Single Black Frame at end of Cross Dissolve

Jonathan Mills wrote:

for some reason 6HD has all of these bugs in it that make it almost unusable. Don't even get me started on the text effects 😉
for some reason 6HD has all of these bugs in it that make it almost unusable. Don't even get me started on the text effects

...and their solution to the bugs in 08: just make them go away. Not the bugs, the features. 😉

What happened when you dumped the 20 GB? Did it have any effect? 8GB left clear was a very minimal amount.

Actually, despite Jonathan's problem, his claim that iMovie HD6 is "almost unusable" is simply not true. There are known bugs that require workarounds, but many of these other issues are caused by something outside of iMovie. If the product was indeed almost unusable the forum would have been over-loaded with complaints for years now.
The problem is that there are so many external influences, some of which are unique to only a few users, that it is very difficult to find the culprit.

Hi Catspaw... no, dumping the 20 gig didn't help the problem. I'm getting really worried bcuz the project is due in a couple of weeks. I'm wondering if there's a way to export the project into iMovie 08 to finish it up there. OR... is there a way to stop where I am, take up where I left off in 08, then combine the two for one iDVD project?
Getting desperate...

Have you got some of the project finished to your satisfaction, without glitches? If that was the case you could share 'selected clips only' to Full Quality Quicktime, and import the resulting smaller and less complex file into a new project (smaller, because it excludes all of the unused parts of clips).
Then copy and paste the remaining clips from your original project into the new one, and work on them there. This might avoid the black frame problem you have been experiencing.

Of course if this problem exists throughout the entire project, my suggestion would be of no use to you.

Awesome suggestion, thanks! I'm going to try it tomorrow, too tired to think tonight. The first 2/3 of the project is perfect, no glitches. I'll let you know how the transfer goes. Thank you !! tracy

I have had the same "black clip" problem using the cross dissolve with my project as well. It is definitely within the transition. I was finished with my project and when I started to make changes, this is when it started happening. It is random on some clips, can't figure out why it happens only on some clips. There is no other decent transition to use, the overlap crashes crashes imovie.

Here is the solution that fixes it for me. This single black frame at the end of a cross dissolve transition between two Ken Burn photos became so redundant that I check a few photos first with transitions before I apply it to too many.

Remove the transitions. Shorten the length of Ken Burns photos by 1 frame. For example, if your photo is 6:00, change it to 5:29. If this does not correct it, only shorten 1 of the Ken Burns photos by 1 frame.

I did try your suggestion, changing clip by one frame, but this did not work for me. For me it has nothing to do with the Ken Burns Effect, it happens on still photos as well. Also my imovie crashes when I try the overlap transition in the same problem areas. For example on the pic I am having the problem, if I remove the transition and go to the edit, and bring up all transitions, it won't even give me the preview on certain transitions, if I use one of these my imovie crashes...very frustrating.

I've had it. I'm bagging my whole project and starting all over in iMov08. Weeks and weeks of work right down the crapper. NOTHING gets rid of the anomaly which from hence forth shall be known as SFBD (single black frame of death).

Thank you guys for all your suggestions.
BTW: Does anyone else think it odd that this problem has just started occurring in the last few weeks for us all? Just sayin.
Peace... tracy

Looking at all the responses, apparently no one has been able to come up with a solution. So maybe you can come up with a work around.

Fortunately, you are not locked in to using just the transitions in iMovie. For instance, you can check out the numerous transitions available at www.geethree.com and buy a plug-in to use with your project. Their Slick 3 package has a transition called "Diffuse - Little" that looks like iMovie's cross-dissolve. I think that the package costs about $50.

A program called Photo to Movie also purportedly has a better Ken Burns type effect than iMovie, and you probably could create your slide slow entirely in that program, which works well with iMovie.

Also, you have access to transitions through the iPhoto slideshow program that's already included in your iLife package. So, for example, if you have two Ken Burns photos where the cross-dissolve transition is showing a black frame in iMovie, switch those two photos into an iPhoto slide show and add the Ken Burns effect and cross dissolve there. You can have iPhoto automatically add it, or you can manually add it, and in either case your adjustments to the Ken Burns effect will be somewhat limited. But if the effect is satisfactory, then export that slideshow as a Full Quality Quicktime movie and insert it into your iMovie project.

In iMovie you also can eliminate the transition altogether or use another one that works.

Another thing you could try is exporting your contiguous Ken Burns photos, without transitions, from iMovie to Full Quality Quicktime movie, and then import that Quicktime movie into your project, split it at the transition point, and then add the transition and see if it works.

I would try adding the transition by dragging it into place in your time line, and if that doesn't work, try selecting the clips on each side of the transition and adding the transition by means of the add button in the transitions pane. Or try adding the transition in the Movie line instead of the Time line. Or try adding the transition and then updating it to see if that eliminates the black frame.

A reinstall of iMovie might be something to consider as well.

In other words, keep poking around until something works.

Good luck with this.

I am also having this problem. Sometimes I can reload the photo, redo the transition, and it works. Other times, no such luck. I am sorry to see that there are no simple fixes available. The problem is obviously with the rendering of the cross dissolve.

I finally got rid of all the sbfds (single black frames of death) in my slide presentation. Because the sbfds always occur at the end of the cross-dissolve, it is tempting to assume that the problem is with the photo after the cross dissolve, not the one before. But I found that deleting the photo before the cross-dissolve and reloading it was the best (but I hesitate to say foolproof) way of getting a newly rendered cross-dissolve to not have the sbfd. I haven't tested this thoroughly, but it's the strategy I used at the end of my troubleshooting and it seemed to be pretty effective--more effective than changing the time length of the cross-dissolve or the length of the photo displays. Other things I did which seemed to perhaps have some benefit were (a)reducing the severity of the pan-and-scan (KBeffect) by limiting the range of movement or the speed and (b) changing around the order of the slides so that different transitions were made.

Problem Solved. First off, thanks as I found this thread both comforting and useful. At least I wasn't going crazy. I have used iMovie for years and won't upgrade to the next version because of the loss of several editing features. I too came across the SBF issue and it resides in the effect not the image. Previously, in earlier (non-HD) versions, a badly rendered effect left a physical cut in the frame that simply required deleting along with re-rendering the effect.

The solution I found is to simply trim the end of the preceding frame some and the cross dissolve works just fine. In fact, I trim the image (which appears with rounded edges at the end) to the point where the rounded edge ends. The cut forms a clean vertical line. Now I realize that neither the rounded edge or the strait line really mean anything here but I am using it as a measuring point where to place the playhead for cutting.

All in all, there must be something at the end of the image that this transition doesn't like. Cutting it off cures the problem.

Again, thanks to all. After about 30 minutes of reading, I was able to figure it out quickly.