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that imovie is just crap i can't even import mp3 movie files...

sorry, i was meaning mpg movies.. can't import them in bloody iMovie!!

I bought a new Panasonic HDC-SD9 movie camera and upgraded FC Express two to version four. Then I discovered the interface between the movie camera, USB, doesn't work with FC Express which is firewire-based, so I sent in a note to the FC Express team. Then I took the camera back, as I will use my Panasonic DV camera which does do firewire. The very competent saleslady at Henrys told me that the camera would not work with Apple's software which does not yet support the highest resolution the camera does. To transfer data from the (8 gig) flash card, I had to use Parallels and Windows to support the conversion software that Panasonic supplies (Windows only) and then convert the data to the Mac side using Quicktime MPEG, another $30 upgrade. I decided it was too much hassle, and that firewire was not supported by the manufacturers, including Canon, Sony, except on previous versions that do DV. For now, stick with firewire and DV if you want to use FC4 and save yourself the grief.

Apr 15, 08 - 12:42 pm Comment from: MadMac

I did this last year and have never looked back. It took a couple of days to learn how to use well but FCE ROCKS!!!!

I don't think Apple is "cheap" for pushing people to FCE. Seems to me that the cheap bastards are those that are complaining about something that they get for free anyway!

____________
Not posted from my iPhone

@st1

Apple offers a free download of MPEG Streamclip to convert your videos. It's not a perfect solution but it works well.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html

MadMac, iMovie is no more free than a Mac's keyboard or mouse are free. True, iMovie is part of iLife, which is bundled with new Macs, but it is not free. A new unbundled copy of iLife (or an upgrade of an existing copy) costs $79.

Apr 15, 08 - 12:59 pm Comment from: DLMeyer

Hmm ... I thought it was quite obvious that Apple expected some number of iMovie users to step up to Final Cut. And GarageBand users to step up to Logic. Wasn't that the deal? "We'll sell you a somewhat limited demo version to get you interested and 'trained'." Most folks can't justify a couple hundred dollars for software for what might be a "whim", but can manage it if they've proven to themselves and/or their folks that they are both really interested and at least a little talented. The FireWire limitation is a bit frustrating, possibly even cruel. :(

Apr 15, 08 - 01:05 pm Comment from: Jim - TIV

iMovie HD still rocks

For all of iMovie 08's supposed simplicity, IMHO it is obtuse and unnecessarily complicated to do even simple tasks. I have yet to figure out to use it. It is not intuitive. Despite the flaws, I still find previous versions of iMovie much easier to use.

Apr 15, 08 - 01:47 pm Comment from: MadMac

@ Some Young Guy

You are obviously one of the cheap whiners to whom I was referring.

You get that for which you pay. To expect a world class video editor, audio editor, photo app and DVD authoring app free with a Mac (or, as you point out, $79 stand alone), smacks of being a cheap bastard.

Bet you also complain about Dell not giving you a real Mac Pro competitor in that $300 peecee they peddle.

I'm just sayin'.

Apr 15, 08 - 01:57 pm Comment from: the other steve jobs

Final Cut Express is the first hit... eventually, if you need to move past iMovie, you'll end up wanting Final Cut Studio.

as for the Panny video camera, you should be able to work with any of the AVCHD cameras now with iMovie 08 and Final Cut Studio 2... i don't know about FCE...

Apr 15, 08 - 02:22 pm Comment from: GranitW

@hairytales

Firewire is the gobal framework to use in Mac OS X for video capture. USB is kind of like Apple's competitor, to it's firewire format. You need 3rd party drivers to use USB based Video cameras.

I found the ability to add matte images and zoom in without plug ins in iMovie 08 nice features, but I really miss the timeline of iMovie 06. I often ended up using both versions at the same time to edit a movie, which as painfully slow.

I got FCE a few month back. A little more complicated compared to iMovie 06, but it definately has a lot more features.
I have not even learned all that it does yet.

Apr 15, 08 - 02:42 pm Comment from: qka

Wasn't iMovie 06 still available as a download? It was available after Leopard and the latest iLife were released? Is it no longer available?

Any info would be appreciated.

Apr 15, 08 - 02:53 pm Comment from: qka

To answer my own question:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html

About iMovie HD 6
iMovie HD 6, previously distributed with iLife ’06, is available for download for those who have purchased and installed iLife ’08.

System Requirements
The minimum requirements for iMovie HD 6 are:
- A Macintosh computer with a PowerPC G4, G5, or Intel Core processor
- 256 MB of RAM; 512 MB recommended
- High definition video requires a 1 GHz G4 processor or faster and 512 MB of RAM
- Mac OS X 10.3.9 or Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later; Mac OS X 10.4.4 recommended
- Mac OS X 10.4.4 (or later) required for themes, real-time video effects, and audio effects

iMovie HD 6 is more "professional" than what is in iLife 08.

Hope someone finds this useful!

Apr 15, 08 - 03:28 pm Comment from: Predrag

To HairyTales and others:

There seems to be some confusion here regarding the purpose of FireWire and USB in relation to digital video. VireWire (or, as Sony calls it, iLink) is used for real-time transfer of DV (digital audio/video). Most common application is your ordinary MiniDV (or Sony 8mm Digital) camcorder. Every camcorder that uses tape, uses FireWire for transferring video (and audio) to the computer.

