iMovie HD Stops Importing after 29:30

Question

iMovie HD Stops Importing after 29:30

I have a brand new Sony DCR-HC21. I am importing digital video from a miniDV tape that I shot 4 years ago on a different Sony miniDV Camcorder. Now when I use iMovie HD 5.0.2, the import always stops at 29:3x into the tape. When this happens iMovie HD becomes unresponsive. Nothing works until I quit and relaunch. When I do that iMovie HD says all my imported movie clips have been moved to the trash and I can't recover them. What gives and is there a way I can fix this?

Posted on Aug 23, 2005 1:38 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 23, 2005 1:42 AM in response to Michael Amorose

It seems as there is a bad spot on the tape. Try borrowing another DV camera and transfer the video to another tape by using a 4-pin to 4-pin Firewire cable to connect the two cameras (and NO computer).

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Answer 2

Aug 23, 2005 2:50 AM in response to Lennart Thelander

What? That's nuts? I just bought this brand new DV cam today for $400 and I have to borrow another one to make it work.

Why does iMovie delete all the clips imported up to the bad spot when I reopen the project? And why does iMovie HD become totally unresponsive when the error happens? If I could save the project up to that point, quit iMovie HD, forward the tape past the bad spot I wouldn't mind so much but an error that renders both iMovie HD, the imported project AND any further imports unusable?

That is totally nuts.

I would say Apple has a problem on its hands.

The software should not become unresponsive just because of an error on the camera.

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Answer 3

Aug 23, 2005 2:59 AM in response to Michael Amorose

The software should not become unresponsive just because of an error on the camera.

I agree. But until that day...

There are billions of combinations of invalid data that a camera can send to iMovie when it encounters a bad spot on a tape. You just can't cover them all. It doesn't even help to send the tape to Apple: the next time the tape is played a completely different stream of data is sent to the Mac.

You COULD also blame the camera manufacturer. According to the Firewire specification, the camera isn't allowed to send invalid data, no matter how bad the tape is.

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Answer 4

Aug 23, 2005 4:53 AM in response to Michael Amorose

I doubt that the issue is with your hardware or tape.

You may have reached the size limit for the iMovie app. I don't think you can capture and edit such a big project. Seems to me I've read this somewhere, that the app. is not designed to work with such large files and is limited to 30 minutes.

Try dividing your work into several iMovie projects or get Final Cut Express HD.

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Answer 5

Aug 23, 2005 5:07 AM in response to Carrie Anciaux

You may have reached the size limit for the iMovie app. I don't think you can capture and edit such a big project. Seems to me I've read this somewhere, that the app. is not designed to work with such large files and is limited to 30 minutes.

Which uninformed source could that be?

iMovie 5 can import much longer than that.

However, if the stop was around 19-20 minutes, someone is trying to import to a PC-formatted hard drive, which has a 4GB file size limit. 4GB is somewhere between 19 and 20 minutes. Using a PC-formatted hard drive is not supported.

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Answer 6

Aug 23, 2005 5:08 AM in response to Carrie Anciaux

Carrie

I've successfully imported and edited projects much larger than 30 minutes. I'm currently working on a wedding project which I've set up as 2 projects - each separately imported. The first is about 70 minutes and the second about 75 minutes. Some earlier wedding projects ran for over 2 hours and worked fine. But, I agree that it is sensible to split projects (where practicable) into smaller parts - everything seems to work more smoothly.

John

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Answer 7

Aug 23, 2005 5:19 AM in response to Michael Amorose

When I do that iMovie HD says all my imported movie clips have been moved to the trash and I can't recover them.

Michael - You can drag clips from the trash back to the timeline or clips pane. Select File>Show Trash or just click on the Trash Can and a window pops up showing all the clips in the trash. You can click on each clip to play it (even audio clips). Simply drag the clips to the timeline.

Hope this works for you!

John

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Answer 8

Aug 23, 2005 5:06 PM in response to John Cogdell

Well I've tried it several times now. Every time the camera stops with a bang at 29:30-29:47. Everytime. iMovie HD then becomes totally unresponsive - controls don't work, nothing works. Quitting is the only option. In addition, no matter what I do the saved project will never open correctly upon relaunch. Yeah I can drag the clips out of the trash back to iMovie HD's window but they are all out of order and I have to manually reorder them.

I shot this tape and others on 2 other Sony brand DV cams in 2001 & 2002. At that time I was using iMovie 2 on OS 9. Under that config I imported over 10 full-length DV tapes using the old cameras and iMovie 2. All in one import session. Never ever had ONE single glitch or problem.

Furthermore, I'm not using a PC formatted drive. I think I'm aware of the 4GB issue since I'm a veteran Mac developer of 15 years and have written many Mac hard disk utility software products.

I doubt it's a Firewire issue other than the possible issue of the cable. Unfortunately I only have one cable to try (it's not the Sony brand cable). Firewire is extremely reliable - and in any case it should never render the software inoperative when the import fails.

I know the tape's more than 30 mins since I can turn the import off and then fast-forward to 40, 50, 60 minutes and press play and there is video on the tape past 30 mins.

I'm using a BRAND NEW iMac G5 2GHz with a BRAND NEW Maxtor 300GB SATA drive and 1GB RAM. Brand new computer, drive, and DV cam. Can't import the tape.

I have 100GB free on the HD. I seriously doubt it's a hard disk issue.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that Apple would release something like this.

Is this just some ploy to give users a taste of FC HD and then force them to upgrade?

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Answer 9

Aug 23, 2005 11:13 PM in response to Michael Amorose

Try to import the problematic tape (or the problematic spot) with BTV Pro.

http://www.bensoftware.com/

Then import the .dv file to iMovie or use the import shortcut:

http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovieHD_bugs.html#quick_DVimport

--
ObSig: I don't benefit from the links.

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