iMovie '11 audio either doesn't sync with a clip or doesn't play at all.

Further to my previous post, the sync problem reappeared. I had added chapter markers. Took them out and all was well. I am exporting movies in apple TV format to iTunes. So far, I cannot use Chapters or noise reduction and have reverted to 9.0. I have some cutaways but don't yet know if they contribute to the instability.

Have just posted a question which relates to this.

I have been having similar problems and research has led me to believe that the video I am importing is 'muxed' .ie video and audio threaded together........apple suggest a 3rd party utility to convert the clips to DV format

what do people think?

I just tried the optimize -> full method & exported the final video as 720p and I got no audio sync issues.

I re-installed iMovie 11 (but not the 9.01 update) but it does not entirely solve the issue.
Whilst exporting using the default m4v format from a project (that was captured from Mini DV when I had the 9.01 update installed) immediately exports without any time wait and the problem is still there despite deleting the old m4v export...
BUT exporting using Quicktime DOES solve the problem (but this creates bigger files).
Do I need to recapture events from the Mini DV source tapes?
THIS IS A MAJOR BUG AND APPLE STILL OFFERS THE 9.01 update - I gave them feedback yesterday but in the mean time thousands of out of sync videos are being posted to Facebook, Youtube etc etc...

I have a work-around that allows new video captured by a Flip MinoHD Second Generation camera to be edited using iMovie '11 without "Shared" export product becoming out of audio sync. It is a work-around in my opinion that proves there is a major software error in the upgrade of iMovie '09 to iMovie'11. The temporary solution was suggested by imoviebill above and requires a strict attention to the way the video is imported into the program. The clips must not be optimized or processed until after they are already imported into an iMovie Event. I thought I had already tried every possible permutation!

1. Plug the camera into the USB Port of the computer.
2. If the camera import screen opens in iMovie, dismiss it by clicking <Done>.
3. Bring the video clips into iMovie using the <Import …. Movies> function in the <File> menu. Navigate to the <Flip Video Camera> ; <DCIM> Folder; <100 Video> Folder or equivalent. All the clips should be visible.
4. Select the clips you wish to import– probably all. Specify which hard drive you want to store them– where your iMovie Events are saved.
5. Create a new Event. Mixing old and new clips, or clips from other cameras can cause problems.
6. Important! Import the clips full size. Do not optimize. Do not import as "Large 960x540" You will want to <Copy> the clip files. The import will go fast.
7. After the clips are imported, select your New Event in the Event Browser. All the clips will appear in the browser. Click somewhere in the browser among the clips. Select all the individual clips within the event by pressing <Command + A> . Apparently, because the clips have not been previously processed or optimized by Apples Intermediate Codec, you will now have the option to "Optimize" them. Do this by right clicking (or Control clicking if you have a one button mouse or pad). On the Pop-Up Contextual Menu that appears you will have the option to "Optimize" the clips. I do so at <Full Size> but you might try at <Large> once you prove to yourself this method can work. The optimization will take a while.
8. You can now edit the clips as usual.

I used this method with original camera clips that I had backed up on a DVD as raw files (You are doing this aren't you?) This workflow was successful with no audiovisual asynchrony even though the same clips that I had imported directly from the camera months earlier in iMovie '09 were no longer usable. For me this is the proof that Apple "broke" iMovie's import function. If you do the optimizing during import from the camera or Desktop, the clips will not sync. If the optimization is done after a direct import of unaltered clips (without optimization or other processing) successful editing can be done.

The process will work if the clips are Imported into iMovie directly from the Desktop. Copy the clips directly from the DCIM folder of the camera to the desktop using the Finder. You can also back up your raw original camera clips to a DVD or Hard Drive for archival purposes. I recommend this.

If you are stuck with previously "Optimized" Flip Video (or other) clips in your Events, "detaching" the audio in each clip of your edited Project after you are finished editing it may work to keep things in sync. For short projects this works but you pay a price if you have any transitions as there is no fade. Also, if you add voiceovers or music, you may have problems with Ducking. For long projects (45 min for me) I am not sure this works. (My computer processing power got bogged down when I tried to make any additional alterations.) Also, mixing clips from different events was a problem for me. I had 4 short clips from an older "Optimized" event in which I "Detached" the audio that I added to a newly Optimized Event as described above. Even though each of the two sets of clips could be exported normally by themselves, when added together, the exported product fell out of sync again.

I do not know what happens when video is "Optimized" as described above. A ten second clip blossomed in size from 11 MB to 62 MB. The original .mp4 clip is converted to a .mov file. The bitrate goes from 9.1 GB/sec to 51. The audio is changed from ACC 44.1 kHz to 16 Bit Little Endian at 48.0 kHz.

You may find other work flows that work. I think I tried editing non-optimized clips saving all the internal processing until the end and that it did not work. Someone can try again.

I implore Apple to get this fixed. I also encourage Flip and Apple to share their resources better.

I phoned up Apple 'Care' about this.

Apple are not aware of any problems with the sound on the latest iMovie update. He suggested I look at my settings, and "Search on Google".

Great help.

I cant optimize 'Full' - only 'Large'. My import was 1080 so I'm not sure what's going on but perhaps it's because it already was optimized to Full on the import.

Unfortunately fixing sound levels and deleting chapters, and any other special effects hasnt worked for me - Im not really keen on optimizing to large as I presume it will degrade my clip quality. Advice anyone?

Not keen on going back to the old version and re edit!

The iMovie 9.0.2 update apparently “_fixes an issue that could cause audio playback to be out of sync_”

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1355

I can confirm that the iMovie upgrade 9.0.2 appears to have fixed my audio sync issue with the Flip MinoHD second generation video camera. I transferred new camera clips to the program using the native Camera Import Window function and the processing that goes along with that. An exported video was in good sync. (This process failed prior to the update using the same clips.) I was also able to reedit and export a video project made from an event containing old Flip Video clips from several months ago. I will hold my breath a while, but so far so good. Thank you Apple.

The Apple software engineers must have been working on this for a while. I find it disappointing that knowledge of a problem did not filter down to the support personnel part of the company (or anywhere else for that matter). Until yesterday they were still saying that they were unaware of a problem. Why hide the fact from us? If I had known that Apple was aware of the problem and was working on a fix, I would not have wasted days trying to figure out what was wrong. I would also not have felt it necessary to write review comments about the inability of iMovie'11 to play nicely with Fiip Mino HD on the review sites of the Apple and BestBuy stores where I purchased these items.

The Apple software engineers must have been working on this for a while. I find it disappointing that knowledge of a problem did not filter down to the support personnel part of the company (or anywhere else for that matter). Until yesterday they were still saying that they were unaware of a problem. Why hide the fact from us?

For the same reason that companies renamed problems "issues". Companies don't realize that truthfulness makes people like you more--assuming you are fundamentally honest to begin with. The same thing applies to countries. When other countries publicize their flaws, we like those countries more than if they try to suppress them.

I'm having the same problem. I was working with iMovie today and importing the movie from a DVD, no problem. I've finished 2 projects and wanted to start the 3rd one. So I import the movie, optimize large like I did before and there is no sound!! I tried to play the video in Quicktime not in iMovie and still no sound. I play it in VLC, perfect there is sound. I need to get this done by tomorrow and am avoiding having to go onto a PC and work in something like Moviemaker. I've updated iMovie, I've added QUICKTIME MPEG-2 PLAYBACK-MAC OS X-INT, yesterday and it worked great for me until all of a sudden this afternoon. I've discarded all the unwanted frames, I've cleaned out my laptop to make space, I've shut it down 3 times and backed it up, still no changes. Help?