iMovie Clips in Premiere

[johnash]

My "old" iMac DV SE with iMovie vers 1 was not up to scratch so I invested in Premiere (now 5.1c). This works very, very well (Bob!). But, I missed the way iMovie to automatically captures and detects separate scenes which I could not do in Premiere.

So, "why not use iMovie 1 to capture clips then use them in Premiere" thought I. Unfortunately, the iMovie clips do not seem to be compatible with Premiere - playback is jerky and not usable.

If I invest in an upgrade to iMovie 2, will the problem still be there?

Thanks
John


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[s.hood]

Are you certain that your project settings match the settings of your captured iMovie clips? (ie DV-PAL, audio 48khz)

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regards
Steve

[ O U T L A W : S D G ]

[johnash]

Not absolutely sure. I did have a lot of problems getting and saving the right settings for Premiere. In fact, for a time it was an abolute nightmare when I nearly threw my iMac out the window.

I'll try again and report back!

Thanks
John


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[johnash]

I have checked my settings and, although they match the clip, it does not work properly. The first thing that happens is Premiere decides it has to render the clip before previewing - which it would not do for a clip captured within Premiere. Once rendered, the clip does not play back smoothly so the problem is still there.

Should these clips import OK?

John

[s.hood]

johnash
if Premier has to render the file then they do not have the same settings. Premier is trying to convert the iMovie clip to the project settings. I have a suspicion that the pixel size in Premier is incorrect - check your project settings for 720x576 and _not_ 768x576. And that audio is 48Khz.

I would create a new project, when prompted for project settings select "DV PAL 48KHZ" from the list. Then import the iMovie clips into this new project.

If this fails then email me a very short clip (no longer than a second), so I can check for you.

Throwing the iMac out the window would be worth filmimg, but editing will be a problem.

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regards
Steve

[ O U T L A W : S D G ]

[johnash]

Thanks, Steve.

Will check that out and send you a clip if I don't get this sorted. I thought at first the problem may result because the material was shot in 16:9 but no, I get the same result with my 4:3 clips too.

John
(Just returned from long weekend away!).

[johnash]

Steve

Further to the above, I had already posted the question on the Adobe board and got this reply:

<<Hi, I tried the same thing and it didn't work. It has something to do with the particular quicktime format IMovie uses. I wouldn't count on it working in Imovie 2 >>

<http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@115.aQTmaVuChyA^2@.ee9eb5e/0>


??
John

[bcrabtree]

As I recall, iMovie 1.0 uses a form of streaming DV.

This meant that if you converted, say, a Premiere DV to streaming DV, you could import it into iMovie, just by copying it into iMovie's data folder and restarting iMovie.

At that point iMovie comes up with an error message along the lines of, "Hey, man, I've found a file that has nothing to do with the project, should I kill it or put it on the shelf for use in the project?"

I definitely did convert some other footage (probably using QT Pro), and bring it successfully into iMovie - and then edit it.

However, it pretty much goes without saying that if you want to take iMovie footage and use it in Premiere, you'll have to use QT Pro to turn that streaming DV into a DV format that Premiere can handle.

With luck, you'll see the correct Codec as an option when you get to QT Pro's main export dialogue and have chosen the overall file type.

BOb C

Bob C

[s.hood]

I have just checked the format of iMovie 1.0.2
clips in MoviePlayer and the video format is DV-PAL. So I went to Premier and made a new project with "DV PAL 48khz" settings and imported the iMovie clip, placed it on the timeline and it played perfectly!

john - I can email you a screen capture of my settings if you want. You should not be having a problem at all. It works. Are you using iMovie 2?

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regards
Steve

[ O U T L A W : S D G ]

[johnash]

Bob C and Steve

Thank you. I have checked my Premiere settings, Steve, and they match yours. Still no joy. Perhaps it's down to QT versions??

BUT if I open a iMovie clip in QT and save under a different name (it asks "Convert?" on opening) it will then play OK in Premier, (but only once it has been rendered).

However, by the time I've done all this I could have marked all my IN and OUT points manually in Premiere capture.

Why is it that in "free" little iMovie there is a feature to automatically detect scene ends but such a feature is not available big ol' Premiere which cost me several arms and legs? Is there not a way of doing this in Premiere?

John