iLife '04: The Missing Manual

Title Trouble

For some reason, titles and credits seem to have their own phalanx of problems and issues. For example:

Jagged, Crummy-Looking Titles

iMovie titles and credits look terrific when played on a TV. But on your screen, you may notice that the edges of your lettering look jagged and disintegrated.

One quick way to make text look smooth and nice is as simple as turning on “Enhanced Video Playback” in iMovie’s Preferences, if your Mac is fast enough to handle it.

Half Volume During Titles

A bug in iMovie 4.0.1 has the peculiar effect of lowering the volume of a clip to which you’ve applied a title or an effect. Weirdly enough, the trouble is the main iMovie volume slider (just above the Movie Track); the title or effect somehow takes its volume setting cue from this control.

The trick, then, is to delete the title or effect (click the clip and then press Delete). Drag the iMovie volume slider all the way to the right, and then apply the title or effect again. (Or, for titles only, you can take a shortcut: drag the volume slider all the way to the right—and then just click the Update button on the Titles panel.)

Chopped-off Type on Playback from Tape

The actual dimensions of a TV picture aren’t what you’d expect. To avoid the risk that some oddball TV model might display a sliver of black empty space at a corner or edge of the glass, all NTSC television signals are overscanned—deliberately transmitted at a size larger than the TV screen. Sure, that means that the outer 5 percent ...