Best Version of iLife for PowerPCs

[Altemose]

I was a bit curious after watching a video on how a YouTuber edits 1080i high definition video on a 1.33 GHz iBook G4. Whenever I try HD on my G5 or PowerBook G4 it is a very choppy process in iMovie '09 and I do not have an older copy of Final Cut on there anymore. That being said, they are fine machines for quick editing jobs and I do enjoy my dual displays on my G5. My ultimate question is what version of iMovie is best for PowerPC systems and will run the fastest? From what I can tell, I think it is going to be iLife '06 but I wanted to be sure.

 

[jrsx]

I use iMovie 05', but 06' will work great. 05' is very responsive and gets most things done for me.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

iMovie 06 is the one I use on pretty much everything. Usually stick with 720p as my G5 seems happy with it!

 

[roadbloc]

iLife 08 is what I use. It seems to work fine.

 

[Altemose]

So '05 or '06! I would go with iLife '08 but the feature cut from '06 added with the slow iMovie makes me want to avoid it. What features were added in '06 to iMovie over '05?

 

[Cox Orange]

I was a bit curious after watching a video on how a YouTuber edits 1080i high definition video on a 1.33 GHz iBook G4. Whenever I try HD on my G5 or PowerBook G4 it is a very choppy process in iMovie '09 and I do not have an older copy of Final Cut on there anymore. That being said, they are fine machines for quick editing jobs and I do enjoy my dual displays on my G5. My ultimate question is what version of iMovie is best for PowerPC systems and will run the fastest? From what I can tell, I think it is going to be iLife '06 but I wanted to be sure.

Didn't I read somewhere that iMovie till version 6 was no real HD or was that just AVCHD...?

Anyway, if you still have iMovie4 and younger projects laying around, use iMovie 5, because iMovie6 can't handle the older projects properly (some seconds or minutes at the beginning and the end will be missing).

With iMovie 6 I guess, you will have the newer codecs. For x.264 there are two free codecs from
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/20273/x264-quicktime-codec
http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/

The newest codecs would come with Handbrake (only encoding, no cutting). (The version for 10.5.8 can even encode DV files).

Another option to cut+encode DV is mpegstreamclip (no effects etc., but you can use them on iMovie 3 - and maybe 4 - and then use the new file in the project folder, that will have the effect and open that in mpegstreamclip. Adding an effect in iM5 or 6 will not add the effect to the DV file itself or as a new clip in the folder, it will be saved in the cache folder in the timeline-file and can not be used by other programmes).
Exporting a DV file captured in iMovie out of iMovie by iMovie's export/send option will result in a DVCpro file (which will loose quality of the original DV file, hence I use mpegstreamclip to cut and "glue" scenes together, that I have captured with iMovie. I take them out of the "media" folder inside the project folder, that can be accessed by mouse click + ctrl -> show package content).

 

[Altemose]

Didn't I read somewhere that iMovie till version 6 was no real HD or was that just AVCHD...?



Anyway, if you still have iMovie4 and younger projects laying around, use iMovie 5, because iMovie6 can't handle the older projects properly (some seconds or minutes at the beginning and the end will be missing).



With iMovie 6 I guess, you will have the newer codecs. For x.264 there are two free codecs from

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/20273/x264-quicktime-codec

http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/



The newest codecs would come with Handbrake (only encoding, no cutting). (The version for 10.5.8 can even encode DV files).



Another option to cut+encode DV is mpegstreamclip (no effects etc., but you can use them on iMovie 3 - and maybe 4 - and then use the new file in the project folder, that will have the effect and open that in mpegstreamclip. Adding an effect in iM5 or 6 will not add the effect to the DV file itself or as a new clip in the folder, it will be saved in the cache folder in the timeline-file and can not be used by other programmes).

Exporting a DV file captured in iMovie out of iMovie by iMovie's export/send option will result in a DVCpro file (which will loose quality of the original DV file, hence I use mpegstreamclip to cut and "glue" scenes together, that I have captured with iMovie. I take them out of the "media" folder inside the project folder, that can be accessed by mouse click + ctrl -> show package content).

