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Any other easy solid video editing tools?

BFskinnerPunk

BFskinnerPunk

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 7, 2007
41
28
I might be missing something, but good grief... I'm having a heck of a time importing, editing, and then burning to a DVD with the iMovie setup.

I have a brand new Retina Macbook (I'm new to macs)... attempting to use iMovie. There is no iDVD, I guess, because there is no DVD drive.

Nonetheless, this stuff is so darn picky. It doesn't like the format... or it's greyed out (unselectable for import for some reason), etc.

With Microsofts Live movie editing software, I seemed to be unlimited by that kind of stuff. I'm a big time novice... purely a basic end user.... but I was expecting this Apple stuff to be utterly obvious for just that kind of person!

Even getting a video which was imported to iPhoto to open in iMovie (for editing) isn't happening. It's not like I have some kind of exotic camera (Panasonic Lumix DMC Z57) with an unheard of format.

Are there other complete software setups that are more flexible/tolerant with importing, editing, sharing, burning?... all in one. Messing with iPhoto for import, then iMovie, then iDVD.... and THEN they don't seem to communicate with each other!

Ok, so seeking a tidy, beginner level video editing package that will create videos in a format that is "understood" by other devices and sharing (youtube) zones.

Suggestions?
 
firedept

firedept

macrumors 603
Jul 8, 2011
6,277
1,130
Somewhere!
BFskinnerPunk said:
I might be missing something, but good grief... I'm having a heck of a time importing, editing, and then burning to a DVD with the iMovie setup.

I have a brand new Retina Macbook (I'm new to macs)... attempting to use iMovie. There is no iDVD, I guess, because there is no DVD drive.

Nonetheless, this stuff is so darn picky. It doesn't like the format... or it's greyed out (unselectable for import for some reason), etc.

With Microsofts Live movie editing software, I seemed to be unlimited by that kind of stuff. I'm a big time novice... purely a basic end user.... but I was expecting this Apple stuff to be utterly obvious for just that kind of person!

Even getting a video which was imported to iPhoto to open in iMovie (for editing) isn't happening. It's not like I have some kind of exotic camera (Panasonic Lumix DMC Z57) with an unheard of format.

Are there other complete software setups that are more flexible/tolerant with importing, editing, sharing, burning?... all in one. Messing with iPhoto for import, then iMovie, then iDVD.... and THEN they don't seem to communicate with each other!

Ok, so seeking a tidy, beginner level video editing package that will create videos in a format that is "understood" by other devices and sharing (youtube) zones.

Suggestions?
Click to expand...

Adobe Premiers Elements 12 will do what you are asking. You can try it free for 30 days before purchasing. On sale for $69.99 till Feb. 7.
 
AcesHigh87

AcesHigh87

macrumors 6502a
Jan 11, 2009
986
326
New Brunswick, Canada
I have a feeling that the editing program is not what you should be looking at. With your needs iMovie is probably strong enough but the format of your files isn't supported. You may just need a converter to get the clips into a format that iMovie will read properly.

I would suggest you download VideoSpec and analyze one of the clips you're trying to use. Post a screenshot of the results and I'll take a look to see if something in the clip itself is causing the issue.

iMovie is a bit picky on what it will accept but I'd hate to see you waste a lot of money on expensive and complicated pro level editing software that you don't need.

Also, iDVD no longer exists, it's been gone as of Lion I believe. That's why you don't see it anymore. Third party programs such as Burn are free to use and burn DVD's pretty well. better options exist but are paid.
 
arjen92

arjen92

macrumors 65816
Sep 9, 2008
1,066
0
Below sea level
I'm too lazy to lookup what kind of format you're camera is shooting in.

But I do know that mac's play very well with .mov containers and h.264 compression.

They don't play well with WMV files at all. You need Flip for Mac. Then using MPEG streamclip you can convert your footage into something editing friendly.

If you're camera is recording to the windows media video(WMV) format, I would look to see if there are other formats to record in.
 
mtngoatjoe

mtngoatjoe

macrumors 6502
Jun 10, 2008
270
56
arjen92 said:
I'm too lazy to lookup what kind of format you're camera is shooting in.

But I do know that mac's play very well with .mov containers and h.264 compression.

They don't play well with WMV files at all. You need Flip for Mac. Then using MPEG streamclip you can convert your footage into something editing friendly.

If you're camera is recording to the windows media video(WMV) format, I would look to see if there are other formats to record in.
Click to expand...

If WMV is the default, then see if you can record in another format. If not, look for a converter. Handbrake is a good one.
 
Unami

Unami

macrumors 65816
Jul 27, 2010
1,350
1,556
Austria
hmmm.... which format are you recording in ( avchd lite or mjpeg/mov ) ? have you tried importing directly from the sd-card into iMovie (not via iPhoto ) ? which version of iMovie are you using ?
 
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