From Concept to Cut-Tape: IMovie Steps for Optimizing YouTube Edits

Easy Way to Edit YouTube Videos in iMovie

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

iMovie is the built-in video editor that allows you to combine several video clips. It is available for both Mac and iOS devices. This app was first released in 1999 when it came with the iMac DV model.

With the use of the iMovie, you are able to create movies that include sound effects, menus, transitions, titles, themes, and music, just to name a few. The resulting movie can be saved onto physical media or as a file on the hard drive.

If you are a Mac user, then you can easily edit YouTube videos in iMovie. All you need to do is to follow the simple steps below. In this article, you will learn how to import videos, organize videos, add YouTube titles and add transitions.

• Part 1. Steps on Editing YouTube Videos Using iMovie
• Part 2. A Better Choice to Edit YouTube Videos

Part 1. Steps on Editing YouTube Videos Using iMovie

To edit a video for YouTube with iMovie, you can follow these steps.

Step 1: Import Video Clips into iMovie

If you have recorded the video clips with the use of a videocam, then connect the camera to the Mac and open the app. You can import the videos by manually selecting the clips that will be part of the YouTube video.

Note: If you want to import videos that you have already published on your YouTube channel, then you can download them from the channel, and save them as MP4. However, if the videos were uploaded by other users, then you need to use a video converter, this article will let you know the 8 best video converters to convert video to MP4.

Step 2: Edit the Video Clips

Once you have all the clips that you need, the next step is to edit YouTube videos in iMovie. When you import the clips, you have created an Event in the app. If you want to include a clip in your final video, just drag the file to the project browser, where you can edit the video.

You can also add videos from other Events into the current project. You can select the parts of the video by dragging across the video from the chosen start to stop points. Edit the video until you are satisfied with the results.

Step 3: Enhance the Video

Once you have edited the video, you can then add background music, themes, sound effects, onscreen text, transitions between clips, and photos. The best thing about iMovie is that it comes with a sound effects library. It also allows you to upload audio from your iTunes library, iLife, and GarageBand.

iMovie allows you to add text to any part of the video, whether it is a title screen at the start, credits at the end, and everything in between. Try to enhance the video until you think it is ready to be uploaded to YouTube.

• Add YouTube title : If you want to add a title for YouTube Video, all you need to do is click Title in the toolbar, and then highlight My Movie on the left. From here, enter the title you like.
• Organize videos : You also can rearrange video clips in the timeline. Just drag the video on the timeline to wherever you want.
• Add transitions : If you have more than one video clip, you definitely need transitions between them. Click the Transitions tab, and then select one transition you like. In the end, drag it to stop between two clips.

Step 4: Export and Upload the Video to YouTube

When you edit YouTube videos in iMovie, you have the option to export the video straight to the video streaming website. All you need to do is to click on the Share button found at the top of the screen. Then select YouTube. Add your YouTube account in iMovie by entering your username and password. Then you choose a title, description, and tags for the video.

You can choose the resolution and size of the video that includes HD 720p and HD 1080p, mobile, medium, and large. Click on Publish to upload the video to YouTube. Uploading the video will take several minutes to a couple of hours, depending on the resolution and size of the video.

Part 2. A Better Choice to Edit YouTube Videos

There’s a better way to edit YouTube videos. It involves the use of Wondershare Filmora . It is user-friendly and allows beginners to make videos professional-looking videos.

This software has more than 300 video effects for family, weddings, love, and travel, etc. You can also add animated captions to photos that will help tell the story. It comes with an array of intro and credit templates that will enhance your video.

Lastly, you can easily share the resulting movie on YouTube, DVD, other devices, and a lot more.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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Why Watch HD? - Switch to AV1 Codec on YouTube

Do you notice that many YouTube videos have been streamed in AV1? YouTube AV1 just happened suddenly a few years ago. This article will inform you about all the things you want to know about AV1 Youtube settings. I will let you know the tutorial to turn in AV1 settings on YouTube and the reason why should choose AV1 along with the others, and some more things about AV1.

Part 1: How to turn on AV1 settings on YouTube?

