Question

Getting mpeg files into iMovie with sound

Asked by: ckurt99

Greetings,

I recently downloaded some of the Bush in 30 Seconds ads (www.bushin30seconds.org) to share with friends and family (they are under a Creative Commons license that allows display provided the authors are credited).  I want to string them together into a short feature film, putting titles (and authors) interspersed with the clips.

However, when I open iMovie and then select File->Import, the mpg files are not available for import (they are dimmed and can't be selected).  If I drag an mpg file and drop it in iMovie, the clip comes in and will play video, but it has lost its audio.

Is there a way to accomplish my goal in iMovie, or do I have to prevail upon one of my friends who has Final Cut Pro?

Thanks for your advice.

Kurt, the iMovie newbie

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Asked On
2004-01-30 at 19:00:20ID20868703
Tags

imovie

,

mpeg

,

mpg

,

import

Topics

Apple Software

,

Digital Living Software

Participating Experts
2
Points
200
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: weedPosted on 2004-01-31 at 08:09:03ID: 10242520

I don't see any MPEGs on the site. Just MOV files, encoded with Sorenson-3 video and MPEG-3 Audio. Where are you getting MPEGs?

For editing in iMovie, or any editor for that matter, you probably want to be using DV format, or at least raw encoding. So, if you have QuickTime Pro (everyone interested in video editing should have QT Pro) open the files up, and export them as DV or unencoded for both audio and video. Then drop them on iMovie. The videos will be large, but your editing options will be greater.

 

by: ckurt99Posted on 2004-01-31 at 17:57:04ID: 10244992

It is true, the later files they posted are in MOV format, so I have a few of those as well.  During the period when we were all voting on which ads were to be presented the files were MPG files, and that's when I snagged most of them.  The MOV ones can be imported, as they aren't dimmed.  I suppose that they will keep their sound.

I see that current QT Pro is at 6.5.  I seem to recall that there were some issues with 6.5; didn't Apple recently issue a patch to downgrade people back to 6.4?  It was just something that flipped by me on Macintouch a few days ago - I'll have to look it up, although I would be interested in any comment you might have.

Kurt

 

by: weedPosted on 2004-01-31 at 19:40:29ID: 10245279

6.5 works fine for me. I havent heard of any wacky bugs.

 

by: thomjwPosted on 2005-08-23 at 23:25:56ID: 14740049

Hi,
I regularly record and save t.v. shows on my pc, using an ATI all in wonder 7500 video card. It saves them in mpeg2. I then have to connect my digital video cam to the video out of the video card, send it thru the video cam into the imovie 4 app on the powerbook G4. Basically, the videocam converts the mpeg2 into dv, which imovie 4 will import. Then I edit in imovie 4, which is the best app to use. Then, I burn to DVD with iDVD or Toast Titanium 6. Both work equally well. It's just a thought for your conversion question, if you still have problems. Until I find an easier, quality software method that is capable of converting mpeg2 into dv for imovie, I will continue to use this. Wouldn't it be nice if windows would cooperate with the rest of the world, and use dv or mov instead of mpeg2? Or if imovie would import mpeg2? I guess that would be too easy!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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