Concatenation frustration
I've been attempting to concatenate a dozen movie clips into one. I keep trying but I'm frustrated. I've tried several apps, but none does the job.
I've watched online videos on how to concatenate, but they don't explain thoroughly enough to overcome problems I've encountered. "Help' doesn't help, either. I use SL on an iMac & a MBP.
Catenator works up to a point. It creates a merged file; however, that file won't open.
Split & Concat refuses to concatenate at all. No matter how often I press 'Concatenate', it won't.
iSkysoft works perfectly, but it has "iSkysoft" splashed across every scene.
iMovie imports the clips I want to concatenate, but it won't let me drag those into the "Drag media here to create a new project' window.
No doubt I'm doing something wrong with each app, but I don't know what or how to correct that.
What do you use to concatenate? Is it intuitive? I don't have a computer science education and stumble blindly through projects like this. If it weren't for advice from AI, I'd stick to using my Macs just for email and surfing.
I will appreciate any suggestions offered.
Comments
iMovie should work ok for this. Have you tried creating a new project first and then dragging media into the timeline?
http://support.apple.com/kb/VI103
What is the format of the source footage? You can tell by opening clips in Quicktime and then using Window menu > Show Movie Inspector.
Gave up trying to drag the clips into the Project library and used 'Select All' ; 'Copy' and 'Paste; that worked.
Haven't figured out how to save the new project. Not intuitive and 'Help' doesn't help. No 'Save' feature in 'File'.
It shows up in 'Movies' / iMovie Project; however, clicking on that takes me back to the iMovie Project but no concatenated file. Dragging project to external HD in Event Library doesn't doesn't actually drag it to that HD. It doesn't appear there in any case. Project Library indicates it's on my external HD; it isn't.
Your suggested video doesn't explain how to save or where to find the concatenated file.
The format of the source footage is MP4.
The movie in iMovie Project works fine; I just haven't been able to save it as a file.
Apple's video editing programs use databases now so no more saving because changes to your edits are saved automatically. The save feature is for the project itself though, the video export is a separate action:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2285
You don't want to "save" it ... somewhere in the iMovie menus, you should have an option to "Export" the movie you've created ... do that.
You'll then get options for how you want it formatted, and where to save it, etc... you'll then end up with a new file wherever you told it to save it that will be a video file (probably mp4) ... single file of the full length project.
No joy. I have iMovie 9 on SL 10.6.8. I've read quite a few other forum posts and articles about saving iMovie projects with no help whatsoever. Some say it can't be done.
Trying to update iMovie 9 gives me an error message that I need 10.7.4 or higher Frustrating. Should I give up or keep trying?- (rhetorical) Maybe there is no way to save an iMovie 9 project.
One article says:
"For those of us who have drunk the iMovie09-is-so-damn-easy-to-use Kool-Aid I’ve discovered it’s not all good for you, just like actual Kool-Aid. Today I discovered moving iMovie projects to storage is a bit like driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles via New York City."
Another video says in order to have a working file, copy both the iMovie Event and iMovie Project to an external drive and then copy them back to a file on the main drive.
No joy there either. It ends up just the iMovie Project that I already have. NO File that contains a movie that runs.
Another post says:
"Re: iMovie '09 won't save projects
Feb 7, 2010 2:50 PM
"Update iMovie and it will be fixed (for me, this bug is gone when I update to 8.02)."
Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.6.2)"
Unfortunately, no matter which iMovie version I've tried to download, it downloads 9.0.9 which won't work on OS 10.6.8 - as the error message says, 9.0.9 requires 10.7.4 or higher \
I'm thinking that iMovie projects, like Help which supplies everything except what is queried, are just practical jokes played on unsuspecting newbies. I can hear Apple engineers laughing in the background.
iMovie 9 is A Riddle Wrapped In A Mystery Inside An Enigma
Thanks for your efforts, Marvin.
I spoke too rashly and too soon. I continued looking for a way to save my iMovie project, There are many posts and articles and almost as many answers none of which seemed to work; however, I finally found an actually simplified way of saving the project:
http://blogs.skokielibrary.info/medialab/2011/07/23/how-to-save-your-imovie-project/
It didn't come out as high quality as I would have liked, but it did work.
Thanks Marvin, I probably would have given up without your encouragement.
"You don't want to "save" it ... somewhere in the iMovie menus, you should have an option to "Export" the movie you've created ... do that.
You'll then get options for how you want it formatted, and where to save it, etc... you'll then end up with a new file wherever you told it to save it that will be a video file (probably mp4) ... single file of the full length project."
I was never able to find an "Export" option in my version of iMovie. What worked is "Share" in the Menu toolbar of IMovie. I forget what that toolbar is actually called, but it's where "Finder" is usually found. I need not only a 'smart' pill but a 'memory' pill as well. I may not have Altzheimer's, but I do have OldTimer's disease. I'm well into my '80's and probably should hang up my computer cap. I'd be lost without AppleInsider.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/D3380Z/A/quicktime-7-pro-for-mac-os-x
iMovie is for more advanced movie making. Works, but for a different usage, I'd say.
QT pro is useful for this, as well as the fact that you can do pass-through exports pretty easily so you don't lose any video quality, you just re-encode the audio. The one thing to watch with concatenation is that QT Pro treats audio and video separately so if the audio tracks of the clips you paste in don't match the video, the audio gets bumped out of sync. Usually you can just make sure each clip is trimmed to the same audio and video before pasting but NLEs prevent this. It would be nice if they updated Quicktime X to do this sort of thing, it has an edit bar like iMovie but it's quite limited in what it can do. I don't mind the limitations in the export formats in QTX but it would be nice to have a choice of frame size and basic color correction filters.