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August 31, 2014
iMovie 11 Sucks
So, I've got this stupid MacBook Air, and I'm trying to make a movie in iMovie (I know...I'm an idiot, right?) I thought Apple was supposed to be better. I was wrong, obviously. My project crashed on me. It won't let me created a movie, or "finalize" the project. Or anything really.
Instead, what I get is this: "Unable to prepare project for publishing. The project could not be prepared because an error occurred. (ParamErr: error in user parameter list)".
What a complete piece of shit. Like, do you think you could make the error message any more vague. Maybe try changing the message to "something went wrong". Fucking morons.
So, here's the deal
MacBook Air running OS X 10.9.4.
500 Gig Flash Drive.
217 Gig free out of 500 Gig. (So, storage shouldn't be an issue.)
I get this same message no matter what I try to do to the project. If I try to use "File - Finalize Project", same thing. It says "Preparing project" very briefly, and then, the dreaded message:
"Unable to prepare project for publishing. The project could not be prepared because an error occurred. (ParamErr: error in user parameter list)".
Nice. So, I can't do the following:
1) File - Finalize Project
2) Share - Export Movies. Size to export = HD 1080p (1920x1080). Click on Export. (Same error.)
3) Share - Export Movies. Size to export = Mobile (480x272). Click on Export. (Same error.)
4) Share - Export using QuickTime. Save exported file as "apple_sucks.mov". Export "Movie to QuickTime Movie". Save. This one actually didn't give me an error? But I also don't see that a file was created either.
OK. So, Icopied the Project from 'Project 2' to 'Project 4', and deleted about 2/3 of the video. Then, it would let me go to "Share - Export Movie - Mobile (480 x 272). Nice. So, my guess is that the video is too long or too large for this P.O.S. to handle? Not sure, but seems that way.
OK. So the video is cut down to 2:07 now. But I was able to do File - Export Movie - HD 1080p, and named it Apple_Sucks_207_1080p. Good job, Apple. Way to go. P.O.S.
Now, it says "Preparing project..., "Creating the HD 1080p movie...Time remaining about 13 years..."
Apple sucks. So. Hard.
OK. It appears to have exported successfully. Took about 10 minutes. File created is a 329 MB file named Apple_Sucks_207_1080p.mov. So, that's a start. I got something out of it, anyway.
So, we'll say "New Project 4" will be part one of the miserable video. Thanks, Apple. Thanks for that.
Now, I copied New Project 2 again...this time to New Project 6. Try to export it again... File - Export Movie - HD 1080p...same bullshit error message. Argh.
I'll try to make this one longer....3:28....name it Apple_Sucks_328_1080p. Preparing project - Unable to prepare project for publishing. Nice.
OK. Now, I'm trying Apple_Sucks_320_1080p. Seems to be working. Started at 3:57 a.m. Says it will take 13 minutes. So, should finish at 4:10 a.m.
I checked it at 4:18 am, and it was finished. This time, it made a file named Apple_Sucks_320_1080p.mov. This looks good.
Now, I copied Project 2 again, this time, as Project 7. Now, I'll delete the first 3:20 from the movie....So now, I try to export it as 3:21 - the end of the project. Says it needs more memory and to quit/exit out of iMovie and try again. So, I shut down iMovie, come back in, and it starts. So, this is Project 7 that I'm exporting. So, it looks like it will work, by breaking it into 2 pieces. Now, I'll try to import the 2 pieces into iMovie, mute the soundtrack, add a new sound track, and join the two videos together. That worked. Oh, the joys of using a P.O.S. like iMovie 11.
Posted by Rob Kiser on August 31, 2014 at 2:57 AM
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