iMovie 09 not importing my videos

[kaybeee]

Hey, i am new to imovie and i would like to stabilize some videos i captured with my digital camera.

They are in .mpg form and it does not import.

 

[r.j.s]

Convert them to a useable form like DV or mov using mpegStreamclip before trying to import ...

 

[skypark]

Try this

From another post...on the Apple Site
I did try it and it worked like a charm !!!!! I love working in I movie has a lot going for it.

The issue is that most MPEG1 clips are not edit-compatible with quicktime, because of how the audio track is multiplexed with the video. But iMovie '09 supports several sony cameras that shoot MPEG1 movies. But only directly from the MPEG1 camera itself. If you've already sucked the movies into iPhoto, you'll have to trick iMovie into thinking its a camera archive, and cross your fingers.
Try this:
(1) create a new folder on your hard disk called FakeMPEG1Camera (the name here isn't too important).
(2) inside that folder, create a folder called DCIM (the name here, and capitol letters, is important)
(3) inside that folder, place a few of the MPEG1 movies (they need to end with .MPG)
(4) launch iMovie. Choose File > Import... > Camera Archive...
(5) navigate to the 'FakeMPEG1Camera' folder. If your clips are importable, the 'DCIM' folder should be grayed out, and the bottom of the window will say 'Camera Archive Detected.'
(6) click 'Import'. The camera import window will appear, and you can import the clips. iMovie will convert the movie to an edit-compatible format (audio turns into PCM).
Not every MPEG1 file I've tried works, but many do.
If you have a Sony camera that shoots MPEG1, it's easiest to import the footage directly into iMovie while it's still on the camera... do that in the future.

 

[Fry-man22]

From another post...on the Apple Site
I did try it and it worked like a charm !!!!! I love working in I movie has a lot going for it.

The issue is that most MPEG1 clips are not edit-compatible with quicktime, because of how the audio track is multiplexed with the video. But iMovie '09 supports several sony cameras that shoot MPEG1 movies. But only directly from the MPEG1 camera itself. If you've already sucked the movies into iPhoto, you'll have to trick iMovie into thinking its a camera archive, and cross your fingers.
Try this:
(1) create a new folder on your hard disk called FakeMPEG1Camera (the name here isn't too important).
(2) inside that folder, create a folder called DCIM (the name here, and capitol letters, is important)
(3) inside that folder, place a few of the MPEG1 movies (they need to end with .MPG)
(4) launch iMovie. Choose File > Import... > Camera Archive...
(5) navigate to the 'FakeMPEG1Camera' folder. If your clips are importable, the 'DCIM' folder should be grayed out, and the bottom of the window will say 'Camera Archive Detected.'
(6) click 'Import'. The camera import window will appear, and you can import the clips. iMovie will convert the movie to an edit-compatible format (audio turns into PCM).
Not every MPEG1 file I've tried works, but many do.
If you have a Sony camera that shoots MPEG1, it's easiest to import the footage directly into iMovie while it's still on the camera... do that in the future.

Posting here to bump this thread as this saved me a LOT of needless converting from another app to process MPG videos copied from a Sony HDD camera. Post of the year in my book even if it did come from somewhere else (this was higher on Google than the other post as I didn't see it)

Thanks a million for the solution.

 

[M-J]

Posting here to bump this thread as this saved me a LOT of needless converting from another app to process MPG videos copied from a Sony HDD camera. Post of the year in my book even if it did come from somewhere else (this was higher on Google than the other post as I didn't see it)

Thanks a million for the solution.

Does anyone know if this is possible with iMovie 08? I cant find the camera archive...

Thanks!

 

[Benito]

Posting here to bump this thread as this saved me a LOT of needless converting from another app to process MPG videos copied from a Sony HDD camera. Post of the year in my book even if it did come from somewhere else (this was higher on Google than the other post as I didn't see it)

Thanks a million for the solution.

Thanks a million as well. I had a whole pile of old mpg files from previous cameras stored on my HD that I couldn't import. Now I can import them apparently.

 

[designwell]

Old post, enduring content

@skypark Thanks very much for the detailed post on converting mpg for import to iMovie! Made my day at work much better!