Troubleshooting iMovie 3.0.1: Processor hogging; iMovie 2 titles; more

Processor hogging Based on some independent reader testing, it appears that for some users, iMovie 3.0.1 is more than a little liberal with its processor usage. Bob Rodenburg did some extensive comparison between iMovie 2 and 3, and came up with the following results:

"I've got a Blue and White G3 at 400 MHz with 384 MB RAM, and on my Mac iMovie 3 uses 80 - 90 percent of the CPU when running. iMovie 2 uses 2 - 3 percent at the same tasks. iMovie 3 is very jerky, controls my camcorder in a haphazard and unsatisfactory way, with mostly unresponsive controls on the screen. iMovie 2 controls my camcorder much better, with virtually instant response when I stop, start playback, rewind or fast forward. The camcorder mechanical response is the limiting factor in iMovie 2. The fact that iMovie 3 appears to consume the CPU may explain a lot of the complaints made since it was introduced."

iMovie 2 titles When opening iMovie projects created with version 2 that have title clips clicking on/viewing the title clip will cause iMovie 3.0.1 to unexpectedly quit.

We have internally tested this bug and confirmed it across a variety of system configurations. If you have any insight on resolving it, please let us know.

Letterbox effect bug Mike Harrison reports a bug with the Letterbox function in iMovie 3.0.1:

"When applying the letterbox effect to the first clip in a series of clips, the clip 'vanishes' and never applies the letterbox filter. Once you click in the timeline field, the clip re-appears unaffected or the program quits unexpectedly. I can duplicate this with multiple projects and clips."

Visual effects equal audio dampening? Scott Rose reports that under some circumstances, if you apply a visual effect to a clip (such as changing a clip's brightness/contrast), it actually dampens the volume on that clip and makes that clip much quieter.

"You can't see the change in volume when you look at the clip in the timeline (it still says 100 percent for volume, for example), but it actually does play quieter. Applying visual effects should have no effect on the volume of a clip, and they did not effect the volume in iMovie 2."

Re-installing iMovie 2.1.2 For those of you who do not have a .Mac account (iMovie 2 can be pulled from the iDisk), and did not keep an old copy of iMovie on hand, the shareware utility Pacifist can be used to extract iMovie 2.1.x from your original Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) CD, and then installed as a separate package.

Feedback on this issue? Drop us a line at late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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