New iMovie: More Fun, Features, Integration, Bugs.

I like iMovie. I always have. It’s a style cramper for those with video and audio production experience, but a great application to create good looking movies, cheap.

Again, iLife ‘06 is a mixed bag despite the fact that it delivers more than the sum of the parts, though the parts in iLife have improved, even matured. iTunes is mature. iPhoto is mature. Even Garageband is mature and stable.

I want iMovie to mature, too, but Apple keeps dinking around with it so it’s never quite there. But always sooo close.

So it is with iMovie HD 6.0 in iLife ‘06.

Many new features and a new look. Say goodbye to brushed aluminum forever. Say hello to platinum plastic. For now.

iMovie will look familiar. Under the hood? More changes. I’d swear that Apple is building in the changes and features to iMovie just to frustrate current users so they’ll go buy new Macs.

Why? Because you need horsepower to run iMovie. It’ll be very good at about version 6.0.3.

New to iMovie are real-time effects, transitions, real-time titling, Magic iMovie, and a whole bucket of features.

There’s new iMovie themes designed by Apple. Yes, they look VERY good. What would you expect from Apple?

You can now open multiple video projects at once and cut and paste between them. That alone is worth going for the new version.

It’s all there. Timeline editing, direct Firewire import, iDVD integration, the new iLife Media Browser (deal with it… it’s here for good), better sharing, and integration with Garageband to sweeten iMovie audio.

Using OS X Tiger’s built in “Core Video”, iMovie has more built-in effects when render in near real-time.

Using OS X Tiger’s built in “Core Audio”, iMovie has a built-in sound studio with effects, and access to other cool tools in Garageband, but within iMovie. See? Better integration.

I’m having trouble viewing in my mind a gazillion Mac users creating their own family Podcasts, either audio or video, but it could happen.

If it does happen, and you have iLife ‘06, you’re prepared, because Podcast tools are built in to iMovie HD 6.0.x, too.

The best new feature is iMovie themes. Man, Apple knows how to make complex things work well, and this extra makes dull, boring, birthday party video, picnic video, even wedding shots from the audience using a Handycam, look, well, good.

The iMovie GUI has been rearranged a bit in version 6. Things have moved around, so play with it awhile, and get used to it. The ‘changes’ and the GUI.

Apple’s “Media Browser” is most prominent in the true media applications; iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, and even within iWeb. It’s drag and drop of photos, movies, and music.

The bad news? iMovie is once again a resource hog which under performs on lowly Macs, works OK on PowerMacs, and probably does well under the new Intel Macs (iLife is built to run on either Intel or PPC Macs).

I ran into a few problems with the real-time effects. Some just didn’t work. Others didn’t work as expected, or blended other effects which hadn’t been selected.

The GUI grinds to a halt from time to time as iMovie catches up with what you think you’re doing. Some of the real-time operations were not really, and I’m using a dual 2.5ghz PowerMac for testing.

Stability problems are normal for an Apple point update; say, 5.x to 6.x. It’ll get better by 6.0.1, and be worthy by 6.0.3 or so.

Please hurry, Apple. iMovie HD 6.0 is a pleasure to behold, but just needs a new Intel Mac to make it truly fun again.

Still, disappointments aside, it took just seconds to convert some old clips that were boring just as clips, and add the themes to wrap them in something that just looked good. Very good.

Of all the iApps in iLife ‘06, iMovie is not at the bottom in terms of need for improvement. iWeb needs more improvement. But there’s nothing like this suite of applications on Windows. Nothing.

The integration of tools, between the OS’s “Core” and the applications, and between the applications themselves, is nothing short of remarkable. Oh, one more thing-- the Ken Burns effect finally works well in iMovie. If you have the horsepower and RAM.

Bambi Hambi
I had similar problems with iMovie. My copy arrived yesterday. Still, the integration of tools is nothing short of remarkable. I love the audio sweetening ability.

Jack D. Miller
Carol set iLife ‘06 on her Mac mini. Not good. 512 megs RAM is not enough to run two or three of iLife’s apps at the same time. Garageband is still slow, iMovie is slower, add iPhoto, and iDVD, and you can time your productions with a calendar.

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