iMovie '11 Does Not RecogniseMy Motion JPEG Still Camera?

Something very strange is happening.

I have converted the M-JPEGs in Compressor to AIC and tried dropping them on the iMovie interface but they just jump back.

I have also tried importing them from the desktop using File>Import>Movies +but the moment I select the desktop iMovie becomes unresponsive and I have to Force Quit.+

This has happened on numerous occasions over the last hour or so. I can select any of my hard Drives or anything else and it is OK but click on Desktop and I get the beachball with the only option being a Force Quit.

Things are getting stranger!

My iMovie has a fatal hatred of the desktop. Select it and iMovie is dead. Select anything else and it works fine.

Putting the AIC file in my "Movies" folder or anywhere else as long as it is NOT ON THE DESKTOP results in iMovie importing it.

Furthermore, there is no need to convert to AIC. So long as I put the M-JPEGs anywhere other than the desktop, iMovie will import them perfectly.

Has anyone else noticed iMovie freezing whenever the Desktop is selected or is it just a peculiarity of my setup?

Could someone try selecting the Desktop to see if they get a freeze?

I thought it must be my problem. I suppose I am OK if I don't click on "Desktop".

However, I would like to get to the bottom of it.

I had kept the old iMovie (renamed), so I trashed it and its .plist to no avail.

Verify Disk and Repair Disk Permissions have had no effect.

There are 3 iMovie .plists . . . . which is the one to trash?

Thanks Karsten. I thought I had dropped stuff on the old iMovie and it worked.

My FX60 only shoots M-JPEG, not AVCHD.

I think the fact that iMovie does not see my camera may be connected with this "Desktop" freeze, as the only place the camera's icon appears is on the desktop.

I have repeatedly trashed prefs and used DU to verify and repair to no avail.

I have 3 prefs:-

com.apple.iMovie.LSSharedFileList.plist

com.apple.iMovie.plist

com.apple.iMovieApp.plist

I removed them to a safe place and when iMovie was restarted only the com.apple.iMovie.plist regenerated itself.

So I put the other 2 back after ascertaining that no improvement had been effected.

I also had an app called Camouflage which hides icons on the desktop.

Suspecting this might be implicated I removed it but iMovie still freezes when I foolishly select "Desktop".

It's an 8GB Class 10 SDHC which was formatted in the camera.

It's no problem copying the files from the card to +anywhere other than the desktop+ and then importing them into iMovie.

The desktop/freeze is not a real problem either, except it's worrying when something behaves strangely for no apparent reason.

The more I think about it the more I am convinced that the desktop/freeze is also responsible for the camera not being recognised.

From before installing iMovie '11 I was wondering whether it would impact on any other app.

On awaking I tested iPhoto 7.1.5, iTunes 10.1, Photoshop CS3 and FCP 7 . . . . . all OK at importing from desktop.

However, Bridge freezes if I select the desktop!

I have 2 versions of Bridge installed (CS3 and CS4) which behave the same way. Click on anything other than the desktop and everything is OK, but the moment the desktop is selected, Bridge freezes.

When I used PS/Bridge last week all appeared well, so I am assuming that this has been caused by iMovie 11's installation

Of course it could be coincidence.

Karsten, my iMac is not partitioned in any way . . . . other than 1 Partition.

Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown