This week I don’t have space for a lot of witty introductory remarks. There’s a lot to cover, so buckle in, and keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times.

The recent upgrade of Apple’s digital lifestyle suite, called “iLife ‘05”, includes a major retooling of the iMovie editing application. Although users will find it very similar in surface appearance to older iMovie versions, it’s what’s “under the hood” that makes iMovie HD a must-have upgrade for serious home-movie-makers.

Clever catch, dear reader. You read that right. That’s iMovie “HD”. As in High Definition. I know, I know. You’ve seen HDTV in your local consumer electronics superstore, and noticed those “Unauthorized” channels at the end of the cable guide, but your “regular” TV picture is pretty darn good as it is. Slowly but surely, however, the High Definition revolution is coming.

“But, Pete, you’re talking about HD in home movies”. Yep. Admittedly, “affordable” home HD video cameras are a still ways off. Sony just released a “prosumer” HDV (High Definition Video) camera that retails for about $3500. Ouch! Technology and competition will bring prices down over time, though.

So what makes the HD in iMovie HD such a big deal? iMovie HD’s ability to easily handle the massive amounts of data in HD (as well as the increasingly popular 16:9 widescreen DV formats) means dramatically improved performance for us “common folks” as well. In real-world use, everything is snappier, even on a G4-based machine, like a Mac mini, for example.

iMovie HD adds a couple of new features not seen in earlier versions. The first step in video editing is to get the video “digitized” and onto the computer. iMovie automates this process through a feature called “Magic iMovie”. Simply select Magic iMovie, input a title for the project, select a transition to go between the scenes on your video, select a music soundtrack (if you wish), and even tell iMovie to feed the finished product to iDVD for burning later. Attach your DV camera to your Mac via the FireWire cable, then sit back and relax. iMovie rewinds the tape in your video camera, and while importing separates the imported video into clips, based on where you started and stopped the camera as you were filming.

Once the project is imported, you can always go back and fine-tune the titles, transitions, sound effects from Skywalker Sound (yes, like George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound), and music from your iTunes library.

This last holiday season I saw DVD players on sale for as low as $29.95. Although you can still route your completed iMovie project back out through the DV camera connected to a VCR to make VHS tapes, why would you? Buy Grandpa and Grandma a DVD player and send them your family memories on high-quality, long-lasting DVDs made with iDVD 5.

iDVD 5 has 15 new, professionally-designed, heartwarming, fun, gorgeous themes. I know I’m really ebullient, but you have to see the quality to believe it. Some of the themes have “animated drop zones”, where you can drag-and-drop either movies or stills into areas that move across and around the screen. It’s WAY cool.

iDVD 5, used with the right optical drive, now supports the four major DVD media formats: DVD-R, -RW, +R, and +RW. Plus, once you create an iDVD project, you can save it as a Mac Disc Image, so you can go back later and make more DVDs without re-rendering the project. iDVD also adds a one click, tape-to-DVD solution, similar to Magic iMovie.

Next time: more iDVD, and music, music, music!

© 2005 Peter F. Zimowski