I am making a video from clips provided by multiple people. They all play perfectly fine on the desktop, but several of them are in slow motion and without sound when imported to iMovie. When the problem clips appear in the event folder they have a "sunburst" symbol in the upper left hand corner. Any idea what's going on? I can slow the videos back to normal speed but they still don't have sound.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15
Hi, Jon,
Some of the clips provided by other people have frame rates higher than the project frame rate (as determined by the first clip placed in a newly created project). High-frame-rate footage appears to play in slow motion when slowed to regular playback speed. So, if you have a 30 fps frame rate project and then add a 60 fps clip, the 60 fps clip will be slowed to 30 fps and will play in slow motion.
See this online help link for a more detailed explanation of frame rates and how to adjust them:
https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/mov6c442b2eb
Also in your case some of the clips provided by other people have different formats that are not compatible with iMovie. Hence no sound. Use the free download Handbrake to convert those clips to H.264, Mp4/AAC, even if they appear already to be in that format. You can get Handbrake here:
-- Rich
Hi, Jon,
Some of the clips provided by other people have frame rates higher than the project frame rate (as determined by the first clip placed in a newly created project). High-frame-rate footage appears to play in slow motion when slowed to regular playback speed. So, if you have a 30 fps frame rate project and then add a 60 fps clip, the 60 fps clip will be slowed to 30 fps and will play in slow motion.
See this online help link for a more detailed explanation of frame rates and how to adjust them:
https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/mov6c442b2eb
Also in your case some of the clips provided by other people have different formats that are not compatible with iMovie. Hence no sound. Use the free download Handbrake to convert those clips to H.264, Mp4/AAC, even if they appear already to be in that format. You can get Handbrake here:
-- Rich
I downloaded Handbrake but I don't see what to do. When I compare a clip that doesn't work with one that does, everything looks the same (settings, etc.). This tool might be too powerful for me! I can't figure out how to use Handbrake to fix the non-working clips.
Open Handbrake. Do File/Open Source. A screen will display where you can navigate to where your clip is located (for example, Desk Top). Click on your clip’s name to Choose it as the source. Do a File/Start Encoding. That’s it. In minute your clip will be re-encoded. Save it and see if it plays in QuickTimePlayer and iMovie.
Sometimes re-encoding cures problems even if it appears that the clip is already in the format that you are re-encoding to.
—Rich
iMovie imported clips in slow motion with no sound
