QuickTime Vs. iMovie

One significant advantage of Pro over iMovie is that it allows for the conversion of files to other video formats. With iMovie you are limited to making .mov files. That may not present any advantage for your particular situation, if you are satisfied with the way they are produced by either the "Share" feature or the Expert feature of iMovie.
Imovie has its advantages, such as being able to add titles, transitions and fades, etc that you can't do if all you used was QT Player Pro. To sum it up, QT can be better at converting or encoding movies and iMovie gives you more features for editing movies.

What's the difference between QuickTime Pro and iMovie?

QT Pro is basicially a madia player and file format converter with elementary editing capabilities. iMovie is a "full" (amateur/home level) editor which allows free access to QT's file conversion tools. If your main intent is the creation of fully edited clips from DV encoded/converted footage, then iMovie would likely be the better application. If all you are interested in is the conversion of select segments of QT compatible files, then the QT Pro utility may be a more appealing, cheaper. and/or efficient approach.

But the point is, in terms of compression and suitability for web production, is there a difference between QT Pro and iMovie?

In my opinion, no. The same QT Tools can be accessed by both applications (to include any and all properly installed third party QT components).

More specifically, if one has iMovie, can one forgo QuickTime and do with iMovie?

Generally speaking, I would say yes. However, I must admit that for many tasks not requiring editing (or only minor editing), QT Pro may be simplier and/or quicker.

Conversely if one has QT Pro, would one still need iMovie?

While I believe a limited number of individuals (Like QTKirk) could make do with QT Pro alone, I do believe the vast majority of users would generally prefer the ease of editing in iMove or similar applications like FCE/FCP.

With iMovie you are limited to making .mov files.

If you are using ".mov" to refer to any and all available QT compatible formats, then I would agree with you. If, however, you mean you are limited to .mov "file containers," then I would have to disagree. You can export and/or share any format in iMovie that you can directly from QT Pro (to include installed third party components such as DivX) with or without QT Pro registration.

QTVR has been used in realty Sites because of small file size, ease of use and the tiny "wow" factor caused by user interactivity. They feel empowered.
QTVR files are simply still images "stitched together" and don't (usually) contain audio.
The real answer is your current camera. Does it record in DV format? If so, shoot a lot and edit in iMovie. If it is just a still image camera you could use QT Pro to record an audio track and add your images into it. A nice "walk around" tour describing the rooms, grounds and features. Add your images "scaled" to your audio and you'll have a file size smaller than a QTVR movie.
Many cameras also record short "movies" and include a microphone. You could do all the work (audio and video) with the camera and edit directly using QT Pro. You could even add "chapter tracks" (dining room, basement, etc.) in your finished project to aid your viewers navigation.
I've got lots of practice using QT Pro and all of my Web based "movies" were made with it. I don't own a DV camera.
iMovie can also import (converting to DV) your QuickTime movies and export them back to .mov format.
Your Web based files should be made as small in file size as practical. Still images "movies" with an audio track could be made under a quarter megabyte per minute. A "video style" (motion) movie with audio would be in the 1 to 3MB per minute range.

marconey,

I noticed that you said that price was a big issue for you and that you liked the Mapwing software. Redbug announced this week that they are releasing a $39 version of their creator package.

As for virtual tours in general, I think that there is an advantage to the a tour over a QuickTime movie. In particular, the ability to interact with a map and text is a big deal for users, as well as going through at their own pace. Good luck with your project!

G4 867

I tend to use QT Pro for posting fast clips with minimal bells and whistles on my site and my work site (eg, see http://www.bikefriday.com/route66) - I use a simply digi camera in movie mode. But I am about to use iMovie to make a 45 minute DVD movie with almost 300 minutes of footage shot on that trip. iMovie lets you do nice things like fades, fancy scrolling titles, Ken Burns effect (moving stills etc) that you can see in e.g. the 1 and 3 minute trailers of a movie I did last year: http://www.galfromdownunder.com/peru

BUT the @#$% about iMovie is that it blows everything out to '.DV' format (I'm told). Which means a simple concatenated movie in QT might be say, 200 Mb, it blows out to 10 GB or so in imovie by the time you add your bells and whistles, then winds up as an additional 2Gb (say) DVD movie via iDVD. And to make the disk image, from which you burn the DVD, takes hours.

Make sure you have a ton of freespace to process your stuff using iMovie, iDVD ... the s/w tends to get in a bind when you don't. As in, take 4 hours to make a disk image and then crash etc. Not fun.

When using QT make sure you never delete your originals. I still screw up and get 'Can't find file' because I pasted together a whole load of clips, saved them as a reference movie, then somehow trashed one of the components. Will I never learn.


Powerbook G4 12 1gHz 60 gb Mac OS X (10.4.2) Using two 11gb Seagate pocket drives on the road to store and process movies. hope it works.