iMovie & iDVD Visual QuickStart Guide

Sharing HD Video from iMovie for iPhone? Not so fast.

According to this support document from Apple, iMovie for iPhone downsamples video—even HD video—before sharing it via YouTube, MMS, email, or MobileMe. The maximum resolution is 568 x 320, which provides better performance when uploading.

So, to get the best quality output, first export the video to the Camera Roll, and then import it to your computer using an application such as Image Capture or iPhoto.

iMovie for iPhone Is Available

Apple has made iMovie for iPhone available for sale at the App Store. The $4.99 app runs only on the new iPhone 4, and clocks in at what seems to be a relatively svelte 30 MB.

I'm still waiting for my iPhone 4. Despite starting to order one the minute they were available, I could never get to my Apple shopping cart, so I finally opted to reserve an iPhone for in-store pickup. Now, people who managed to place their orders are receiving their units early. Oh well; there's still something fun about standing in line at an Apple event, surrounded by people who are all there for the same reason. I just hope it doesn't turn into an 8-hour mess like I had to endure for the iPhone 3G launch.

If you're also waiting for an iPhone 4, you can start to pore over Apple's iMovie for iPhone 4: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. Some things pop out from my initial scan: the Ken Burns Effect for imported photos can be "disabled" by making the Start and End settings the same; and photos taken within the app are available only for iMovie for iPhone, they're not saved in the Camera Roll.

I can't wait to get deeper into iMovie for iPhone this weekend.

Chris Breen on iMovie for iPhone

I'm looking forward to seeing what iMovie for iPhone is like. In the meantime, Chris Breen at Macworld shares his impressions: The merits of iPhone moviemaking.

Color-correct your video in iMovie '09

Did you know that iMovie offers color-correction features? Learn how to take advantage of them from my newest article at Macworld: Color-correct your video in iMovie.

VHS Conversion Utilities Compared

Wondering what to do with those mouldering VHS tapes? Christopher Breen at Macworld compares the Roxio Easy VHS to DVD and the Elgato Video Capture: VHS capture tools compared.

Maximize Your iMovie Editing Space

In my most recent iMovie column for Macworld, I look at several methods for stretching the boundaries of iMovie's editing interface: Maximize Your iMovie Editing Space (26 October 2009).

Windows Live Movie Maker Says Goodbye to the Timeline

iMovie '08 took a lot of flack for dispensing with the timeline, the single horizontally scrolling representation of a movie. Instead, your project is organized left to right, top to bottom like you read a paragraph of text.

Microsoft is taking the same approach with its new Windows Live Movie Maker. View the movie on this page to see an overview of the software.

Working through the video-editing backlog

Is the pile of MiniDV tapes piling up? Is your hard disk filling to capacity with footage you've shot but not edited? I offer five steps on making the editing process in iMovie more manageable and less daunting in a new Macworld article: Working through the video-editing backlog.

iMovie '09 Tip: Trim to Playhead

When iMovie '08 introduced skimming, where simply moving your mouse pointer over clips previewed the footage in the Viewer, it also created an interesting interface problem. Unlike earlier iMovie versions, you can't position the playhead and leave it there while you access menu items for editing.

This is most obvious when trying to split a clip. In iMovie HD, you place the playhead where the split should occur, then move the mouse pointer up to the Edit menu and choose Split Clip at Playhead. In iMovie '08 and '09, the playhead moves with the pointer as it moves across footage. To split a clip in iMovie '08, you had to first make a selection and then choose Edit > Split Clip (which still works in iMovie '09).

However, iMovie '09 offers workarounds that, perhaps as a side effect, turn into a new, nearly-hidden editing feature.

To split a clip, position the playhead where you want the split to occur, Control-click (or right-click) to bring up the contextual menu, and choose Split Clip. Or, beginning with iMovie '09 8.0.1, press Command-Shift-S to make the split. There's also a third way: After you position the playhead, press Control to temporarily disable skimming and then choose Edit > Split Clip.

However, that's not the nearly-hidden feature I'm talking about.

iMovie '09 now includes a new contextual menu item, Trim to Playhead, which promises to save a few steps when trimming a clip. But its operation is a bit confusing, so here's the rundown.

To trim to the playhead:

1. Position the playhead in the clip you want to edit, keeping in mind that this technique is based on the playhead’s proximity to the nearest selection border:
• If the playhead is closer to the clip’s start point, the footage after the playhead remains visible.



Here's the clip:




• If the playhead is closer to the clip’s end point, the footage before the playhead remains visible.



Here's the clip. Notice the giraffe just barely enters the trees, compared to the clip above:

2. Control-click (or right-click) the clip and choose Trim to Playhead from the contextual menu to apply the edit.

That sounds like a lot of work, but if you know what you're looking for in a clip, you can trim away unwanted footage with a single click instead of a few steps.

More Changes in iMovie 8.0.1

I just updated my TidBITS article with two new pieces of information about what's changed in iMovie '09 8.0.1. I'm running short on time today, so I'll just paste the relevant sections here (green indicates new material).

Interlacing Bug Fixed -- Here's something I think Apple would want to trumpet loudly. It fixed a bug where 1080i (interlaced) footage would appear combed when exported to QuickTime or iDVD. Prior to the fix, getting a clean HD picture required that you process the footage in other applications after exporting. Now, the bug is fixed.

But there's an interesting side note to exporting interlaced footage. If you export at 1920 x 1080 to AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) or Apple ProRes format, and you haven't performed any operations which scale, crop, or otherwise change the size or speed of any of your clips, then interlaced 1920 x 1080 footage is passed through unchanged.

Transitions in Split Clips -- If you split a clip and then put a transition at the split, the two halves of the clip now overlap each other (maintaining overall duration). This allows you to, for example, add a video effect to one portion of a clip and use a cross dissolve to fade the effect in or out.

I also added Get Lat Lon as a source for finding GPS coordinates, after a reader recommended it. Same service, less ad gunk than iTouchmap.