iMovie can work with 16:9 aspect ratio; contrary to Apple's warning

While it is true that iMovie does not recognize the anamorphic video clips (with a 16:9 aspect ratio) imported from the video camera, the 16:9 clips imported into iMovie are not "deanamorphosed" at all, which means that iMovie just shows them the same way any 4:3 television set would do. This is contrary to Knowledge Base document #93147, which states plainly: "video clips with 16:9 aspect ratio will not work with iMovie."

Even though iMovie keeps the clip ratio either 4:3 or 16:9 exactly the way it was recorded, it can only create 4:3 transitions and titles. The film that iMovie exports back to the video camera has 16:9 clips and 4:3 transitions and titles.

The proof of the conservation by iMovie of the original 16:9 aspect ratio is given by the DV camera itself which shows "16:9 IN" while reading or recording the clips and nothing (signifying 4:3) during transitions reading or recording.

The titles that have been embbeded into the 16:9 clips are, of course, 4:3.

MacFixIt reader Jean-Marie Robert offers his individual experience with the issue:

"When I watch on my Sony 16:9 TV set DV tapes exported from iMovie (through a FireWire connection between my video camera and my Panasonic DVD video recorder) the automatic screen aspect ratio of my TV set shifts back and forth from 16:9 wide screen to 4:3 standard ratio every time a transition is being read. Thus, in order not to get sea sick, I just to manually 'force' my TV set to 16:9 (wide screen) which avoids the problem."

"No such problem occurs after having burned the movie (16:9 clips and 4:3 transitions) on a DVD-R only for the reason that the information that allows the TV set to automatically recognize the aspect ratio of the movie is not recorded on the DVD."

So perhaps Apple's documentation should be changed to a statement like:

"Video clips with 16:9 aspect ratio will not show with the correct aspect ratio in iMovie but the clips will remain intact."

It should also be noted that transitions and titles will be with the 4:3 aspect ratio which implies that you'll have to reduce their size in order not to have "larger than the screen" titles on your 16:9 TV set.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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