How to edit iPhoto videos in iMovie?

[HappyDude20]

Okay so a long time ago I used to record video from a Flip Mino HD. I would then, back in 2009, import the video into iMovie and edit them. Then I would export them into QuickTime videos, of which I believe are in mpeg4 format. I have these files in a folder on my Mac.

I've tried to import them all once again into iMovie but it wont let me. Upon attempting to import nothing happens. I want to import them all into iMovie so I can edit everything into something new, within iMovie to later upload to Vimeo.

The only other thing I've tried is dragging these movie files into iPhoto, of which worked and now can play in iPhoto, though these (now) iPhoto movies don't show up in the media browser in iMovie...

Any help is really appreciated as I feel I'm truly stuck right now.

I'll be here online on the forums for a while so I'll reply quickly. Thank you!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Often iMovie is finicky with .mp4 files, depending on the video and audio codec, though I don't remember the settings that work.
Strange though, that iMovie does not recognise a format it exported.
To have no such problems, and if you have enough HDD capacity (external Firewire 400 / 800 HDD(s)), it is best to store the original footage (in your case from the Flip camcorder) via copying the complete contents of the card the video is stored on to an extra folder (one folder per card), thus re-import is easy, or if you only want to edit finished sequences again, exporting those sequences (now in .mp4 format in your case) as .mov file using the Apple Intermediate Codec for video and Uncompressed (PCM Linear) for audio.

For now you can use MPEG Streamclip to transcode the .mp4 files into .mov files using the Apple Intermediate Codec as Compressor and Uncompressed as Sound.
The following might help you steer in the right direction, albeit the source is a different one.

Get footage from a video DVD into an editing application
Video: Transcoding ripped video to a format iMovie understands (.mp4, 75s, 7MB) - alternative YouTube link


As you have several video files, you can use MPEG Streamclip's Batch List: