exportToTapeHDVPrerollDuration = 6;
exportToTapePostrollDuration = 1;
iCodecProgressiveChromaSubsampling = 1;
}
Steves-MacBook-Pro:~ steve$

I don't have AppleTV, but I think it support 720p. If that's correct, than iM08 should also export to that; at least, 720p is within HD specifications.

720p requires most NTSC users to change their frame rate from 29.97 to 23.98 to be useable with TV. Since QT employs a simple "drop frame" algorithm, most "HD" fanatics are not that happy with the result which means compressing/re-compressing externally. (I.e., 960x540 is the largest format supported by TV at 30 fps.)

@David Babsky: 960x540 is not at all HD. HD is 720p, 1080i and 1080p (among other specifications).

@Steve Mullen: don't have yet installed FCS. Maybe I will have soem time this weekend to do it.

@Jon Walker: now I understand what's with this 960x540. I'm in the PAL part of the world.
And I love your doggie 🙂.