iMovie is a video editing software application which allows Mac users to edit their own home movies. It was originally released by Apple in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-enabled Macintosh model^[1]. Since version 3, iMovie has been a Mac OS X only application bundled in the iLife suite of Macintosh applications.^[2]

iMovie imports video footage to the Mac using the FireWire interface on most MiniDV format digital video cameras. From there, the user can edit the video clips, add titles, and add music. Effects include basic color correction and video enhancement tools, and transitions such as fade-in, fade-out, and slides.

Features of iMovie 4

Major new features and enhancements compared to iMovie 3 and its predecessors:^[3]

• Direct trimming of video and audio clips in the timeline
• Snapping sync for video and audio, audio waveforms and listening to audio while scrubbing
• Multiple clip selection, direct import from iSight

Other features include (also in earlier versions):

• Full-screen previewing.
• One video track, two audio tracks.
• Sample sound effects included, some from Skywalker Sound.
• Voice-over narration can be recorded from a microphone and added to an audio track.
• Titles with effects such as 3D spin, converge, bounce across and ending credits motion.
• Transitions, such as cross dissolve, disintegrate, twirl, scale down and warp out.
• Video effects, including fast motion, slow motion, reverse fast/slow motion, brightness and contrast, electricity and fairy dust effects.
• Creation of still frames from video.
• Splitting clips.
• Extracting audio from clips.
• Exporting a movie or scene as a QuickTime movie, or sharing it via e-mail, Bluetooth or .Mac homepage, or sending it back to a digital camera.

Features of iMovie HD 5

iMovie HD includes support for HDV (720p and 1080i) and integration with the rest of the iLife suite, with toolbox buttons allowing the importing of images from iPhoto, music from iTunes and the setting of chapter markers ready for exporting to iDVD.

Another new feature is 'Magic iMovie', which attempts to automate the whole process of video editing, by allowing a common transition to be added between scenes, a music track to be synchronised with the video and a DVD to be created with the accompanying iDVD software

Features of iMovie HD 6

iMovie 6 was released in January 2006 as part of the iLife '06 suite. It is integrated with iPhoto, iTunes, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb. New features include:

• Themes. Designed for ease of use, themes allow the user to drop movie clips or photos into professionally-designed backdrops. Each theme includes full-motion graphic bumpers and transitions.
• Real-time effects. iMovie takes advantage of the computer's graphic processing unit to perform some effects without rendering.
• Real-time titling
• Enhanced audio tools and effects
• Multiple open projects
• Video podcasts and blogs (using integration with iWeb)
• Refined look based on iTunes 5 and 6.

Features of iMovie '08

iMovie '08 (7.0) was released in August 2007 as a part of the iLife '08 suite. iMovie '08 was a complete redesign and rewrite of iMovie.

New features added include:

• Much better HD output, and more formats to convert to.
• A completely redesigned interface with an iPhoto style library. This is limited however by an undocumented restriction on supported codecs. iPhoto uses the QuickTime library and can create thumbnails for all QuickTime supported formats, but most of these cannot be used by iMovie '08. Indeed, even some of the very few formats that iMovie '08 is able to import will not be recognized when they are added to an iPhoto library. Motion JPEG encoded AVI files do appear to be recognized, this is the most common format used by digital cameras.
• A new feature called skimming for quickly previewing video in the library at a user controlled speed.
• A feature that allows one to highlight parts of video clips just like highlighting text.
• The ability to add more than two layers of background sound, including multiple music, narration and sound effects; previous versions only had two spare audio tracks.
• More exportation formats with support for iPhone size video and many other sizes.
• The ability to export directly to Youtube
• Support for non-tape based HD or non-HD video cameras such as DVD camcorders HDD camcorders, & AVCHD.

According to Apple's system requirements iMovie '08 requires at least a PowerPC G5 1.9GHz or an Intel Processor. G4s are not supported, though Apple sold its last G4-based Computers (iBook G4) 14 months before the release of iLife '08. However, a system hack enables iMovie 7.1 or higher to run on a PowerPC G4.^[4]

Criticism of iMovie 08

iMovie 08 has been the target of significant criticism due to a drastic decrease in features from iMovie HD 6. The loss of features caused New York Times reviewer David Pogue to state, "iMovie ?08 is an utter bafflement...[it] is incapable of the more sophisticated editing that the old iMovie made so enjoyable...All visual effects are gone?even basic options like slow motion, reverse motion, fast motion, and black-and-white. And you can?t have more than one project open at a time."^[5]

Features removed included the classic timeline, the ability to create DVD chapter markers, and in-timeline audio adjustment and control. Most surprisingly, iMovie '08 imports a much more limited set of video codecs and metadata formats than previous versions of iMovie or today's QuickTime Player. For example, QuickTime Player can be extended to support the FLIP Video 3ivx MPEG-4 codec, but iMovie cannot use this QuickTime support. The peculiar lack of QuickTime support means QuickTime Pro can edit a far larger range of video than iMovie '08. Some users have also complained of iMovie 08 being slower and less polished than iMovie 06, and taking a long time to render clips and thumbnails.

In response to the reduced feature set, Apple released iMovie HD 6 as a free download to those who had purchased iMovie '08^[6]. Similarly, Apple also reduced the $299 price tag for Final Cut Express to $199 in response to the new iMovie. However, the current (7.0.1) version of iMovie is unable to import some video formats. For example, the special file from Kodak V705 does not work.

Version history

References

External links

• Apple: iMovie

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