iMovie HD and iMovie 08 issues

[Philafront]

Ok so I am trying to upload my footage from the HV20, but for whatever reason, when I choose the HD 1080i setting on iMovie HD, the window that opens is still for DV. If I use iMovie '08, it automatically detects the video as DV and I cant capture in HD even though it IS in HD. Is this something that I'm doing, has anyone else experienced this, should I just contact apple?

thanks

[CJDaniels]

I was playing with both of these (imovie HD and 08) tonight as so many said there were problems capturing, which I had none, but I didn't pay attention to the HD, will check it tmw.

[MacGB]

Make sure, if you set iMovie to capture HD, that your HV20 is in the same setting. Even if the material on tape is HD and the camera is at the moment you are capturing set to record SD, The camera will be recognized, but not the material on the tape, so you cannot import.
HtH
MacGB

[mazymus]

so does it mean that my hd material (24p) on tape will not be imported to my mac / imovie 08??? am I just getting non-hd material?

[MacGB]

so does it mean that my hd material (24p) on tape will not be imported to my mac / imovie 08??? am I just getting non-hd material?

I am not sure. To me the 24p is still HD and you should have no problems importing it as HD, HOWEVER: I am in the PAL-region and shoot 25p. It is treated as HD, and I have no problems with importing and editing the material. But the camera record-setting during import has to be in line with the tape-material and your import set-up

I understand that in NTSC area there are problems in editing, manipualting 24p material, but a lot has been discussed on this forum. If you do a search you might find better answers then I can provide you with.

MacGB

[mazymus]

hmm, maybe i'll just stick to the default hd setting in auto, not p. this way, i should for sure get hd with no issues, correct?

[MacGB]

Yes you should be ok, also if you switch to manual (P) and choose HD (iso HD 24P).
This way you can still use all the other manual settings.
btw did you set your camera to 1080i in comp.out mode ?
MacGB

[mazymus]

i'm basicaly importing to imovie and watching it on my macbook pro for now. i gotta figure out how to connect my laptop to my 720p projector. i'm assuming that my laptop should convert the 1080i imported image to 720p on the fly, but i have to see. hopefully that should work

[MacGB]

i'm basicaly importing to imovie and watching it on my macbook pro for now. i gotta figure out how to connect my laptop to my 720p projector. i'm assuming that my laptop should convert the 1080i imported image to 720p on the fly, but i have to see. hopefully that should work

iMovie is not really meant to present movies (it's an editor). If you like to present the movie you might be better off to export and use Quictime for presentation purposes.

MacGB

[Chodite]

iMovie is not really meant to present movies (it's an editor). If you like to present the movie you might be better off to export and use Quictime for presentation purposes.

MacGB

Noob question here - but what should I be using to import the raw HDV footage from HV20 to Mac?

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

A firewire cable.

[Chodite]

A firewire cable.

LOL Ok I'm good to go there
Where do I find the actual HV20 once it's hooked up to my Mac? And how to I extract the raw HVD footage from the cam?

[MacGB]

Typical workflow:
connect your camera (with firewire) -> set it to play mode -> start iMovie, the application will detect your camera, a window will appear to ask you to import. Use the control buttons from iMovie-window to wind/rewind your tape to the point you want to start importing -> click import. -> edit as you like -> use share/export to export your edited footage.
HtH
MacGB

[Chodite]

Typical workflow:
connect your camera (with firewire) -> set it to play mode -> start iMovie, the application will detect your camera, a window will appear to ask you to import. Use the control buttons from iMovie-window to wind/rewind your tape to the point you want to start importing -> click import. -> edit as you like -> use share/export to export your edited footage.
HtH
MacGB

Which is actually what I've been doing.
But where is the actual HDV footage then stored? I realize I can create a new project out of it via iMovie and then export it with Quicktime. But I'm looking for the actual raw HDV footage, pre-export.

2 reasons I want this -

1. To see if HDV footage can be wirelessly streamed to my Xbox 360/HDTV with the new 360 video codec update this week.

2. iMovie '08 seems to downgrade the video quality, no matter what export settings I use!

[MacGB]

Try to explain this in short:
Default your clips are stored in your homelibrary in a folder called imovie events (you can change this default location), however
a. in importing HD, iMovie converts your clips to Apple intermediate codec
b. as iMovie is a non-destructive editor you will find your original clips stored in here but not as Hd but Apple intermediate codec

There also resides a folder called "iMovie-projects" here is the data stored that describes all manupulations and combinations you made with your clips, however this data doesn't contain your clips, just references, otherwise in being non-destructive it would double (at least) the size of your project.

Downgrading quality is in my opnion hardly ever a problem (for normal HD-TV viewing) if you export as apple TV medium or large you should be fine and will get a h264 codec movie (which is a HD-standard)
If you experience downgrading I would suggets following:
Import at max. HD-size (iMovie defaults to 960x540), you can change that in the import procedure.
See if you can export using Quictime (pro) and manually adjust your quality settings.
If I want to do High quality editing I
a. import at the highest quality
b. make a rough cut of my clips
c. export them as XML-files
d. Continue my (prosumer) editing in FCE
MacGB

[Chodite]

Awesome, thanks for the tips MacGB