iMovie is unable to import 60fps videos to timeline

Peter,

I am familiar with the thread that you cite, having contributed to it myself.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8145780

The poster there is the only user I know of who has said he can share a 4k 60fps video. We don't know the complexity of his movie nor his computer specs and graphics card. In view of his post I suggested that you try sharing out your video with the 4k option even though it does not specify 60 fps. You have found no success with that option. It takes about 10-12 mbps to support 4k 60fps, but iMovie's custom settings I believe go only to 9.3. You can try the maximum custom setting and see if that makes any difference, although if your clip is being changed to 30fps in the timeline it probably won't.

Until we get more evidence that 4k 60fps can be exported by iMovie I think we have to go with Apple's literature, that does not say 4k 60fps is supported. 4k 30fps is supported, and 1080 60fps is supported.

Hopefully with a future upgrade Apple will provide 4k 60fps support.

-- Rich

Peter,

I obtained a 4k 60fps sample clip and did some testing.

When the 4k 60fps clip was imported into iMovie 10.1.11 it changed to 4k 30fps. Project settings showed 4k. So your findings are confirmed.

When shared out at Best Quality (pro res) settings it rendered at 4k 30fps.

When shared out at custom settings, 38.912 Mbps, it still rendered at 4k 30fps.

From my limited testing I conclude that iMovie supports 4k 30 fps but not 4k 60fps.

-- Rich

How did you verify that your clip changed to 30fps? Try sharing it out and see if the resulting movie is 60fps.

I've not seen any official literature indicating that iMovie supports editing 4k videos at 60fps. It does support 4k 30 fps. I have heard that it can export 4k 60fps from the browser view, but have not tested that myself. So, it might be that there is no solution to this as yet.

-- Rich

Edit and share high-quality video with iMovie - Apple Support

I don't see where iMovie supports 4K 60fps.

Rich,

That's why I posted my comment. I shoot on my iPhone 4K at 60 and bring them into iMovie on my Mac. Once I see that they are only showing 30FPS I changed the settings on the iPhone.

I have a X and these are the options:

Pretty cool. Too bad iMovie hasn't kept pace with 4k 60fps.

-- Rich

You were right, as usual. :)

My iPhone 6s can only shoot 4k 30fps. So I had to use a sample clip.

I hadn't realized that the parameters of the Custom settings export option

varies with the resolution of the project.

-- Rich