I was pretty shocked to find out how badly iMovie 3 runs on my 400Mhz G4 PM w/640M ram. It's practically unuseable. 'Undo' takes about 30 seconds, and just moving the cursor along the timeline a few seconds gives me the spinning beachball for around 15 seconds. All other funtions are equally slow, and what's worse is how often it crashes. After spending several agonizing hours completing a project, I then opened the new version of iDVD and had similar luck. The first disc I burned had a huge offset between the audio and the video, which got worse as the movie progressed. After finding a 'sort-of' solution to that problem online [which consisted of the less-than-convenient technique of dumping the whole thing to camcorder, then back into iMovie as a new project], I tried again. This time, the disc is better but the music audio file I used skips in places, and in other places there is still an offset between the dialogue and the video. All in all, this was a thoroughly unenjoyable experience. I've used many beta programs that were more stable than iLife. I'm pretty amazed that this software came from a company that claims to be making a serious bid for the digital hub market. Am I asking to much that it run decently on my 3 year old Mac? Anyone else out there feel that Apple's integrity has dropped a fair distance with the release of the defective software?
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Imovie 3 frustration
- Thread starter Invizzible
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It was found that if you delete the iMovie 2 plist file and leave the iMovie 3 plist file, iMovie 3 runs a lot faster. Also if you have a large enough music library, iTunes can slow iMovie down.
My problem with iMovie3 is that the "slider" doesn't move very smoothly. With iMovie2, the slider would move very smoothly and you could get a very accurate idea of where in the timeline you were. Now, the slider jumps about every 2 seconds or so. Very annoying.
BTW, I'm using a iBook 500, with 640MB RAM. I'm wondering if the plist thing will help.
I was just reading this morning that one user found a fix for the sound becoming out of sync. Turns out when he went through his movie files one by one many of the ones he used for the movie were corrupt or wouldn't play. So by removing those movies from the project the sound then synched properly.
It wouldn't hurt to try.
Quit from iMovie first
Go to Home -> Library -> Preferences
Locate any iMovie plist file that doesn't have a 3 in it. Any without the number 3 in the filename belonged to version 2.
I didn't even know what a 'plist' file is, but I guess it's obvious it stands for 'preference list'. Right now I'm looking in that folder, and I see "IM_Installer.plist" and "iMovie Preferences". Are you saying I should only remove the one with the ".plist" extension? I don't see any files that are labelled specifically as "iMovie3..."
Ummm, I don't think so but pardon my ignorance because I'm not 100% sure about this stuff. I did as the post above suggested:
"Go to Home -> Library -> Preferences"
If the 'root directory Library' folder is the one that I find directly after my main hard drive, then no, that's not the one I am looking in. But now that you brought my attention to it, I see that the Preferences folder in that one doesn't have any iMovie files at all, which would make sense [I think].
So I guess that means you're surprised that I don't have any plist file that's labelled specifically for iMovie 3. Does that mean if I remove the iMovie plist file that I have, it will stop working altogether?
"Go to Home -> Library -> Preferences"
If the 'root directory Library' folder is the one that I find directly after my main hard drive, then no, that's not the one I am looking in. But now that you brought my attention to it, I see that the Preferences folder in that one doesn't have any iMovie files at all, which would make sense [I think].
So I guess that means you're surprised that I don't have any plist file that's labelled specifically for iMovie 3. Does that mean if I remove the iMovie plist file that I have, it will stop working altogether?
The home folder is the same as:
Hard drive -> Users -> your username
Hard drive -> Users -> your username -> Library -> Preferences for the plist files in question.
Sorry for not being clearer at first. If you viewed everything in multicolumn view you'd understand how the directory paths in Mac OS X are structured better, because upon clicking the home icon in the toolbar you'd find exactly where you are on the hard drive.
Hard drive -> Users -> your username
Hard drive -> Users -> your username -> Library -> Preferences for the plist files in question.
Sorry for not being clearer at first. If you viewed everything in multicolumn view you'd understand how the directory paths in Mac OS X are structured better, because upon clicking the home icon in the toolbar you'd find exactly where you are on the hard drive.
Right. Ok. That part I understand. I looked in that folder and only found "IM_Installer.plist" and "iMovie Preferences" files. No files that specifically said anything about iMovie3. That made me wonder if what I have are iMovie2 files, and that I am missing some iMovie3 files??
