Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
When it was premise last year , iMovie HD (; April 2005 ) added groundbreaking ceremony features to Apple ’s entry - level video editor : keep for gamey - definition video redaction , the ability to let in multiple formats ( such as HD , standard DV , and wide - screen door DV ) in the same project , and performance sweetening that longtime iMovie lover had been await for .
With iMovie HD 6 , Apple clean business firm a bit by sprucing up the program with slickly design themes and a rearranged port , and add welcome lineament such as audio adjustment and material - time force previews that give the update some heft . ( I covered many of the changes in this new version with my first tone at iMovie HD 6 . )
Themes
Apple always moderate with its prettiest property when touting fresh features , and the fresh Themes feature sure enough specify . motif are similar to iDVD gesture fare — they’re previously create moving picture into which you may add your own photos and video clips ; the Road Trip theme , for example , resembles a camera act over a cluttered desk , with photos appearing in open Book .
Populating a theme is as soft as dragging clips or photos to a raw Drop Zone palette , and then enter a text edition title . When you add the root to your motion-picture show , iMovie fork over it as a Modern video time . The advantage here is that you could edit it as you would any other clip ; the Open variant of the Reflection - snowy topic , for exemplar , was longer than I wanted , so I pare it to exhibit only one appearance in my fall zones .
The disadvantage of an applied radical is that you ca n’t well go back and edit what you ’ve created . If you want to change a photo or title , you need to re - make the topic from start . Also , the drop geographical zone contents do n’t always submit at a sufficiently high settlement : the Chapter component of Reflection - White ends by whizz in on an image in the drop zone so that it fills the entire frame , but both exposure and videos rendered poorly .
Easy ThemesAdd photos and video time to the Modern Drop Zones pallette to inhabit iMovie ’s new root word .
I ’d wish to see more than the five include themes ( each of which , to be fair , has as many as nine components ) , but I ’m sure we ’ll see customs radical from third - party developers soon ; there does n’t seem to be an easy way for average users to create themes .
Real-time previews and new effects
When you tap a stem , transition , title of respect , or effect in iMovie HD 6 , a preview appears in the main monitor window . On the two Macs I used for examination — an honest-to-god 1.25GHz PowerBook G4 and a dual - processor 2.3GHz Power Mac G5 — the trailer playback was occasionally jerky , but I expect that from an unrendered preview . When you do preview something , it plays back as a continuous loop ( which you may hold back playing by clicking on a button in the monitor lizard ) . I especially enjoy this characteristic when I was preview video effects , such as the new mint of Quartz Composer force .
Much more interesting are the Modern audio effects , which use OS X ’s Core Audio boast to apply reverb and delay , alter the pitch of people ’s voices , and add other effects . The Graphic EQ burden provides a 10 - slipper counterbalance for manually adjust audio , with seven presets to get you started .
Quiet CamcorderUsing iMovie ’s young Noise Reducer audio effect , I ’ve reduce out annoying television camera noise from the 2d half of this time , as you could see by face at the audio waveforms .
And I ’m happy to note the comprehension of the Noise Reducer control , which can help to extinguish sounds such as the motor hum create ( and recorded by ) many portable camcorder . It is likely a brute - military force tool — just one slider hold in the degree to which the consequence is hold — but it make well in my trial .
Apple also spotlight puppet I ’ve desire for year : more precise typographic control . ascendancy - clicking on a text field allows you to choose OS X ’s Font duologue box , from which you may prefer font sizing numerically , as well as practice other attributes . However , I could n’t get this lineament to make for at all . Apple is looking into the problem . From the Font dialog box , though , you’re able to bring up OS X ’s Character Palette to insert special symbol character that are unmanageable to get at via the keyboard .
Performance voodoo
New features are welcome , of course , but how does iMovie HD 6 perform ? As with some previous releases , the answer is not coherent .
On my two Macs , I chance very few problems : one crash while importing video , and some soggy playback when several applications were running and my PowerBook had n’t been restart for several day . Since re-start , I have n’t encountered any slow playback . On my Power Mac G5 , performance has been stellar . However , reports from someMacworldeditors and readers indicate that some masses are running into slow , choppy playback and other glitches . ( One other culprit with iMovie and QuickTime 7.0.4 was Telestream ’s Flip4Mac , a free utility that enables Windows Media files to play back under QuickTime Player . )
unluckily , iMovie has exhibited this conduct since at least version 4 : it run perfectly fine for some people , and ill for others , even given similar hardware and computer software . So from my experience alone , iMovie HD 6 seems solid and coherent with the profit made in iMovie HD 5 .
Real - Time EffectsThe Quartz Composer TV upshot , such as Glass Distortion ( shown here ) , are previewed in existent time in the monitor , enable you to see what you ’re convey before apply the effect .
That ’s not to say there are n’t hemipteron . For example , clicking on a photo in the Media pane of glass prompting a trailer incorporating the Ken Burns Effect even if that choice is n’t choose in the newfangled Photo configurations palette ; applying the essence on the picture works correctly , however . On the top side , the Ken Burns Effect now consistently eases in and out , make it more useful than in the premature rendering of iMovie .
I also find oneself that audio clip held in position by the Lock Audio Clip At Playhead command sometimes did n’t remain locked .
If the retiring two iMovie liberation are an indicant , Apple will likely issue a bug fix sack evenhandedly soon ( hopefully , by the time you read this ) .
Macworld’s buying advice
iMovie HD 6 is n’t as revolutionary as the previous iMovie liberation , but there are enough improvement — such as veridical - time trailer and audio effect — to make it a solid rise , specially since it comes box with the repose of the iLife ’ 06 suite .
[ Jeff Carlson is the author ofiMovie HD and iDVD 5 for Mac OS X : Visual QuickStart Guide(Peachpit Press , 2005 ) . ]
[ EDITOR ’S NOTE : On February 15 , after this review was originally print , Apple released an update to iMovie HD . The update turn to a number of issues raise in our original review ; please read our update follow-up of iMovie HD 6.0.1 . ]
