iMovie 6.0 (#5): Distortion, garbled or tinted images after applying themes or effects; PAL problems; more

Distortion, garbled or colored images after applying themes or effects Several readers have noted issues where, after attempting to apply a theme or an effect to a movie, a grid of small squares will appear over the movie in the main working window, or a situation where the image inexplicably turns red, black or another color.

This problem can be caused by a long-standing bug in iMovie where an applied effect can take on characteristics from a recently created title or other text. In other words, if you recently created a text title in red, the same color will be incorrectly applied to the subsequent effect.

The following steps should alleviate the issue:

1. Undo the effect: From the Edit menu, choose Undo (or press Command-Z).
2. Save your iMovie project.
3. Quit iMovie.
4. Open iMovie.
5. Add the desired effect back to the clip.

Problems creating PAL movies Note that in iMovie 6.0 you must set a frame rate of 25 fps or less before the software will allow you to create a new project in the PAL format.

Problems monitoring sound through FireWire MacFixIt reader Gaston reports an issue where iMovie 6.0 fails to monitor sound on incoming video from FireWire sources.

Gaston writes:

"I can't get my new 20" Intel iMac to monitor the sound in iMovie 6.0 while inputing via Firewire.

"If the source is the built-in iSight camera, the sound is there. But when switching to Firewire DV Input, I hear the sound for about half a second and then it mutes.

"When playing recorded clips, the sound is there; so it seems to be only a monitoring problem.

"My personal workaround consists in recording with the vidi-tool and then importing the clips in iMovie afterwards."

If you are experiencing a similar issue, please let us know at late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Previous coverage:

• iMovie 6.0 (#4): More plug-in problems
• iMovie 6.0 (#3): Confirmation for GeeThree Slick plug-ins problem
• iMovie 6.0 (#2): Excessive processor usage, slowdown; potential fix
• iMovie 6.0: Plug-in problems

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