Review:
iMovie 3.0.2 (updated with version 3.0.3 notes in this color)
Reviewer: Mike Dixon
Edited by: Mike Dixon (3/23/03; updated 7/15/03)
Publisher:Apple (free download; or $49 via iLife CD-ROM bundle)

Apple has been way ahead of its competitors with iMovie, a free digital video-editing program that makes movie editing easy. Novices can import, edit, add transitions, special effects, and even sound effects and background music...producing a professional-like look in some cases. With iMovie 3.0, Apple is looking to jump even further ahead with some new user-requested features as well as a few tricks up their sleeve. Is iMovie 3 a true sequel to iMovie 2? Let's find out...

As a heavy iMovie 2 user on a variety of Macs, I was aware of iMovie's hardware requirements. iMovie 2 performed well on G3-based Macs that had at least 256 MB of RAM and a 333 MHz+ processor. With iMovie 3, you better retire that 333 MHz Mac, at least for movie editing. This new version requires a 400 MHz G3 processor, although Apple recommends a 700 MHz processor. I will go further than that. If you plan to use iMovie 3, at least at this point, you better have a 733 MHz G4 and 512 MB of RAM for best results. Otherwise, you'll run into sluggish performance when rendering stills, effects, or even playing your movie back on-screen. Notice that I said a 733 MHz G4 processor, not a G3 processor. Unless Apple tweaks iMovie 3 to be less processor intensive, a G3-based Mac (like the current iBook) may run it, but not nearly as well as a G4.

iMovie 2 also ran in Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. iMovie 3 requires Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later. I suggest Mac OS X 10.2.4 or later. It also requires QuickTime 6.1, which is a free download.

My experiences with iMovie 3 so far with an iMac 17-inch/800 MHz G4 system were fairly positive. I'm sure dual-processor G4 systems will have no problem with iMovie 3. My older Power Mac G4/450 also ran iMovie 3, albeit much slower than the iMac G4. In fact, the Power Mac G4/450 seemed to be a bit snappier than the iMac in some cases, but the iMac blistered the Power Mac in rendering speed, as was expected.

One last thing, iMovie 3 requires a monitor with the resolution set at 1024x768, supported by most 17-inch monitors. Some more modern iMacs and iBooks can display this resolution without difficulty, but older iBooks and may not have this option, even though their processor speed is fast enough to run it. That's ashame. On the plus side, iMovie no longer hogs the entire screen. It's now in a window which can be resized.

Finally, if you have lots of third-party plug-ins, in my experience you will need a faster Mac and more RAM to run iMovie 3 efficiently. It seems the more plug-ins you have, the harder iMovie has to work, thus a faster Mac is necessary.

I do lots of video editing for small projects at ECU, for personal use, and on a compensated basis occasionally. For many projects, I have enjoyed using iMovie 2 due to its easy interface, refined performance in both Mac OS 9 and OS X, and tons of available third-party plug-ins that allow me to produce a near-professional quality film every time.

When iMovie 3 was announced in January 2003, I was really excited about its new feature set: new audio effects from Skywalker Sound, Ken Burns documentary-style effects for still photos, better audio volume adjustment, new titles and special effects, chapter markers for easy creation of indexed DVDs, and integration with iPhoto, iTunes, and iDVD. Best of all, my investment in many third-party plug-ins from the likes of GeeThree, Virtix, and others was protected (although a few plug-ins needed updates to work with iMovie 3, but the developers quickly released patches).

When iMovie 3 was made available to the public for download (at a whopping 81 MB), many Mac users downloaded it. Soon after, reports of bugs and instability surfaced. I was the victim of these bugs and crashes (all of which will be covered in the bug report below). Apple has updated iMovie 3 twice. The current version as of this original review is 3.0.2. Version 3.0.3 was released several months after this review and has fixed numerous bugs and problems.

One of the most anticipated features was the Ken Burns Effect, which allows you to take photos in your iPhoto library (or you can import images separately) and zoom in, out, or across the photo, just like Mr. Burns does. Unfortunately, in version 3.0.2 of iMovie, you can't simply put a still image in your movie like in iMovie 2 (iMovie 3.0.3 allows stills to be imported). All images in v3.0.2 get rendered and are subject to the Ken Burns Effect. You can turn off zooming and panning, but the image still gets rendered into frames, potentially degradating the quality of the photo. Also, if your photo is low-resolution (at or less than 720x480 pixels), the Ken Burns effect will make your photo look blocky. iMovie 3.0.3 has a on/off switch for the Ken Burns Effect. Also, the Ken Burns Effect is not as smooth as you might think. You can see some jerkiness as the photo pans across the screen. This feature definitely needs work, but has been improved in v3.0.3. iMovie's integration with iPhoto 2 is good, but the preview thumbnails are too small in some cases (you can't enlarge the listing of images in iMovie). iMovie 3 seems to be picky with certain types of image files. While it can import practically any graphic format, it doesn't like PICT files (which is strange, because PICT files often look best in digital video). Some of my high quality TIFF images were jagged when rendered by iMovie. When I converted that same image into a high quality JPEG file, it wasn't jagged. Go figure.

