Before i import a video to imovie (which seems like it will take a while) Does imovie '11 support 60 frames per second? There are different reports on the internet concerning the matter. One stating that i can import it but it will export at 30 fps. I am a novice when it comes to imovie and working with video so any help would be appreciated.Thanks!
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imovie '11 60fps?
- Thread starter axeldtf
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what is the reason you even shot in 60fps? are you trying to do a lot of slow motion? That is the only reason you would want to shot at that frame rate. DVD and Blu-Ray will convert whatever you do to 24 or 30 fps anyways.
Well the hd-60fps option on my camera makes the video quality look a lot better than 30fps. Especially when i watch it in quicktime you can totally tell the difference. Yes a lot of my footage is snowboarding and sports stuff so the slow motion does look a lot better. I dont really burn dvd's from my footage but rather compile them onto a external hard drive which I watch on my ps3. I hope this info helps.
What codec does your camera shoot? It could need to be converted to play in iMovie to AIC.
Best bet is fcp then. You need software that supports 60fps. Or you need to do a frame rate conversion through a program like mpeg streamclip to 30 or 24.
It appears that you are fixating on your software rather than your output [or source]. I will back you up one additional step from boch82. Which specific model camcorder are you using?
Just like virtually every other product manual and setup documentation for virtually every other consumer electronics device, the product manual and setup documentation for your Sony Handycam HDR-XR160 is available on the Internet at the manufacturer's website. Your camcorder records in the AVCHD format. It communicates with your computer via USB. I don't know for certain and will certainly not purchase this model to test it, but I assume that the camcorder mounts on the Desktop via USB Automount. If this is the case, then you may use the Finder to copy your AVCHD video files from the camcorder's storage to your hard drive. You may then edit your video til your heart's content.
A quick and dirty test to check this is to import a 60fps movie from you camera into imovie. Edit it as you see fit and then export it. Open it in VLC (a video player from videolan.org) and open the "media information" dialogue box (it's in the menu under "window"). Go to the "codec details" tab. In "stream 0" it will tell you the codec, resolution and frame rate. If it says 60fps then you know that imovie is not changing the frame rate.
iMovie imports via FireWire, not USB. If you had bothered to read the manufacturer's documentation linked in my post above, then you would know that Sony explicitly supports importing video to the Mac exclusively via its proprietary PMB Portable utility. This utility is available for download on the manufacturer's website.
Which makes no difference except that he needs to import via the PMB utility first and then proceed with my instructions. If the OP wanted to follow my advice he would have quickly figured this out on his own. I was not in any way offering advice on how to import the video from the camera to the computer - i.e. whether it used ieee1394, USB, flash memory, etc, which format it would appear in and whether iMovie supports that, etc. That is for the OP to figure out. If other people offer him advice in that area then that is great. It's really good you've offered him some advice in importing - I'm sure he appreciates it.
The tone of your post quoting my text is rude. A better wording would have been "Hey, good advice. Just remember that you need to use the PMB utility to import from the camera because iMovie doesn't support USB".
And, more to the point I'm not going to "bother to read" the manufacturer's documentation of a camera I don't own. I'm just offering someone else some useful advice in regards to format shifting.
Perhaps you need to step back and look at your own words and how others will interpret them. This is friendly advice - I'm trying to keep things cordial.
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The same problem
I've shot some movies with my Canon 550D in 720p @ 60fps and when imported - it converted after import to 30fps... =/ I think a just should use FCPX
I've shot some movies with my Canon 550D in 720p @ 60fps and when imported - it converted after import to 30fps... =/ I think a just should use FCPX
imovie '11 60fps?
It is unfortunate that your simple, honest question elicited such a rude, not to mention incorrect response. I think I can answer your questions since I recently upgraded to a Sony HD camcorder and just finished my first project in iMovie 11. First, Sony previously interfaced via iLink which was their version of Firewire. Recent cameras including yours are indeed USB. The PMB referred to is built into the camera. The most recent version of iMovie 11 can import HD but with my camera it appears to be limited to 60i and will not accept 1920X1080 at 60p. Inspection of the imported file, which is stored under User/Movies/ iMovie Events, shows it is imported as a .mov file with Apple Intermediate Codec but at 30 fps (actually 29.97). Sound is 48KHz, 16 bit. Also, when to Camera is connected, it mounts on the desktop as an Untitled volume. The video is stored as a MTS file which is an MPEG stream file. There is a file for each time you recorded. It appears that the max size is 2.13 GB. If the acquired video spans more than one file, when imported via iMovie they merged into one larger clip - one for each time the camera recorded. If you dont need to edit the video, Handbrake or Mpeg Streamclip ( both free) can convert the MTS files into more friendly formats preserving your 60 fps. The question then is how you intend to view the final video and what media you need to produce. I suggest you experiment with some short clips and see whether iMovie 11 will produce the quality video you desire. Good luck and have fun.
