[cambro]

iMovie 6 is an absolute disgrace.

I have never been more disappointed in an Apple product. Immediately upon opening the very first project I noticed the considerably worse performance of iMovie 6 in comparison to iMovie 5 on the exact same system. The performance was so bad, that I initially thought that there must have been a conversion problem for the specific project I was in. So, I resaved the old project, opened a new project and started making a completely new movie but all to no avail. iMovie 6 is just a terrible step backwards from iMovie 5.

System Specs: 1Ghz Ti Powerbook (1 Gig RAM, 64 MB ATI graphics card), 10.4.4, all software updates applied. (Yes, permissions have been repaired, yes, disk utility has been run, yes everything else on my system works absolutely flawlessly, including iPhoto 6, which is quite nice and has great performance).

Problems noticed within the first 5 minutes of using iMovie 6, all in comparison to iMovie 5 on the exact same hardware/software configuration and exact same digital media:

1) Abysmal playback quality. The images/movies/clips are so much worse in quality in iMovie 6 during playback and preview (full screen or small screen) that it is shocking. I have preferences set for highest quality (default); changing to high quality makes matters worse. The quality in iMovie 5 for the exact same projects/images/movies on the exact same machine is many, many, many times better than it is in iMovie 6. Titles also render so terribly in iMovie 6 compared to iMovie 5 that it is difficult to believe I am looking at the same text in an updated application. Text is jagged, and almost ripples during preview. Preview/playback quality is now similar to what it used to be before iMovie 5 (iMovie 4 I think), which, as you remember, was a lot worse than 5. This is all in the best case...when the problems below aren't happening (which isn't often).

2) Fullscreen playback often just does not work. Often when previewing in full screen mode, a yellowish off-white screen is displayed and it never goes away. Sound plays, but no image/movie appears and the nasty off-white screen remains. Stopping and starting fullscreen usually fixes the issue, but playback quality is still terrible.

3) Glaring and terrible artifacts appear spontaneously. Often, when previewing movies (full screen or small screen) colors just spontaneously change in the image. This happens very frequently with black backgrounds. The black background will just change to a uniform putrid purplish color. This can happen spontaneously when clicking somewhere in the iMovie 6 application window, or when previewing (full or small screen). Color will usually change back to normal when the playhead is dragged, but doing this can cause the same artifact in another clip. There is no obvious pattern to the occurrence, though it happens regularly enough that it is easy to generate.

4) Occasional significant click delays/lags. Sometimes, iMovie 6 can be thrown into terrible delays that result in seconds of lag between clicks. This happens when navigating the timeline in clip view. Clicking between clips sometimes results in significant time delays before the image is updated in preview window. No similar delays were ever experienced in iMovie 5.

All of these problems were obvious within 5 minutes and I haven’t even tried importing, rendering effects, or doing anything remotely resembling complicated work in iMovie 6.

If you use iMovie to view/show movies and have pre-existing projects that work and display fine in iMovie 5 on your machine, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you back up your projects and try them in iMovie 6 before upgrading. You may find that the upgrade is in reality a step back to iMovie 4 or worse!

iWeb-created examples

[mdc]

I'm sorry that you have found it so unbearable, but my first 5 minutes with iMovie 6 were the complete opposite of yours.

I tried out the themes, dropped a few images and movies into the drop zones, rendered some themes, transistions, text, and played around with an iMovie 5 project in it.

I find the speed of iMovie 6 a lot better than 5. In my opinion, iMovie 5 was the worst performing one that I have used. I much prefered iMovie 4 to iMovie 5. Since I have been using iMovie 6, I have to say it is by far my favorite release.

[cambro]

Originally Posted by mdc

I'm sorry that you have found it so unbearable, but my first 5 minutes with iMovie 6 were the complete opposite of yours.

Weird. I've used the iLife suite all through and this is the worst iMovie has been in quite some time (in terms of quality of rendering images/movies in preview). Combine that with the other issues and it is a dog in comparison to 5.

Specs of your machine? Configuration?

[vaccy]

Originally Posted by cambro

Weird. I've used the iLife suite all through and this is the worst iMovie has been in quite some time (in terms of quality of rendering images/movies in preview). Combine that with the other issues and it is a dog in comparison to 5.

Specs of your machine? Configuration?

I'd have to agree with the other fellow that had a good experience with iLife 6. No complaints here and I just finished a 1 hour movie and burned to DVD.

My conf is 4.38 GHz PPC G5 / 1 GB RAM / OS X 10.3.9

[cambro]

I've used iWeb (very nice!) to make a photo site illustrating the problem.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~shana...te/Photos.html

Pay particular attention to the images at the bottom...note the jagged edges etc in iMovie 6 and the nice smooth render in iMovie 5. When you play these movies, iMovie 6 just looks awful. The image "shimmers" because of the jagged and poor interleafing (or whatever the techincal term is). In iMovie 5 it looks beautiful.

Nobody else sees this difference?

[mdc]

Originally Posted by cambro

Specs of your machine? Configuration?

1.67ghz 17" Powerbook (new hd screen one). 1.5gb ram, 10.4.4

[JKT]

Are you using any third party Quicktime codecs? (Check the /Library/Quicktime/ folder and if there is anything in it, you are). Try removing them temporarily to the desktop and restarting. Does iMovie behave better now? If so, check you have the latest versions of the codecs and download them if you didn't. Install them and see if the problem recurs or not.

