flip video problems

welcome bilski to the  iMovie boards..

afaik, that 'thing' (I avoid the word camera 😉 ) uses some kind of divx as codec.. which is not supported by iM08 ...

you could give the combo perian.org (QT plug-in) + iMHD6 a try..

or, in case you own QTpro, convert the stuff into dv-stream or h264, to make it usable in iM08 ...

I can download them onto my macbook pro and watch them in quicktime but they wont import into i movie (on ilife 08).

Don't own one but it appears to use a proprietary (Advanced Profile) MPEG-4 AVI codec which may or may not be the source of your problem. In any case, it is most likely that either the video and/or audio compression format is not "edit" supported by iMovie '08. As always in such cases, your first step should be to open a file in the QT player and consult the "Inspector" window to see what audio/video codecs were used to create the source file. If you are familiar with iMovie requirements then the problem should be obvious. If not and you have QT Pro, you can always extract audio and video to separate MOV file containers and try importing them. If one or both won't import, then you know which is causing he problem. Once you know what iMovie '08 doesn't like, you can convert the track or tracks to appropriate acceptable compression format(s).

hey bilski - i have the exact same problem as you. any resolution? i'm heading to the apple store before buying anymore software...

I know you asked this question awhile ago but here is how you do it:

1. Plug the Flip Ultra into your MacBook Pro.
2. Open up the Flip drive which is mounted on your desktop.
3. Go to the video files within your Flip hard drive.
4. Drag the video or videos you want out to your desktop or drag them to your movie folder in your Finder.
5. Double click the video, the video will then automatically open up in Quicktime.
6. Click "File" which is next to the Quicktime name in the top left hand corner.
7. Look down the bottom of the list for "Export."
8. Once you have selected "Export" you can then export your Flip footage to MPEG-4 and then you will then be able to open that movie up in iMovie 08' and edit it.

I know this seems like a lot of steps and hassle to do but it really only takes two seconds to do.

Hope that helped a little,
Sam

BUT you need QuickTime PRO to do that.

$30, please!

*FLIP VIDEO IS A FANTASTIC CAMERA!! You'll have fun with it. Ignore the snobs who won't call it a camera 😉 It works great on my Dell, not so great on my MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, with 2008 iLife software, you have to buy QuickTime Pro. Honestly, if we are gonna spring for an awesome Mac, $30 for QuickTime is doable!! Here's the exact email I got from Flip Video:*

We are aware of the Mac issues with iLife 8 (iMovie, iDVD, etc.),and we are working with Apple to resolve them. With the release of iLife 8, Apple introduced a new “video engine”. This new engine has a number of benefits, but, unfortunately, it prevented many video formats from working with Apple’s iLife suite of applications. Apple is aware of the issues and is working to solve it. In parallel, Pure Digital is working with Apple to better understand the issue and see if we can expedite a solution from our side.



Many Flip Video owners have used QuickTimePro to export their videos into iMovie ’08. If you have QuickTime Pro, you can simply open the video in this application and then export the video as an MPEG-4. Then, open iMovie and import the MPEG4 file. While we have heard from consumers who have reported success using this method, we have not thoroughly tested it in house so we cannot guarantee that it will work smoothly.



If you have iMovie ’06, your Flip videos can be easily imported into iMovie ’06 after downloading the DivX codec (www.divx.com). Follow these steps to ensure that your QuickTime settings are compatible with the DivX codec.



1. From the Finder menu, choose Go>Applications to open the Applications window. Click once on “QuickTime Player” to select it.

2. From the Finder menu, choose File>Get Info, or type Command-I to open “QuickTime Player Info”.

3. In the “General” section, make sure that you deselect the checkbox named “Open Using Rosetta”.

4. Close “QuickTime Player Info”.




After ensuring the “Open Using Rosetta” is not selected, and DivX is installed, you should be able to view your videos in iMovie ’06.

I have QTPro so I'm a happy camper but for those unaware, the CODEC shipping with the Flip Cam appears to have formats from Microsoft:

_Source (AVI) from Flip Cam - wife holding kid washing hands_
Format: XviD (3ivx), 640 x 480, Millions, Microsoft ADPCM, Mono, 44.100 kHz
FPS: 30
*Data Size:* 4.00MB
*Data Rate:* 3673.94 kbits/s
*Normal Size:* 640 x 480
*Current Size:* 640 x 480 (Actual)

_Export (MOV) Using QuickTime Pro - Movie to QuickTime Movie / LAN/Intranet_
Format: XviD (3ivx), 640 x 480, Millions, Microsoft ADPCM, Mono, 44.100 kHz
FPS: 30.09
*Data Size:* 1.67MB
*Data Rate:* 1532.30 kbits/s
*Normal Size:* 640 x 480
*Current Size:* 640 x 480 (Actual)

Quality
I see no discernible quality difference between these two clips.

