iMovie 11 60fps?

[supermac96]

I have a Kodak playsport video camera that I will be taking skiing with me. I really want to make use of the 60fps that the camera has to make some sweet slo-mos but I hear that iMovie 11 does not support 60fps and that when you put videos in iMovie it will change the fps to 30 fps. This is dissipation ting because that means that the slo-mos will not look nearly as good. Is this true? Any supggested solutions?

 

[george315]

You can import and slow down 60fps videos in iMovie 11. I have done this quite a few times with my go pro footage

 

[peeaanuut]

i have used the playsport for some time and the slo mos look excellent. You can import the 60fps per second no issue. Your final project will be 24 or 30, but it still doesnt look bad at all. I use 3 of the cameras for driving videos at different angles and just got the addon lens kit which is excellent. Never took them to the snow, but they will be up there this year for sure. Have a good trip!

 

[supermac96]

ok im not sure i completely understand this. so is my 60 fps on my camera pointless because it will just change it to 30fps once i put it in imovie?

 

[peeaanuut]

it will work if you want to do Slo-Mo. Otherwise, there is not much need to shoot in 60fps to only export to 24 or 30. It will not export to 60fps.

here is a thread
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1043987/

 

[supermac96]

it will work if you want to do Slo-Mo. Otherwise, there is not much need to shoot in 60fps to only export to 24 or 30. It will not export to 60fps.

here is a thread
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1043987/

Ok I think I get it but just to make sure so if I make a slo-mo, when I export it to say itunes or something, the slomo will be 60fps?

 

[peeaanuut]

no, your exported project will still be 24 or 30 depending on what you chose, it will just use the extra frames to make it smoother. Imagine, if you shot in 30fps and then slowed it down. Export the project in 30fps, so if you slowed to 50% then you are only using 15 frames to fill 30 frames worth of data, its slower but might be choppy. So if you shoot in 60fps and slow it down to 30fps, you are still using 30 frames to fill 30 frames. It will be much smoother.

 

[supermac96]

no, your exported project will still be 24 or 30 depending on what you chose, it will just use the extra frames to make it smoother. Imagine, if you shot in 30fps and then slowed it down. Export the project in 30fps, so if you slowed to 50% then you are only using 15 frames to fill 30 frames worth of data, its slower but might be choppy. So if you shoot in 60fps and slow it down to 30fps, you are still using 30 frames to fill 30 frames. It will be much smoother.

ahh ok i understand thankyou. just curious if there is any cheap or free software that is good for editing sports/action videos that fully supports the 60 fps?

 

[rsgaming123]

You can actually export to 60fps. go to export to quicktime, click options, click settings, and click the drop down bar on Framerate, and click 60.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

What are you trying to accomplish in the end?

There are two places that the frame rate matters: recording and playback.

By default, iMovie will export a movie at 30 frames per second. Whatever you are watching in your iMovie timeline, regardless of source frame rate, will play back "at real time" at 30 frames per second. So if you recorded 120fps for one minute, import that in to iMovie, then export, you will end up with a 1 minute movie playing at 30 frames per second.

But the extra frames allow you to do slow motion, while retaining the "smoothness". Again, if you recorded for one minute at 120 frames per second, you can slow that video down to 1/4 so that it is playing "slow-mo" over the course of four minutes, but playing smoothly at 30 frames per second.

If you started with a 30 frames per second video for one minute, and slowed it down to 1/4 so it takes four minutes to play back, you would end up with a fairly "jerky" video, playing at 7.5 frames per second (even though the iMovie-exported "container" would claim to be 30 frames per second - it would play each recorded frame 4 times in a row.)


Summary: If your goal is to turn parts of your video in to "slow-mo," then record at the higher frame rate, and don't worry about what you're exporting.
If your goal is to have "smoother playback" (playing 1 minute of 120 fps video in 1 minute at 120 fps,) then, as rsgaming123 mentions, you can export at faster framerates, but be aware that many devices don't like to play back those higher framerates.