So, when you said to remove any iMovie plist files that don't specify "iMovie3", should I go ahead and do that even though I don't see ANY plist files that specifically say they are for "iMovie3"?
So, when you said to remove any iMovie plist files that don't specify "iMovie3", should I go ahead and do that even though I don't see ANY plist files that specifically say they are for "iMovie3"?
Whoops! I see I overlooked the files that start out with "com.apple...." Ok, sorry. Now I see the files you're talking about. Ok, off to the trash with them. Thank you!
I'm currently at 6.0.2. I see the upgrade to 6.1 is 19.4 meg. Yikes! That's gonna take a while on my dial up. Ok, I'll give it a shot. It can only help, right? [famous last words....that's the same thing I thought when I upgraded to iMovie 3].
Seriously, thanks for all the tips, everyone! Later.
Seriously, thanks for all the tips, everyone! Later.
OK, I've deleted the iMovie 2 plst file and I've checked to see if I had QT 6.1 (I do).
The "slider" is still choppy. I don't really know why this is, maybe it's the files that I'm using. They're basically mpg that I've exported to dv. I've done it both ways (dragging the file onto iMovie and converting to dv via QT Pro). No difference either way.
In the end, I may just revert back to iMovie 2. I don't have a SuperDrive, so I won't be burning DVDs. I just like to mess around with stuff that I get off of my digicam (not miniDV).
Maybe when I get that 12" PowerBook, I'll be ready for iMovie 3.
The "slider" is still choppy. I don't really know why this is, maybe it's the files that I'm using. They're basically mpg that I've exported to dv. I've done it both ways (dragging the file onto iMovie and converting to dv via QT Pro). No difference either way.
In the end, I may just revert back to iMovie 2. I don't have a SuperDrive, so I won't be burning DVDs. I just like to mess around with stuff that I get off of my digicam (not miniDV).
Maybe when I get that 12" PowerBook, I'll be ready for iMovie 3.
The choppy slider thing (how the cursor moves along the timeline) is something my iMovie 3 is suffering from, too. So far, I've only used DV footage that I imported into iMovie directly from my Sony digital camcorder, so I don't think the problem is in the file type your using. I had just written it off along with the other symptoms as really poor performance.
Phooey! Mine is still running as slow as before. I'm wondering if a G4 400Mhz (640Mram) just isn't fast enough.
Oh, I forgot to mention I'm also having a weird thing with the new iDVD. When I try to open up a project that I've saved, it gives me a message that says something about a font is missing [I can't remember the exact message, but that's the jist of it]. Then the "Loading Project" progress bar pops open, but it never fills up...it just stays completely empty and the project never opens. This has happened every time I've tried to open a project with it, with a few different projects. I haven't seen anyone complain about this one yet. Anyone else out there having this problem??
Oh, I forgot to mention I'm also having a weird thing with the new iDVD. When I try to open up a project that I've saved, it gives me a message that says something about a font is missing [I can't remember the exact message, but that's the jist of it]. Then the "Loading Project" progress bar pops open, but it never fills up...it just stays completely empty and the project never opens. This has happened every time I've tried to open a project with it, with a few different projects. I haven't seen anyone complain about this one yet. Anyone else out there having this problem??
If I'm understanding everyone's description of the problem correctly I don't think the "choppy" slider is a bug. Instead of it "sliding" smoothly across the timeline it "jumps" from the begining of one freame to the begining of the next frame. While looking odd (and being mildly distracting at first) it actually makes it easier to discern which frame is currently being displayed.
Lethal
Lethal
Mine isn't jumping frame by frame, it's jumping by increments slightly greater than one second. It reminds me of the way the input level meters in Pro Tools LE are effected when I bogg my system down with too many plug ins. They go from looking smooth to jumping from one level to the next, as if the resolution were ultra-low. That's one of the reasons I'm wondering if iMovie3 is just too much for my system, even though I have a G4 and the minimum specs call for a G3.
Nope, the choppy slider isn't jumping from one scene to another. My slider jumps by a little over 2 seconds. It makes it quite difficult to line up where I want music to start. It's pretty annoying.
NOTE - the video playback is not choppy. It plays smoothly. Just the slider.