I have had this problem for a long time now and everything I try does not fix it. I can import video files into iMovie fine, but when I have the mouse over the clips in the Events or try to play a project, I do not get any video. It is hard to edit something together when I can't actually see the video. I can hear the sound just fine. I am open to any suggestions on how to fix this.
Mac OS X (10.6.8)
I downloaded iMovie '11 from the App Store two days ago, never used it before and have the same problem - but only on one of my Macs.
It works fine on my iMac(Lion) and Mac Pro(Snow Leopard) but on my MacBook Pro (Lion) the video playback window only shows the first and last second of each clip, either on mouseover or play, making editing pretty well impossible.
Apparently many others have experienced this problem and reported it on various forums, but no definitive solution seems forthcoming.
But why on earth is this problem on only one of my Macs and not the others?
That's interesting. It won't work on my iMac (snow leopard), but my friend has a MacBook Pro (I think she has snow leopard) and it works fine for her. I first had this problem with iMovie'09. Then I upgraded to iMovie'11 hoping it would fix the problem, but it didn't. Please let me know if you find a solution. I'm going to keep looking for one myself. Since no one seems to have an answer for this, I guess the next thing to do is to actually contact apple.
Something to test is try downloading some QuickTime video playback helper apps.
First try Perian (@ perian.org), then failing that try downloading and installing DivX for Mac. It may just be the video 'codec' is not fully supported by quicktime. The helper apps will add a large number of codecs to the ones QuickTime already knows and it might just trigger the video to start playing back.
Thanks for those suggestions, but I tried installing both and still no preview appears. I restarted the MacBook Pro after each install as well.
I should clarify my original post where I said that only the first and last second of each clip displays in the preview windows. This only happens if there are transitions set between clips. Remove the transitions and nothing at all plays in the preview window.
So basically the preview is capable of showing video but it doesn't appear, except during a transition.
Everything is working fine on both iMac(Lion) and Mac Pro running either Snow Leopard or Lion (I have dual boot).
It's the same install of iMovie on all machines, fresh from the App Store.
Sadly the last thing to try is to conver the files manually to a format that iMovie '11 uses internally to playback and edit the clips. Download a copy of MPEG Streamclip and drag some of your video clips one at time into the Application window. Export to QuickTime using the Apple Intermedia Codec (AIC), which is located under the pull-down menu on the Export Dialog Window.
Import the converted video clips into a New Event folder, Create a new project. Then add some of the converted clips to the New Event. If those AIC formattted .mov files don't playback you've got something very fundamentally wrong (like the AIC codec is missing altogether). Which may require a re-install of the OS to get back the missing QuickTime components iMovie uses to show previews.
Thanks again for your suggestions elikness. I tried your suggestion - MPEG Streamclip is a useful app, so thanks for introducing me to that.
It still didn't work though, so I used AppZapper to completely remove iMovie '11 and then installed again from the App Store (previously purchased from there, so no problem).
Success! 😀
The second install works fine, so something must have gone AWOL on the first install.
I much appreciate the help offered and the useful little apps introduced as possible remedies.
I hope that this thread may benefit others who experience similar problems.
As long as you got it running, that's what's most important. Thanks for replying back to update what happened. MPEG Streamclip is recommend by a lot of the longtime contributors to the iMovie Discussion Group and it can fix a lot of problems of Format conversions and compatibility with iMovie.
I tried what you did with AppZapper, but that didn't work.
Thank you for all of your suggestions, but I tried all of them and my iMovie still won't show video. Is there anything else I can try before trying to reinstall the OS?
I have the same no preview problem with iMovie 09 on two computers. I bought iMovie 11 from the App store, hoping that would resolve the problem. I'm going to try AppZapper and see if that helps. Could this be related to having QuickTime Player 7 Pro? I wonder.
"Zapped" iMovie 11 using AppZapper and reinstalled iMovie 11, but I still have no preview. I've been researching this issue for months and the only thing I hear that works is to reinstall OS X. It would be interesting to see what the folks at the Genius Bar would suggest, but I don't live near an Apple Store.
I have finally found the time to reinstall the OS X to see if this would fix the problem. Good news, it did! It took a while to do the reinstall but the video in iMovie finally works!
Glad you got it sorted - even if only by brute force!
Let's hope someone at Apple can identify the cause of what seems to be a common problem (unlikely....)
iMovie '11 Viewer will not show video!
