Blurry still photos in IMovie'06 HD

Using an Imac, OS-X, and IMovie'06 HD, I made a video with mixed sources: HD 16x9 .mp4 video clips, SD video .avi's from my point and shoot camera, and 7 megapixel .jpeg stills from that camera.

Everything is sharp except the stills. Why?

This might be a clue: In transitions (mostly dissolves) between the photos, the image, momentarily, becomes sharp... just IN the transition, 'til the image changes ... the the next still becomes blurry until the next transition and it snaps into focus as it dissolves.

What have I done wrong?

The only reference I could find in regard to this was that you might want to try importing your images with the Ken Burns effect on.

An option might be; render the affect, cut at the render completion point, and reinsert the photo at that point.

I did try replicating the issue, but had no luck. I'm was using iMovie HD version 6.0.4.

thanks ...

...I will try it, but that kind of "trick" ought to be unnecessary in a program like IMovie'06 HD, that invites the use of stills. Right?

I agree, 'tricks' shouldn't be needed.

You said you made your movie from mixed sources. Perhaps you could make a separate one with just stills and see if that improves the situation. You could then combine it into your main movie via an export and import process.

Lastly. I'm starting to believe (rightly or wrongly) there is a correlation between using AVI video and problems popping up with the Apple editors. It might be best to first convert them to some kind of QuickTime video first.

Thanks

I will try a mini movie of just stills. Good idea.

Along with your warning about .avi's, a guy in my office just insisted that "Macs hate .jpegs. You should convert all your stills to .tiffs"

Groan. Could my few, short avi's and my 20 stills (in a movie that is mostly HD .mp4's that look great) really POLLUTE finished product?

IMovie is supposed to be simple. I might as well use Final Cut.

I've never heard of jpgs having issues on Macs, except when the jpg is messed up. Tiffs take up a lot of space. The only advantage is that they are lossless, but so are PNGs.

iMovie is simple and as I said, I wasn't able to duplicate the problem. I think I've seen the problem mentioned here before, but had trouble finding any threads.