Iphone 3GS Movies look like H@ll when imported into imovie

the best response i can give you is that if you plan to save happy moments , do it with real photo and video cameras and not with a phone..

Why not turn the iPhone so you take advantage of the pixel count? You can set iMovie to the aspect ratio you want on your TV or web posting later. Held horizontally there are 50% more pixels than when you hold the iPhone 'straight up and down'.

I haven't compared any results between vertical and horizontal videos, but you're starting with a disadvantage.

I have had a similar problem. I used my new iPhone 3GS today to take video at my niece's graduation party. When I imported the clips to iMovie, the ones that were shot in "Portrait" mode, holding the iPhone vertically, are stretched horizontally, distorting the image. Those that were shot in landscape mode play correctly in iMovie. I'm sure this is an aspect ratio problem, but how can I convert the vertical clips so they will appear normal in iMovie? Anyone know?

The online iPhone 3GS info on the Apple website says the video can be shot either way.

The resolution is the same whether in landscape or portrait mode.

(I should have said 33% more, not 50% more in my post above.)

The recorded resolution is 640x480. I just recorded a few seconds in 'portrait' orientation and imported it to iPhoto and then iMovie. I have to rotate the video to get it to show properly -- I don't see a 'stretched' image at all. If you record in 'portrait' orientation and show it on a 4x3 TV, you have to rotate and crop the video in iMovie. It spreads the "480" across the screen and crops the vertical by 52.5% -- almost half of the original pixels are lost. If you create a 16x9 video it's much worse.

Back to my original point... Why not hold the iPhone horizontally (landscape) in the first place?

I also have problems importing video from 3GS to iMovie. Specifically the thumbnails are right side up, but the video seems to play upside down!

iPhone 3GS - I just shot two short movies in the same physical location, one portrait, one landscape.

I exported them to desktop, opened them in Quicktime (not PRO version).

The portrait video says it is 30fps, the landscape video says it is 24 fps.
I checked my other iPhone videos, and the ones I shot outdoors are all 30fps in Quicktime.
One shot indoors on a miserably rainy day is 15fps.

Seemingly the video software is trying to optimize the image quality based on the available lighting,
and there are no controls available on the iPhone for this.

As far as geotagging, none of the movies shows any gps info in Quicktime, even though a photo taken within the same minute as some of the video, does have gps info in Preview.

I ran into the same problem, and, luckily, there is a relatively simple way to salvage the footage. You'll have to do a couple easy steps in QuickTime PRO (will cost you about $30 via Apple.com) to basically add a sort of vertical letterbox to preserve the aspect ratio. Your files will play in iMovie the same way vertical photos appear (with black on either side). I think it's probably the best you can do with what you have at this point. Here's what to do:

1. Import the video as normal from your iPod to your computer, and open up the QuickTime file.

2. Now you need to create the black background that will appear behind your video. If you don't have a program to do this, do what I did: just grab a black wallpaper JPEG off the web and resize it using a free resizing site (there are many, but you can try picresize.com). Resize the black wallpaper image to these dimensions, in pixels:

WIDTH: height of your video x 4/3
HEIGHT: same height of your video

Save this file to your desktop and copy it to your clipboard.

3. Now, go back to QuickTime Pro. Under the Edit menu, select "Add to Selection and Scale." If your black background was copied properly, it should now appear on your screen.

4. Under the Window menu, select "Show Movie Properties." In the list, select Video Track 2 (that should be your black background). Select the "Visual Settings Tab." In the "Layer" box, change its layer to 1 (that sends it backward). You should now see your video clip, vertically, in front of the black background.

5. It probably appears flush left, though. You probably want your video centered so that the black appears on either side. Not to worry. In the same "Show Movie Properties" box, now select Video Track 1 (your original video). In the "Offset" boxes, change the first box to the equivalent of HALF the difference between the width of your black box and the width of your video. Leave the second box at 0. Now you have essentially created a vertical letterbox, which will prevent your video from being distorted when you view the clip in iMovie.

Hope this helps you use your footage. I guess we've all learned something, the hard way: let's just stick to recording in horizontal!

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