iMovie HD 5.0.2 update

matti.haveri - 10:28am Apr 21, 2005 PST

I had high hopes for iMovie 5.0.2 update but it was a disappointment after three months of waiting. I was eagerly waiting for a fix for the Titles bug but the problem persists in PAL.

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08064>

Some observations about the 5.0.2 update:

- iMovie Titles bug was fixed in iMovie HD 5.0.2 for NTSC but in PAL the bug persists! The workaround a) is quite weird and I found it by accident:

Workarounds: a) Launch iMovie HD and add a dummy Transition or Effect before adding a Title. You must do this every time after you launch iMovie HD if you want to add a Title. b) Revert to iMovie 4.0.1.

- Some analog to DV converters still don't work in iMovie HD 5.0.2 like they do in iMovie 4.0.1. I'd thought that as the FireWire inventor Apple would not break the FW connection issues or at least would quickly fix them.

1. For example, my Sony TRV320 can convert analog video to DV in passthrough mode in iMovie 4.0.1, but not in iMovie HD 5.0.2. Reportedly also neither Sony DVMC-DA1 converter's, or Sony DCR-PC110, Canon ZR 80 or Panasonic NV EX3 camcorders' analog to DV passthrough work in iMovie HD 5.0.2 like it does in iMovie 4.0.1 or BTV/BTV Pro.

2. It is also not possible to record live DV with no tape in the camcorder (i.e. the camcorder in Rec mode, so that what goes in the camcorder's lens, imports in real-time to iMovie) from a camcorder (Sony TRV320, for example) to iMovie HD 5.0.2 because iMovie complains "Camera No Tape". In iMovie 4.0.1 and BTV Pro this works OK with no tape in the camcorder.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2's Reversed and Fast-motion Effects deinterlace video when iMovie 4 correctly preserves interlacing by changing field dominance or by just skipping frames.

With iMovie 4 and interlaced material the movements remain smooth because interlacing is preserved. With iMovie HD 5.0.2 the motion is jerky (especially with the Reversed Effect) when watched on an interlaced TV.

(It can be debated whether fast-motion clips should be deinterlaced or not. At least 2x fast-motion looks smoother with interlaced frames but with faster paces there doesn't seem to be much difference. Anyone?).

iMovie 5.0.2 fixes:

- The titles bug was fixed in iMovie HD 5.0.2 for NTSC but in PAL the bug persists! In iMovie HD 5.0.2 added Titles distort interlacing lines in the underlying PAL video.

- Slow-motion Effects are now correctly deinterlaced so they don't flicker on an interlaced TV.

The slo-mo effect is rendered when sending the project to tape or iDVD. You can force rendering by doing a dummy export to tape with no camcorder attached.

- Digitizing analog 8mm/Hi8 tapes on Sony D8 camcorders reportedly now works in iMovie HD 5.0.2.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2 now deinterlaces the video when importing and rendering 4:3 DV files to a 16:9 DV Widescreen project. I don't know whether this should be considered a feature or a bug.

But there is a related real a bug that I didn't bother to add to the bug section because it may be too weird:

With imported NTSC or PAL .dv or .mov the interlacing is distorted if the .dv or .mov has its High Quality flag (and no other playback quality flag) enabled. IMO the imported clip's playback setting should be just a PLAYBACK setting. It should NOT alter the behaviour of the .mov or .dv file in any other way!! (Unlike .mov files, the .dv files can't save the playback quality setting but applications like Toast and MPEG Streamclip store the playback quality info in the .dv file's resource fork).

- For more bugs, examples, workarounds and info check:

<http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_bugs.html>