Attention!
iMovieHD'06 can't handle iMovie-3 files properly.
That is:
if you capture a movie in iMovie-3 and afterwards open the project in iMovieHD-06 a few minutes from the beginning and the end will be missing.
If you do that in iMovieHD'05 you will have access to the whole movie. Strange, but it is so. So, if one has old iMovie movies (the ones, where clips were stored as several 9minute clips), better use iMovieHD'05.
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iMovie-08 problem:
Also I learned, that from iMovie'08 onwards iMovie does an interlacing to every source during import, no matter, what it is in the beginning.
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DV to DV (DVCpro) issue on iMovie:
Another observation on versions 3, 5 and 6 I made was, that, if you choose "send" or "export" and choose "highest quality", it will convert the DV file into DVCpro.
The highest quality setting is supposed to produce an already cut and fine DV file, don't misunderstand me, but it also converts it to DVCpro (which uses the inaccuracy of the human eye (in the tube-tv times) to eliminate colour from the movie, that will not be seen. But, if you want to use an already bad DV source for an encode to e.g. h.264/x.264 you will be happy, if there is stlll more colour information present.
You will ask me "you are stupid, why would someone want to send/export the file as a hugh DV file?" Well, iMovieHD'05 onwards saves the whole project files,
with the cut off trash. The file size stays the same, even, if you cut off several minutes or hours of movie. Apple decided, that you would always like to go back in time and repair your mistakes, if you cut to much.
So, if you want to keep the DV file in the quality as you captured it, but want to save space, because you don't need all stuff you recorded, you will have to send/export it. This will give you a DVCpro file, without the project folder around it. (Of course, you can always choose to export to another lossy format like x.264, divx etc., but a) you would like to keep DV or b) h.264-encoding in iMovie is not as good as in Handbrake and for Handbrake you will want the original cut/edited DV file.)
Also, some did another trick: cut project etc., then save and close. open a new project (B) and then ctrl+click -> "show package content" on the old project (A), go to "cache" and drag the timeline.mov file into the timeline of project B (not the clip area!). It will take a little time. After that you will have a DV-project, that has only the file in the project folder you wanted to keep without cut scenes. BUT!!! it again is only DVCpro.
What to do (to keep DV as DV and not as DVCpro)?
I use mpegstreamclip and open+ctrl+click on "show package content" on the iMovie icon. I then cut what I want and after that choose "save". mpegstreamclip will save a DV file (not DVCpro) without the cut off scenes.
If you have a Movie (m) with advertising or black screens in it (a) like this: m-a-m-a-m, you must save three "m" parts seperately and name them consecutively 1 to 3 and then choose all and open them again in mpegstreamclip and again hit save. You will get a DV file without the advertising in it.
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Other (than just cutting) uses of iMovie, mpegstreamclip and Handbrake:
You can also use
mpegstreamclip for encoding: then you don't just choose "save", but choose "save as quicktime movie" or "save as avi" etc. (which is the container) and then choose the codec (h.264/x.264, xvid, divx, jepgA,...) You can also only save the audio or video.
I do use
iMovie to add new sound to preexisting video though! Since this doesn't work as well in mpegstreamclip as in iMovie. You can blindly choose an audio and video track and open them at the same time, but the audio will always start at the beginning of the video. In iMovie you can move the audio to the certain point where you want it to start. But there you have the problem, that if you now only hit "save" and close the iMovie project, the original files will be seperate in the project folder itself. (this is for iMovie 5+6, I lately discovered iMovie3 adds a new DV-file with the newly linked audio. Maybe iM-4, too). So you will have to do an eport with the newly attached audio, to DV, which will give you the slightly worsened DVCpro or use the outdated h.264 etc. codec for export - or use iMovie 3 (or maybe 4).
A workaround for mpegstreamclip is: open the original hidden uncut DV file from the iMovie project folder in mpegstreamclip and cut out the single scene, where you want different audio. Save that "as video". No name the video1 and the new audio you want to take audio1, select both via holding down the cmd (apple) key and open them in mpegstreamclip (or drag and drop). You might see video. Now just choose "save" again. You can now open the new file with the newly added audio in Quicktime to look, if everything went right. Then you must to put back the parts by numbering them consecutively 1-.... If you had taken a scene in the middle and added new audio, you will open the 1st scene, your new 2nd scene (with the already attached audio) and the last scene via holding down cmd-key in mpegstreamclip and again choose "save". (It actually is named "save as", I didn't want to confuse you with the "save as format xy".
For encoding I use Handbrake, because it has the
newer and better encoders for x.264. (Handbrake for Tiger can't open DV, though. You have to install Leopard 10.5.8 and Handbrake 9.0.4 for encoding DV. There is a PowerPC version of Handbrake of version 9.0.5, see
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=18967683#post18967683 , that are unofficial releases.)
SHORT:
- iMovieHD'05 for cutting older iMovie-projects that were saved in the 9minute clip format.
- iMovie 3 to 6 for capturing (making analogue source digital) and for linking audio to smaller areas that are not right at the beginning.
- mpegstreamclip for cutting and keeping the DV format without loss.
- Handbrake for export to x.264 (though there are free x.264 codecs that iMovie and mpegstreamclip can use, I found the newest from 2007 for PowerPC, but I find both worse than the ffmpegX one used in Handbrake.)
Additional open source x.264 codecs, that are newer than Apple's h.264 codec, but older than Handbrakes ffmpegX-x.264 codec are:
(work under OS X 10.4.11)
1) Version 1.1.10 from MyCometG3
http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/
2) Version 1.1 from Henry Mason
http://download.cnet.com/x264-QuickTime-Codec/3000-2170_4-127324.html?tag=mncol;1 alternative link hhttp://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20273/x264-quicktime-codec (there might be others and better ones).
on 1. it seems there a more options to be chosen and there is a higher potential to do something wrong and some picked preferences can cause incompatibility with the normal Quicktime (not Pro).
