iMovie ’08
It sounds like the best feature of iMovie 8 (the version that comes with the recently released iLife ’08 suite) is the fact that it does not delete an already installed version of iMovie from your hard drive.
David Pogue, NY Times technology columnist, echoes the hue and cry from the blogsphere and the discussion boards regarding the removal of many useful features from versions of iMovie prior to v8:
“I can’t remember any software company pulling a stunt like this before: throwing away a fully developed, mature, popular program and substituting a bare-bones, differently focused program under the same name.”
Among the changed or missing features:
- no timeline with displayed timecode
- no ability to change the audio volume during a scene
- no way to extract audio from a clip
- no more support for multiple audio tracks
- no plug in support for third party effects
- no ability to insert chapter markers for iDVD (this seems inexcusable…)
- no ability to export part of a movie
- no visual effects (that’s right–no slow motion, reverse, black-and white, sepia tone…)
- inability to fully import old iMovie projects (imports clips only–no transitions, credits, music, effects…)
Regular users of iMovie will recognize this list as comprising a significant portion of the feature list of previous versions of iMovie. All gone…
Fortunately, installing iLife ’08 over previous versions of iLife does not result in the deletion of your old version of iMovie. Look for a folder title “iMovie (previous version)” in your Applications folder. If you inadvertently delete it, Apple will allow owners of iLife 08 download a free copy of iMovie 6, the version immediately prior to v8. It’s a 155 MB download, and it will install only if it detects an installed copy of iLife 08.
Educators should also be aware that iMovie 8 requires significant computing power to run at all. Apple’s site states: “iMovie requires a Mac with an Intel processor, a Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0GHz or faster), or an iMac G5 (1.9GHz or faster).” It will no longer run on G4 processors. iBook users are out of luck.
While I can recommend the improvements to other iLife components (iPhoto 8 in particular), it’s going to be important for most schools and educators to stick with iMovie 6 until Apple updates and improves the current release.
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7 Responses to “iMovie ’08”
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Now that Steve Jobs is done “borrowing” programmers from all over Apple to finish the iPhone, he should “borrow” them over to iMovie and fix this mess. Upgrade iMovie 6 into a REAL iMovie 8 and rename iMovie 8 to iWebVideo.
Jan makes a good point about iMovie 8. It actually does some things very well, among them the welcome ability to post video directly to YouTube. I’d like to see this functionality added to iMovie 6, along with the way that iMovie 8 catalogs video from past projects. But to take away the functionality that we have always counted on seems ludicrous. You’re correct–it’s not iMovie anymore. It’s something else, and we need to have iMovie back–perhaps as a separate program.
You make a good point about iMovie 8. It actually does some things very well, among them the welcome ability to post video directly to YouTube. I’d like to see this functionality added to iMovie 6, along with the way that iMovie 8 catalogs video from past projects. But to take away the functionality that we have always counted on seems ludicrous. You’re correct–it’s not iMovie anymore. It’s something else, and we need to have iMovie back–perhaps as a separate program.
Yeah i got the new iMac with hopes of using all of the new programs, especially iMovie and as soon as i got it I noticed how there were no visual effects or seperate audio tracks and such. So i have been asking around for anyone with iMovie 6 but i have not found it oh well.
Joe–you can download a copy of iMovie 6 directly from Apple. It will install if you already have iMovie 8 installed. The link is in the original post.
I too, was very disappointed with the new iMovie 8. What were they thinking when they removed the visual effects along with other crucial elements for film production?! The “upgrade” fro Windows Movie Maker to iMovie 8 has left me very unimpressed!
Thanks for your comment, Jessica. I’ll have to admit that I have softened my stance on iMovie 08 since my original post since I have had more time to work with the program. There are some things that it does very well. It’s amazingly quick at downloading video and creating a movie. It has some very nice clip handling capabilities in terms of lengthening and shortening clips and being able to crop stills and clips. The Ken Burns effect is more more elegant than that in previous versions. I also like the much easier and more intuitive way that iMovie 08 exports projects to a variety of formats.
I still can’t understand the lack of time code, and I don’t like the new timeline nearly as much as the old version. If I had to choose one program over the other, I’d choose iMovie 6. Fortunately, you don’t have to choose. As I mentioned before, owners of iMovie 08 can download and install iMovie HD for free and have them both available. Some projects work better in one version than the other.