I am not too worried about losing some quality because after all it is just for quick edits. I am shocked he edited HD anything on a 1.33 GHz G4.

 

[Cox Orange]

I am not too worried about losing some quality because after all it is just for quick edits. I am shocked he edited HD anything on a 1.33 GHz G4.

I meant, if you don't want to use iMovie to encode the original DV to h.264 and you want to use Handbrake to encode that to x.264, you have to get the DV file into Handbrake somehow. Doing this by using iMovie's exort/send option and choosing "best quality" (which actually just should pass the DV file through minus the cut/editted scenes) it will instead reencode it to DVCpro50, which will have the same size, but have losen quality.
If you mount the DV files in Handbrake directly, you will have the crap in it, that you wanted to edit and cut out in iMovie (because iMovie5+6 doesn't change the file itself, while editing, as it did in vers. 3, instead it will just write an extra, small timeline file, that has the information what parts should be cut out, but you can't use that for Handbrake, so you need either iMovie3 or mpegstreamclip to cut it and then use Handbrake).

iMovie5-> cut scenes out -> export as cut/edited DV file (DVCpro50) -> Handbrake
=
DV -> DV minus crap -> DVCpro file -> Handbrake x.264 (or ffmpeg, if you prefer)
=
original -> original -> quality loss -> quality loss again


iMovie3 or mpegstreamclip -> cut scenes out -> export cut/edited file -> Handbrake
=
DV -> DV minus crap scenes -> DV -> Handbrake's x.264 (or ffmpeg)
=
original -> original -> original -> quality loss


in other words, you save one quality loss, if you later plan to make it a smaller file (i.e. x.264, divx, etc.)

 

[Altemose]

I meant, if you don't want to use iMovie to encode the original DV to h.264 and you want to use Handbrake to encode that to x.264, you have to get the DV file into Handbrake somehow. Doing this by using iMovie's exort/send option and choosing "best quality" (which actually just should pass the DV file through minus the cut/editted scenes) it will instead reencode it to DVCpro50, which will have the same size, but have losen quality.
If you mount the DV files in Handbrake directly, you will have the crap in it, that you wanted to edit and cut out in iMovie (because iMovie5+6 doesn't change the file itself, while editing, as it did in vers. 3, instead it will just write an extra, small timeline file, that has the information what parts should be cut out, but you can't use that for Handbrake, so you need either iMovie3 or mpegstreamclip to cut it and then use Handbrake).

iMovie5-> cut scenes out -> export as cut/edited DV file (DVCpro50) -> Handbrake
=
DV -> DV minus crap -> DVCpro file -> Handbrake x.264 (or ffmpeg, if you prefer)
=
original -> original -> quality loss -> quality loss again


iMovie3 or mpegstreamclip -> cut scenes out -> export cut/edited file -> Handbrake
=
DV -> DV minus crap scenes -> DV -> Handbrake's x.264 (or ffmpeg)
=
original -> original -> original -> quality loss


in other words, you save one quality loss, if you later plan to make it a smaller file (i.e. x.264, divx, etc.)

Makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Cox Orange]

Makes sense. Thanks.

I made a mistake!

After cutting the scenes in iMovie3, one has to save the project and delete the trashbin. After that navigate to the media folder in the project on the hard disk and use the files there! (i.e. load them in Handbrake).
(If one first exports the files with the project open, the same will happen as in iMovie5+6, the DV file will get a DVCpro50 file).
Sorry!

If one adds effects during eciting in iMovie3 (I don't know about) some of them, like blending over, can be found as a clip in the media folder as well and used in Handbrake.

An additional note.
If one wants to have several clips as one video, Handbrake can't glue the seperate parts together. So either way encode every single clip or use mpegstreamclip (select all clips by click+cmd and then open, they will be one after the other in mpegstreamclip, one can then choose to save as DV. This will not do something to the clips, they just get "glued" together. Then you can use the resulting video in Handbrake).
Use the mpegstreamclip 1.9.3b8 version, it has more features to export/save files, e.g. one can save a seperate audiotrack out of a video, without having to convert it.