How do I merge two videos, side-by-side?

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How do I merge two videos, side-by-side?

I have two clips of the same scene that need to be played in parallel, side by side. They were filmed simultaneously from different viewpoints. When I try to overlay one clip onto the other, the first clip gets split into two and the second clip inserted into the gap, there's no pop-up menu offering the side-by-side merge.

And I suspect that the need to be resized first so it's genuinely side-by-side, not half-of-one-next-to-half-of-the-other. I haven't yet found the resizing function...

I do have advanced tools showing (according to the application prefs).

On a related issue, how do you turn off the 'helpful' editing tips? It's getting really irksome to have it suggest that my video might be improved by selecting little bits of each clip. In this case it's for archival research use so I need to keep everything. I have a stack of these to work through so turning off those 'helpful' tips would be very helpful indeed.

Posted on Jun 9, 2011 2:09 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 9, 2011 2:21 PM in response to wyvern-eater

I do have advanced tools showing (according to the application prefs).

You're certain of that?

What you describe is exactly what would happen if you didn't have the Show Advanced Tools selected.

Do you see the Keyword Tool icon in the middle of the window (looks like a key).?

Matt

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Answer 2

wyvern-eater Author

Level 1

59 points

Jun 10, 2011 7:28 AM in response to Matthew Morgan

The checkbox for "Show Advanced Tools" is checked, the keyword tool button is present, the dual mode toggle in the upper margin is present.

I agree that the behavior I'm seeing looks as it should when the advanced tools are switched off.

Perhaps there's a 'novice mode' that I've inadvertently switched on somewhere? That might explain also why "editing tips" keep popping up.

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Answer 3

Jun 10, 2011 7:45 AM in response to wyvern-eater

You might want to try moving the iMovie preference file to the desktop which will force iMovie to rebuild it.

First quite iMovie.

The file is located here:

User>Library>Preferences>com.apple.iMovieApp.plist

When you relaunch iMovie, check the Show Advance Tools preference and see if anything's different.

Matt

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Answer 4

wyvern-eater Author

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59 points

Jun 10, 2011 7:58 AM in response to Matthew Morgan

I did try forcing a rebuild of the pref files -- there were also some from older versions of iMovie, all now removed from the pref folder -- and it didn't restore good behavior. Just tried it again to no avail.

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Answer 5

Jun 10, 2011 8:20 AM in response to wyvern-eater

What are the specs. of your computer?

Matt

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Answer 6

wyvern-eater Author

Level 1

59 points

Jun 10, 2011 8:39 AM in response to Matthew Morgan

The computer I'm using in this case is an iMac 10,1

3.06 GHz Intel core 2 duo

4 GB RAM

3 MB cache

430 GB HDD free (out of 500 GB)

plus an external Firewire drive for the video archive

and an external USB drive for backups but that's probably not relevant here

It's running OS X 10.6.7.

And it used to do the side-by-side overlay, so it's doubly puzzling.

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Answer 7

Jun 10, 2011 9:14 AM in response to wyvern-eater

Your hardware is more than capable.

Have you tried a different user account.

It might even be worth creating a new one just for test purposes.

Matt

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Answer 8

Jun 10, 2011 5:36 PM in response to wyvern-eater

You can not merge or play clips at the same time with imovie! You can do this with final cut epress or pro!

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Answer 9

Jun 10, 2011 6:33 PM in response to nlsilverberg

You can do this with iMovie 09 and 11.

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Answer 10

wyvern-eater Author

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59 points

Jun 13, 2011 11:10 AM in response to Matthew Morgan

Yes, it is more than capable. It used to work, and I suspect its ceasing to work correlated with a recent update that I perhaps should not have installed.

I gave up on tinkering, and reinstalled iMovie. The side-by-side is working again now -- the only problem is the frame width. It's cropping the videos instead of expanding the frame width (or, alternatively, compressing the videos horizontally). Any suggestions on how to retain the full image?

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Answer 11

Jun 13, 2011 11:29 AM in response to wyvern-eater

Any suggestions on how to retain the full image?

Do you have QuickTime Pro?

Here's a litte how to someone put together.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4453086_present-multiple-movies-same-quicktime.html

If you don't have it, at only $29.99 QuickTime Pro is a useful tool to have around.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/D3380Z/A

Matt

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Answer 12

wyvern-eater Author

Level 1

59 points

Jun 13, 2011 11:52 AM in response to Matthew Morgan

No, I don't. I bought iLife 11 last week having read that it does "side-by-side" merges, and now get the impression that it wasn't the right application for what I need done. Is there a way to do this without buying another application? If not, I suppose I'll see if I can get Quicktime pro.

The impediment to getting Quicktime pro is that I want to use in an educational research institution where purchases of activation codes gets very bureaucratic if it is allowed at all. (Also a problem for Lion... we will probably not be allowed to upgrade via the on-line sales model, which could mean not upgrading at all.) But there is a way to have CDs sent for Quicktime, with enough lead time.

So if there's something along the lines of those many open source jpeg and pdf manipulation packages, even if purely CLI, I'll give that a try first.

I've found that avidemux2 consistently crashes on this machine, for reasons that I haven't identified. It looked like a good prospect a while ago before I came to think that iMovie 11 would solve the problem.

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Answer 13

Jun 13, 2011 12:03 PM in response to wyvern-eater

So if there's something along the lines of those many open source jpeg and pdf manipulation packages, even if purely CLI, I'll give that a try first.

There may be. I just don't know what they are.

WIth regard to getting QuickTIme Pro, you might try calling the Apple Store for Educational Institutions at (800) 800-2775.

Matt

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Answer 14

wyvern-eater Author

Level 1

59 points

Jun 13, 2011 12:05 PM in response to Matthew Morgan

Thanks. We have an agency store on campus who can, as I half-said earlier, get installation disks for Quicktime.

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Answer 15

Jun 13, 2011 12:28 PM in response to wyvern-eater

I just happened to think of a workaround you might try.

Rather than side by side, what if you used picture in picture and place your first video over black and then export it.

Now re-import what you just exported and place your 2nd movie by doing another picture in picture effect.

Now export

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