[cambro]

Originally Posted by JKT

Are you using any third party Quicktime codecs? (Check the /Library/Quicktime/ folder and if there is anything in it, you are).

I installed nothing related to Quicktime in the time from using iMovie 5 and getting great results to installing iLife 06 and getting bad results from iMovie 6 on the same media.

I checked /Library/Quicktime and had three files...two related to Flip4Mac WMV, one Universal AppleIntermediate codec that Apple must have installed(?). I removed all, restarted, and same problems occur.

Note that I have not noticed any other Quicktime related problems. iPhoto seems to work great, fast, beautifully. iMovie 5 with same quicktime configuration worked beautifully.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Make sure you've got 10.4.4, make sure you've got QuickTime 7.0.4 (I don't even think you can have something lower than that for iMovie HD 6 to work)...

Using filter effects may cause slowdowns because you don't have a vertex-shading capable GPU.

If that doesn't work...try reinstalling iMovie HD 6.

[cambro]

Update:

I now think that Quicktime 7.0.4 is to blame...at least in part.

I have also noticed a very significant decline in the quality of Quicktime Movie playback, particularly in fullscreen mode. Movies appear pixilated, distorted, and “shimmer” when in motion. This has apparently started since Quicktime 7.0.4.

Note that this problem is evident in all aspects of the video, but is particuarly obvious where there are sharp lines, which are obviously prone to such pixelation and degradation in quality.

Previous to 7.0.4, when playing a specific 1024x768 Quicktime Movie made by iPhoto from within Keynote or within Quicktime Player, I experienced outstanding playback quality in fullscreen mode. Recently, after installing iLife ’06 and upgrading to Quicktime 7.0.4, the quality of this same Quicktime movie in both Keynote and Quicktime has declined very substantially. Re-exporing th movie from iPhoto does not improve the situation.

So, although I still think iMoive 6 is buggy and the achilles heel of the "digtal apple lifestyle" at the moment, the degradation of quicktime playback, particularly in full screen mode, leads me to believe that at least some of the problem is Quicktime 7.0.4.

(YES, I've reinstalled Quicktime, reparied permissions, have all current software updates applied, run disk utility, restarted, and removed all /LIbrary/Quicktime/xxxx files (or not) and restarted).

[markusbet]

Originally Posted by cambro

iMovie 6 is an absolute disgrace.

Wanna know more?
It's seems, from some rumors, that Apple made iMovie so badly because it wanted to do copy the real time features from a real time animation application called Kinemac (at kinemac.com).
This application has been presented for the first time in Jan 2005 (so one year earlier), and Apple was embarrassed to be not the first company releasing a (3D) real time animation application for TV titles, playing movies in real time. So one year later, Apple has been trying to do the same introducing some real time feature in iMovie just applying an OpenGL "sticker" over the iMovie window to grant real time previews.
The result is a disgrace with most of the graphic cards. I agree with you.

[:dragonflypro:]

Originally Posted by markusbet

Wanna know more?
It's seems, from some rumors, that Apple made iMovie so badly because it wanted to do copy the real time features from a real time animation application called Kinemac (at kinemac.com).
This application has been presented for the first time in Jan 2005 (so one year earlier), and Apple was embarrassed to be not the first company releasing a (3D) real time animation application for TV titles, playing movies in real time. So one year later, Apple has been trying to do the same introducing some real time feature in iMovie just applying an OpenGL "sticker" over the iMovie window to grant real time previews.
The result is a disgrace with most of the graphic cards. I agree with you.

Yes, Apple tanked the iLIfe flagship app over a single feature!

Um, No.

And it looks like Kinemac is merely an app built on top of CoreImage, so I am not sure your efforts are even close to the target.

Sorry.

[markusbet]

Originally Posted by :dragonflypro:

Yes, Apple tanked the iLIfe flagship app over a single feature!
Um, No.
And it looks like Kinemac is merely an app built on top of CoreImage.

Kinemac has nothing to do with CoreImage. It's pure OpenGL. That's why it flies like a charm on real time animation and titling. This morning I have been trying iMovie 6 on a G5 in an Apple Store. The text animation was a pain as well as panning a simple image. Everything was moving like Macromedia Director 20 years ago: with a strobo effect.
Let me say, iMovie 6 is really a disgrace. I hope Apple fixes this troubles as soon as possible.
I keep on working on the version 5.

[bigjuggler]

I'll weigh in to say that iMovie 6 is a bust for me as well.

I use Final Cut Express and it is FINE. I just installed iLife 06 on my iMac G5 2.0 Ghz and it is bad. I am running 10.4.4 and Quicktime 7.04.

I mostly upgrade iLife to use this app, especially the Themes and the new Ken Burns slideshow interface but no go.

It will not render. It just sits there. If I try to export or quit, it tells me it is still rendering, though I am seeing no sign of progress on that task.

I have run disk utility, repaired permissions, trashed my iMovie preferences, removed all third party Quicktime components (divx 4, 5, 6) and nothing has helped. Sigh.

I am really disappointed. Sigh.

I really upgraded just for this app. iPhoto works well and has some nice new features and iDVD has some lovely new themes.

I am glad I am not the only one with problems in iMovie. Misery loves company.

Cheers,

[bernt]

What is the performance of iMovie 6 after the recent update to 6.0.1?