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Hello everyone!
The issue is as follows:
MacBook Air mid 2013 OS Catalina latest iMovie
When clips are imported in 4K or even 1080p (shot on a iPhone XR) the playback is horrible because the video lags/glitches and it is impossible to work with it! When the video is shot in 720p and uploaded to the MacBook - everything works perfectly. Have nooo idea on how to fix this - very opened to any suggestions!
MacBook Air
Hello Rich!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
Although Safe mode didn't work either - the idea with converting the clips from H.265 to H.264 WORKED!!! Everything is smooth and in high quality! Only I had Movavi video converter 'lying around' re-encoded the clips with it.
Thanks again! All the best!
Hello Rich!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
Although Safe mode didn't work either - the idea with converting the clips from H.265 to H.264 WORKED!!! Everything is smooth and in high quality! Only I had Movavi video converter 'lying around' re-encoded the clips with it.
Thanks again! All the best!
HI, DensF1,
What is the frame rate of your 4k and 1080p clips? What is the frame rate of your project? What format are the clips? iPhone by default will record in HEVC (H.265) , that can sometimes be problematic. Open a clip in QuickTimePlayer and click on Window/Show Movie Inspector, to see the codec and frame rate of the clip.
Meanwhile, here are some other things you can try:
Deleting Preferences
Try opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to
delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library.
Reopen your old library to get back to your projects. Now see if the lagging and glitches disappear.
New Project
Another thing you can try is to copy your media into a newly created project and see if
that cures the problem. To do that, do an Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, of the
media in your project and then Edit/Paste it into the newly created project.
Safe Mode
Try booting up in Safe Mode (see Finder menu for instructions) and,
after everything loads, immediately shut down and reboot in normal mode. Then
see if iMovie works properly.
-- Rich
Hello, Rich thank you for your reply!
It doesn't matter what fps the clips are - both 30 and 60 lag when playback.
Buy the way forgot to mention - that if the import is made via AirDrop - the clips play without glitches but the quality of the video is VERY POOR (both 4K and 1080p) and that's 'not just me'. When the import is made via lightning cable - the quality is at it's best, but unplayable ...
Deleting Preferences - unfortunately this didn't help.
New Project - certainly tried that - no luck.
Safe Mode - will try ...
If Safe Mode didn't solve it, try placing a duplicate of one of the troublesome clips on your desktop and re-encoding it to H.264, Mp4/AAC , even if it is already that, with the free download, Handbrake. You can get Handbrake here:
Import the converted clip into iMovie and see if the lagging and quality issues are solved.
-- Rich
Great! Glad you got it working.
—Rich
iMovie MacBook Air 2013 4K and HD problems
