Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
With the release of iMovie ’ 08 , Apple has redefine its consumer video recording program ’s military mission and methodology . With the popularity of wideband cyberspace access , and particularly the YouTube video sharing entanglement site , iMovie is now focus on helping masses promptly and easily capture , view , organise , and edit movies all in one place , and then readily share them online in a miscellany of formats . It does this effective , quicker , and more easily than any other consumer - level program I ’m aware of on any platform . believe of iMovie ’ 08 as iPhoto for video .
However , in repositioning iMovie ’ 08 so firmly as a consumer merchandise , many of the programme ’s more modern features have been lost , make it an unfitting option for prosumers and professionals , and upset many users of the prior version .
Fresh code, fresh way of thinking
iMovie ’ 08 is a fundamental re - write , not just of the codification , but of how to approach redaction picture . The old iMovie felt like a stripped down Final Cut ( ) program in which you worked with timelines , ABA transit number , and filters . The new iMovie is more like the difference between iPhoto ( ) and Photoshop ( ) — the consumer as opposed to the professional , the immediate and casual versus the accurate and hard - core . In panoptic strokes they do the same things , but in very different ways .
In the broad sense , telecasting editing for consumers has not been as widely successful or adopted to the same extent as digital still picture taking . iMovie ’ 08 is Apple ’s attempt to make something as easy to use as iPhoto for video editing . Indeed , iMovie ’ 08 feels a mass like iPhoto — for example , the library ( with its new event - base organization ) allows you to view , form , and work with your intact video appeal at a glance , combine and edit videos together into projection with a minimum of black eye suction stop , then export your labor either for your own consumption or to share online . A true one - stop - shop .
Getting started
install iMovie ’ 08 was a smooth process with only minor glitches on several Macs I essay it on ( two G5s and a MacBook ) . Existing asset libraries from previous iLife installs ( I have many grand of pictures , videos , and audio file on my MacBook ) loaded without a arrest . The new iMovie seemed static : I experience only one unexpected quit after several days of use . Launch times increment , however , with declamatory media library .
user of the previous iMovie , or of other video editing package , may be challenged at first , as iMovie does n’t crop the way other telecasting redaction applications do . The media / timeline section are in different position , clicking and dragging does n’t drag a clip to a novel location , and other departure that make the first five minutes frustrating . Take the meter to view theonline tutorials(they make for a quicker learn than the on-line help , and there is no printed manual of arms ) for 10 or 20 minute of arc , and you ’ll treasure why the changes have been made .
Functionality: no worries, no waiting
At first glance , it would seem that Apple just clean up and reorganise iMovie ’s interface , but the workflow and implementation of iMovie ’ 08 is alone dissimilar than before .
There is an outstanding new lineament in iMovie ( and iPhoto ) called skimming — as you move the shiner cursor over a TV clip image ( in iMovie ’s instance ) , you see single frame from the video in chronological sequence without click . This is a revolutionary Modern mode to apace see what your telecasting hold and see what you want to use in your labor . Need to snap up a shot out of a clip ? easily — just skimming , flick and get behind the fate of the shot you want , then click and dredge into the project windowpane .
The unexampled version also features additional television data format support , include AVCHD cameras , as well as MPEG-2 ( received definition only ) and MPEG-4 ( stock and high definition video formatting ) . For these new tapeless format , there is a tricksy new Import interface that let you see thumbnails of all your pellet , and you may highlight and import just the shots you need . This is vastly easier than the common tapeline - establish approach , and very consumer favorable .
Unlike anterior version , when you start a novel undertaking , you just tell iMovie ’ 08 what aspect ratio you ’re sour in : Standard , iPhone , or Widescreen . You do n’t call for to worry about any other technical detail such as the chassis size of it , physique pace , data format or aspect ratio of your footage — iMovie handles all of that for you . That is a major root word throughout the program — iMovie ’ 08 just treat a passel of the technical complexity for you , and lets you focalize on the fun part — order together a TV and sharing it .
Effects, type, and transitions
iMovie offers quick and uncomplicated way to modify your footage . Is that shot too long ? Select the part you want and right - click to choose the Trim To Selection command . Is the subject too little in the frame ? Use the new Crop instrument to pasture the video recording just like you ’d clip a photograph . Is your footage a unlike face ratio than your project preferences ? No problem — iMovie ’ 08 offer multiple ways to get it to fit . Not happy with the color or exposure ? The unexampled Adjust Video windowpane let you line up the colour precisely the way of life you ’re used to doing in iPhoto . ask to add schoolbook ? New titling tools tender in effect - wait templates with pleasing fonts already selected that you’re able to alter to taste . In addition , titling is now in - place : you edit text directly on the title instead of type into separate field , as in the clunky quondam iMovie titler .
In prior versions you could mechanically add a Ken Burns genus Pan and zoom effect to every still in a labor to give it a little life . In iMovie ’ 08 , you’re able to control , on a project - by - project basis , whether Ken Burns effects and cross dissolves are mechanically applied to all shot and for how long — and even deepen your setting later so those changes will hold to all the existing transitions .
At a higher floor , however , the computer program offers a variety of instrument and workflows that make it well-situated to put together together video subject that flow smoothly , is enjoyable to watch , and is quick and simple enough to be worth the effort . For instance , the Edit puppet allows you to just click to add a preset length of video to the project from clips in the Library - just crop through and click , click , chatter to add four - second ( the default ) pieces of video . localize to euphony with passage , this makes an piquant montage movie .
YouTube, anyone?
