iMovie 3.0.1 Users "Upgrading" to 2.1.2 88
gsfprez writes "It seems that the general consensus is that iMovie 3.0.1 really sucks bad. Compaints range from randomly splitting cuts when importing, audio/video syncing issues, random crashing, and most common - performance issues so bad that capture and playback at full framrate is unattainable - and that's on DP machines. My experience is all this and worse on my previously very useful iBook 800. One can only wonder how galactically awful iMovie 3.0.0 was. Can anyone give a positive report on iMovie 3.0.1?" It looks nice. I just wish I could use it without it crashing.
Real programmers are artists (Score:1, Interesting)
A real programmer is an artist.
Have you seen that Microsoft movie editor? It may not be that buggy but is so minimalistic is totally unsuable.
Some companies become dedicated to what their doing so they give all efford on 1 or 3 projects so they are good at it. Still can't compare on a 6 months' work of a programmer doing it at home for him/erself
Like Alias Wavefront, they give all efford on projects like Maya so they're good at it. Or Adobe, they are good at After Effects. But still, they take 1 or 2 years for a single year or 3 months to fix 2 or 3 bugs.
True programmers are artists, and it will be some day, where we all respect programming as self expression and personal efford.
it seemed pretty good to me (Score:2, Interesting)
imovie 3 has been way better than imovie2 for me. I've used it to capture a few hours of dv just to see. it actually captured better, and even captured in the background while i was working in photoshop7, Dreamweaver, and graphic converter and downloading in chimera, ichating and running mail.
the bin scrolling and moving of clips was remarkably more responsive too.
I do agree that the ken burns effect needs a little improvement, it seemed to frame blip a little while zooming and panning.
Also it does take curiously longer to open imovie projects.
Hardware (if you care)
Quicksilver G4 DP 800, 1.5Gigs ram, 80 gig ata, 9 gig Ultra2scsi, 320 gig ata raid, geforce3, radaeon 7500.
Camera: Sony VX2000 miniDV
just my 3cents. -Si
On a powerbook 800.. (Score:4, Interesting)
The major reason I wanted to upgrade to iMovie3 was the audio volume levels so I upgraded once it came out for download (incidentally didn't Jobs say that it would be available on the 25th Jan?)
I loaded in the old project and hit play - unwatchable jerky playback and choppy audio. I actually had to export the movie just to be able to show it to people at a party the other night.
Very disappointing.
Works great on a DP800 and Canon ZR20 (Score:3, Interesting)
Works fine for me (Score:4, Interesting)
The machine I used is a PowerMac G3/333 (an old Beiege tower).
I imported ~30 minutes of video from my JVC DVM-70 via my OrangeMicro FW/USB card, no problems. Clips were only split where I had paused the recording.
The preview window was choppy during import, but that's happened on every video app I've used.
Playback of clips from the timeline was fine. Clicking on certain interface buttons led to a lot of disk churning and some delays and lessened responsiveness. Inserting a transition or an effect took sime time. The app is certainly useable, and reasonably fast on my system.
In the hour+ that I used iMovie 3 for my tests, there was not one error, and no crashes, quits, hangs or anything unexpected.
I can only imagine that with even a mere 400MHz G4, things would zip along much faster. A newer machine with duals, and around 1GHz should certainly run this app like a champ.
Perhaps you don't have QuickTime 6.1 installed as the installer for iM3 strongly suggests?
iMovie 2 was totally excellent on my G3/350... (Score:3, Interesting)
For instance, in the clip shelf, to select 3 clips, I hold down shift and click clips 1, 2, and 3. On iMovie 2, they would highlight as I clicked them. In iMovie 3 it takes about 5 seconds after I click them for them to highlight. Seriously now, what can it possibly be doing during that 5 second period when the computer's not doing anything else, but trying to highlight 3 icons? There are some seriously bloated architectural models/algorithms being used here. Yes, I know my computer is three years old, but iMovie 2 is proof that it's plenty of computer for the task.
Also, I find iMovie 3 to slow down my workflow.
In iMovie 2, to edit out a part of a clip, I bring the controller to the first frame, hold down the shift key and select the stuff to edit out, then hit delete. Very Mac-like. This functionality appears to be gone in iMovie 3. Instead, one must drag the start and end controller independently, then use Edit..Clear. The end controller must be dragged first, so you wind up having to scroll past your first edit point, go to the end of the edit, drop your marker, go back to the first edit point (wait, I was already there) and drop the second edit point. This is completely backwards.
Also, of note for Toast VCD users, the option to export to a Toast VCD can now be found after selecting "Export to Quicktime" and "Expert Settings". Previously it was available on the first screen. Yeah, I know, VCD's cut into DVD-drive sales...
I'll be re-installing iMovie 2 since it satisfies all my requirements. I was hoping for something great and snazzy in iMovie 3. No complaints, for the price, but if I had spent $50 (iLife) on it, I'd be far less pleased. Of course, I suspect that 10.3 won't run iMovie 2, then they'll be wanting me to buy a new computer.
On the plus side, I can export directly to MPEG4 now, without having to save to DV first.