Monday, March 28, 2011

How to Get Previous Video into Camera Roll to Edit with iMovie on iPad 2

I am still playing with the new iMovie app for iPad 2 and have noticed several things.

iMovie seems to import or load only videos that are stored in the Camera Roll section of the Photo Album on iPad 2.  Some have assumed wrongly that you can only edit movies you made using the video camera function on the iPad 2.  I have been playing with various means to edit video that I have in the Movie tab of my iTunes library that are viewable on my iPad 2 but are not located in the Camera Roll section.

It is probably a good idea to make sure that the video or movie you wish to edit with iMovie app on your iPad 2 is in the proper format for viewing on iPhone.  As we all know, iTunes can handle this conversion for us by selecting our video movie and then Advanced>Create iPod or iPhone Version from the menubar in iTunes.

 I figured out a way to get this movie that I have in iTunes library into my camera rollDrag the movie from iTunes to your desktop and then into an email as an attachment.   Email this to one of the existing accounts you have setup on your iPad 2.  (Note:  This is a way to get photos or videos to and from your iTunes or Mac without having to sync your device to your Mac and iTunes).

 Once you receive the email on your iPad 2, select the attachment icon in the body of the email (allow the movie to fully load in your email window) and then click on the curved arrow in the upper right hand corner of the email display page.  You will be given a choice to 'Save Video'.  This option will save the video to the camera roll section of photo album on your iPad 2.

Now, you will be able to run the iMovie app on your iPad 2 and access this video for your project.  You  click on the + to create a new project then tap the upper screen or select the square movie icon to bring up the available video clips to edit from your camera roll.  You then click on the video clip you wish to edit and then the arrow to download it into the frame for editing.


As I explore iMovie, I will post tips and things here on my blog periodically that I discover.  There seems to be a lot of things to explore and frustration by users in getting some of their previous videos from other devices into the camera roll to edit.  Personally, I see the primary function of the iPad 2 video camera and iMovie app for editing an occasional movie that I might take on the iPad 2, but for any serious editing of longer movies that I might take with a video camera I would probably use iMovie on my Mac which has so many other features readily available.  Not sure if Apple intends to add more features to the app, but I secretly hope so as well.

One of the other things that I learned in my exploration of iMovie today is that you should also have the location set to ON in your Settings on your iPad for iMovie to be able to access your camera roll.

In addition, I emailed a movie from Talking Tom app of the cute cat from my iPad 2 to myself.  I then saved the movie to the camera roll from the email, but it did NOT show up in the list of videos that I could edit.  It seems that the format that came directly from Talking Tom app was not set to the format needed by iMovie.   So I dragged the video into iTunes and then using the Advanced>Create iPod or iPhone Version from the menubar in iTunes to convert it to a format that would work with iMovie app.   I then dragged Talking Tom converted video to my desktop and then emailed it back to my iPad 2 and saved to camera roll.  I was then able to edit the Talking Tom video, adding a music theme and title.



TEST:   I recorded a brief video using my iPhone 3GS and emailed it from the iPhone 3GS to an account that I could access on my iPad 2.  I then accessed the email on my iPad 2, allowing time for the video to load in, I then clicked Save Video (which went to my Camera Roll).   I was able to load that video into the iMovie app on my iPad 2 and created a new project, adding theme music and title.   While doing this edit, I discovered if you tap on one of the audio tracks in the movie timeline, you can adjust the volume of each one.  




Once the videos were edited, I uploaded both of these last two videos to YouTube using iMovie share option on my iPad 2.  The uploads seemed to work fine if I selected Public.   I had problems uploading them as Unlisted.

20 comments:

gnet said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Off to try this. I have been going nuts trying to figure this out today :)

Admin said...

thanx, my problem is i am in South Africa, we pay a small fortune for data. Emailing a video is not a possibility at all:/

Granny Joan said...

Admin, It may be possible to use the camera connection cable to connect your iPhone to your iPad and transfer the videos in that manner. I haven't tried it yet, but seems reasonable as a solution in the case where email is not practical.

Anonymous said...

why don't you install ifile. after doing so you can move the files to camera roll. Sending email is option for fast internet facilities

JR said...

Thank you soooooooo much. I wanted to do this without jail breaking my ipad2.

Shea Malcolmson said...

It WORKED! Oh man THANKS for this. I am now able to add my own intros etc... This is perfect. Thanks!! What about videos larger then 10 MB (mailbox limit)??

Luis do Nascimento said...

Hi,


Brilliant, you were the only one to help me with your advise. Thank you

theHalo said...

Sync photos, include videos. Works. :)

smithatchelsea said...

OMG !!!! It works!!! Finally!

Not sure what I am going to do with my 100mb + files though ;) but is a great start.

THANK YOU!!!!

:)

Anonymous said...

How did you drag the movie from itunes to your desktop? Mine is unresponsive to trying to pick up the video? Thanks in advance.

Granny Joan said...

Anoynmous you should be able to select the movie tab on the left side of iTunes window. This will bring up the small thumbnail icons of all your movies on the right side of the window. Select the movie and then drag to your desktop.

If this doesn't work, select the thumbnail icon of movie, control click and select "show in finder" and this will open up the exact location in your folders of the movie you have selected. You can hold down the option key as you drag this copy to your desktop. You may be able to drag directly to an open email window as an attachment as well. Hope this helps.

Rodrigo said...

Hi but I have video of 500mb and I can't send by email it.

Do you have another way, pot example using iExplorer?

red.mayfair said...

To transfer media files from PC to iPad2, you require to install a free software named iTools. Before file transmission, use Winavi mp4 video converter to transfer your wmv or avi files, then run iTools.

However, iTools requires you to transfer files again if you reconnect iPad2 to your PC.

red.mayfair said...

For each movie clip, the maximum file size is 2G.

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU!!!

Anonymous said...

its far easier to go to the photos tab in itunes on your ipad and use the use a folder (instead of iphoto) option. check include video and have a folder sit on your desktop where you just drop the converted videos in and sync them to your ipad.
emailing is not always a solution especially when you're dealing with larger projects

Jim said...

I would create a folder in the My Pictures directory dedicated to storing the converted videos. Once the device is connected go to the Pictures setting in iTunes and switch on 'Include any videos'. Make sure the named folder is also selected. That way, once synced, your videos are conveniently located in their own folder in the Photo Library of the iPad.

Anonymous said...

Hallo

MrKikalo said...

There is a simple way to put back videos to camera roll:
(I did it on my iPhone 4s)
Before you start you need to install iFile and an app called FilmicPro aswell.
Put the desired video somewhere into the device with iFile's web server or any other way you know.... Then lokate it with iFile and copy the file. Find the folder FilmicPro/Documents and paste the video in it. Than open the FilmicPro app and go to librery. The video will have an black icon that says "Loading...". Tap on it and than in the newly appeared menu tap on the first option ... "Copy to camera roll". Thats it! Open Camera roll and you'll see the video there!
By the way, FilmicPro is the best app on AppStore for serious filming with the onboard camera!
MY ENGLISH IS BAD! SORRY FOR THAT...

McCall said...

Thank you for your post on this. It truly seems to be the only and easiest way to get a video into you camera roll from iPhone > iPad...just email it to yourself and save video. Thanks! Brillant KISS