I can't view imported videos in i-Movie 9.0.9 on my i-Mac El Capitan. Looks like it was imported and can hear sound, but no video. I tried importing both formats of video: Quick Time Movie and MPEG-4
iMac (24-inch Mid 2007), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), 6 GB memory
The mp4 file inspector looks fine for iMovie so I don't know why it has no video. Handbrake is a free program that you can try. Just open your mp4 file in Handbrake and save it as mp4 with H-264 codec. It may be there is something in the file structure that iMovie doesn't like and this may fix it. Google Handbrake to find it. As to clarifying the deletion of preferences, in finder click on the GO menu and choose Home. Then in the window that opens open the library folder, then open the preferences folder and look for files named com.apple.iMovie.plist and /or com.apple.iMovieApp.plist. Delete them. Reopen iMovie and you will need to reset your preferences from the preferences menu. Hope one of these efforts works for you. If not iy may br an incompatibility of iMovie with El Capitan.
Do the videos open in Quicktime player? If so open the inspector window and post a screenshot. .mov and mp4 are wrappers and may use different encoders. It may be your files use an incompatible encoder for iMovie.
Thanks for the screen shots. Both the h264 and AIC encoders are compatible with iMovie 9 so no problem there. I am confused by the fact that the file names are the same except the frame sizes are different. the frame rate is not standard at 29.97 but I wouldn't expect that to cause a display problem other then perhaps being a bit jerky. I am using Sierra and have no problem importing mov files with similar encoders so am a bit puzzled by your problem. As Rich said iMovie 9 has problems with Operating Systems later than Yosemite but it seems to be mostly with photos not video. Video does look a bit washed out but I haven't seen lack of import before. In short I see nothing that raises a flag regarding import capability in your screen shots. You might try deleting iMovie preferences. They are in your home library>preferences>com.apple.iMovie.plist.
Please clarify how to delete iMovie preferences. I look at the iMovie tab PREFERENCES and there is not that option. I also do not know what it means how you said to do it.
To clarify, I did not record the original video. Someone else did and I downloaded it from web as *.MP4 format. When attempting to play it in QuickTime, the player converted it to *.MOV format. I imported each video separately to separate Events. Both versions appear to IMPORT into iMovie and the Event Library page fills up a new EVENT. The file playback is sound only. No video.
I am using El Capitan on my iMac and do not desire to upgrade my Operating System. I find it hard to believe iMovie can not accept this video, but it's definitely not happening as is.
Hi, Tom,
iMovie 9.0.9 is not entirely compatible with El Capitan and later. Many anomalies have been observed. If your issue is not caused by what Jim Wanamaker said, then likely incompatibility is the cause. In that case, the only solution would be to update to current iMovie 10.1.8 and High Sierra.
-- Rich
The first video does NOT play in QuickTime. Second video does play
I can't view imported videos in i-Movie 9.0.9 on my i-Mac El Capitan. Looks like it was imported and can hear sound, but no video. I tried both formats of video: Quick Time Movie and MPEG-4
