[booboo]

Anyone know if there's an iMovie-like - or even simpler - app that will edit QuickTime movies without conversion? Mainly for precise edits, ideally with preview.

Naturally, these abound - or at least exist on Windows, so that's an option, but I was hoping for something with a little Mac style.

I know you can do - and I've done - a fair amount with QuickTime Pro Player itself, but it's really fiddly trying to be frame-precise, especially when it comes to adding-in or removing just a few frames, In fact, there's an annoying bug where stepping one way frame by frame often takes you the other way, and vice versa!

[booboo]

Evidently there's a gap in the market - or everyone else is happy to convert to a format iMovie can edit, or frame accuracy isn't important . . . . or people are just keeping it to themselves ;-)

[Jacke]

Well, the only way I can see to edit Quicktime movies without conversion is to use the Quicktime API in some way.

You could try MPEG Streamclip, but I'm not sure that would work much better.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally Posted by booboo 

Evidently there's a gap in the market - or everyone else is happy to convert to a format iMovie can edit, or frame accuracy isn't important . . . . or people are just keeping it to themselves ;-)

Just from reading your post it sounds like QTPro would be exactly what you need. And since it's generally pretty good, and only $30, there's no market for competitors (kind of like how iTunes killed the mp3 player market).

I've seen what I think is your bug, and I think it's a b-frames issue. Have you tried cutting where you think you are, and seeing if QT was just displaying the wrong frame?

QTPro does do frame-accurate edits, in general. It becomes a lot easier of course with the undocumented key commands, like the arrow keys for stepping (also the scroll wheel), and the i/o keys for marking the in and out of selection (just like MPEG StreamClip). I'm not saying you don't know these but it doesn't hurt to mention them.