Need help importing movies into iMovie '09

[adamvk]

I have a video that I am trying to import into iMovie '09. Its it a .MOV file. The file shows up in iPhoto, but when I go to iPhoto movies in iMovie, the file does not show up. What type of formats does iMovie let you import? Perhaps I can't import because its the wrong type of file? If so, is there a (free) way to convert the .MOV file into a file that can be imported into iMovie?

Thanks for the help.

 

[adamvk]

anyone know how to do this?

 

[JediMeister]

.mov is a package file like an application. It tells the computer what application it SHOULD open with, but generally has little or nothing to do with the actual video codec (encoder) it uses or was created with. First, copy the file out of iPhoto, put it on your Desktop. Double-click, see if it opens with QuickTime. Go to the Window menu, click 'Show Movie Inspector.' That will tell you what codec it was created with. You can then use something like MPEG Streamclip to convert to MPEG4 or .dv. This is accomplished by dragging the video file on the Desktop into the dice marker in the middle of the MPEG Stremclip application, then going to the File menu to pick the converted format. Then either bring the .dv into iPhoto, or import it into iMovie Events from the File menu in iMovie.

 

[adamvk]

.mov is a package file like an application. It tells the computer what application it SHOULD open with, but generally has little or nothing to do with the actual video codec (encoder) it uses or was created with. First, copy the file out of iPhoto, put it on your Desktop. Double-click, see if it opens with QuickTime. Go to the Window menu, click 'Show Movie Inspector.' That will tell you what codec it was created with. You can then use something like MPEG Streamclip to convert to MPEG4 or .dv. This is accomplished by dragging the video file on the Desktop into the dice marker in the middle of the MPEG Stremclip application, then going to the File menu to pick the converted format. Then either bring the .dv into iPhoto, or import it into iMovie Events from the File menu in iMovie.

Thank you, that worked very well

 

[izzyb]

Thanks!

This information was SO helpful. Have been having trouble importing my videos from my new Canon IXUS 130 onto iMovie 09. I had thought that .MOV should have worked with iMovie - took a lot of searching to find this solution and it worked a treat! I used Handbrake to convert the video format, but the end result was the same. Thanks again!