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time lapse in imovie

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I have a mac bookG4 and I have been trying to make time lapse with imovie and my digital camera, hv20, for some time but though all seems fine, the operation stops after some time (21 frames or so)... I first thougt it might be because of the rate I was using (I need 75000 frame/sec) but it does the same thing in all rates. and it cannot be either hard disc or ram I have, I suppose..
I cannot figure out anyways. has anyone lived such a problem, if so how can I solve it?
thanx
 
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Are you taking a long piece of footage (75,000 frames ~41.6 minutes @ 30fps) and trying to compress it into a one second length? or are you trying to record something happening at a rate of 75K fps to play back at 30fps?

Is this something you're trying to do on the timeline, or are you trying to use the camera tethered to the computer to sit there and capture 30 frames / 42 minutes?

I just want to make sure I understand the issue
 
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I am not trying to compress an already shot footage but rather trying to record a long event within a ratio of 75,000. working at 25fps, thus I need to make 1 sec out of every 75,000 frames. Eventually, there is no footage yet, but I am trying to record a few days of footage and get a result of a few minutes. Just trying to get a time-lapse of a 3 days event recorded to be used later on. I hope this will help to tell the issue.
thanx
 
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Ok, now I understand what you're trying. There are a few options as I see it:

1) if you only want to use iMovie, you have a few options:

A) you'll probably have to record the event, then change the timing on the recording multiple times to get it to the right length

b) record the entire event, then go through it knowing that you need one frame out of every 3000 frames. so moving ahead in the footage ~3000 frames from the previous selected frame and choose your next frame.

2) If you're willing to use other software (I can't guarantee if either of these titles will work on your ibook) check out:

a) Boinx Software - iStopMotion 2 - this program will allow you to setup your computer and camera (and according to its list of supported cameras, it supports the hv20) and have it capture a single frame every X seconds/minutes/hours/etc.

b) FrameByFrame - I don't know if it allows preset recording times capturing a frame every so many seconds or if it specifically requires you to be there to trigger the next frame (it's original design was for stop motion animation, but from what I had read elsewhere it can be used for what you're trying to do)

3) See if that camera (I don't know about the hv20, some camcorders have this feature some don't) has a timelapse function that can record 1 frame every x minutes, or get a cheap used camera that can so you can interleave your footage from the timelapse camera with your main camera (may require some color work to get the tones correct).

Those are the options I can think of off hand - maybe one of those might help you out?
 
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iStopMotion is fine, but to use HD is very expensive. You have to buy the $499 Pro version.

I haven't tried this, but it might be possible to create an Automator script to capture images on a time sequence.
 
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I honestly assumed - with using a G4 ibook, he might have been using the HV in SD mode since he'd have to go through the long process to convert it from avchd to something the G4...
 
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use quicktime then imovie

Make a movie out of the photo sequence using file > open image sequence (pro)
then export movie
import into imovie and edit
 
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That camera is a miniDV unit that does HDV, not AVCHD.

The OP also has to explain what he means by "the operation stops after some time (21 frames or so)". It sounds to me like that camera is hooked up to the G4 and that the image is being recorded to the computer, not to the tape. If so, remove the tape.
 
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That camera is a miniDV unit that does HDV, not AVCHD.

Oops, haha, you're right, I managed to get the HV20 and the HF20 confused :D

The OP also has to explain what he means by "the operation stops after some time (21 frames or so)". It sounds to me like that camera is hooked up to the G4 and that the image is being recorded to the computer, not to the tape. If so, remove the tape.

I figured the camera was hooked to the computer, but from what I understood from other reading iMovie isn't the greatest when it comes to timelapse recording, which is why I was suggesting some other options...
 

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