Exporting from iMovie HD - full quality

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Level 1

5 points

Exporting from iMovie HD - full quality

I am managing a video project involving six young filmmakers. All footage was shot on a Sony HD 1080i and imported into iMovie HD v5 as HD 1080i project files ( 6 seperate movie files about 4-5 mins each). I now need to export them and make them into one movie so that I can link them and add titles etc. My first experiment was to export as Full Quality Quicktime and the movie was compressed from Widescreen to 4:3 and was poor quality (this was intended as a preview) and a dismal failure

The movie is to be shown at a local cinema soon and I dont know how to do all this. Should I make a DVD, or should I export all the movies back to the camera and make a new iMovie file and make this new one into a DVD movie? I want the best quality possible.

Thanks in expectation!

Sony HD 1080i video camera, Mac OS X (10.3.9), iMovie HD 5.0

Posted on Feb 20, 2006 6:46 PM

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Answer 1

catspaw

Level 5

4,344 points

Feb 20, 2006 7:51 PM in response to Diane Epoff

Hi Diane - if I read you correctly, the process is simply done. You can copy and paste the subsequent iMovies into your first one.
So, for each one:
1. Hit Command A to select all, then Command C to copy.
2. Close that project, and open your first iMovie.
3. Hit Command V to paste the clips.

Once you have joined all into the one final iMovie, and tested it, you can trash the individual projects.

Does that help?

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Answer 2

Feb 20, 2006 7:55 PM in response to Diane Epoff

I would run them all out to tape in the order they go in the final version you wish to create then import them into a new project and burn the dvd from there.

Warning, iDVD '05 doesn't handle widescreen natively.

'06 does. For $60 with a teacher's discount, it may be worth it to upgrade.

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Answer 3

Diane Epoff Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 23, 2006 9:13 PM in response to catspaw

Thanks - i thought of that and tried with a small file but the audio (extracted audio clips and an overlayed soundtrack in each) dont stay in the right place. There are also many transitions and effects and I dont want to have to edit each film again - it also puts at risk each of the independent movies. Thats why I want to export all as a rendered movie somehow without losing quality.

Any other ideas?

Thanks for your reply!

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Answer 4

Diane Epoff Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 23, 2006 9:18 PM in response to Scalzmoney

Thanks this is useful - but poses another question - will I lose quality through the second generation - even though it will be a HD tape using a Sony 1080i HD camera?

I just tried and it will take - wait for it... 230 minutes to render and export one 4.5 minute movie so I guess it must be good quality! I will try it tonight and let you know how it goes

I also just bought iMovie HD 6.0 and am paranoid that it will do something to the existing movies so have held off installing it, but the widescreen info means I will do it!

Thanks heaps

Diane

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Answer 5

Diane Epoff Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 18, 2006 8:17 PM in response to Diane Epoff

Experts on iMovie HD v6 please help. I decided to export all 6 of my movies (see previous question) back to HD tape and found someone who I could pay to create a DVD Master of high quality.

Problem: after installing version 6 iMovie HD to get a widescreen export happening thanks to advice given here (works), the audio is now a total disaster on the recorded tape when played back both in camera and on a TV monitor. What is happening is that any extracted audio clips rise sharply in volume at the end of each clip sounding absolutely awful. Also there are 'ghosts' of previously inserted audio tarcks which spike through the other audio yet these clips have long been deleted. The movies are perfect on screen - no sign of any inconsistencies in themehow I need to get the movies off the computer. I'm sure this a version 6 bug - there was no problem with version 5. Any solutions will be most appreciated!

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