not really, they only support transcoding AVCHD.
Exactly like AVCHD, but of course we don't know the details yet...
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Apple Releases iMovie 8.0.5, Adding Support for New iFrame Video Format
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not really, they only support transcoding AVCHD.
This isn't a limitation of the format... likely it's a limitation of the hardware. iFrame requires significant horsepower to encode it looks like (if it uses H.264.)
True, but it's a doddle to get the footage onto your machine. Quality is still superb.
I'm no expert on these things (which is why I find this confusing for me and timeconsuming for Apple) but I'm pretty certain any of the other ones would do just fine. However it might come with a license fee attached and the greedy Apple of today would never succumb to such a thing, they rather reinvent the wheel because they think the first one wasn't smooth enough...
I'm no expert on these things (which is why I find this confusing for me and timeconsuming for Apple) but I'm pretty certain any of the other ones would do just fine. However it might come with a license fee attached and the greedy Apple of today would never succumb to such a thing, they rather reinvent the wheel because they think the first one wasn't smooth enough...
Off topic . . . just a little note about your sig:
The two aren't mutually exclusive.
I have some audio files in a format I can't remember. Can I play those in iTunes?
Seriously you are asking us if iMove supports a file format and then you don't tell us the format.
I'm no expert on these things (which is why I find this confusing for me and timeconsuming for Apple) but I'm pretty certain any of the other ones would do just fine. However it might come with a license fee attached and the greedy Apple of today would never succumb to such a thing, they rather reinvent the wheel because they think the first one wasn't smooth enough...
Okay I don't really know what you're talking about re: greed, etc, since they're using .H264 and AAC which are both licensed codecs.
But generally speaking, Apple doesn't invent new things unless what's out there doesn't serve their needs, in which case they don't hesitate to do so. They were among the first to latch onto AAC as a successor to MP3 and .H264 as a successor to MPEG2 -- however, when they decided existing lossless codecs were too processor intensive for mobile devices they didn't hesitate to build their own.
Just a quick example of where a new file format might be useful: in general, real frames don't exist in modern video, if you consider a frame to be a sort of snapshot in time. Instead, modern video is built using a series of references to past and future data, which are combined when the video is played to approximate a series of snapshots. These approximations are designed to be efficiently read in a forward direction from the beginning of the stream.
However, the most common behavior in video editing is not reading a stream from the beginning, but instead reading from an arbitrary frame to another arbitrary frame, starting randomly. Since frames don't exist in modern video formats, this means to begin playback you essentially need to back up until you have enough information to construct the frame, and then move forward until you've reconstructed the frame. To minimize the backtracking, video producers may decide to add extra snapshot data into their streams (also called keyframes or I-frames), increasing its usability along with its file size. What's more, these huge frames quickly eat up bandwidth, reducing the amount available to record other kinds of frame data.
A new format that was designed to be read bi-directionally would allow for more efficient editing and smaller file sizes or higher quality by eliminating the need for these extra big frames. As would a file format that removed the need to perform this activity while editing, perhaps by saving smaller resolution cues in place of full fledged snapshots.
I was thinking of Bluray/iTunesHD-thingy amongst other things but you have my sincere thanks for explaining some of it.
what stuck out to me most about this update is that Apple had it ready the same day that Sanyo released these new camcorders... as for the new format (iFrame? really?), we'll have to wait and see if/how it catches on in the mainstream camcorder market, but I won't conclude anything about it until I've had a chance to view/toy around with files encoded using this format.
and on a side note,
I really hope you're joking. someone who's informed and qualified enough to be a professional in the film and video-editing industry doesn't strike me as being someone to be easily confused by terminology... and I'd be surprised if 1 out of 1,000 consumers has ever heard the technological term "i-frame" used (even I hadn't until this post, and I'm relatively tech-savvy), so considering that eliminates both the pro and consumer markets, I'm not seeing where this alleged confusion will be coming from.
and on a side note,
I really hope you're joking. someone who's informed and qualified enough to be a professional in the film and video-editing industry doesn't strike me as being someone to be easily confused by terminology... and I'd be surprised if 1 out of 1,000 consumers has ever heard the technological term "i-frame" used (even I hadn't until this post, and I'm relatively tech-savvy), so considering that eliminates both the pro and consumer markets, I'm not seeing where this alleged confusion will be coming from.
