[MacDV] Re: iMovie HD 5.0.2 bugs and fixes

[Matti Haveri]

[continued from the previous message]

- Sometimes iMovie HD 5.0.2 projects with only still images fail to 
burn in iDVD 5.0.1

iDVD 5 sometimes has an error if it tries to encode an iMovie HD 
project consisting only of imported still images and no sound track.

For example: I can produce the error when trying to burn this simple 
project: Create a PAL-DV project with iMovie 5.0.2. Import two 
2048x1536 JPEGs to it with Ken Burns turned off. Send the project to 
iDVD 5.0.1 and let iMovie render the stills when it prompts it. Then 
encode the project as a disk image. At the very end of the encoding 
process there is an alert "Encoding Video. Error during 
rendering/encoding:" and making the disk image fails.

The error can sometimes be prevented if a short video clip with audio 
is inserted to the beginning of the iMovie project. Sometimes this 
doesn't work and iDVD's error message at the end of the encoding is: 
"Errors were found during the burning process. The error #-1 was 
reported". (This applies to iMovie 5.0.1 and iDVD 5.0 -- I haven't 
seen this in later versions).

- There may be single whiter frames with iMovie HD 5.0.2 projects 
burned in iDVD 5.0.1

This is mentioned in an Apple knowledgebase article: If you create a 
slideshow movie in iMovie HD 5.0.1 containing chapter markers it may 
produce white frames when burned to DVD using iDVD 5. It seems that 
in iMovie HD 5.0.2 the frames are not all white anymore but whiter 
than they should be.

For example: I can produce the error with this simple project: Create 
a PAL-DV project with iMovie 5.0.2. Import ten 2048x1536 JPEGs to it 
with Ken Burns turned off. Add a chapter marker to every 2nd still 
image so that there are 4 chapter markers. Send the project to iDVD 
5.0.1 and don't let iMovie render the stills when it prompts it 
(iMovie HD renders jaggy stills so the rendering prompt must be 
ignored). Then encode the project as a disk image. Mount the disk 
image and play it via the DVD Palyer.app or inspect the encoded .VOB 
frame-by-frame via MPEG Streamclip or QuickTime Player: There is a 
single whiter frame (i.e. white flash) at every spot where there is a 
chapter marker so there are 5 white flashes in this 50 second DVD 
(there is an additional whiter frame at the very beginning). The 
whiter frame pattern is always the same at the chapter marker spot: 
previous image - 1 frame of the next image - whiter frame - the rest 
of the next image and so on.

- The quality of imported still images which are saved back as frames 
is bad in iMovie HD 5.0.2

iMovie 5.0.2 fixes:

- The titles bug was fixed in iMovie HD 5.0.2 for NTSC but in PAL the 
bug persists! In iMovie HD 5.0.2 added Titles distort interlacing 
lines in the underlying PAL video.

- Slow-motion Effects are now correctly deinterlaced so they don't 
flicker on an interlaced TV.

The slo-mo effect is rendered when sending the project to tape or 
iDVD. You can force rendering by doing a dummy export to tape with no 
camcorder attached.

- Digitizing analog 8mm/Hi8 tapes on Sony D8 camcorders reportedly 
now works in iMovie HD 5.0.2.

- iMovie HD 5.0.2 now deinterlaces the video when importing and 
rendering 4:3 DV files to a 16:9 DV Widescreen project. I don't know 
whether this should be considered a feature or a bug.

But there is a related real a bug that I didn't bother to add to the 
bug section because it may be too weird:

With imported NTSC or PAL .dv or .mov the interlacing is distorted if 
the .dv or .mov has its High Quality flag (and no other playback 
quality flag) enabled. IMO the imported clip's playback setting 
should be just a PLAYBACK setting. It should NOT alter the behaviour 
of the .mov or .dv file in any other way!! (Unlike .mov files, the 
.dv files can't save the playback quality setting but applications 
like Toast and MPEG Streamclip store the playback quality info in the 
.dv file's resource fork).

- For more info, updates, workarounds and examples, check:

<http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_bugs.html>