in iMovie 10 how do i change time format?

Hi,

It actually does read in hh:mm:ss:ff (frames).

iMovie displays running time in three different places as you can see from the screen shot below:

This clip is 01 hr:03min:07secs:17frames in duration. You can get that display (the white box at the end of the clip) by placing your cursor at the beginning of the clip, and while pressing the "r" key and your track pad at the same time, dragging your cursor the length of the clip. Or you can stop anywhere in between and get the time reading as of that point. The reading for frames will vary depending on the frame rate of the clip. This clip is 29.97fps, so roughly 30 frames equals 1 second. When the frames column in this example reaches :30, the seconds column will click to :08 seconds.

The 1.0h notation at the beginning of the clip appears to be for rough calculating purposes and I have not found it to be precisely accurate. The running time of 1.03.11 displayed above the time line (upper right in the screen shot) is more accurate -- at least the display itself is more precise. As seen, the running time actually is 1hr, 3min and 7 seconds rather than one hour.

There actually is a fourth time display, but not very useful. If you place the playhead anywhere in the clip, and click on the icon in the tool bar at the top of the screen (the icon that looks like a circle with an "i" in it) you will get a reading of the total number of seconds in the clip.

Hope this was clear.

-- Rich

Unfortunately, the time format in iMovie can't be changed in preferences. The info I gave you pertained to current iMovie version 10.1.6. You are using 10.1.5, so, as Geoff commented, your display of the time may be different in the earlier iteration of iMovie 10. I don't recall what it was in 10.1.5. But in 10.1.6 you can get the hh:mm:ss reading as I described. Just a bit awkward.

-- Rich

Are you possibly using an older version of iMovie? I seem to remember that the time display in early versions of iMovie 10 was very limited. With recent versions it is fine as described by Rich839.

Geoff.

When the measured duration of the clip exceeds one minute, you will get the full display. Your reading shows 10 seconds and 26 frames. You need to run it out to over 1 minute to get the full display.

-- Rich

Hello

I am using the current version of iMovie too and the timecode format is NOT HH:MM:SS frames

Why is that?