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Transition timing in iMovie 10

I have been unable to change the transition duration in iMovie 10. Followed the help file instructions but that does not work. Has anyone else had this problem? A feature in 10 or is there a trick I missed? I click on the transition, get the new (sigh) option for changing the time, enter a new value, press return. No change in my video. BTW, this is a video I started in 9 and imported. Can't change either the ones that were already there or new ones entered.


JesseyD

MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 7.0.3

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 1:05 PM

Reply
74 replies

Oct 24, 2013 2:33 PM in response to Bruce Jones

I understand everything you posted (thank you BTW). I should have mentioned I have plenty of time on both sides of the transition. 16 seconds in front of a crossover transition and 12 seconds on the other side. I have managed to get one to change. I think what I've figured out is that I can't change the transitions imported from the previous version but seem to be able to change the new ones. I will continue to play with it and if I find one that was imported I will replace it to see if that works.


Of course it would be nice if there was a way to tell which transition I'm deleting (a maping between the transtion window and the little icon in my movie would be nice....but that's for another post.


Thanks again for your reply

Oct 28, 2013 7:53 AM in response to JesseyD

I'm having great difficulty in changing transition durations as well. I'm working with a project which was started from scratch in iMovie '13, and my clips are all 3+ minutes each. I cannot, however, change the transitions between them to last more than 1 second. This leads me to believe the bug may not have anything to do with importing the transitions from legacy projects. Any suggestions in this instance? Could it make a difference as to whether the transition was dragged in from the transition menu or inserted with command-T?

Oct 30, 2013 3:07 AM in response to Kramster1

Still a bit random this , I tried setting the default duration to 2 Seconds and then switched on Automatic in the movi preferences and it did set the durations to 2 secs , however it also chose different transitions than i previously had selected . so i replced them with the originals and the duration remained at 2. I then used cut and paste to reuse these transitions further in the Movie ( you have to use control x & V as the menu cut and paste is greyed out)


Al least i think thats what happend, havent had chance to retrace my steps on this to check the hypothesis.

Nov 4, 2013 9:30 AM in response to JesseyD

I have been on the phone with an AppleCare rep for hours the last two days on this issue. I am having the identical problem described above - place a transition between clips, double click on it and attempt to change the duration length in the dialog box at the top with no success. He is turning it over to the Engineering division since it seems to be a problem for some but not for others - it worked fine on his computer but wouldn't for one of his colleagues. Should get an answer back in a few days.

Nov 4, 2013 11:03 AM in response to JesseyD

Apple Care advisor also couldn't change transition times. He is notifying engineering of this problem, which is not unique to me after reading all the threads. However, he showed me a manual way to adjust length.

1. keep cursor on transition. Press Control and Click

2. choose Precision Editor

3. Advisor said transitions are 1.0-1.4 seconds by default in Maverick version. Since transitions take footage from clips to its right and/or left, moving those clips to overlap more will allow more room for a longer transition. Place cursor at the beginning of the second clip and move to overlap the first clip. Plus or minus numbers appear very quickly depending on how much the clipa are moved.

4. I returned to normal play and the transition had been lengthened. But I also had to repeat steps 1-3 several times to get the length I wanted. Tricky, but accomplished. This problem is deffinitely one that needs to be addressed so that it is automatic!!

Nov 30, 2013 12:40 PM in response to JesseyD

Ive been using imovie for years without any problems now Im on imovie 10 and Mavericks system and just tried working on my next project.

It took a bit of getting used to but I found the importing much quicker and assembling the project worked fine.

When it comes to adding transitions though.....rubbish!

All my transitions seem to be stuck at 0.2 duration and try as I might to follow all the instructions nothing happens it seems useless!

Nov 30, 2013 9:28 PM in response to Alan Cook2

Alan, I did exactly what you suggested and I still cannot change the duration time of any transition which I place between clips. However, if I place a transition at the beginning of the first clip in a project or at the end of the last clip, then I can change the duration time by double clicking and changing the time in the dialog box which appears at the top. The clips are at least 30 seconds in length and I am only trying to extend the transition length from say 1 second to 3 seconds so my clips are long enough to extend the transition time. I had hoped that the recent upgrade to iMovie (now 10.0.1) would have fixed this problem but it has not. I emailed the AppleCare contact I spoke to at the beginning of November about this problem last Saturday to inform him that the upgrade has not changed the situation and asked him for assistance but have not received any reply in now over a week. Very disappointing.

Transition timing in iMovie 10

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