[MacDV] iMovie Still Render Bug- was: forcing iMovie to display the dialog ["Your movie ...

[Vince Salupo]

This thread has two titles and has been going for 4 digests and no one has
mentioned the iMovie bug that is at the root of this still quality problem.

It took me 4 years to finally get an answer but there is one buried in the
Apple forums. The secret to quality stills in iMovie versions 2 through 6 is
the Ken Burns effect. The bug has been in every version of iMovie and
involves its conversion algorithms which downgrade conversions to the lowest
resolution in the project, NTSC/PAL video.

Turning off the Ken Burns effect leads to the dreaded iMovie prompt to
"Render and Proceed". There are other effects that cause this dialog but if
you only have still images in iMovie (no transitions or effects) you only
get this message if you import with Ken Burns OFF.

You will get perfect quality stills if you leave the Ken Burns effect ON.
Import your photo. Go to the Media pane and select the "Show Photo Settings"
button at the bottom of the Photo pane. Enable the Ken Burns checkbox.
Adjust the Ken Burns settings to a ratio of 1.00 for both Start and End. Set
the duration for your liking and let Ken Burns render your image. Voila! You
get a excellent quality still image.

I have only tried this with .gif and .jpg files but it works great and the
output to my camcorder no longer requires iMovie to render.

Once I learned this trick, slideshows in iMovie became a reality. I have had
20 minute slideshows in iMovie using 6 megapixel photos that come out
crystal clear on a TV.

Give it a try.

Vince