Hi all, recently started down rezzing HD from camera into imovie at capture, just changed settings in-camera to convert, set imovie to open project in DV widescreen, no problem, worked fine, then a few days later doing the same thing and imovie keeps defaulting to HD even when I open new project as DV.
If I open as DV then connect camera with converter switched on, project changes to HD, very confused, as can't find reason why this is happening.
I'm changing the settings in camera before I plug in i link cable as per manuals instructions.
What's even more confusing is when I go back to a project that did work at down-rezzing and I use the same tape with the same footage and try to capture it again, imovie tells me camera is incompatible with project.
I have tried just about every possible combination of start-up and connection but I 'm left scratching my head.
Any help please?
Richard

Try going into your cameras setting while in VTR mode and navigate to the VCR HDV/DV setting and change it from auto to DV.
Turn the camera off, plug in ya firewire cable and turn it back on again.
You should never plug in a firewire cable when the camera on.

Put it on HDV if you want to suck in as HDV.

Sometimes the HDV camera's can get confused on AUTO.

Richard
It's easier to help if you list iMovie version and OSX version as well. Have you done any updates since the capture that worked? Auto-update has killed many a WIP.
I would first start by repairing permissions with Disk Utility. If you still have problems, give us more details on your system and what camcorder etc.

When I do that the cameras screen says "No output image in "VCR HDV/DV" Change format"
Blue capture screen.
I've then tried changing the VCR format to auto and opening a new project as DV, it opens and immediately reverts to HD, even though it can see that the camera is a DV-VCR, the computer tells me the camera is playing but with a blue capture screen.
Camera screen says HDVin when ilink is connected in VCR and tape is not playing and changes to DVout when I press play, but computer doesn't see it.
BTW Final cut pro captures down converted footage fine and imovie did too until recently
Would reinstalling imovie help?

Hi Drew,
Just done the repair disk permissions for system drive (10.3.9) and imovie (5.0.2(111))/camera (FX7) are still doing the same act.

Assuming it's not a hardware issue, throw out the imovie preferences. (best to move them to another folder and then start up imovie).

I can only find preferences for iMovie in the drop down menu, or in library/ preferences/ com.apple.imovie.plist
Looks like I could really mess things up with that bad boy!?
Apart from that I haven't got a scooby

Hi
I have tried to do the same down rezzing to iMovie myself and had the same issue.
I dont think iMovie allows you to do this down rezzing.
I rang a video technician and they seemed to think it didnt either.
Final Cut is the easiest way to do it, and then export the files into iMovie.
If you can find anather way I would be interested to hear too
Seeesharky

Mr Sharky thanks for getting in touch, now this is interesting because it did work on a couple of occasions then without changing any settings decided it wasn't going to play ball anymore.
It did work, honest! I had to recapture the HD footage a couple of days later because the project with some very nice eagleray shots on it was SD.
Anyone else out there finding this a tad wierd?
Any software officionados who may know how to trick iMovie into behaving?
I use iMovie because it is so simple but it seems it now may be too simple.

Like you I am the same
I use iMovie for speed at work to get a trip video together faster and final cut for more proffessional work where I can spend the time colour correcting and fine tuning.
I like iMovie for its simplicity, though sometimes a little too simple.
I really would like to solve this problem too, as I want to shoot in HD, import as SD for ease of producing a trip video quickly, but able to have all my stock footage in HD.
So I too would find out if this is possible

iMovie will capture as AIC and you can convert that easily to SD as needed. Unless disk space is an issue, just capture to HD then convert to output formats as needed. Using iMovie -> iDVD is pretty painless. If you have Final Cut on the computer, just use that and bag iMovie. Not sure how you are shooting, or whether you are really good and stopping and starting and creating the movie in camera, but iMovie is not going to get you any further ahead about putting a trip video together quickly when compared to FCP (if you are color correcting in FInal Cut and do the other fine tuning, you can throw something together just as quickly as in iMovie and throw it out to Compressor/DVD SP and by-pass the issues and not have to [potentionally] capture twice. Set Final Cut to create new clip on timecode break and save yourself the hassle....

Hi, Yep there is certainly more than one way to accomplish the daily DVD turn-around using these applications and it's basically down to the videographer to be concise with the in-camera edit and develop the work flow to ensure all is captured, edited and burnt in time to go out again the next day. I have never bothered to colour correct on the dailies, this stone-aged G5 here just can't crunch the numbers fast enough to make it feasible and besides if the punters order a copy after seeing it played directly from the camera 15 minutes after we get back then I don't see the point in spending ages editing it. They like it already!
I would still be interested to find out if there is a way to get iMovie down-converting reliably but it seems the best way to go is practice on the FCP beastie!
Thanks all for the feedback
Richard