imovie problems

[ciaran08]

Hey I have recently bought a mac and have had nothing but problems from imovie. i am not able to import any movies. Now i have tried to import an avi files, which once again imovie can not use. i also put a disk in from a video camera and the files were not supported. if you have any advice i would really appreciate it.

[retroleum]

I had a similar problem (bunch of AVI files, no way to import directly into iMovie 08) and here's what I had to do:

1) Get ffmpegX (free) and drag your movie into the app.
2) In the Video tab, select "MPEG4 [.MOV] (ffmpeg)" and make sure your video parameters are correct (it tends to default to 16:9 widescreen, so make sure you enter in the correct dimensions of your movie if it is not widescreen).
3) In the Audio tab, select AAC.
4) Hit "Encode."
5) Open up GarageBand (create a random new project because you have to).
6) Drag & drop the movie you JUST encoded into it. (Side note: If you need to fix the timing of the audio vs. the video, NOW is the time to do it because it isn't possible in iMovie 08.)
7) Go to Share > Export Movie to Disk and go with the Full Quality.
8) Drag and drop THIS movie into iMovie 08.

Hope that works.