Posted by cmashieldscapting on 03/25/06 10:53

My story so far is, I got most of a short project done in iMovie 3.0.3,
but one of my songs near the end is hopelessly screwed up by two
seconds of phantom sound which can't be seen and can't be deleted.
Through trial and error I determined the sound is on the soundtrack,
not in the clip.

No solutions in iMovie 3.0.3, only more problems!

1. My opening title sequence was perfect in the iMovie copy, but
messed up in the Hard Drive and Slave Drive copies. Played fine, but
the titles were split into two clips. I wanted them back in one. It
let me export the clip ONLY--NO SOUND--to one of the other copies and
by deleting the messed-up clips I made the good one match the
soundtrack. Importing problem #1: several seconds of garbage gets
saved at the end of the clip, but seems to delete fine.

2. On the other clips, it will export 12 at a time, with sound, BUT
NOT IN THE ORDER IN WHICH I SPENT MONTHS PAINSTAKINGLY EDITING THEM!
Not only do they turn up in random order, there's no way of determining
what number iMovie assigned to each clip to try to import them in
order, as the titles given below each clip when viewed in the project
are different than those shown in the Media area! Plus, how do I know
the clip is even the same length as in the edited version to EVER get
them back together again? Importing problem #2: even if I were
willing to delete garbage from the end of every clip, fixing it is
impossible in this way!

Could it be some of the problems are some space or memory issue in
iMovie 3.0.3? That is, it develops memory problems past 70 (clips,
that is.) If I order iMovie 4 or higher, can I fix these problems
without redoing the whole project or will it just add more problems?

THANK GOD I opted to do the main part of the project by dubbing
directly from the camera to VHS, and am using iMovie ONLY for titles
and music video-type clips. The results of trying to do a 4-hour movie
by these methods would surely have proved fatal!

My other question regarding a fix is about importing from more than one
iMovie project into Toast 7, and editing the content to be actually
burned to DVD.

If I put the song currently being messed up in the order it's supposed
to be on one copy of the project, the audio at the end of the project
will almost certainly inherit THE CURSE OF THE PHANTOM SOUND.

What if I do that in one copy, but leave it where it is in the other
copy? Can I import just the good copies of each song to Toast 7, even
though it means importing from two different copies of the project? Or
do you have to import the iMovie project as a whole?

If you have to import all of each copy of the project as a whole, will
Toast 7 get all screwed up and start complaining before I even get a
chance to delete the duplicates, as it would be two copies of things
with the same names in slightly different order?

IF I CAN'T DO THIS, it will mean upgrading to another version of iMovie
and a whole other set of problems and questions.

Thanks for anything that may help straighten me out or set me on the
right path.

Cori

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