And He Blogs

This post finds me answering the question of what have I been up to lately. Well, I’m trying to find easy ways to edit and produce video for as close to zero expense as possible. So I find myself on the Mac and on the PC side of this MacBook Pro working with Windows Movie Maker for Vista and iMovie’08 for Mac. Now I’m going to jump straight to the ending and say that I don’t recommend you use either one of them, at least not for start to finish video editing projects.

What I will recommend that you do is go download the previous version of the editors and use them instead. So, if you use a Mac, go download iMovie HD. If you are using Windows XP, you’re OK, but make sure you have at least version 2.1. If you have Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, go download Movie Maker 2.6 for Vista. If you have Vista Home Basic, or Vista Enterprise/Business, it looks like you’re out of luck because version 2.6 seems to require that you have the original Vista Movie Maker program. Home Basic and Enterprise versions don’t come with Movie Maker so it looks like a non-starter.

Another caveat, the download page for Movie Maker 2.6 for Vista says to test if you can run the original version of Movie Maker. They say “If Movie Maker launches, you should not download version 2.6”. I have not discovered any incompatibilities with having both versions on my computer. As a matter of fact, I’m seeing that the original version of Movie Maker runs better once you install the old version. By better I mean that the original version has big problems with frame accuracy, in other words finding the exact point where one scene ends and the other begins. Still, Movie Maker 2.6 is more frame accurate.

Also, when you import video into the original Vista Movie maker, it does not detect scenes correctly. However, here is a truly weird situation. If I open a movie in 2.6 it does the scene detection correctly, and then if I open up the original Movie Maker with the same video all the scenes are now there as if it detected those scenes all along. Here’s a screencast of the phenomenon:

Expect more from me soon, regarding Windows Movie Maker and iMovie. Here’s a teaser for a large project I’m working on.

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Even with Apple’s Leopard and its more then 300(!) new features, Blu-ray playback isn’t one of them. Yet. Macworld is this week and rumors are starting about Apple launching into the high-definition disc fray. Will it be Blu-ray only? Apple is firmly in the blue camp. Will the combo drive now be a Blu-ray reader and the super drive be a Blu-ray reader/writer? Will HD-DVD be added for compatibility or will Apple ignore it in light of the beating the reds are taking recently? Am I going to answer any of these questions?

Well, I’m at the point of being totally unimpressed by speculation or even actual product announcements, whether it’s at Macworld or CES. Tell me when products are shipping first of all. As I mentioned previously, it was announced at least year’s CES that HD-DVD burners would be available in early 2007. So how many can I buy now at the beginning of 2008? Still ZERO!

P.T. Barnum, I mean Steve Jobs, will take the stage on January 15th and whoop the Apple fanboys faithful into a frenzy with something that is over-hyped and over-priced. I think it borders on criminal that a DVD burner is not standard equipment on all Macs at all price points. Now will we just have the Blu-ray version of this scenario? I’m trying to remember the last magic gizmo that Apple announced that was reasonably priced.

UPDATE: And the answer is . . . nope! Though Apple did update the Apple TV, and in doing so lowered the price ($299 to $239) and offered to current owners a free upgrade to the new features. Who says they’re not about value It looks to me as though Apple feels the future is in HD downloads and not Hi-Def on physical media. Though it appears that there are more restrictions than discount airfare tickets.

Photo by ::stromberg

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