Transparent background - export to iMovie?

I made a 3 second test title (animated), and then went to "render -> movie"; appeared on desktop as test.mov file. Dragged that into iMovie. Did not knowingly convert that to .dv.

I then created another one, simply went to "save" and it appeared as test.ipr on the desktop. Dragged that one into iMovie as well (no conversion there either).

Both played fine, both had black backgrounds. AFAIK, there are no options in iMovie to set/change the default black background color. Maybe iMovie automatically converts to .dv during import? And, as I mentioned, it occurred to me that it simply may not work because I can't "superimpose" it onto an image or clip in iMovie anyway unless I can find a plugin that will let me insert "picture within picture" or similar. It may be that I only have two options:

Either import an image/clip into LiveType, create the text, render as movie and then import into iMovie, or create text, save as .ipr, import into FCE, export and back into iMovie.

Thanks for spending all this time on this, I appreciate it!

Oops - I didn't even think of that (didn't know iMovie would support an .ipr file) - anyway, I just saved the same thing as .ipr, dragged it into iMovie, and I still have a black background. I'm thinking iMovie just isn't able to handle it (after all, there is only one track so I couldn't even superimpose it onto another image or clip).

I left the settings at the default:
(Presets: CCIR 601 NTSC 40:27, 720x486, 29.97 fps, background opacity 0.0%)

BTW, I meant to say iMovieHD; regardless, you're most likely correct - it just won't work in that application. So, I will need to take the long way around to get what I want - I will try two methods: one, import title into FCE, superimpose onto clip, export/import into iMovie, and two, import clip as background into LiveType, add title, save/import into iMovie. I'll see which one works better/faster.

Thanks - I just tried it, but the transparency got lost (got a black background instead) even though I did not have "render background" checked. I then thought I'd try it with checking "render background" with the same result - black background.

It may only work with a direct import of the .ipr file into FCE, but I think I figured out a workaround: I could import a background image from my movie into LiveType, then put the title over it, export as a .mov and back into iMovie. I just thought it'd be easier if I could do it directly.

I tried your method and it imports just fine and it certainly is easier and faster than rendering it first (thanks for the excellent tip), but I still have the black background in iMovie.

Well, since I haven't heard anything since my last post, I'm guessing that my assumptions were correct and, unfortunately, there is no way to do a direct import into iMovie while preserving the transparent background?

So, I'm marking this as answered, but please feel free to add any comments (I'm still hoping there's a way to do this).

What I wanted was to finish a project in iMovie using some cool looking titles created in LiveType, rather than delving deeply into FCE at this point (haven't gotten past the elementary learning curve for that), i.e. creating my project there.

yes, it was .dv - how/where do I set the animation codec? (Remember, I'm an idiot newbie at this)

Thanks, I will try that in the next couple of days and report back..