iMovie will not import movies longer than 3 minutes

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Level 1

0 points

iMovie will not import movies longer than 3 minutes

I am running iMovie 8 version 7.1.2 (577) and just started having a problem where I am unable to import movies longer than 3 minutes from my Sony HDR-SR12 HD camera. In the past, I have never had any problems and this seems to have started with the latest update to iMovie.

iMovie sees the movie, can play the preview and appears to import it with the importing timeline below the picture, but when its all done importing you never see the "creating thumbnails" box and the movie never appears. You can also hit the play button and watch the entire movie in iMovie from the camera before trying to import it.

This is happening on both my Mac Pro and my MacBook Pro, both were updated to the latest version of iMovie when the update became available.

My Mac Pro has 4 x 1TB hard drives and none of them are full. I tried importing to a different hard drive, no luck.

I am able to import any movie under 3 minutes with no problems at all.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 3, 2008 7:37 AM

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Answer 1

Jim2006

Level 2

360 points

Jul 3, 2008 10:40 AM in response to HeloJunkie

There are a few ways to get around this.

I suggest:

Delete ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iMovie7.plist

and relaunch iMovie. That does remove any user preferences you may have had in iMovie though.

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Answer 2

HeloJunkie Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 3, 2008 11:52 AM in response to Jim2006

So by deleting all of the preferences it will allow me to import a movie longer then 3 minutes? I went through all the preferences in iMovie looking for something that would cause it, but didn't see anything. What specifically do you think might be the problem, or do you feel it was caused in the upgrade process..?

Many Thanks for your help!

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Answer 3

HeloJunkie Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 3, 2008 3:33 PM in response to Jim2006

Thanks for the idea, but it didn't work for me.

I did find out that I can import movies longer than 3 minutes but only if I import them in 960 x 540. As soon as I try 1920 x 1080, no luck. Same exact problem.

This is a new problem since I have always imported from my Sony HDR-SR12 1920 x 1080. It was only after the update that it stopped working.

Any other ideas..?

Thanks

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Answer 4

tomw

Level 1

15 points

Jul 4, 2008 4:18 AM in response to HeloJunkie

No ideas here but I just encountered the same issue last evening. I taped a 16 minute fireworks display using my Sony HDR-SR11. All the short clips imported into iMovie no problem. I tried to import the 16 minute file and had the same issues you described above. I went back and checked old clips and I have been able to import clips longer than 5 minutes in the past with no problem.

I am going to wait a few day to see if an update comes out. If not I will contact Apple to notify them of this issue.

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Answer 5

tomw

Level 1

15 points

Jul 4, 2008 6:24 AM in response to HeloJunkie

After trying (and failing) to import at "full HD" 1920x1080 numerous times I was successful in importing my 16 minute fireworks video at 960x540.

I then went into the event library and decided to move all the "unsuccessful" import attempts to the trash. Each time I had attempted to import in full HD I would end up with an event folder that contained the following message: "No Matching video. Choose a different option from the Show pop-up menu at the lower left corner." Luckily I happened to open the trash after I had moved one of my "empty" full HD events, and there was the event folder with the video clip in .mov format (9GB in size) the iMovie cache folder (containing the Cache.mov and Cach.plist). I then located the imported files by using the finder. They were in the iMovie events folder but only visible when using the finder.

So it appears as if the import worked, in a sense. At least I know where to find the videos now. The next thing I will try is importing the .mov file into iMovie HD6

Message was edited by: tomw

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