Creating higher-quality HD video with iMovie ’09

This page used to give instructions on how to get improved quality video output if you used iMovie ’09 and had an interlacing video camera.

Three years later this guide is no longer relevant, and so I have removed it. For good quality video, do at least one of these two things:

  1. Upgrade to iMovie 11, which you can download from the Mac App Store. You’ll need to be running Mac OS X 10.6 (“Snow Leopard”) or Mac OS X 10.7 (“Lion”). If you’re running an older version then you will need to upgrade, as Apple no longer supports those versions.
  2. Use a camera which records in a “progressive” format. As well as “progressive”, your camera may call this “720p” or “1080p” mode. If your camera has an option to choose one of these modes, use it!
Then follow Apple’s instructions for importing and exporting and your video will look great.