iMovie '08
iMovie '08 has been completely rewritten from the ground up, at least that's what Steve said at today's media event. Let's take a look at some of the new features:
New Icon
Initially this will be the most visible change, that is until you launch the app. The icon has been changed because the app itself is so different. Makes sense to me.
Video Library
This is a big change. iMovie has gone from a simple editing program to a catalog of all the video on your Mac, no matter where it is stored. That's right, iMovie will display movies that are on your machine's hard disk or on an external drive. Pretty cool. You can also mark clips as favorites, so you can quickly navigate to your go to clips. Taking a cue from iPhoto '08, iMovie also has Events (it automatically groups clips taken on the same day together).
General Enhancements
I know this might seem like a cop out, but the real genius in iMovie '08 isn't the laundry list of new features, but rather how they combine to make movie making faster. The new Video Library uses skimming (think of that is scrubbing through a video clip, but without having to open it in a different viewer) to make setting in and out points a breeze. New transitions, effects, and realtime title rendering also help to make your video go from concept to screen (big, medium, or small screen) in a snap. Sharing has never been easier either. iMovie allows you to upload you completed masterpiece to YouTube, or your .Mac account with a few clicks.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
jere said 12:04AM on 8-08-2007
WTF - no video effects? And the iMovie Help goes to the old iMovie HD help?
Sweet interface, but terrible oversights.
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Phil said 2:04AM on 8-08-2007
Is there even a timeline anymore for more precise timing and editing? I think I finally have an excuse to buy Final Cut Express :)
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Ben Clark-Robinson said 12:55AM on 8-08-2007
I can't see any word on "Themes" or "Video Effects" touted as the next best thing in iMovie HD, and now dropped? If so it seems weird that they didn't match the feature set. Perhaps it was a little more rushed? perhaps they had a different iMovie ready to go for Leopard (think Core Animation) and had to drop features to suite Tiger???
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Graham Hall said 1:37AM on 8-08-2007
I haven't used the new iMovie, but from what I'v seen, I'll be sticking with iMovie '06 for the time being.
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Jeremy Writebol said 1:29AM on 8-08-2007
What stinks is the system requirements for iMovie.... if you are using a G4 system you are out of luck. Not a good deal!
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osalom said 1:49AM on 8-08-2007
Nice interface but as far as I can see you cannot add effects or adjust the volume levels, that really sucks!
I also checked apple's web site and the tutorials do not mention anything on those features!
I really hope I'm wrong...
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Daniel said 1:54AM on 8-08-2007
Oh, come on! Did you really think they were going to DOWNGRADE features? Check this out: http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/#polish
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Ben Clark-Robinson said 1:56AM on 8-08-2007
@Graham: I'd have to agree, or at least iMovie '06 will also remain installed on my system too. I wonder if we will see a x.0.1 release which throws a few missing features in? Or is this an effort by Apple to push us into Final Cut Express?
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osalom said 2:08AM on 8-08-2007
@ Daniel,
OK, I see there is an option for adjusting volume and exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, and a new white point control.. still no video effects...
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Al said 2:48AM on 8-08-2007
Let's not go jumping to conclusions.
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andreas said 9:40AM on 8-08-2007
This program really looks sweet. I guess this will convince my dad to finally buy a mac.
BUT, how the hell are we suppose to exort our new video format for watching it on a tv? The new imac did not come with a HD/Blue ray burner did it?
This was very sad in my view.
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tim said 3:21AM on 8-08-2007
umm...when you say itll catalog ALL movies...do you mean *ALL* movies...or just those in particular directories you WANT it to catalog?
not that i have anything to hide...
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Matteo said 4:21AM on 8-08-2007
The question I am looking forward to be answered is the following:
will iLife '08 be able to correctly manage movies stored on an external (USB 2.0) Harddisk?
With iMovie 06 I can edit without any problem, but as soon as I try to burn it using iDVD I get weird error messages. And it is really ANNOYING to have to export the whole project on my local HD before burning it...
I also would like encoding to AppleTV High Def format to take a little less than AGES...
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lee webb said 5:45AM on 8-08-2007
Does it now support Mpeg-2? Say from a Hard Disk Camcorder, or dvd camcorder?
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chris said 6:29AM on 8-08-2007
juhu, it will work with USB - Camcorders and AVCHD
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306171
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Scott said 7:15AM on 8-08-2007
Can this new iMovie actually serve as a catalog for all types of video clips you have, like WMV, AVI, etc., or is it still limited to stuff that you've shot with your own personal video camera?
Because we desperately need a good video clip manager on the Mac, one that lets you tag and organize all the clips you may have downloaded from other sources, not just your personal video files. yFlicks comes close, but doesn't have tagging yet.
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SubGenius said 10:38AM on 8-08-2007
Looks to me like they dropped all the cheesy filters and effects and left the only the ones that people "should" be using.
The ultimate result is that movies created with the new iMovie will look more professional and less corny (lightning bolt and earthquake effects).
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Mike said 10:59AM on 8-08-2007
All of the videos on my hard drive automatically? What about my secret porn stash?
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Jerry Pennington said 11:25AM on 8-08-2007
In the old iMovie, you could split the audio track from the video track, which came in handy if you wanted to drop in photos that would show while the audio of the original track still played ... I wonder if there will still be a way to do this in the new setup?
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oxymoron2007 said 11:30AM on 8-08-2007
@ SubGenius
Even though these effects look corny the way some people use them, they still served their purpose for those that used them correctly.
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