Over the past years, many new camcorders entered the market that don't use tape. Instead, they capture on DVD, hard disk or flash memory. While MiniDV tape records material encoded into DV stream, solid-media based camcorders all capture using some flavour of MPEG encoding and compression. Older standard-definition (SD) camcorders that capture on hard disk use MPEG-2 (normally used for DVDs); many newer ones use MPEG-4 (H-264) or similar. HD (High Definition) camcorders, such as the Panasonic mentioned above (HDC-SD9) encode video in AVCHD (most recent, up and coming HD codec).

Now, these solid-media based camcorders often don't have firewire. That is because they don't need it. Each individual shot that you shoot with your camcorder is already 'captured' into a separate file inside your camcorder. There is no need to re-capture them; all you need to do is copy them over to your computer and into your iMovie (or FCE).

As for importing those files into FCP, FCE or iMovie, Panasonic in their lack of wisdom, wraps them in such a way that they cannot be read directly. However, all you need to do is install a free QuickTime component (http://www.perian.com) and the files will be recognised by all Apple (or third-party) QuickTime-aware applications.

Simple Google search confirms that many have resolved this Panny issue and are happily editing their HD video on Macs.

Apr 15, 08 - 04:06 pm Comment from: Predrag

Another thought; it seems that AVCHD and solid media (mainly flash memory) is a noticeable trend. Many big-name camcorder makers are rolling out AVCHD modles. It does make sense; AVCHD is twice as efficient as HDV (same as DV, only in HD, using MiniDV tape). In addition, it is much more robust (no moving parts), takes less space inside the camcorder and it is much faster to transfer the files (instead of real time with DV/HDV, you can get files in one tenth of the time).

If you love your FireWire and DV, you can always get Canon's new HV-30. Both iMovie08, as well as FCE will work with that.

I actually love the interface of iMovie 08 and can even accept that it has less features than iM06, but the software is completely useless for me because of crappy video quality when using DV format source. (It's using singe field processing and losing half of resolution). Shame, Apple! Who would agree to let that happen to his valuable memories?

To Predrag: Thank you. I wanted to tell people not to get FCX4 if they thought they could use it with the latest and excellent cameras that do AVCHD. I was told that Panasonic and Apple have been asked to come up with a solution, and that they are working on it.
Well, my point is, tell me it's working in OS X at the highest possible resolution, and without having to use Windows, and I would be happy to reconsider buying a new camera. My purpose in writing was to indicate that the updated Final Cut Express was not all that useful for those, like myself, who just have to have the latest. My experience with the Panasonic was good, except that to review the film, you can only connect the external power plug if you remove the battery, and that's a pain. Panasonic should work on that and it shouldn't be that difficult to move it somewhere accessible. And I see no reason why FCX shouldn't accommodate USB 2, as that's the de facto standard in the new flash card cameras, from what I see. Both Apple and Panasonic ought to get with the program. As a consumer, I am waiting for developments. The customer sometimes has a point.

Apr 15, 08 - 06:12 pm Comment from: Predrag

You're welcome, HairyTales.

About the USB, it's not that FCP (or FCE) don't accomodate it; they do. It is just that FCE/FCP don't recognise file formats right out of the box. They do recognise files from many other AVCHD camcorders (Sony, Canon, JVC come to mind) Why Panny decided to wrap their AVCHD stream into AVI, I can't quite figure out (since everyone knows that putting it in MPG or MOV gives you access to Windows AND Mac, while AVI limits you to the ever-shrinking Windows population).

A friend had a new Panasonic DVD camera - ie. it records on mini DVDs and plugs in by USB2 - It was not recognised at all in iMovie HD, but it was recognised with iMovie 08 (albeit after quite a long wait - perhaps the slow continuous data transfer rates of USB2 are true after all) ...

Would it have been too much for Apple to share the camera libraries between iMovie HD and iMovie 08?

The current iMovie provides no training path to a program like Final Cut Xpress/Pro ... Pretty much everything you learn in iMovie 08 is applicable to iMovie 08 only - iMovie HD used conventions and commands that are applicable and transferrable across the board.

I find iMovie 08 frustrating with its limited transitions and effects.

It has really dumbed down the iLife suite.

Cheers,

Tom.

On another note: I wish Apple would drop the "My Great Movie/DVD/etc." - it's just patronising.

imovie06 was one of the main reasons i switched to the mac. it is one of the main reasons why i haven't upgraded to leopard. it just works so well. when i bought fce, the learning curve was too much and i found that i could do just about everything with imovie. i am really afraid to "downgrade" to imovie 08.

Apr 16, 08 - 05:09 am Comment from: Brau

Personally I find Apple's marketing tactics here offensive. iMovie08 is no replacement for iMovieHD06 yet they have removed it as standard Mac software while pushing new users to upgrade to FCE. Most new Mac users I know have been let down by iMovie08 within a few weeks and have opted to use iMovieHD06 once I showed them what it could do. They also recognize the change as pure profiteering on Apple's part.

...as companies get bigger they start getting greedier and dumber, just like MS.