Toast 10 & Imovie

[jrfergee]

The only conversion that IMovie is able to see (not greyed out) import is .dv movies. All other conversions from toast will not import in spite of IMovie (and Apple support's) insistence that this should be possible. I have contacted Roxio Tech Support. They are completely unhelpful and frustrating. They keep asking me the same questions which I have answered several times. Using IMovie, I select "import" and go to the file's converted from toast and it does not see anything other than .dv formats as importable (they are greyed out). Is anyone else having trouble trying to import conversions made in Toast 10? Thanks.

[theoldarchiver]

DV is an excellent codec for standard definition (SD) editing (in iMovie or any other editor), as it stores every frame separately, not depending on the previous or next frame. This is sometimes referred to as "no temporal compression" or "only I-frames". The editor application has to calculate less and thus works more responsively.

[jrfergee]

Thanks for that. Good to know. It is not evident when clips are exported back out of Imovie for use in ppt slides. I get choppy sound and video where words and images are often truncated and "skip." I use a Mac with OSX 5.8.

 

Any idea about why IMovie will not import some of T10's conversions (except .dv)?

[theoldarchiver]

It is not evident when clips are exported back out of Imovie for use in ppt slides. I get choppy sound and video where words and images are often truncated and "skip." I use a Mac with OSX 5.8.

How you export from iMovie for use in PowerPoint is a whole other story. I would suggest exporting not in DV format, but in a delivery format (non editing format) such as MPEG-4, for the sake of having small files (compared to DV).

Choppy sound and video may be a sign that the computer can't keep up with all it is asked to do. But it's hard to say with the information present.

 

Any idea about why IMovie will not import some of T10's conversions (except .dv)?

I thought iMovie could import DV, HDV, MPEG 4 Simple Profile and iSight -- but I don't use iMovie, so I can't be sure.

I also thought that there was a way to let iMovie convert on import to DV, imported clips of most QuickTime supported footage.

For not directly supported formats, one needs to convert to a compatible format before importing into iMovie.

Note that iMovie was always designed to handle home camcorder footage, which usually is DV.

 

Just because Toast lets you export in a wide range of formats, doesn't mean that iMovie or PowerPoint should support the same set.

[jrfergee]

I do export in MP4. I have a Macbook Pro with 4 gb ram and a 2.66 processor. I would hope that is enough to do the job.

 

On the second point. IMovie says it can import all of those and more. My first call was to Apple. Apple tech support affirms this. They say "talk to Roxio." Roxio tech support is worse than useless as they keep asking me what I did and want screen shots when I have already described to them what I did. (It is as if they are using delaying tactics to hide their own ignorance or a problem they already know about but are unwilling to admit.)

 

What I did is very simple. I exported TSVideo folders (and video files) as various types of files including Ipod Video and High quality PSP formats. Then I open IMovie and try to import them but IMovie sees only .dv format any other format is greyed out and will not allow you to click on it for import.

 

Thanks again for all your responses.

[tsantee]

I do export in MP4. I have a Macbook Pro with 4 gb ram and a 2.66 processor. I would hope that is enough to do the job.

 

On the second point. IMovie says it can import all of those and more. My first call was to Apple. Apple tech support affirms this. They say "talk to Roxio." Roxio tech support is worse than useless as they keep asking me what I did and want screen shots when I have already described to them what I did. (It is as if they are using delaying tactics to hide their own ignorance or a problem they already know about but are unwilling to admit.)

 

What I did is very simple. I exported TSVideo folders (and video files) as various types of files including Ipod Video and High quality PSP formats. Then I open IMovie and try to import them but IMovie sees only .dv format any other format is greyed out and will not allow you to click on it for import.

 

Thanks again for all your responses.

Toast adds a text track to the MPEG 4 and H.264 exports that causes the problem with iMovie failing to load those videos. I use QuickTime 7 Pro to remove the text track and the import then works fine. This is done by choosing Show Movie Properties in QT Pro, selecting the Text track, clicking Delete and saving the file. I'm also pretty sure I've simply resaved the video using MPEG Streamclip and the text track was removed. This doesn't involve any re-encoding so the quality is unaffected.

[jrfergee]

Toast adds a text track to the MPEG 4 and H.264 exports that causes the problem with iMovie failing to load those videos. I use QuickTime 7 Pro to remove the text track and the import then works fine. This is done by choosing Show Movie Properties in QT Pro, selecting the Text track, clicking Delete and saving the file. I'm also pretty sure I've simply resaved the video using MPEG Streamclip and the text track was removed. This doesn't involve any re-encoding so the quality is unaffected.

Many thanks for your reply. I have not tried this yet. Is there a way to get T10 to NOT do this? Is there a reason to own both QT and Toast? Is there a solution that does not involve a purchase? Many thanks.

[tsantee]

I've asked Roxio to fix this but there must be some reason they include the text track because it's been that way for years. My workaround by resaving with MPEG Streamclip is free.