Apple's iMovie, which is probably the easiest and most polished video editing software available, is now free! This is great news, BUT (you knew that "but" was coming didn't you?), in order to use it, Apple says you need a DV camcorder. These camcorders run anywhere from $800 to the equivalent of a down payment on a house and I am sure that many of you own non-DV camcorders that we have you intention putting out of commission.

Fortunately, Macworld has discovered a simple solution to this problem. You'll need QuickTime Pro ($29.95) and, if you want to use video from your standard camcorder or video archive, a cheap video input solution such as Global Village's VideoFX ($130) or XLR8's InterView 2.0 ($80). The first step is to input your video according to the instructions that came with your video input device (skip this step if you already have video from the web or other sources). Secondly, install iMovie and create a new project. Next, open the video that you wish to edit in QuickTime Pro, choose "Export" from the "File" menu, and select "Movie to DV Stream" from the "Export" pop-up menu. Beware: about five minutes of DV stream video uses about 1GB of hard disk space. Once the DV stream conversion is complete, place the DV stream file in the "Media" folder located inside the iMovie project folder. Now fire up iMovie, click "OK" when the "stray files" dialog pops up and, what do you know, your video is ready for editing!

For a plethora of information about iMovie, check out Macworld's iMovie article!

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November 21, 2008