iMovie 08

[craigsbrain]

I can import 1080 25P PH footage but CANNOT import 720 25P PH footage.

I can play BOTH the above in iMovie 08.

Weird eh?

Any solutions?

thanks in advance

Craig

[Thomas Lew]

If you're willing to spend 3,500 dollars on a camera, why use an editing system made for moms?

Most likely, iMovie just isn't built to handle the footage you are trying to import and the solution is to upgrade your NLE. Plenty of users here have Vegas to use w/ the hmc and it's a relatively cheap editing system that can do quite a lot.

[craigsbrain]

https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/desk/e/faq/avchd_faq_en.htm

"Q4.Which Nonlinear editing system does support AVCHD format?
Following systems support as of September 2008.
Pinnacle/Studio Plus 11, Ultimate 11
Nero/Nero7 Premium Plus
Ulead/Video studio 11 Plus, DVD Movie Writer6
Apple/iMovie 08, Final Cut Express 4, Final Cut Pro 6
Canopus/EDIUS Pro 4.5, EDIUS Neo, EDIUS J
Adobe/Premire pro CS3"

[Thomas Lew]

Just cause they say it supports it doesn't mean it supports it efficiently.

And still my original question remains.. iMovie is extremely EXTREMELY limiting. You have an amazing camera. Why limit yourself because of your editing system?

[craigsbrain]

Spent most of my money on the AMAZING camera....

Would like to stay Apple.

Any thoughts on Final Cut Express 4?

thanks again,

craig

[Mike Harvey]

Thomas is right... if all you plan on doing is straight cuts, I'm sure iMovie is fine. But if you're willing to fork out the dough for the HMC and you're on an Mac, you really should think about getting Final Cut or Premiere.

[Edit] You posted as I was writing. I'm on Vista 64, so no thoughts on FCE. But it does support AVCCam, and it's got to be far more capable than iMovie. FCP would be even better. Yes, it costs a lot more money... but without a decent editor, your amazing camera only takes pretty images and nothing more. The best camera is worthless if you can't edit the footage with a decent editor.

[Thomas Lew]

I would say for now, get final cut express because it can handle avchd and you have many more options in terms of editing. It's a lot more powerful than imovie to say the least. Save up for final cut pro though, and you will be set.

[studio1972]

I can import 1080 25P PH footage but CANNOT import 720 25P PH footage.

I can play BOTH the above in iMovie 08.

Weird eh?

Any solutions?

thanks in advance

Craig

Hi Craig,

I'm afraid some of the advice you have had so far seems to be from people who have never used iMovie 08 or Final Cut express.

Firstly, IM8 is quite capable of doing much more than simple cuts, as I'm sure you know. It is fine for using for family videos etc and small projects. It's limitations are that it only has one video track so you cannot cut between separate cameras of the same scene easily. It has similar limitations on audio, although you can put backing tracks into the timeline.

FCE works in a different way to IM8 and is very similar to FCP (but without the add ons you get in FCS2). It is fine for editing projects such as weddings etc. certainly at low-mid range of the market.

Both IM8 and FCE have some limitations to the formats that they can import and edit. As far as the HMC151 is concerned, I have found that FCE suffers the same problem as you have described with 720p, so it IS NOT the solution to that problem. It also has a problem with PH footage where you get a glitch after each 30 mins of filming. Transcoding the footage with Toast or Voltaic can help with these problems.

Apparently FCS2, with the latest update, is better with importing HMC footage, although I have heard reports of some problems remaining. I am planning to upgrade to FCS myself, but I'm hoping for an upgrade in the next few months so I can buy FCS3 instead of having to upgrade twice. Hopefully FCS3 will have native AVC editing, which would be a big advantage.

If you can wait for FCS 3 to come out this might be your best bet, it really depends on if you have many paid jobs in the near future.

Stuart

[Justyn]

"If you're willing to spend 3,500 dollars on a camera, why use an editing system made for moms?"

Thomas... that's funny indeed. I'd also say it's made for dads in aweful christmas sweaters, grandmas who make their own live and onions, and priests who like to make funny youtube vids....


I'm hoping for native file editing on the next FCS update.. For both P2 and AVCcam ... that would be truly sweet and could end up keeping our file sizes down to a minimum. I think doing that would allow us to use 1/3 of the harddrive size but I'm sure that we'd all need some fast processors to handle the native footie.

cheers all!

[David Saraceno]

iMovie 08 doesn't support anything 720 or 24/25p.

I was written by Randy Ubillos, the same gent that wrote FCP.

Yes, limiting. However, I like it, and wish it has some 24p and 720 support.

The new version is even more powerful.

[craigsbrain]

iMovie 09 just came out by the way - maybe i'm in luck

and thanks for all the great replies everyone, especially studio1972

[Thomas Lew]

Would you have to buy iMovie 09? I still really really recommend upgrading to a better NLE =X

I dont mean to sound like a d*** I just want the best for you mannn!!!!!

[Mike Harvey]

I guess a really good question to ask is what do you plan on doing with this camera? Weddings? Commercials? Docs? Church Videos? Home movies?

And I agree with Thomas... yes, I have little experience in the way of iMovie or FCE (or FCP for that matter) since I'm on Vista 64. But it's the principle of it. I really think you should at least get FCE. Buying such a nice camera and not getting a decent editor (or tripod, or microphone, etc) is really robbing yourself.

It's a bit like buying a really nice HD TV and only hooking up a VHS deck... with an RF cable. Yes, it will work. But it's a waste of a really nice TV (camera).

[craigsbrain]

My understanding now is that neither IM9 or FCE will import AVCHD 25P and that FCS still needs Prores 422. The work I do tends to be quite traditional cinematically i.e. fade to black or white, cuts, transitions and slo mo. Don't get me wrong though, I still love having some cool effects at my disposal and eventually I will get FCS but for now...

Someone please tell me what the simplest NLE for Mac is that will natively (or very easily) take footage from this camera??

Thanks again,

Craig

[Thomas Lew]

Well your choice in any editing system FOR MAC would be... iMovie, FCE, FCP

So...... for avchd 25p footage your only real option is final cut pro.

Do you have a pc that you could get one of many avchd editors for pc on?

[JonathanS]

I'm handling 1080p25 from the HMC151 without problems in Final Cut Studio. However, I *am* seeing problems with 720p25 footage - this has been discussed in other threads.

I'd also like to defend iMovie. Yes, it's limiting. Yes, it's a bit of a mismatch with the HMC. But there are some circumstances where it's absolutely the right tool for the job, and I have no hesitation ditching Final Cut and switching to it in those situations. iMovie'09 will only extend the range of cases it handles well.

As an example: I often get video novices to shoot material in workshops, and have them edit in iMovie. A few minutes' instruction gets them going, and everything else they can discover for themselves. Exporting a compressed version to a server, over wifi, is trivial, and means we can watch their rough-cuts back as a group.

After the workshop, if the footage is usable, I'll export their timeline to Final Cut via XML and clean it up. It's a surprisingly robust workflow. Now iMovie'09 has decent trim tools and support for things like cutaways (anyone know if ripple and roll edits are possible? Looks like they might be) and J & L cuts, I'll likely stay in iMovie for finishing.

Roll on Snow Leopard, Grand Central running with hardcore video cards, and Final Cut Studio 3, though. :-)

[Thomas Lew]

But you see... the argument wasn't about not using imovie at all, it was about buying an hmc150 then using imovie to edit that footage