Hi, ProfessorPhD,
If iMovie is behaving properly it does not automatically degrade the resolution of a clip, except for preview-editing view that is a medium-resolution display for editing purposes. Whatever resolution that comes in is the resolution that goes out unless you change the settings or there is some other issue.
So, one of four things possibly happened here: that you may want to check out as a trouble shooting procedure:
- The clip was not 1080p to start with; or,
- You placed a 1080p clip into a 720p project; or
- The export settings that you chose lowered the resolution; or,
- There is perhaps a corrupt preference or a misbehaving project that caused the resolution change.
Try creating a new project in which no clip has ever been added, and then placing your 1080p clip into it as the first clip that is added to the project. That will set the project at 1080p, that can be confirmed at the top of the Settings box that appears when you click on the Settings button above the timeline to the right of your screen. When you export (share out) the confirmed 1080p movie clip and the project you should see a 1080p share option. Select 1080p, High Quality, and Better Quality compression. That should preserve your resolution.
If still no luck, possibly there is a corrupt preference that is causing the misbehavior. Assuming that you are using iMovie 10, try opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to get back to your projects. Now open the newly created project and see if you can export the newly created project at 1080p.
If the issue still occurs, try redownloading iMovie and trying again to export at 1080p. Make sure that your iMovie version and operating system are updated to current versions.
-- Rich