It is unfortunate that your simple, honest question elicited such a rude, not to mention incorrect response. I think I can answer your questions since I recently upgraded to a Sony HD camcorder and just finished my first project in iMovie 11. First, Sony previously interfaced via iLink which was their version of Firewire. Recent cameras including yours are indeed USB. The PMB referred to is built into the camera. The most recent version of iMovie 11 can import HD but with my camera it appears to be limited to 60i and will not accept 1920X1080 at 60p. Inspection of the imported file, which is stored under User/Movies/ iMovie Events, shows it is imported as a .mov file with Apple Intermediate Codec but at 30 fps (actually 29.97). Sound is 48KHz, 16 bit. Also, when to Camera is connected, it mounts on the desktop as an Untitled volume. The video is stored as a MTS file which is an MPEG stream file. There is a file for each time you recorded. It appears that the max size is 2.13 GB. If the acquired video spans more than one file, when imported via iMovie they merged into one larger clip - one for each time the camera recorded. If you dont need to edit the video, Handbrake or Mpeg Streamclip ( both free) can convert the MTS files into more friendly formats preserving your 60 fps. The question then is how you intend to view the final video and what media you need to produce. I suggest you experiment with some short clips and see whether iMovie 11 will produce the quality video you desire. Good luck and have fun.
I just purchased a Panasonic TM900 and it shoots at 1080 60p. By default, it's set to 1080 60i. I connected the camcorder via USB to my MacBook with iMovie 11 opened, and a window popped up in iMovie asking me if I wanted to transfer the files. I said yes, it told me there might be an issue with the video, but imported anyways. I'm assuming the issue was the 60i frame rate and that it was converted to 30fps since it took 6 minutes to import my 4 minutes worth of footage.
I'll have to double check that though.
I'll have to double check that though.
iMovie and 1080/50p 1080/60p AVCHD
1080/60p and 1080/50p just got added to the AVCHD Spec. Hopefully Apple will get on board soon.
I've got the Panasonic TM700 which shoots 1080/50p (thats the PAL version). The 50p footage will not import into iMovie11 or Final Cut Pro X.
You can convert the AVCHD 1080/60p to ProRes (for FCPX) and FCPX will let you edit a 50p project.
iMovie does not support 50p projects, so even if you convert AVCHD to AIC yourself (at 50p), iMovie will downgrade it to 25fps on export.
Bottom line - iMovie'11 doesn't support 50p or 60p. I won't import it and it won't export it.
Final Cut Pro X won't import 50p either, but it will edit it and export it.
Hope that helps.
1080/60p and 1080/50p just got added to the AVCHD Spec. Hopefully Apple will get on board soon.
I've got the Panasonic TM700 which shoots 1080/50p (thats the PAL version). The 50p footage will not import into iMovie11 or Final Cut Pro X.
You can convert the AVCHD 1080/60p to ProRes (for FCPX) and FCPX will let you edit a 50p project.
iMovie does not support 50p projects, so even if you convert AVCHD to AIC yourself (at 50p), iMovie will downgrade it to 25fps on export.
Bottom line - iMovie'11 doesn't support 50p or 60p. I won't import it and it won't export it.
Final Cut Pro X won't import 50p either, but it will edit it and export it.
Hope that helps.
staying on this topic...
i have a gopro hd camera and i've recorded a few things at 60fps to be able to but slowmo sections. things like mountain biking trails, jumps and flips into pools and in the winter skiing and doing tricks off jumps or on rails where slow motion will benefit. i currently have imovie '08 which doesn't have any options to slow the video down, i was wondering if imovie 11 has this? and what was the release date of imovie 11 so i can decide if i should wait for imovie 12.
i have a gopro hd camera and i've recorded a few things at 60fps to be able to but slowmo sections. things like mountain biking trails, jumps and flips into pools and in the winter skiing and doing tricks off jumps or on rails where slow motion will benefit. i currently have imovie '08 which doesn't have any options to slow the video down, i was wondering if imovie 11 has this? and what was the release date of imovie 11 so i can decide if i should wait for imovie 12.
You can rewrap the 60p with no transcoding
Read up on Alan Somers' rewrap2m4v. He wrote an Automator script that uses ffmpeg command line utility to rewrap 60p with no transcoding.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2380085?threadID=2380085&ts%20tart=0
Here is his post:
I created an Automator workflow to make it a simple drag-and-drop process. You can get it from my MobileMe public folder (http://public.me.com/catservant) and it's named Rewrap2M4V.app.
It requires you to get the ClipGrab application (http://clipgrab.de/download_en.html) because it uses the copy of ffmpeg embedded in ClipGrab's application bundle (it's the only up-to-date compiled copy I could find reasonably easily). ClipGrab must be installed in the /Applications folder in order for the workflow to work; the workflow itself can be installed anywhere.
Then, just drag and drop the .m2ts or .mts files onto Rewrap2M4V.app. The converted files will have the same name with a .m4v extension appended.
Read up on Alan Somers' rewrap2m4v. He wrote an Automator script that uses ffmpeg command line utility to rewrap 60p with no transcoding.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2380085?threadID=2380085&ts%20tart=0
Here is his post:
I created an Automator workflow to make it a simple drag-and-drop process. You can get it from my MobileMe public folder (http://public.me.com/catservant) and it's named Rewrap2M4V.app.
It requires you to get the ClipGrab application (http://clipgrab.de/download_en.html) because it uses the copy of ffmpeg embedded in ClipGrab's application bundle (it's the only up-to-date compiled copy I could find reasonably easily). ClipGrab must be installed in the /Applications folder in order for the workflow to work; the workflow itself can be installed anywhere.
Then, just drag and drop the .m2ts or .mts files onto Rewrap2M4V.app. The converted files will have the same name with a .m4v extension appended.
Correct. I just saw this thread and I use 60i and once iMovie does it's thing it ends up being 30fps (see screen shot). I use a Canon HF-S21 and as of now the 30fps 720HD is what I get if I set it up as such. If I wanted to I could then use Toast (or whatever Apple has) to burn to BluRay but it doesn't matter right now for me.
