Import DV into iMovie 6 or 8?

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Import DV into iMovie 6 or 8?

I will use iMovie HD 6 for my editing, but when I import the DV from my camcorder there is a great loss in color quality/range. Is there any benefit to importing into iMovie 8 over iMovie 6? And if I import into iMovie 8 can I transfer that video clip to iMovie 6 to work with?

MBP, Mac OS X (10.5.5), 2.0 GHz 1GB RAM

Posted on Nov 15, 2008 9:46 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 15, 2008 9:56 AM in response to JayCas

DV is a lossless format, so what's on your tape should be exactly what captures to your computer. There has to be another issue here. Have you cleaned your camcorder's tape heads lately?

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Answer 2

Nov 15, 2008 12:36 PM in response to JayCas

You may need to calibrate your Mac's display to match the display on your camcorder's monitor - or whatever else you normally watch your video on.

Go to System Preferences>Displays and click the 'Color' tab, and choose 'Calibrate...'

Here's what Dan's incredibly useful "iMovie FAQ" has to say about this.. http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6008.shtml

Alternatively, before recalibrating, still using 'Displays', just try changing the resolution of your screen display back and forth a couple of times, and see if that resets the colour and quality successfully. If it's on an inappropriate setting (..for instance if a lower-resolution monitor has been plugged into your laptop..) then both the sharpness (resolution) and colour will suffer.

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