Digital Home Thoughts: iLife '04 Retrospective

iMovie 4


Product Category: Software
Company: Apple
Price: $49, part of iLife suite
System Requirements: (PC) Windows XP or 2000. Mac OSX.

Pros:

• Easy to use
  
• Intuitive interface
  
• New Ken Burns effect
  
• Lots of editing options and effects
  
• Direct Trimming

Cons:

• Poor performance, very sluggish
  
• Designed for amatuers

Summary:
iMovie offers a lot to like, especially for novice users. With new features such as Direct Trimming, a simplified video editing experience, and the new Ken Burns effect, iMovie 4 is an impressive editor for amateur consumer video. But it falls short of expectations. In particular the performance issues are unforgivable; at times running as slow as molasses even on fairly recent Mac hardware.

You Ought To Be In Pictures


Figure 1: iMovie interface

iMovie carries on the tradition of offering a relatively simple interface that just about anyone with a basic working knowledge of digital video can understand. The interface is based around a timeline in which you drag video clips to. From there you can move them around, cut, splice, and trim, whatever you like. You can even add a number of prebuilt transition effects to clips. And iMovie doesn’t just handle imported video. Photos can be made into movie slideshows as well, complete with audio and transition effects.

Another really nice feature is the integration with iDVD. You can import your movies into iMovie, direct from your digital camera. Edit it, add effects, and then export it to iDVD and turn your creation into a DVD movie.

Unfortunately, iMovie suffers from the same horrible limitation as its predecessor; sluggish performance. At times the experience is so bad it almost makes iMovie useless for video editing. For example, I wanted to create a simple photo slideshow to export into a QuickTime movie. But dragging photos to the timeline and adding effects was a slow and time consuming process. You could brew a pot of coffee in the time it takes to work with iMovie. This above all else must be addressed if Apple wants to the get serious about consumer video editing. As it stands now, iMovie just doesn’t cut it.

Direct Trimming


Figure 2: Direct trimming

One very welcome addition to iMovie is the introduction of Direct Trimming; a feature once only found on high end video applications like Final Cut and Final Cut Express. What is Direct Trimming, you ask? Well, previously if you wanted to remove a section of video from a clip you had to cut it out. With Direct Trimming you can simply drag the slider inwards and hide unwanted video. A nice touch.

The downside to this feature is that it sometimes makes the timeline interface feel crowded and difficult to wield. And Trimmed video will be moved to Trash. Once emptied, you lose all your trimmed video. Apple should have done more with this feature, in my opinion.

Apple has extended support for audio in clips, allowing you to view audio track waveforms in the timeline. With this feature you can isolate objective noises present in your video and tone it down. No one wants to hear Uncle Fred’s obnoxious arm pit fart sounds.

Slow performance
As stated earlier, iMovie's single greatest weakness is its horrendously slow performance, which very nearly cripples it as a viable video editing tool. Just about any task you perform cutting, editing, or importing will bring the software to its knees. Even loading the program takes forever. Click on the iMovie icon, and watch it bounce up and down in the dock like a Jack Russell terrier begging for a treat. Annoying.

Whatever else Apple intends to add to iMovie in the way of improvements, performance enhancement should be top priority.

Conclusion
iMovie 4 is a step forward over the previous version, but it still carries the same legacy of slow performance and sluggish behavior as its predecessor. The new features are a welcome addition, but I would like to see Apple merge Final Cut Express with iMovie, combined into one powerful yet easy to use app.