New iMovie not that good?

August 10, 2007 · Filed Under Apple stuff

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I’ve been playing around with the new iMovie in iLife 08 and I have some mixed feelings. Firstly, the little movie I put together and then uploaded to YouTube..

So, the good:

Looks nice
Skimming movie clips is very cool
Having every piece if media on your machine is useful
Simple to drag and drop stuff, and crop
Good export and share options
Takes into account exporting to YouTube, iPod and AppleTV

The bad:

Seems a tad sluggish, especially when it is loading all the video content (could well be due to my media being stored in an external drive)
No timeline
You press play and it will always play from the start of the project and not where you want it to
No adjusting volume of sound clips and music tracks easily – this is probably my number annoyance

Conclusion

I have some real reservations about this update. It is much simpler to build a movie for someone who is just starting out and has not iMovie beforehand (I could say a tech numpty here but I won’t!). For anyone else, it is almost a retrograde step. It just has not got the options I really need. Luckily I don’t make too many movies, but if I did, I would have to be looking at Final Cut Pro or Express.

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