iMovie '09, after importing movie no thumbnails are generating!

[rudini]

Hey all,

I just want to thank you in advance for any help!

I have iMovie '09 (8.0.2), and my Mac is full updated as well!

So, i have some mp4 files. I import them into an Event and then there are NO THUMBNAILS! GAH!

I did this a million times in iMovie '08! What is going on here?

Since i come from a Windows world, the first thing i tried is rebooting...no luck

Any ideas?!!?
-rudy

PS: I've also tried deleting the event, re-created it (using different name) and re-imported the videos, still doesnt work...wtf?!

PPS: In the area where the thumbnails should be it says:
"No matching video. Choose a different option from the Show popup menu at the lower left corner"

 

[rudini]

Okay....more investigation...

I imported a movie from iSight and that worked fine! DOH!

The origin of my video is an MPG and i converted it to MP4 using VLC (0.99), the steps i took were:

http://www.osxtechtips.com/mac_os_x...ips_for_os_x/use_vlc_to_make_mod_to_mp4_.html

In the top menu bar for VLC, go to: File>>Streaming / Exporting Wizard

Dot next to 'Transcode / Save to file', click 'Next'

Dot next to 'Existing Playlist Item', and select the Movie file in the list (make it blue), click 'Next'

Check 'Transcode Video', then use the 'Codec' dropdown menu to select 'MPEG - 4 Video', and the 'Bitrate' Dropdown menu to select '2048'. For better resolution of original go with higher bitrates, but it does make the final file larger.

Check 'Transcode Audio', then use the 'Codec' Dropdown menu to select 'MPEG - 4 Audio', change the Kb/s to whatever number you like. Higher number, better audio. Click 'Next'.

Dot next to 'MPEG - 4 / MP4', click 'Next'

Click 'Choose' and provide a location and filename for the new MP4 file to be saved in and as., click 'Next'

Double check all information, then if it is correct, click 'Finish'.

Follow the progress of the Transcoding in the VLC player window.

When complete, play the file in Quicktime to test it.

Grr! Any ideas?!

thank you,
rudy

 

[JediMeister]

You could try to convert with MPEG Streamclip instead. When one video converter doesn't work, its a good step to try another application.

 

[rudini]

You could try to convert with MPEG Streamclip instead. When one video converter doesn't work, its a good step to try another application.

What settings do you recommend using if i want to edit using iMovie '09?

 

[JediMeister]

Shouldn't need to customize any settings. Drag a file into MPEG Streamclip, go to the File menu, select the format you want it to convert to.

 

[rudini]

Shouldn't need to customize any settings. Drag a file into MPEG Streamclip, go to the File menu, select the format you want it to convert to.

Hmm...I'm going to need to pay $20 for that quicktime plug-in, huh?

Is there any other file format i can use? Can i use Handbrake to convert it to something else? (i understand there will be loss in quality, but just for testing purposes...)

-rudy