importing iphone 4 video to imovie looks stretched/distorted

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importing iphone 4 video to imovie looks stretched/distorted

I imported my iphone 4 video movie to iphoto. I then saved it to my desktop. I then imported from the desktop to imovie. However, when i play it from imovie it looks all stretched out (horizontally). When i play the video from iphoto or from my desktop, it appears fine using the default quicktime. Can someone help me?

Message was edited by: pemarsh

Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Jul 6, 2010 7:28 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 6, 2010 7:39 PM in response to pemarsh

Not sure about the stretching, but you can use videos that are in your iPhoto library directly in iMovie, without exporting them. In your "Event Library" in the lower-left corner of iMovie is an "iPhoto Videos" tab. Clicking on this will show all the videos you have in iPhoto. Perhaps if you do it this way you wont have the stretching issue.

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Answer 2

Jul 11, 2010 8:27 PM in response to pemarsh

Are you still having this problem? I was too and no one online had answers so after a couple of beers and brainfood, here is how I resolved it:

~ Import the video to a folder on desktop
~ Open video with QuickTime (video will orient and display properly)
~ Go to File/Export
~ Change the name in the Save As box (leave the extension as is though)
~ Below at Export, Select "Movie to QuickTime Movie" then click Options
~ In the Movie Settings box that appears click the "Size..." button
~ This brings up the "Export Size Settings" box, select "Current" in Dimensions
~ Leave everything as it is and click OK
~ Click OK in the Movie Settings box
~ Click Save

After the export is complete, drag the new file into iMovie and you will see it is correct. You will have vertical black letterbox bars on the sides but the dimensions will be correct.

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Answer 3

Aug 15, 2010 9:11 AM in response to pemarsh

Sorry it won't help you if you already shot video with iPhone, but next time, shoot video while holding the iPhone SIDEWAYS!!!! Therefore, whether you watch it back on your iPhone, computer, TV or import it into iMovie, it will always display the largest it can be and will have the proper aspect ratio.

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Answer 4

pemarsh Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 15, 2010 10:08 PM in response to Midnite171

why is this not a problem in quicktime, but only in imovie though???

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Answer 5

Aug 16, 2010 4:14 AM in response to pemarsh

In iMovie, after dragging your iPhone clip to a project, open the Inspector and go to the Rotate, Crop, Ken Burns Tab, Choose "FIT".

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Answer 6

Aug 20, 2010 6:48 AM in response to pemarsh

Jeff's instructions may work but I found them unnecessary. Import the files that are in portrait mode separately and when you do instead of selecting "Large" select "Full Size". That will leave them in portrait mode.

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Answer 7

Sep 20, 2010 8:24 AM in response to Stuart Field

I wish this were so. My videos can be downloaded from my iPhone 4 to iPhoto just like my pictures, but when I look at my iPhoto library from within iMovie, they do not appear. I literally have to find the .mov files in finder and then import them into iMovie. Any idea why this would be so?

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