Installing iMovie HD 6 without iLife '08

I'm an early adopter of a lot of applications (e.g. Adobe CS3,4,5), but I still stick with iMovie HD. I just spent 45 min trying to do one stupid little thing on iMovie 09. Found this page after the fact...glad I kept my installer from back when I had a G5, haha! But really, all I needed was a timeline, and not whatever that precision editor thing is.

Hate, hate, hate the new iMovies. Long live 6! Btw, I just drag and drop the app from an old machine to a new one.

I just used iMovie HD today. I find the new iMovie to be completely unintuitive. I tried making a few short movies with it, and just don't get it. I really wish Apple had just rewritten iMovie HD, and added all the bells and whistles it was missing.

For those of us that have never used iMovie HD, can someone explain or detail the benefits and or features that HD has over 09? What can HD do that 09 can't? And I don't care to hear any interface issues, just video control/handling elements and hard editing features. Interfaces can be learned.

I discovered this method of installing iMovie HD when I was training people in digital storytelling. They had bought new MacBooks with iLife 09 and I had about 30 minutes to install the older more functional app before the first training session. I always have a copy of iMovie HD on a portable hard drive - so opened up the install package dug around until I found the iMovie HD icon and dragged the app into each Mac. Thankfully it worked - and I've used this method many times since.
The latest versions of iMovie are useless for arranging still images on a timeline to create digital stories and sadly still images don't work properly in iMovie HD on Snow Leopard - and the most recent update of Quicktime (7.6.6) creates similar problems in Leopard too. The cure is to downgrade Quicktime to 7.6.4 to restore functionality - (Leopard only).
I think the moral is - if you want to use Apple apps that are no longer supported, don't upgrade without making a clone bootable copy of your HD first, using something like SuperDuper. If you app doesn't work after the upgrade just reload your clone backup.
I fear the day is coming when I will have to dump iMovie HD as people buy new Macs.
Some of you will respond by saying stills work fine for you in iMovie HD and SL - but I assure you - the way digital stories are built - it doesn't.
Barrie (http://digistories.co.uk)

I think iMovie 09 is a great replacement for iMovie HD. I think those who still prefer HD over '09 would probably be best served with FCE but don't want to pay the price tag that comes with it.

iMovie '08 was definitely incomplete though.

you know, THE other methods of getting iMovie are illegal, and makes you a PIRATE. More companies every day seem to be taking measures to keep these users at BAY.

Not sure why people are still on the iMovie HD bandwagon. I learned on iMovie HD and used it for 2 years. When the new iMovie came out, I hated it (not flexible enough for precision editing).

Then Apple updated it with iMovie 09 - I forced myself to learn it and it's F&$@kin awesome. It has all the precision editing features, plus you can throw a fully edited movie (like I used to with iMovie HD) in a fraction of the time (FOR REAL).

I've been trying to learn Final Cut (great tool but learning curve is intense) but I'll never use the obsolete iMovie HD again (in fact, like an old girlfriend that doesn't make me happy anymore, I dumped it).

iMovie 6 can be downloaded through the following torrent:

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/2010839/49114116/

You'll then need to go to Apple's support site to update it to 6.0.3:

http://support.apple.com/downloads/#imovie%20hd

Great tip. I also like the shell command Peter left.

I wonder if anyone else has been having problems exporting from iMovie HD to a camera. I have no problem editing in iMovie 6 HD but in Leopard I get no video out to my Sony DVC camcorder. I keep a seperate external drive with Tiger on it just to export to camera for archiving.

I have to believe it has something to do with drivers for the camera having changed in Quicktime or elsewhere but have no idea where to begin looking for the file I need to move into Leopard. Anyone have ideas to fix?

For now, I wait for the day when Apple will fully support HD creation to Blu-ray. Until then it is my old Sony tape camcorder and iMovie HD. It just works.