ClipWrap iMovie '11 Secrets

With the recent release of ClipWrap 2.4.8, we've included some secret functionality for folks using ClipWrap with iMovie '11. It's experimental at this point, but allows for some pretty cool workflows. Read on for details.

Generally, for reasons of both performance and compatibility, we recommend that folks using AVCHD with iMovie convert their footage to Apple Intermediate. This ensures that you won't have any lengthy import procedures, and you'll have great performance, even on older macs.

If you use a "rewrap" with iMovie, you might find that iMovie actually converts your footage to Apple Intermediate for you - even if you don't ask it. This behavior can seem a bit random, and can really slow down your workflow.

With the release of ClipWrap 2.4.8, we've included a secret setting to allow you to generate rewrapped AVCHD which imports directly in to iMovie '11 without transcoding. To enable this, open terminal and run this command:

defaults write -app clipwrap iMovieAVCHD YES

If you ever decide you want to disable this functionality (read on for reasons why you might) you can just run:

defaults write -app clipwrap iMovieAVCHD NO

So, why is this a secret? Why isn't it on for everyone? Well, in order to enable this functionality, we need to create QuickTime files which, in our opinion, don't fully comply with the specification. We've opened a dialog with Apple to determine whether they might alter their own behavior, or the specification in the future.

In the meantime, while these files are generally compatible with the various applications we've tested, we have found occasional graphics glitches when using these files in Final Cut Pro X. For those reasons, we've chosen not to have this functionality enabled by default, and to make the toggle a bit of a secret. We recommend that folks enabling this feature retain their MTS source files, in case Apple does decide to change their approach to these files in the future.