Another major focus and feature of iMovie ’ 08 is the sharing capability — besides being able-bodied to well publish to your own iTunes Library in a change of sizes , you’re able to also print to your media web browser ( the iLife subroutine library that the other iLife ’ 08 can expose and point to ) , and to the novel .Mac Web Galleries and YouTube .
raw under the parcel menu is the option to export your movie to four different sizes : midget , Mobile , Medium , and Large . A handy chart shows you which sizes are appropriate for which regard gadget — iPod , iPhone , AppleTV , or Computer .
you may release to YouTube in as small as three pawl , and your creation will be viewable by one thousand thousand of people in minutes . Imagine going to an result , shoot a coolheaded time , and being able to have that footage online 10 minute after you get home . you may do that with iMovie ’ 08 .
Performance: Fast, but a bit fuzzy
Generally , iMovie ’s execution on all kinds of Macs , and with a change of project , was very honorable with only a few bug . High definition footage played back in real fourth dimension , in full screen mode , on my Power Mac G5 Quad ( ) with a 1,920 - by-1,200 - pixel show . I stack several effects and modifications on a clip and never go through a advancement taproom . Footage play swimmingly , with only a tiny glitch from time to clip as it cut between video recording and a high - resolution photo . This is mythologic for consumers — nothing kill the sport like waiting on an inch advance measure . On my first generation MacBook , however , performance was not as tonic - the skeletal frame rate drop during transition , for example — and that was n’t even with in high spirits definition footage .
Exporting to the preferred H.264 QuickTime data formatting was also pleasantly snappy , but for big movies , gestate to expect several times the movie duration for Sharing to finish . For example , a one - second motion-picture show will take several bit to encode and upload .
That ’s the unspoilt news . The bad newsworthiness is that in social club to get this real time performance without render or progress bars , there is some sacrifice in quality . For interlace telecasting such as DV and 1080i HDV , iMovie now uses exclusive - field processing . This mean every other horizontal line of the television is thrown out , which foreshorten the asperity of the footage . High definition ( HD ) footage is process internally at 960 - by-540 pixels at most , and that ’s not as eminent resolution or sharp as it could be ( and was in prior translation ) , but with the output from many HD consumer cameras , the visible difference between Full ( 1,920 - by-1,080 ) and Large ( 960 - by-540 ) will likely be slight to negligible for most substance abuser . In short , if you want maximum quality turnout from an HD machine , do n’t use iMovie ’ 08 .
Seeming to acknowledge this variety and other shortcomings as compared to anterior liberation , Apple allows iLife ’ 08 users to download the last rendering , iMovie HD 6 ( ) fromApple Supportand use that instead . iMovie HD 6 projection can be spell into iMovie 08 , but with severe limitation - all transition become thwartwise dissolves ; titles , still image , and medicine racetrack do n’t import at all .
Also , because of this rewrite , third - party plug - in bread and butter has been lost — old plug - ins do n’t work , and there is no API for newfangled plug - ins in iMovie ’ 08 , as of this writing . Apple has been very proud of with their third - party iMovie developers in the past and is look into ways to allow third company hack - Immigration and Naturalization Service while maintaining the speedy public presentation of iMovie ’ 08 .
Other losses include the followers : The new interpretation has no chapter marker for DVD or World Wide Web ; no topic ; no video playthrough to a FireWire equipment ; no accurate audio control ; and surprisingly , no export back to tape - all of which point to a philosophical shift away from a traditional video recording editing workflow to a casual , Web deliverable workflow . Apple is clear that this is a 1.0 release that it will build upon , so I would hope and expect some of these features to return in future releases . These change designate that iMovie ’ 08 is intelligibly a different form of program for a different intention than iMovie HD 6 .
This new adaptation also has smashed hardware essential — you must have a Mac with an Intel processor , a Power Mac G5 ( dual 2.0GHz or faster ) , or an iMac G5 ( 1.9GHz or faster ) to run it at all ( no Powerbooks ) , and HD video requires at least 1 GB of RAM .
Simplicity rules
A few years ago , the musical theme of pee a DVD and mailing it to friends and relatives made the most sense , but these days , the Internet is often the well-heeled choice for a growing issue of people — and iMovie ’ 08 is the easiest tool to get your TV there . The program lets you promptly and easily work in culture medium from a wide variety of sources ( music from your iTunes program library , hush and video from iPhoto , video from a extensive variety of consumer formats ) , arrange it together quick and easily , and then deal it in a variety of ways .
Its ease of employment can not be hyperbolise . This is the first video redaction diligence that I could conceive of my Mom using . And that is exactly Apple ’s intent — to make picture redaction so simple , fast , and sport that everybody will desire to use it , and not be daunted by the complexness of the chore .
The downside of this new goal is that many of the more advanced features that Apple may have view confusing for the broad casual redaction market — features that were appealing and that previous users had gotten used to — are now go . iMovie ’ 08 quite clearly trace itself as a insouciant consumer editing curriculum , incriminate that Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro — or Adobe ’s Premiere Pro — are now firmly the prosumer and professional pick .
Macworld’s buying advice
iMovie ’ 08 is ideal for consumers who want quick and easy redaction for a assortment of picture formats and the ability to three - click publish to YouTube or a .Mac Gallery . For speed and convenience of browsing , dewy-eyed editing , and sharing , nothing in its course of study can touch it . While great for its intended audience , the video - quality number and editing limitations make this a pitiable option for users with heavier editing demands . If you want effective caliber video recording processing for DV or HDV footage or third - party plug - inch , or if you require any of the other now - missing features , flummox with iMovie HD 6 .
[ Mike Curtis runsHD for Indies , a consultancy and vane website focused on high - definition video / film product , with an emphasis on HD cameras and workflow , as well as postproduction hardware and software . ]
