Bryan's Tips and Tricks

iMovie 08' will not import .mpg (MPEG-1) Files (Most Digital Still Camera Movies)? (Mac OS X 10.5.1 Leopard)

If you take Movies using your Digital Still Camera (I have a Sony) and want to edit those movies in iMovie '08...you may run into a problem. Most of these cameras use an MPEG-1 (.mpg) file format that iMovie does not support directly. These files must be converted before you can edit them in iMovie.

If you have Quicktime Pro, you already have the solution to this.

Here's How:

Open up the movie in Quicktime (Pro) *Note: You have to have pro to use this feature.

Choose "File" and then "Save" or "Save As" or "Export". Finish out the dialog box and BAM! You have .mov (Quicktime) file.

Drag and drop into iMovie doesn't work (which is frustrating) but all you need to do is go up to "File" and then choose "Import Movies" (From within iMovie). Select the Movie (the new .mov file) and it will import it.

If you do not have Quicktime Pro, here is a free solution.

Here's How:

Download and install MPEG Streamclip. (I used version 1.9 for this explanation.)

It is available from:

http://www.squared5.com

Open the Application and then Drag your Movie File into the main window of the Application. (Give it a second or 2 to import and the movie will appear.)

Screen1 Screen2

Go up to "File" and then choose "Export to Quicktime"

A rather complex dialog box will pop up, but just click "Make Movie".

Screen3

Choose where to save it to, and then you're done.

(Oh yeah, If your video is in iPhoto 08', right click on the movie in iPhoto and choose "Show File". This will reveal the actual location of the video file in the Finder.)

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