how do I shorten / edit TV clips on my mac?

[baboonia2]

I have Roxio Toast 10. I can download Tivo shows into my Mac, but I want to use iMovie 09 to edit out a small clip. iMovie 09 does not want to import anything converted from Toast 10.

If you want to capture a small clip from a TV show and bring it into iMovie, what is the best way to make it happen?

Do I need additional software?

[bedelman]

You do know that you can do some editing with Toast 10 directly, right?

I think if you use Toast to convert the video to a MP4 file, that you'll be able to import it into iMovie. You should know that Toast deliberately limits the resolution of the video it gets from a TiVo (I think this is a TiVo requirement by the way). If you want the full, as recorded, resolution -- you'll need to use something like TiVo Decode Manager to turn the .tivo file into a MPEG-2 file -- or use iTiVo (also listed on this forum)

- Bob

[baboonia]

You do know that you can do some editing with Toast 10 directly, right?

I think if you use Toast to convert the video to a MP4 file, that you'll be able to import it into iMovie. .... you'll need to use something like TiVo Decode Manager to turn the .tivo file into a MPEG-2 file -- or use iTiVo (also listed on this forum)

- Bob

I tried this, iMovie 09 would not let me import the MP4 file.

Also, I don't see how Toast 10 allows to edit/delete clips, it only allows you to insert chapter markers/menus into the file and set the thumbnail image.

What am I doing wrong? Anyone figures this out?

[bedelman]

I tried this, iMovie 09 would not let me import the MP4 file.

Also, I don't see how Toast 10 allows to edit/delete clips, it only allows you to insert chapter markers/menus into the file and set the thumbnail image.

What am I doing wrong? Anyone figures this out?

With regard to Toast, I did figure it out -- you edit the clips as part of the burning or conversion process. There's an "edit" button that is shown which brings up the video in the Toast Video Player and you set the markers for the content you want included (or is it what you want excluded)

Take a look at this post (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=409988)

I haven't tried it with iMovie in a while -- perhaps it needs to be an MPEG-2 file instead?

- Bob

[Yoav]

With regard to Toast, I did figure it out -- you edit the clips as part of the burning or conversion process. There's an "edit" button that is shown which brings up the video in the Toast Video Player and you set the markers for the content you want included (or is it what you want excluded)

Take a look at this post (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=409988)

I haven't tried it with iMovie in a while -- perhaps it needs to be an MPEG-2 file instead?

- Bob

I'm pretty sure that iMovie doesn't accept the mpeg-2 output from the tivo (it loads movies using quicktime components, and quicktime can't read those movies).

I haven't used Toast so don't know how extensive the editting support is, but if you DO want to use iMovie, you will need to output it from Toast as an mp4 or other format that quicktime can play. If you want the full resolution mp4 you should use iTiVo (http://itivo.googlecode.com/) instead (using Quicktime h.264 as your download format) but expect the conversion to be very slow -- h.264 encoding is complex, and if you have a high-def movie, there's a LOT of data to process..

[cartouchbea]

It's been a long time since I've done this so I'm having to clear a few cob webs out of my memory. But back in the day I believe I needed to tivodecode the file and then I used ffmpegX to convert the file to DV format which is what iMovie likes (liked) to work with. I could import some other formats directly into iMovie but the conversion in iMovie/QT was much slower than ffmpeg. I think you might be able to directly import MPEG2 if you buy an additional plugin from Apple for $20 or upgrade to QuickTime Pro.

I also remember having to modify the source code of one of the underlying binaries in ffmpegX because it was PowerPC native. If you tried to use the Intel version of it ffmpeg it would bomb so I had to recompile while disabling MMX extensions for one or two C files. But that was all back in the 2005 timeframe. The moral of the story is that iMovie can (could) work directly with any DV file so I needed to convert to that.

Back in the day there were also some tools from Elgato that supposedly would allow you to edit video in more formats than just DV, but I couldn't stand the UI so I just gave up on that.

[bedelman]

I'm pretty sure that iMovie doesn't accept the mpeg-2 output from the tivo (it loads movies using quicktime components, and quicktime can't read those movies).

Actually, it kinda can -- if you purchase the QuickTime MPEG-2 codec from Apple. But even then, it doesn't seem to like to play decoded .tivo files. They do, however, play just fine when using VLC.

[baboonia2]

Ok, thanks for everyones help. I think I got a solution.

In Toast 10 I bring in the show from Tivo. I click Edit, then the video tab at the top. Adding/moving triangles allows you to rough edit how much content you want to bring into iMovie. The new duration is shown on the left (for example, if you only want 2 minutes of a 30 minute show) Click done once you have the clip you want.

Now, still in Toast click the big Red record button, select Device = DV and save the file to a folder...this "DV" file can be imported into iMovie 09 for further work.

It seems iMovie 09 prefers to import DV format from Toast files.

[JoeTaxpayer]

Visual Hub will also convert into DV that iMovie is happy to edit.