Get iMovie ‘08 to import 3GP files
I recorded a few video clips with my wife’s mobile phone today, and when I tried to import them into iMovie ‘08, I found out that I couldn’t. Apparently, I’m not alone, because if you do a search for this on Google you’ll find there are plenty of other people with the same problem.
Fortunately, there are two ways to work this out, but neither is necessarily obvious. Pick one of them:
- Open up the clips in Quicktime. I was able to open them up and play them right away. Now, export each clip as an MP4 file. You must specifically select File > Export, then select Movie to MPEG-4 from the Export drop-down menu. Don’t just Save the clip, because it’ll package it as a MOV file, which iMovie ‘08 will still refuse to import. You must Export it as an MP4 file. You may also be able to export to other formats, but MP4 is what worked for me.
- Open them clips in Turbo.264, then export them to some format (try Apple TV or iPod Standard, for example). There’s a catch here though. If the resolution of the clips is too small, Turbo.264 may not be able to convert them, and will give you an error. Best stick with Quicktime then.
Now open up iMovie ‘08, and go to File > Import Movies, browse for them, and import to your heart’s content. That’s it!
(6 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
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I am guessing you are using Quicktime Pro?
Comment — October 31, 2008 @ 12:24 am
Yes indeed.
Comment — October 31, 2008 @ 8:44 am