iMovie 09 HD?

Question

iMovie 09 HD?

Does iMovie 09 support HD video? I am making a intro to our home theater with it and I have a couple of HD movie trailers. When I import the video into iMovie 09, it's fine but when I put it on the timeline to edit it, it's not HD anymore and whenever it shows dark on the trailer, it does this wierd blurry thing. I called Apple about it and the guy said it doesn't support HD but I have searched a little and I heard it did. Any help with this? Thanks. 🙂

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.5.7), Mac Mini

Posted on Jun 24, 2009 3:15 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 24, 2009 3:24 PM in response to computerwiz514

Ok I'm confused. Do you mean HD video or the application imovie hd. You are correct they don't support imovieHD
But thy certainly do handle High definition video. Please clarify. Tx.

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Answer 2

Jun 24, 2009 6:13 PM in response to Sheryl Kingstone

I mean HD video. The Apple guy said that iMovie 09 doesn't support editing High Definition video.

The reason I called Apple was because whenever I put HD video on the timeline to edit it, it gets messed up and blurred on black spots and it's not HD anymore. I really need to fix this. I have tried everything I know how to do (I am new on Mac).

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Answer 3

Jun 24, 2009 6:17 PM in response to computerwiz514

Well he must not have understood. Unless he is just ignorant and didn't look at his own product spec sheets. Anyway, what camera are shooting with? What were your import settings? Please give all the information you know how to give? Imovie has been supporting HD for years and they have not stopped supporting it. Many of us get beautiful results, so hopefully this can get resolved.

again, camera type, workflow are very important...

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Answer 4

Jun 25, 2009 7:32 AM in response to Sheryl Kingstone

I am not importing with a camera. I download a HD movie trailer of Ironman off of YouTube. I click on File-->Import-->Movies and then on the box that comes up, I choose my movie and create a new event with the name Ironman. I have tried every different way with the optimizing video choice. I have optimized it in full and large size and sometimes I didn't even optimize it. It did the same thing on the timeline everytime (the video wasn't HD anymore, it got messed up). When I get the movie imported, I watch it from the event and it's fine but when I put it on the timeline to edit it, it's not HD anymore and the black spots are wierd. I have tried exporting it as an HD but didn't work. Also, I have watched all of the HD videos I have downloaded in QuickTime and they are all HD. One of them is a THX trailer thing and that one won't even import at all for some reason and it's the same type of file as the Ironman video. If some of this didn't make since, please let me know. Thanks.

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Answer 5

Jun 25, 2009 7:50 AM in response to computerwiz514

oooh this is totally different and also out of my area of knowledge. You are taking an already compressed internet file and downloading it. It is not raw HD footage that is editable effectively. I gonna have to bump this

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Answer 6

Jun 25, 2009 1:03 PM in response to Sheryl Kingstone

So I guess you can't edit internet video in HD then?

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Answer 7

Jun 25, 2009 9:03 PM in response to computerwiz514

computerwiz514514 wrote:
So I guess you can't edit internet video in HD then?

iM09 is no 'all purpose, all formats' editor.. that's what Sheryl tried to tell you.

iM09 is meant for camcorder imports.. any other material, which doesn't fit these specs have to get converted => which usually means a loss of quality.

reg. your YouTube 'downloads':
the ToU of this board don't allow any advice on downloading YTvideos, due to copyright infringement.
so, we are a bit 'shy' to answer such questions .. 😉

basicly: YT videos are encoded for playback only, not editing; the needed conversion for usage in iM09 adds a quality drop.. that is specific for iNet videos, not iM's fault..

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Answer 8

Jun 26, 2009 5:57 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Ok. Thank you. Also, if you are able to answer this since you said you couldn't discuss YouTube videos much but is it illegal to download YouTube videos? If it is, I didn't know and I will stop.

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Answer 9

Jul 6, 2009 12:29 PM in response to Karsten Schlüter

I just tried importing a random video that has black in it and it still does the same thing when its right from the camera. The quality just drops and it does the wierd thing on the black. So it cant be that its from YouTube. I think there is something wrong with my iMovie.

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Answer 10

Jul 6, 2009 12:34 PM in response to computerwiz514

please define the workflow:

what camera?
What black ie black video?
What codec?
What export?
Quality drop how?

We really need more info. I have been working in HD material using imovie now for three years. I have a sony HDV camera. While there are some export issues to date, they are not dramatic. Just some softness in picture quality. There are workarounds to maximize best quality output. However, it sounds to me that you are experiencing some other problem. Please post back specs. tx

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Answer 11

Jul 6, 2009 1:21 PM in response to Sheryl Kingstone

It's not a HD camera but you can still notice the quality drop since it is so big. Since you were talking about HD video from YouTube not working, I tried it straight off a camera but its not HD.

-Camera: Sony DSC-W55
-I walked around the house a little while taping and everything black does this wierd motion/quality drop thing. The whole video quality drops but especially on the black.
-Codec: MPEG
-I import straight from the camera into a new event in iMovie
-When the quality drops it is a little blurry and pixelated. Also like I said above with the black parts of the movie

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Answer 12

Jul 6, 2009 1:41 PM in response to computerwiz514

computerwiz514514 wrote:
.. Camera: Sony DSC-W55

datasheet tells us:
640x480 - which is less then standard NTSC
.mpg - 'prehistoric' mpeg1?.. perhaps for playback on small (2-4") monitors, but after conversion into something editable.. don't expect wonders, young padovan 😉 ..

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Answer 13

Jul 8, 2009 11:44 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

But it does it with my other camera also. That camera/video camera is a: Hitachi DZ-MV780MA
Im not to worried about the cameras right now, I was just asking about the HD trailers but I was just bringing the cameras up to since it does the same thing (quality drop).

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Answer 14

Jul 13, 2009 6:54 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Here are some pictures to explain what I am talking about:

Imported Into An Event (Good Quality): http://i31.tinypic.com/2dqps0g.jpg

Put On The Timeline To Edit (Bad Quality): http://i30.tinypic.com/icidf8.jpg

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