Welcome to our Community
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Feel free to sign up today.
Sign up

Weird issues with iMovie editing of Anafi MP4 files...

jeremiah23

Active member
Joined
Sep 12, 2018
Messages
33
Reaction score
3
Hi everyone!

So I threw some of my raw mp4 videos on my iPad after shooting them with my Anafi. I don't care too much about professional level video editing, and just want to cut the chaff from the video and spruce it up a bit...hence the easy edits and cuts via iMovie (something I always used to do with my Phantom 3 videos).

I quickly discovered a problem: when I pull up the videos in iMovie the video preview screen is filled with solid verticle color bars and the video is completely unviewable. I see nothing but visual garbage. I thought it was odd, and guessed perhaps my ipad hated the 4K video codec, so tried editing a 1080p and 2.7K video, both with the same result.

I didn't have this issue with my Phantom video files since they were in .mov format, so am guessing there is something about the mp4 file shot on the Anafi the iPad does not like.

Incidentally, I have no issues PLAYING these same videos on the iPad, I just cannot edit them without this error.

Has anyone else who has tried to edit Anafi videos with iMovie run into this problem?

(Another guy with the same issue posted his question to Apple's forums here without a response): iMovie and Parrot Anafi Videos - Apple Community
 
Last edited:
I've a hunch, but the fix involves you using a desktop-class operating system (OSX, Win, Linux) and Python.
danielgtaylor/qtfaststart

Alternatively, if you can post an original mp4 up for me to download from somewhere (GDrive/OneDrive/Box/Dropbox/etc) I'll use that fix against the file and re-up for you to test. I don't have access to any iOS devices to test locally.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dmbrody
I've a hunch, but the fix involves you using a desktop-class operating system (OSX, Win, Linux) and Python.
danielgtaylor/qtfaststart

Alternatively, if you can post an original mp4 up for me to download from somewhere (GDrive/OneDrive/Box/Dropbox/etc) I'll use that fix against the file and re-up for you to test. I don't have access to any iOS devices to test locally.

Awesome! I will see if I can upload something short for you to check out tonight. I appreciate it!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Saijin_Naib
The easy fix is to edit the file in th basic photo app on the ipad, like trimming a second at either end and using that in imovie.

I ve also imported some files into FilmoraGo, edited them (speed, saturation etc... ) and that works in i movie.

Never had the issue with any other device, whether Mavic pro, spark, gopro etc
 
  • Like
Reactions: dmbrody
Awesome! I will see if I can upload something short for you to check out tonight. I appreciate it!
No rush :)
The easy fix is to edit the file in th basic photo app on the ipad, like trimming a second at either end and using that in imovie.

I ve also imported some files into FilmoraGo, edited them (speed, saturation etc... ) and that works in i movie.

Never had the issue with any other device, whether Mavic pro, spark, gopro etc
But why take an extra encoding loss if you don't have to?
 
I haven’t tried any Anafi editing on ios yet, will give it a shot to see what I get.
 
just tried with a clip, and I get the same thing, it’s stretching out the video vertically, you can see it’s the top 50 or so pixels of the video. Sadly, it isn’t just a display issue, when I trimmed a bit and exported it, it only had the stretched video that was showing in the editor.

I guess it’s good my workflow goes to a desktop ( or possibly to a chromebook running linux and android on top of chromeos while on the road )

I haven’t tried any video editing at all on ios really, but surely there must be another editor out there in the app store, that might not do this the way the imovie app does? seems a pity to have these handheld 4-12 core pocket supercomputers and not be able to use them for a bit of video trimming.
 
No rush :)

But why take an extra encoding loss if you don't have to?
It won’t encode again triming the way he describes. Photo app on iOS allows you to trim, then send to iPhoto app on the same device.

I’m not saying his trim method will work. I’m just saying it won’t re-encode.
 
The easy fix is to edit the file in th basic photo app on the ipad, like trimming a second at either end and using that in imovie.

I ve also imported some files into FilmoraGo, edited them (speed, saturation etc... ) and that works in i movie.

Never had the issue with any other device, whether Mavic pro, spark, gopro etc
If this works, it is by far the easiest and quickest solution.
 
I went looking for other editing apps that could wholesale replace imovie for what simple tasks I might consider using it for. My workflow goes to a Linux or OSX desktop generally, but this could be helpful for small clips if somebody else asks nicely while out in the field.

Holy crap I forgot how much junk is in the app store.

One app appeared to may be able to edit video, but after thirty seconds I’d been redirected back to the app store twice to purchase other apps by the same author, and ciewed one ad like four times. I couldn’t tell where the ads stopped amd interface began.

Three other apps looked like they worked, though were slow. One had a watermark that couldn’t be removed without a weekly subscription or a 120$ purchase - it was slick, but not nearly that good.

Another had a giant ugly watermark that could be removed for 3$, the app was quite sparse.

Another app appeared to only let me select 2.5 seconds to edit at a time, another wanted to crop everything square as a first unskippable step, I think these are aimed at specific social media targets.

Eventually I thought back to the apps I had used 20 years ago learning to edit clips on OS9 and windows 98 - I typed in Adobe Premier, and got the Adobe Clip app.

It required a signup and automatic cloud backup appears to be the first thing it told me it would do, but it seems to have worked for the simple tasks I’ve given it, and appears to be actually free so far, with the idea that it’s an introduction to their paid apps.
 
Yes, there is a lot of garbage in the app store. I like imovie butit is missing two features. First the ability to speed up a clip (you can slow but not speed up) which is nice to have when you shot something in film mode for better control compared to sports

Also, while you can use filters you cannot tweak clips manually like saturation, contrast etc. which can come in handy

The only app i found which can do both speed and editing is FilmoraGo.the rest of its features are clumsy but it s nice to use for speed and editing before importing into iMovie
 

New Posts

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
5,295
Messages
45,052
Members
7,965
Latest member
Peanut