Comments on: iMovie 09 is much better, still maddening

By: Rufus T. Firefly

Rufus T. Firefly — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 03:25:23 +0000

All these years I hear how superior a mac is to a pc and when I buy one, right out of the box i have taken a giant leap backwards!

how ironic!

By: Rufus T. Firefly

Rufus T. Firefly — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 03:15:31 +0000

Very disappointing! I bought an imac on Tuesday of this week. After all the hype! I bought the hype! I bought for video editing. I have taken a giant leap backwards!

iMovie Sucks. I tried to purchase Final Cut express, but could not get a copy at purchase of the iMac.

My old windows Movie Maker is better, much better. No Timeline!!??

What kind of computer intelligence does not put a timeline in a video editor? Makes no sense. Almost useless!

Very disappointing!

By: Christopher Coulter

Christopher Coulter — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:11:03 +0000

Why bother at all really? It’s a consumer toy. Final Cut Express and be done with it. But VASST and Vegas, long been kings in this prosumer area, easy scripts, yet with a polished look, that is customizable and doesn’t have the Apple Cookie Cutter feel about. Wish Sony and Apple weren’t such bitter enemies.

By: rich dahl

rich dahl — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:02:44 +0000

iMovie09 does need a timeline; bet there will be one for ‘10… you can’t beat 3mins for a build though & on the road sometimes that’s all you have to share w/ families & friends. also can’t beat the workflow w/ iPhoto, etc… fwiw: i actually find it easier to cut home videos in final cut pro (Mac). thx for the lil’ video show though; Africa is beautiful.

Cheers

By: grubworm

grubworm — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:10:53 +0000

Thanks for the review. I bought 09 because it appeared to be equal to or better than 06 that I’ve been using. In 09, the inclusion of voiceover without the ability to intermittently raise and lower clip volume or background music volume within a long video clip, seems to be gross oversight, even in simple software for home movie novices. The new 09 features are not worth the hassle of trying to workaround the audio editing deficit, so I am very disappointed in Apple and I will go back to 06.

By: mankiboi

mankiboi — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:28:59 +0000

simple question: when it’s so crap, why you’re still using it and give yourselves headaches? just stick to pro programs. everything that has half-eaten apple on it isn’t necessarily kick-ass.

By: vmarks

vmarks — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:32:45 +0000

@Stephen Fisher, @fake apple support,

The command in the menu does not do what I want. It's "split clip" which requires selecting a clip first. The old way was "Split clip at playhead" - which means, splut clip right where I am now, don't select anything first. Assigning a keystroke to that menu command as it stands does not help me one whit.

This 'right click contextual menu' nonsense may work, I haven't tried it yet - but I'm suspicious and disappointed if it requires selecting a clip first. Also, no commands should be in a contextual menu that aren't in the menus above. This leads me to suspect it's just a copy of the useless command in the Edit menu. That, or Apple has failed on their HIG which indicates that items in the contextual menu must be in the menu bar above.

Either way, it's bad.

By: John

John — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:06:39 +0000

I'm not violating any NDAs to state that FCP's look will be changing in the next version.

Also, Apple truly doesn't see iMovie as a gateway program into FCP, or even FCE. They mean for it to be a truly consumer product.

By: Church

Church — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:00:11 +0000

What I don’t get is why Apple would abandon the ’stripped-down Final Cut’ look. Wouldn’t you want people to get used to a vaguely similar interface? I went from HD to FCP with relative ease, I can’t imagine doing that quite as smoothly if 08 was my starting point.

By: Neil Garcia

Neil Garcia — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:08:55 +0000

Dear John August,

In your recent iMovie 9 review you neglected to mention the fact that the Ken Burns effect problem, which first appeared in iMovie 8, continues to exist and plague iMovie 9.

Specifically, when using the Ken Burns effect in iMovie HD, the app will add black borders to a portrait oriented photo as you zoom out. However, iMovie 9 forces the selected section to be within the constraints of the photo size, causing the top and bottom of a portrait oriented photo to be chopped off.

I have read a few unconfirmed web reports that a few iMovie 8/9 users have attempted to use Apple's Automator application to pad portrait oriented photos, before adding the photos into iMovie 9.

In my opinion, Apple should update iMovie 9 so that the Ken Burns effect problem is resolved. Until a fix is made available by Apple, I will continue to use iMovie HD for my needs. I welcome your comments to this matter.

Thank you!

Neil Garcia

By: Steven Fisher

Steven Fisher — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:30:34 +0000

@vmarks: There's a menu command that does what you want, but it doesn't have a keyboard shortcut? That's what I think you're saying, anyway. You can add a keyboard shortcut easily using System Preferences, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts.

Click the Plus, select iMovie from the Application: popup, then type the menu command in exactly. Add your keyboard shortcut. Close the preference pane.

In previous versions of Mac OS X, you'd have to restart the application for this to take effect. I don't think you do anymore, but if you run into trouble double check your spelling (and capitalization) of the menu command, and restart iMovie.