Snow Leopard destroyed iMovie HD’s ability to handle still images – a vital function for digital storytellers. Imagine my horror when the same problem was desplayed when I stoked up a MacBook Pro with Leopard. I checked a couple of MacBooks running Leopard – one displayed the problem the other didn’t. A quick check of Quicktime showed that one was version 7.6.6 and the other 7.6.4. I had clearly upgraded one and not the other.
So I checked the Apple Discussion Forums to find a host of angry posts from video editors complaining about the problems created by the upgrade to Quicktime 7.6.6. So I needed to downgrade my Leopard installations to the older version that allowed iMovie HD to function correctly with still images.
I downloaded a shareware programme called Pacifist and the older installalation package of Quicktime from the Avid Users website and set about downgrading by following these simple instructions. It saved the day and I can again offer my worshop participants a correctly functioning editing application. Phew! This is not what I or anyone else needs in the middle of a workshop.
I think it also confirms that the problem with iMovie HD under Snow Leopard is related to Quicktime – a hunch I’d held from the start – based on my experience with the old Adobe Premiere 6.5 for Mac which stopped working when Apple upgraded Quicktime sometime in 2005 – sounding the death knell for Adobe video editing on Macs until Adobe released a new version in CS some time later. Hopefully a little experimenting will find a solution for the iMovie problem under Snow Leopard.