From the look of those cameras and the video spec, this is, in no way, aimed at the Pro-video market.
But how compatible is a MPEG-movie containing iFrame(s)? Can it still be played/reworked on units not supporting iFrame(s)?
I read it as a totally new format and not as MPEG-contained...
But how compatible is a MPEG-movie containing iFrame(s)? Can it still be played/reworked on units not supporting iFrame(s)?
I read it as a totally new format and not as MPEG-contained...
MPEG Video uses i-frames in it's compression.
All mpeg / MP4 / H.264 uses these for compression.
This new iFrame format is based on H.264, hence they used the name iFrame, it is not a completely new format, rather an re-implementation of an existing one.
So then Apple is reinventing the wheel to fit their purpose in a way?
Either way, I wish they could use a standardized language for these things. This is too tech-geeky for someone old-school... When I read 'format' I'm thinking new file extension, program incompatibility and missing hardware support etc.
N/m, continue...
So then Apple is reinventing the wheel to fit their purpose in a way?
Either way, I wish they could use a standardized language for these things. This is too tech-geeky for someone old-school... When I read 'format' I'm thinking new file extension, program incompatibility and missing hardware support etc.
N/m, continue...
Oh no doubt this will have a new file extension and there will be compatibility issues. AVC-HD is pretty similar to this, they are both H.264 based, but with little tweaks and changes, that need to be supported correctly, AVC-HD files use a .2mts file extension and many pieces of software can't play it, despite being H.264 based.
Think of this as a niche product, just like all the other slightly different video codecs that are out there.
You guys who are complaining (rightfully so) about lack of support for your video file formats in iMovie might want to download MPEG Streamclip. It's free. You can use it to convert your files to something iMovie can read. Yeah, it's an extra step, but it'll let you get rolling with iMovie 09, if you're so inclined to use it as an editor.
http://www.squared5.com/
Thanks to squared5!
http://www.squared5.com/
Thanks to squared5!
Re: Tablet resolution? (960x540)
Good guess. Steve Jobs has said before that 960x540 looks good and is great for the Web, but remember that iTunes LP requires 1280x720/800, so I'd wager that would be what they'd use. But then, there might be more than one mystery device.
Good guess. Steve Jobs has said before that 960x540 looks good and is great for the Web, but remember that iTunes LP requires 1280x720/800, so I'd wager that would be what they'd use. But then, there might be more than one mystery device.
If you read the press release you'll see that iFrame is limited to 960x540 which means when the camera is recording in 1920x1080 it won't be using the iFrame format.
There are a number of professional and prosumer codecs for this but I'm not sure if you are limiting your scope to just the consumer market.
iMovie and Final Cut Express
iMovie (at least through '06 which is the last I've used) likes DV format. It'll import other formats but takes a lot of time to convert them for editing. Final Cut Express is a bit better -- it'll let you at least do your edits with almost any file format, but you have to render it out (to DV or AIC or whatever it uses internally) before you can save it out to a shareable format.
What I'm waiting for, if this iFrame thing takes off, is for Apple to add iFrame support to Final Cut Express -- and at the same time make FCE more multi-processor aware. Especially after seeing that the VPC-FH1A is one of the supported cameras and I'd been planning to buy an VPC-FH1.
iMovie (at least through '06 which is the last I've used) likes DV format. It'll import other formats but takes a lot of time to convert them for editing. Final Cut Express is a bit better -- it'll let you at least do your edits with almost any file format, but you have to render it out (to DV or AIC or whatever it uses internally) before you can save it out to a shareable format.
What I'm waiting for, if this iFrame thing takes off, is for Apple to add iFrame support to Final Cut Express -- and at the same time make FCE more multi-processor aware. Especially after seeing that the VPC-FH1A is one of the supported cameras and I'd been planning to buy an VPC-FH1.