Audio waveform is solid purple bar

This could (repeat could) be due to the DRM copy protection on most downloaded audio tracks from iTunes.

If you burn the audio track in iTunes to a CD and then import it from that CD back into iTunes, save it as an AIFF file and use THAT in iMovie, all should work smoothly.

Worth a try?

Are you suggesting that by creating a DVD something would have changed in iMovie?

Nope. Never mentioned DVD.

Judy,

Depending on where you have the timeline scaling slider set (lower left corner of iMovie window) can have an effect on the appearance of wave forms.

Matt

Hmmm.

I suppose there's no harm in re-importing.

It's also worth asking, how important is it to you to see the waveform?

Matt

.. has anyone recommended a 'reset' of iMovie...? No? ok, here it is..:

quit iM
double-click
user/library/preferences

and look for a file called
com.apple.iMovie.plist

drag that into trash.. empty trash.. launch iM...

this procedure does NO harm to any project...

Although I don't know why it happened, I've been able to make it happen here.

If I discard the contents of the "Audio Waveforms" folder inside the project, then open the project, iMovie displays the waveforms as a single thick purple line just like you describe. If the song is "Flight of the Bumble Bee", iMovie rebuilds the file "01 Flight of the Bumble Bee 01.m4p.wvf" in the Audio Waveforms folder but NOT the file "01 Flight of the Bumble Bee 01.m4p.snp". Without both files the waveforms aren't properly displayed.

To get back the waveforms I suggest re-importing the song.

The more important question may be why it occurred. One possibility is that iMovie was unable to save the waveforms to disk at some time in the past. You might want to make sure the disk the project resides on uses the Mac OS Extended disk format.

Here's another way to set your clip length to match the beat of the music:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=607322&ft=y&#607322

Karl

first of all, Judy: Grandmaster's Karl analysis deserves a Star - NEVER read an answer to this (rare) question... he is the one on this board with breathtaking in-depth knowledge of this app.. .

And how do I know if I've my h.d. is Extended File Format? Is that the default?

most ext. HDD come out-of-the-box in fat32/'PC' format...

in Finder, single-click on your HDD icon... hit Apple-I.. the info tell's you the 'Format' of your drive...

to 'change' the format of a drive, you have to erase it.. means: the Disk Utility will wipe-out all content on it... (you find the Format options under 'Erase' in DU)

And the real question, is why is this
happening? Some movies are fine and some aren't. It
might be happening when I'm doing a "save as" ...

I think you've got it!

Here, the Save As routine fails to copy the files in the Audio Waveforms folder to the new project. When the new project opens iMovie re-creates one of the waveform files but not the other. Without both files, the waveform is displayed as a thick, purple line.

One "fix" is to close the new project — let's call it Project B — then move a copy of the Audio Waveforms folder from Project A to Project B, replacing the Audio Waveforms folder of Project B. (Option-drag the Audio Waveforms folder from Project A to Project B, which copies it.) Then open Project B.

That seems to work here. Does it for you?

It's strange this problem hasn't been reported before (at least that I recall). If anyone has seen it, please say.

It would be good to report this bug to Apply, Judy. Go here for iMovie feedback:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/imovie.html

Karl