Stop iMovie '11 from Stretching Video When Importing

This is a problem that was described in a post about 2 years ago, Why does iMovie stretch my images upon importing? which has since been archived without a solution.

Well, I'm having the same problem now that I have finally gotten around to converting some of my old home video on Mini-DV tapes taken with an older JVC digital camera. They were taken in the JVC's Widescreen Mode, which is 16:9 letterboxed in a 4:3 window. iMovie '11 relentlessly stretches these horizontally when they are imported whether I set the iMovie '11 File/Project Properties/Aspect Ratio to 4:3 or 16:9. I am short and wide enough without suffering this additional indignity, so I needed a solution. I didn't find one in this forum or elsewhere, but I did develop a work-around, which I will share. If anyone knows how to fix this problem directly in iMovie '11, I'd appreciate it.

Meanwhile, here's the work-around. You will need the older iMovie HD, still avalialable free from Apple.

In iMovie HD

-Create a new DV-NTSC (not Widescreen) project

-Go to Preferences/Import and uncheck Automatic DV Pillaring and Letterboxing

-Connect the camera and import the video clips

-Save the project (you don't have to move any of the clips to the movie timeline)

In iMovie '11

-Go to File/Import/iMovie HD Project...

-Find the project above and import it.

-Your clips will be in the imported events folder. Select one entire clip. In the viewing window you will see it as a small 16:9 image surrounded by a black border on all 4 sides.

-Select All (Command-A) to select all the clips

-Click on the Crop icon

-Drag and size the green crop outline to exclude the black border and click Done. Now the clips will show properly in the viewing window and also in the project when you drag them there.

20" Intel iMac, MacBook Air, Mac Mini (2009), Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Apr 30, 2011 4:20 PM

20 replies

Sep 11, 2012 10:06 AM in response to Brad Wright2

I will try this. Thank you. It's just wierd that it was importing fine and then stopped importing fine. It's wierd that it's adding duplicates that are stretched. And when I try to delete them it deletes more than I select. I'm afraid I have ruined the work I've done already. I appreciate your help. I will start a new project and do this.

oregonpete Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 11, 2012 11:40 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Karsten Schlüter wrote:

nope, by a non-Apple-related company named Noteboom Productions.

You are right, of course. My mistake.

the Apple-written tutorials a free, video & manual avail here

http://help.apple.com/imovie/

Thanks, I was not aware of the Apple tutorial. I checked it out, and I still like the "Tutor" video presentations better, but the Apple one does have the advantage (besides being free) of having both written and video instruction.

oregonpete Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 11, 2012 12:01 PM in response to Brad Wright2

Brad Wright2 wrote:

I would recommend converting the video to square pixel aspect ratios and MOVs before dropping into iMovie. For instance, this means that a 16x9 aspect ratio is encoded video is 854x480 instead of 640x480 anamorphic. A 4:3 aspect ratio video would be 640x480 using square pixels. MP4 can have aspect ratio flags that are ignored by iMovie so it can get it wrong. Square pixels are never wrong.

Yes, you can do this, but you should not have to jump through these hoops to get videos into iMovie. I have imported lots of 1260 x 720 and 1920 x 1080 videos from cameras using MP4 and AVCHD formats, as well as other 720p and 1080i videos in .MOV and .DV formats from other sources with no problems.

Lildnyc

Level 1

4 points

Sep 30, 2012 9:43 AM in response to oregonpete

I am having the same problem when I import video from my I-pad to I-movie.

I download it into I-photo and it looks fine, plays fine. Then I open I-movie and import it and some of the clips are normal and then a lot of them, I look like a stretch armstrong doll.

How do I fix this.

To I have to import them again?

I am not very techno savy. If you could be of help, I would appreciate it.

oregonpete Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 30, 2012 10:35 PM in response to Lildnyc

I'm not sure what's happening since I don't take videos with my iPad. One possible factor is taking the videos with the iPad held vertically (portait orientation) or horizontally (landscape). The horizontal orientation is what you should use: I certainly get some strange results when I forget and use my iPhone vertically.

How are you getting your videos from iPhoto into iMovie, and what versions of iPhoto and iMovie are you using? (Click on iPhoto/About iPhoto or iMovie/About iMovie in the top menu bar.)

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Stop iMovie '11 from Stretching Video When Importing