I have QTPro so I'm a happy camper but for those unaware, the CODEC shipping with the Flip Cam appears to have formats from Microsoft:

_Source (AVI) from Flip Cam - wife holding kid washing hands_
Format: XviD (3ivx), 640 x 480, Millions, Microsoft ADPCM, Mono, 44.100 kHz
FPS: 30
*Data Size:* 4.00MB
*Data Rate:* 3673.94 kbits/s
*Normal Size:* 640 x 480
*Current Size:* 640 x 480 (Actual)

_Export (MOV) Using QuickTime Pro - Movie to QuickTime Movie / LAN/Intranet_
Format: XviD (3ivx), 640 x 480, Millions, Microsoft ADPCM, Mono, 44.100 kHz
FPS: 30.09
*Data Size:* 1.67MB
*Data Rate:* 1532.30 kbits/s
*Normal Size:* 640 x 480
*Current Size:* 640 x 480 (Actual)

Quality
I see no discernible quality difference between these two clips.

_iLife '08 Tests_
(1) Drag Flip Cam VID00001.AVI file to iPhoto
- SUCCESS! Imports perfectly into library

(2) Publish to .Mac Gallery from iPhoto
- SUCCSS! Publishes flawlessly and builds web page properly.

(3) Review from .Mac Gallery
- FAILURE! Video is pixelated and jittery
- NOTE: the QTMOV file renders perfectly

(4) Export from iPhoto
- FAILURE! Menu options for exportation are disabled

(5) Drag Flip Cam VID00001.AVI file to GarageBand
- SUCCESS! Adds Movie Video track and Movie Sound track

(6) Export Movie to Disk from Garage Band as MOV
- SUCCESS, sort of ... format is not MOV though
- Though still 640 x 480 it's actually larger 4.1MB but with a lower data rate (2555 kbp/s) compared to the source AVI file

(7) Import to iMovie
- FAILURE! Cannot read AVI format from Finder

QuickTime
As a previous Windows users and like many Windows friends, I used to be really turned off by Apple's continual badgering to "go pro" with QT. I finally did it, however, after listening to some pundits on a podcast - I think it was MacBreakWeekly. Here's why.

ℹ Export Options

For $30, not only can you convert nearly any source video format into any destination video format:

Movie to 4G
Movie to AppleTV
Movie to AVI
Movie to DV Stream
Movie to FLC
Movie to Hinted Movie
Movie to Image Sequence (yes, make a "movie" of a directory of still images)
Movie to iPHone
Movie to iPHone (celluar)
Movie to iPod
Movie to MPEG-4
Movie to Picture
Movie to QuickTime Media Link
Movie to QuickTime Movie
Movie to Windows Media
Sound to AIFF
Soudn to AU
Sound to Wave

And, most of these export options have pre-built data rates that make it easy to choose from

Default Settings
Most Recent Settings
LAN/Intranet
Broadband - HIGH
Broadband - MED
Broadband - LOW
Dial-up
Dial-up Audio Only
Streaming - Medium
Streaming - Low

(ii) Editing

You can also edit videos better than you can in the Flip Video for Mac s/w. Have a 3 minute clip of your kid eating ice cream with tons of dead space? Why spend time importing that video into iMovie? Just use the scrub control on QTPro and pick on the portion of the video you care about and share that with others. QT is a much better product and software interface than the included software with the Flip Cam. Personally I feel imprisoned by the software on the Flip Video. First thing I did was run the Flip Video for Mac software which installed the 3ivx layer on top of QT. Now I just drag and drop the DCIM directory's AVI files to my Finder and use QTPro from there.

(iii) Export to Web

In addition to the wealth of Export options it provides, QTPro even has an export for web option which, in one fell swoop, creates three files:

1. desktop
2. iphone
3. iphone celluar

(iv) Poster Frame

You know that video icon you see on your desktop? QTPro allows you to set that frame of your video that is your desired icon for quick reference later!

(v) Share Options

With nearly a single click you can share your movie via:

Email
HomePage
Podcast Producer

In the sizes of
Small
Medium
Large

I am having a different problem with my Flip Ultra and iMovie 08. I have downloaded the movie off of the camera. I have converted it to MPEG-4 with Quicktime Pro. I have imported the movie into iMovie 08. I cut it down to two minutes and added music. Finally, I uploaded to YouTube.

However the video show is of a single image of the whole two minute movie and it is upside down! Has anyone encountered this? How can I fix this? Thanks.

Here is the uploaded video on YouTube to showing what I am talking about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWTewf9DQik

Your info was very helpful..being totally new to Mac and QT or QT pro i have encountered problems importing from the flip ultra. the movies open in QT but I can't import them to imovie...if i get the QTpro will it install over the converter that comes with the flip for mac software that doesn't work?

I have the same upside down problem. Anyone know why this is?

Is there a way to fix this after the .AVI files are already in iMovie 08? I've got a project all set to go, and over 30 different .avi files as part of it... and I really don't want to have to start over.

I can't get any sound when I try to view my flip videos on the computer. I can hear them fine on the camera but not on the computer. I have checked the sound on my computer and it is turned all the way up. Also, movies I have previously downloaded to my computer's hard drive from the flip video camera that used to sound just fine no longer have any sound. I have the latest version of Quicktime (not the Pro version thought). I have rebooted. I have checked that I have the latest version of the Flip video software. Can anyone help?

I have a PowerBook G4, Mac OSX (10.4.11)

Thank you.

My MAC Updater downloaded the new QT 7.4.5 on 5 Apr 2008. I have been making movies in iMovie, and then posting them to YouTube. In the beginning I uploaded the movies as MOV files but soon discovered AVI files (larger file and longer time to upload) had more clarity when viewed on YouTube. Once the new QT 7.4.5 downloaded all my AVI files had picture, but no sound! I downloaded the Perian component as posted in QT discussions. The sound returned to the AVI files. However, when I Exported an AVI movie from iMovie the picture quality was worse than the MOV movie. There is something wrong with the new QT 7.4.5 when working with AVI, my AVI movies look terrible. These AVI files were all downloaded from my Ultra Flip Video camera with Flip’s codec 3vix. Flip is aware of this problem and acknowledged it last Friday. Flip says Apple is aware of the problem.
My MAC PowerPc G4 has performed well in the past two months when working with the Flip Video camera. So, at Flip Video’s suggestion I upgraded the operating system to OS 10.5 from OS 10.4.11. Flip Video says their camera works with OS 10.5. Once OS 10.5 was uploaded I soon discovered that iMovie 08 would not operate on my PowerPc G4, 1.86 MHz. The speed requirement for iMovie 08 is 1.9 GHz.
At this point of “spinning my wheels for nearly a month” with this Flip Video camera, I decided to purchase a new iMac. On May 2, 2008, I walked out of the Apple Store in Walnut Creek with the new iMac 20-inch: 2.66GHz. Now the Flip video camera should work and all my video problems solved. However, this was not to be.
When I attempted to Import Flip Video AVI and MOV files into iMovie 08 the files were “grayed out” and would not Import. None of my previous Flip Video files would Import. I tried making new Flip Video movies, they also would not Import into iMovie 08.
At another Apple Store, the tech suggested I download the previous version of iMovie HD. I did this and with hours of working through the different Export options I was able to create movies to post again on youTube. However, the picture quality of the newer iMovies has never approached the quality of my last post before QT 7.4.5 downloaded. Remember my problems started with QT 7.4.5. Well, my new iMac came with QT 7.4.1, I have not Uploaded QT 7.4.5 and won’t until Flip Video fixes this problem.
Examples of my Flip Video movies can be viewed on youTube at: sffoggydays. The last video with excellent picture quality was posted 6 Apr 2008 titled “A Day at the San Francisco Zoo, Chapter Nine, L-Taravel Ride to BART.” This video was made in iMovie and Exported before QT 7.4.5 downloaded. All the youTube Flip Videos made after 6 Apr 2008 have poor picture quality.
It is time for Flip Video camera to stop “passing the buck” to Apple. When manufactures of operating system such as Apple and Microsoft create newer and upgraded systems, it is the responsibility of the manufactures of applications to redo the programs for operating on the new systems. Here is where Flip Video is not accepting this responsibility to Mac users of their camera. The Flip Video application/codex/drivers need to be updated in order to fix the following problems:
- No sound on AVI files in QT 7.4.5
- No Import of AVI and MOV files in iMovie 08
- Poor picture quality for youTube in Export of iMovie HD
I like my Flip Video camera, want to continue making movies for youTube, and recommending the camera to others. The Flip Video camera people need to fix these problems for Mac users.

sffoggydays,

For what it's worth, I'm using an Intel MacBook, OS X 10.5.3 and the latest updated software. I am also using QT 7.4.5, however, I am not having any issues with it.

Sound is clear in both .avi and .mov files, and there is no degradation in compression from iMovieHD (6.0.3). I use the expert settings in iMovieHD and compress for iWeb and email as well. Since iMovie8 is not a program I use often, I bypass it - especially with the Flip - and stick to iMovie HD or simply the .mov files directly from my Flip Ultra using its own software. I rarely work with AVI files simply for the sheer size, but do use them occasionally. To date, I have not had compatibility issues importing/exporting through iMovie HD, or with sound.

I am also NOT using Quicktime Pro, just the free downloadable from the Apple site.

I know this will not be of any particular use to you, but wanted to acknowledge that not everyone is having the same issues you state, though I'm not belittling your issues, believe me.

I've written to Pure Digital to bring up again the point that although the Flip - on first glance - is indeed compatible with the Mac, it is definitely not fully compatible and there are instances where they could improve that compatibility.

I hope the sound issues some are having are rectified soon by Pure Digital.