Edit AVI in Imovie

MPEG Streamclip: http://www.squared5.com/

I'm making an assumption here that you got your AVI files from a PC... If you have access to a PC-based video editor (not as good as Mac products, I might add 🙂, you could convert the AVI into MPEG2, and then follow the workaround listed in this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9483726&#9483726
which shows an excellent way to import MPEG2 files.

I too am having difficulty with .AVI extension files. I have in the past been able to access such files in iPhoto that were imported from a Canon SD 800 and SD 880 but no longer can. In fact I have a movie in iMovie made exclusively from .AVI files that are still in iPhoto but iMovie no longer sees those .AVI files. My question is what has Apple changed in iMovie in the way of accepted file formats.

AndyGump

I have found that .AVI files in my computer are recognized by iMovie, just not automatically as they once were when selected, iPhoto Videos, in the Event Library. I experimented with File>Import>Movies from iPhotos and found that the files are recognized and can be imported and played. I think that somehow the connection to iPhotos from the Event Library has been damaged, I don't know how to repair it.

Andy

just to clean-up with some legends here..

AVi is just a (old) media-container in the Windows world; container means: it wraps the content, which is 'somehow' encoded.. = codecs.

some avi import flawless into iMovie - due to iM-compatible codecs inside.
but..
avi can contain all kind of codecs, and mixtures of audio-/video-codecs, never seen before on the Mac-platform..

example: divx in avi, mpeg4+ac3 in avi, ...

soooo, we know, don't we, iM is for camcorder-imports, so a little selection of codecs is supported..

=> manual conversion; Mpeg Streamclip is best choice, spiced up with perian.org, it converts most stuff. the mp2-playback-component is only needed for conversion of DVD/vob/mp2 .. QTpro is not needed for MSC; QTpro is a converter tool too, but can not handle muxed sources (mpegs= lose on conversion audio)

if the way around iPhoto doesn't work:
import avi to MSC
convert to h264, or Quicktime/AIC

I have come to believe that the problem isn't with the video files themselves, regardless of their format, but is a problem with iMovie not getting through to iPhoto effectively, that is, the connection is broken.

Andy