The new audio sound effects are quite good, but seldom used by yours truly. Home video editors might find some of them to be useful. iMovie 3's integration with iTunes 3 is quite seemless. You can also import audio not in iTunes. iMovie 3 still doesn't have audio controls for fast-forward or rewind when previewing music...just one play button which becomes a stop button once music starts.Once you put audio into your timeline, you can easily adjust the volume for any audio tracks, including the video's audio. This is a big-time improvement over iMovie 2. You can lower and raise volumes wherever you want. It's similar to Final Cut Pro (and Final Cut Express), but not nearly as customizable. But for the amateur, it's all you need. There are some audio sync bugs with iMovie that will be covered in the bug report below.

Ever since I bought the iMac 17-inch 800 MHz system, I've been producing my own DVDs (as well as for others as a freelancer). Now that I have iMovie 3 and iDVD 3, I am finally able to create a DVD with indexes that can be seemlessly imported into iDVD. I used to have to create my own DVD interfaces with DVD Studio Pro, when iDVD 2 would have been sufficient. But since version 2 lacked chapter markers, it took much longer to go from iMovie to DVD. Now, unless the DVD is longer than 90 minutes, I can stick with iMovie 3 and iDVD 3 and will save lots of time. iMovie 3 now creates a linked QuickTime file with the iMovie project, which gets imported directly into iDVD 3 with one click of the mouse. There are a rew rough edges to be ironed out, but it does work reasonably well. If you don't have a DVD burner in your Mac, you won't have the iDVD option, although you can put in chapter markers. Those are accessible in QuickTime 6 Player.

Finally, the interface has changed just a bit from iMovie 2, but veteran iMovie 2 users won't be disappointed. The timeline now has a zoom knob (similar to iPhoto's zoom knob) which helps nail down those tight edit points easier. You still have two audio tracks (3 total, including the audio from the original video).

iMovie 3.0.2 is buggy, period. Although iMovie 3.0.2 did fix a few problems (like off-centered titles, greyed out photos after import, and some stability issues), you definitely want to get the v3.0.3 update via Software Update.

One of the biggest bugs in iMovie 3.0.2 is the audio out-of-sync glitch. As your movie gets longer, the audio will slowly drop out of sync. You won't notice it while in iMovie, but if you export to QuickTime or burn a DVD, it will be there. At times, the audio can be 1-2 seconds off from the video. That is unacceptable. The only fix I have found is to extract your video's audio into a separate audio track in iMovie (simple to do, just another step, and it uses one of your available audio tracks). Apple recently released iDVD 3.0.1 via Software Update. This improveds audio sync and integrity in iDVD 3 which might have been causing some of the problems. iDVD 3.0.1 is a recommended download.

Sometimes after rendering a still image (whether you want to or not), the image is greyed out in your timeline and sometimes in your movie. The 3.0.2 patch fixed this for the most part, v3.0.3 virtually eliminates the problem.

Those of you who have analog-to-video converters like the Sony DVMC-DA2 converter or Formac Studio DV will be somewhat disappointed with iMovie 3. Apple indicates that only the Sony is compatible with iMovie 3. While that is true, iMovie 3 still doesn't work as well with the Sony as iMovie 2 did. Often times, I have to turn off the Sony converter and then turn it back on so that I can export to VHS. Even then, I can't use the "export to camera" option with the Sony. I have to send the video playback through to a video monitor (my VCR) and press play in iMovie while the VCR is recording. The Formac Studio DV/TV was not compatible with iMovie 3 until recently, but now users can to download a firmware upgrade to fix the problem. The Formac Studio DV should work, but I have not tested it. Apple sells the Formac Studio DV device at their web store ($399), but you have to search for it. The Sony converter has been discontinued for some time.

As your movie gets longer, iMovie gets slower. iMovie 2 also did this, but not nearly as severe as iMovie 3 seems to be. iMovie 3.0.3 seems a bit more responsive.

In the end, iMovie 3.0.2 falls well short of iMovie 2's performance, but downloading the 3.0.3 update will cure most of the issues. The audio sync problem in 3.0.2 is severe, and the solution to extract the audio to another track should not be necessary. Productivity is what it is all about. It took me three times as long to create a film with stills in iMovie 3.0.2 as it would have with iMovie 2, mainly because of the stupid Ken Burns Effect. This problem has finally been solved with v3.0.3 of iMovie.