Importing H264 Movie File to IMovie 08

What else does QT pro tell you about the files and what settings have you used when you tried to export them.

Can anyone please help me to overcome this problem?

What are the audio and video codecs being used. The H.264 could be DivX or the audio could DVI ADPCM, etc. By this I mean that the video H.264 could be a proprietary codec or the audio track may simply not be "edit" compatible with iMovie '08. In either case, if either audio or video are not compatible, then iMovie '08 will ignore the files as far as import is concerned. And, as Winston pointed out, not knowing how you attempted to re-compress the original files means we again don't know what compression format you tried to import and we are back to asking to what codecs you attempted to convert your file. If the video is a variation of H.264 and the audio is not AAC (or a non-standard combination of audio sampling rate and audio data rate), then you may simply have to "pass through" the video while either re-converting the audio or just resampling it using the QT "Movie to MPEG-4" export option.

iMovie 08 doesn't understand the video/audio combination of the EX-F1 but as I learned in this forum you can convert the uncompressed audio to AAC using QuickTime Pro ($30 from Apple).

Here's how I made the 720p EX-F1 footage compatible with Movie08. Note that the Pass trough mode doesn't alter the video!

Open in QuickTime Pro:
File > Export
Export: Movie to MPEG-4
Options...
File Format: MP4
Video Format: Pass through
Audio: AAC-LC (Music), 128 kbs, Stereo, 44100 kHz, Better.

Export directly into a iMovie08 event folder, restart iMovie and it's available. No import needed. From there you can export to the Media browser and use iDVD to burn a DVD of your movie.

iMovie didn't work well with the 1080i footage so I recommend shooting 720p.

I have found that if I try 'Movie to MPEG-4' I can import into IMovie but the quality is very poor.

Sounds as if you are not using the video "Pass Through" option here. Default settings are probably for a 320x240 display at a relatively low MPEG-4 data rate which iMovie '08 then "blows up" to 640x480 for editing causing the quality to look really bad.

I found the following re the codecs:- Movies: H.264/AVC MOV format, IMA-ADPCM (monaural).

The "Adaptive PCM" (ADPCM) audio format is definitely a problem here. As "buidyo" indicated, the "Pass Through" video option should work as long as the H.264 content adheres to the MPEG standards and should provide the best video since it is not re-compressed in the process. You can easily confirm this if you have QT Pro by simply extracting the audio and video tracks to different QT player and the attempting to import them independently to iMovie '08. (This is what I do as an initial test in order to determine which data is causing problems when some new combination of audio and video compression fails to import in the original combined file.)

If you think about it the Casio EX-F1 is well supported by iMovie08 (after the above mentioned audio conversion). Unlike AVCHD video which is converted to huge AIC files the footage remains small on your harddrive and it's native MPEG4 editing. I don't know about iMacs but on my current Mac Pro editing in h.264 was as fluid as anything else.

I also like that the footage is so easily accessible. The AVCHD stuff can only be imported from the original SD-card or from an image of it.

Alternatively you can always convert the h.264 files to the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) via QuickTime for editing on slower computers. This would be the workflow for the interlaced full HD video. This way you can deinterlace the footage if you prefer this.

Oh, I just noticed that you don't have the EX-F1. Anyway what has been said should also appy to your camera.