Video: MOV/H.264 format for iMovie

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Video: MOV/H.264 format for iMovie

For years I have used a Sony HandyCam with digital tape, inside of a Sony underwater housing to do underwater video. Great quality and editing it in iMovie is a piece of cake. I have had no compatability issues. Trouble is hauling the housing, the tapes, etc. I am thinking about buying an Olympus TG-2 IHS which records in MOV/H.264 format. One camera to do it all.

I am concerned about editing in iMovie since this format is a compressed format versus the digital tape. Does anyone have any experience to share with this format in iMovie?

Posted on Feb 24, 2013 2:43 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Feb 24, 2013 2:55 PM in response to Henry Wolford

That will require conversion to a format that iMovie can use, which will give slight quality loss.

You forgot to mention what Mac you have, what verisons of OS X and iMovie, so:

iMovie 11 - cameras supported:

http://help.apple.com/imovie/cameras/en/index.html?lang=en_US

iMovie 9 - cameras supported:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290?viewlocale=en_US

iMovie 8 Camcorders supported:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1014

Digital camera RAW formats supported by OS X Lion:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4757?viewlocale=en_US

Digital camera RAW formats supported by OS X Snow Leopard:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3825?viewlocale=en_US

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Answer 2

Feb 24, 2013 4:17 PM in response to Henry Wolford

iMovie 11 handles h.264 well. H.264 is a highly compressed format. I would advise that when you import, you "Optimize" the video. This will convert it into Apple Intermediate Codec for editing. After editing, iMovie will convert it back to h.264 for playback on the devices of your choice.

For why AVCHD and h.264 should be converted to Apple Intermediate Codec, see my post here. AVCHD and h.264 are similar long GOP codecs. iMovie will always convert AVCHD to Apple Intermediate Codec. With h.264 you have a choice, because some h.264 cameras shoot standard def sizes, and you can probably edit them natively without conversion.

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3941

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