Apple - iLife - iMovie HD

Easily import HD video. iMovie HD supports more formats, more camcorders.

iMovie HD makes it easy for you to import the media you want to use in your movie projects. Whether it’s in your video camera, in your iLife media libraries, on your desktop or in another iMovie project, iMovie HD makes it easy to add compelling footage, still images and audio to your films.

More Camera and Format Choices Than Ever

Got media? Then it’s likely you can use it in your next iMovie HD project — even the hottest media on the set right now. That’s right. With iMovie HD, you can import footage from the very latest camcorders. Like new high-definition HDV camcorders from Sony and JVC.

Video cameras that support the HDV format capture high-definition widescreen video. They earn their “high-def” rep by offering you resolution of up to 1920 x 1080 pixels; their widescreen credits by capturing video in a 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s the type of big, impressive, incredibly sharp picture you can see on the high-definition television displays you may already have sitting in your living room.

If you have a camcorder capable of capturing HDV, iMovie HD can import it. Handily. Just connect it to your Mac using a FireWire cable. iMovie HD will import your raw footage just as it has always done in the past with DV, separating your video into clips that it places right in the Timeline or Clips Pane, whichever you prefer. iMovie also easily imports the 16:9 video you capture on SD DV — that’s new for this version of iMovie, too.

Tiny and Tempting

What if you have one of the sexiest new camcorders around? Lightweight and small, the solid-state video devices capture video in MPEG-4, which offers both high resolution and tight compression that results in a small file size. Small enough, that is, to capture video not on tape but on tiny SD flash cards. You know: cards about the size of your thumbnail. Virtually indestructible, the cards let you transfer video to iMovie HD much as you import photos into iPhoto.

Import Media from iLife

Speaking of photos. iPhoto has a new level of awareness. It seems that many digital “still” cameras can now capture video clips. That’s right: after grabbing a beautiful portrait of the groom kissing the bride, photographers can now capture video of the two walking down the aisle as husband and wife. But iPhoto doesn’t get to have all the fun. Using iMovie HD’s built-in media browser, you can import those video clips from iPhoto right into iMovie HD. How’s that for fair play?

There’s more. The very same iLife Media Browser that lets you import video clips from iPhoto also gives you access to all of the beautiful digital photographs in your iPhoto library. And talk about quality, you can use these images to create High Definition video even if you don’t have an HDV camera by using the improved Ken Burns effect in iMovie HD to impart a sense of motion to those otherwise still images.

And let’s not forget the other members of the iLife family. The media browser also gives you immediate access to any music you’ve created in GarageBand and exported to iTunes; any narrative material recorded on iPod and added to iTunes; and all the songs you transferred to iTunes from your CDs or purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Music Store.

Yet More Import Options

Now if you have video clips you’d like to recycle, you can copy and paste them from one movie project to another. Or maybe you’d prefer to drag digital assets from the Finder into an iMovie HD project. Yes, you can do that, too. And now that you have all of those digital resources to play with, it’s time to do some editing.

Support Formats

HDV (720p & 1080i)
MPEG-4 (Simple Profile)
iSight
DV
DV Widescreen

Camcorder Compatibility

iMovie HD supports a vast array of digital camcorders — from standard DV to HDV to solid state MPEG-4 video cameras.

The Year of High Definition Video

Sony and Apple have ushered in the year of High Definition Video in dramatic fashion. With the release of iMovie HD — which supports the new High-definition video (HDV 720p and 1080i) format and the Sony HDR-FX1 HD Digital Camcorder, you can create films of startling clarity and edit it with drag-and-drop ease. And you can order both iLife ’05, which includes iMovie HD, the impressive new version of iMovie, and the Sony HDR-FX1 camcorder — the first HDV camcorder designed for the consumer market — on the online Apple Store.

Look for the FireWire Symbol

The gold standard for high-speed data transfer, FireWire lets you move large amounts of video and audio data quickly and easily. If your digital video camera has a FireWire connection, it will almost certainly work with iMovie HD.

iSight: Great Video+Audio

Lightweight and portable, iSight sits on top of your Mac’s display and offers a great option for videoconferencing.

But iSight can be a great resource for moviemakers, too. Want to conduct an on-the-spot interview? Take iSight on location, connect it to your PowerBook or iBook, and train it, not on yourself, but on the subject of your interview and use it to capture audio and video. No transcoding needed, iMovie will capture the live video and audio stream direct from iSight. Like other media you import, the clips will go right to the Timeline or Clips Pane. And don’t worry about running long because with iMovie HD, there’s virtually no limit on video and audio clip length.

Importing: An iLife ’05 Specialty

Unmatched by anything in the industry, the tight integration among the five iLife ’05 applications makes it easy to import and media assets. What’s more: iLife ’05 actually provides multiple ways to import media. In addition to using the iLife Media Browser, you can drag and drop media assets. And you can take advantage of the automatic connections that exist between applications, such as the one allowing you to export to iDVD while making a Magic iMovie.