Doing HD for iMovie is really easy, but . . . you have to follow instructions. There’s no way around that. So here goes. PLEASE READ THOROUGHLY! Not reading an important tutorial could mean problems when you try to edit HD in iMovie.

What you need:

iMovie 6 HD—at least a higher-end G4 (1 GHz or above, dual processors preferred, over 1 GB of RAM). Converting the high resolution 720p MKV files to an editable format might prove difficult on any G4.

iMovie 09—Intel Mac with at least 2 GB of RAM. (My personal recommendation.)

At least 50-100 GB of extra hard drive space (more is better). Editing HD needs space! iMovie will be making special high-res clips of your HD footage. A lot of us use external USB or Firewire hard drives to store our clips. They are very cheap these days.

MPEG Streamclip (www.squared5.com) and Avidemux (fixounet.free.fr/avidemux). These are both free video conversion programs. Be sure to poke through Avidemux’s archives to get an older version of Avidemux. As of today the current version of Avidemux does not work well with some HD clips.

Perian codec pack. This is good for every Mac user to have as it helps Quicktime (and MPEG Streamclip) recognize more video file types.

Get your HD clips:

Option #1: Rip your Blu-Ray disk. Will need to use Windows for this. Do a search on Google for Blu-Ray ripping guides.

Option #2: Do a search in “the usual places” (wink wink nudge nudge) for HD footage. You cannot just use any downloaded clips—you need special HD footage. Usually these files will be in the .MKV format, and the file name often has “720p” and “x264” in it. It’s typical for a 45-minute video to be over 1 GB in size.

Converting your HD files to a format for editing in iMovie:

For iMovie 6 and iMovie 09, the Avidemux way. (Faster, easier, but may cause some quality loss. See notes.)

Open your MKV files following this tutorial for Avidemux. (Link opens to new window.) Make an HD AVI file with the MJPEG codec. Then read the first tutorial listed on this page. There are instructions on how to convert the AVI file you just made to MOV, for importing into iMovie. You’ll be making a MOV file with H.264 compression and a data rate of 4000 (you can go up to 5000-6000 if you want).

Caveat: Files made in Avidemux often look a little “washed out.” You’ll have to add more contrast and saturation when you edit the clips in iMovie. There is some small quality loss (but not too bad).

For iMovie 09 (and Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro), and sometimes for iMovie 6 (see “mandatory reading” entry below). (Better quality but a longer process. For Intel Macs only.)

Follow this tutorial on the Foolish Passion Fan Video Forums for using MPEG Streamclip for converting your MKV files to either H.264 MOV or if you’re using Final Cut, another HD format (like Apple Intermediate codec or Prores). Note: You may not have to buy Quicktime Pro to get this to work. Do tests first! Tutorial link requires free membership to view.

iMovie 6 users: MANDATORY READING!

You’ll see on the Avidemux HD tutorial here that there are instructions down the page a bit, about adding letterbox bars back on some MKV files if they are “super” widescreen. (You cannot add letterbox bars back onto a video with MPEG Streamclip; only Avidemux will do it.) This is EXTREMELY important to do if you are going to make a fanvid from feature films like Twilight, Harry Potter, Phantom of the Opera, etc. Often the MKV downloads of these movies are “super widescreen” and if you import the clips without letterbox into iMovie 6, they’ll get distorted and squished. See screenshots below:

Edward Cullen (played by Robert Pattinson) from “Twilight.” With an optional iMovie 6 plug-in, you can zoom to crop out the black letterbox bars at the top and bottom. Edward’s face will look normal and in proportion. (If you don’t have the optional iMovie plug-in, the clip will import into iMovie 6 with the letterbox bars at the top and bottom. That is perfectly acceptable and much better than distorting his face.)

This is what will happen to a “super widescreen” clip that is imported into iMovie 6 without adding the letterbox bars. Edward’s handsome face is now all distorted and too skinny because iMovie 6 stretches it out to fit into the 16:9 frame.

Look at the two images side-by-side. There’s a big difference. So remember—you MUST add the letterbox bars back in a “super widescreen” movie before editing the clips in iMovie 6. You don’t want to distort Edward’s beautiful face, do you?

iMovie 09 and “super widescreen” clips: iMovie 09 doesn’t “squish” or elongate any clips. It’ll automatically zoom in/crop a super widescreen clip so Edward always looks normal and in proportion.

Getting ready to edit. Setting up your software for the proper editing of HD.

Set up your iMovie 09 project to edit in HD:

This tutorial gives all-purpose instructions for setting up many different video programs (for Mac and PC). Scroll down the page a bit for info on how to set up iMovie 09. You will import the files you made with MPEG Streamclip (remember, MOV files with the H.264 codec, data rate of 4000 or above) into iMovie 09, and iMovie will “process” them in a special way so they are ready to be edited in iMovie. Read the tutorial carefully for full instructions on how to do that.

Set up your iMovie 6 project to edit in HD:

This tutorial is all about iMovie 6 and HD. It also gives some tips about adding markers to your timeline so you can edit to the beat, etc.

Exporting (rendering) your finished HD video and getting it ready for YouTube.

The iMovie 6 HD tutorial gives full instructions for exporting as HD (at the bottom of the page). This will work for iMovie 09 as well. In iMovie 09, go to “Share” and then choose to save as a Quicktime file. Then follow the iMovie 6 export instructions—they’ll work the same for iMovie 09.

Watch and download some HD fanvids made in iMovie 09.

Multifandom video made in iMovie. (Clips from Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, Phantom of the Opera, Strike Back, Robin Hood, etc.)

Download HD DivX AVI file (103 MB) (right-click to download)

View on YouTube.

Video notes: You’ll see that some of the clips look a little “blocky.” This is more noticeable in some clips more than others. When iMovie 09 “processes” the clips you import into it, it some times creates these “blocky” artifacts. They can be minimized by increasing the contrast and making sure that the darks in the video are sufficiently dark. (Which, alas, I’m not sure I did with all the clips in this video! LOL.)

This special page on RAfanvids lists many of the HD vids available for download. Scroll down the page to find video listings with the iMovie icon by them. These vids were edited in HD with iMovie.