Do you wonder how to turn on AV1 settings on YouTube? For your information, AV1 is a video codec that is developed by a consortium of companies. It offers you advanced compression, enabling you to do smoother HD streaming and data savings for the video. Google also has already implemented AV1 use on YouTube. To turn on AV1 settings on YouTube, here are the steps:

Step1Go to playback and performance

• To turn on the AV1 settings, go to your YouTube account, after that click “Playback and Performance”.
• In the AV1 settings. Besides “Auto (Recommended)”, there are other two options, which are “Prefer AV1 for SD” and also “Always prefer SD”.
• “Always Prefer AV1” uses the codec whenever it is available for a video while “Prefer AV1 for SD” limits it to SD videos. There are two options to avoid low-performance devices when AV1 videos are played on YouTube. You can select “Always Prefer AV1” to see if your device performance is good enough when you play videos on YouTube that support AV1.

Step2Test if the AV1 settings are already enabled in your video

You may ask how to confirm your YouTube videos are playing with AV1 Codec. Well, you can search playlist on YouTube with the keywords “4K, 5K, and 8K videos with the new AV1 Codec “. You can test it by playing one of the videos. You have to right-click on the media player and then select “Stats for nerd”. If it shows the av01 codec there, then the AV1 settings are enabled already.

Part 2: Why choose AV1 over VP9 and other formats?

Now, do you need a reason why you should choose AV1 compared to VP9 and the others? As you know, there is also another video codec like VP9. There are also the others such as VVC, and many more. So what is the superiority of AV1 over the others? I will let you know why you should choose AV1 in this part.

The main thing is, as mentioned before, AV1 is developed by a consortium of companies founded in 2015. It is supported by The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix, and also by web browser developers and semiconductor firms. Aomedia made it clear the algorithm is free-to-use. It means that there are no greedy negotiators that will be dependent on the developers.

Also, these days, with a format that provides a much smaller workload for internet providers. Their today focus is, that AV1 can reach the quality but can get the job done with 20% more efficiency. Then, with AV1 encoding, a “standard” 4K movie will be much more accessible than it is now. These are some more reasons why you should choose AV1.

1. Royalty-free

As mentioned before, AV1 is royalty-free. AV1 is such a next-generation of royalty video codec. It means that it is not just free to use, but also free of charge, obligations, or even liability. It is an open and royalty-free video codec that the video platform will not charge to pay royalties to the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), the developer of video codecs.

When it comes to the group that will ask for the royalty, MPEG is not the only one. There are also other patent groups and companies that can ask for it. Aomedia integrated Google, Mozilla, and Cisco, while they were busy creating their new video codec. However, the three companies joined together to create one codec to beat them all.

2. Better performance

It is said that the AV1 codec is 30% more efficient. According to the tests conducted by Moscow State University, AV1 can outperform AV1 by about 28% in the efficiency of encoding and decoding. As per the performance graph from the Graphics & Media Lab Video Group, MSU below, AV1 can offer the exactly same quality as X264 at 55% of the average bitrate.

AV1 is designed so exclusively to function better than all the other codecs in the market. It is an open-sourced codec with simple patent licensing, and the integration manages to save, as mentioned, up to 30% of the bandwidth for the exactly same image quality. In other words, with AV1, distributors can send streams much faster and cheaper and we can enjoy higher definitions in the same bandwidth.

3. AV2 to come in the future

AV1 is undoubtedly superior if we compare it to other available video codecs and the exploration of the codec technology AV2 has already begun. This is such an early performance evaluation. There is some interesting part of the exploration development of AV2, such as multiple line selection for Intra prediction can make you select not just neighboring row/column for directional prediction. The same tool also exists in VVC.

There are also three essential improvements, which are simplifying the existing feature (also complete removal) and picking the tool used by VVC/H.266 (It is lack originality but so much work on it) and improvement periodically improvement of an existing tool, it is too few and also not original. We haven’t known yet when AV2 will be done completely though, maybe there still be some more essential improvements.

Part 3: What’s the best video editor for YouTubers with AV1 format?

When we talk about YouTube, it feels incomplete if we don’t talk about the video editor. So, what is the best video editing software for YouTubers with AV1 format? Yes, it is Filmora . It is such a great video editing software that allows you to import and edit many video file formats. Filmora also allows users to export AV1 MP4 format video and then can directly upload it to YouTube.

Filmora gives some ways to export your videos. Here are the five ways. You can also customize the export settings then you can save them to reuse the same settings next time. The first is you can export your project file and video to the local computer. It supports export as MP4, AVI, WMV, AV1, MOV, GoPro Cineform, F4V, MKV, TS, and 3GP.

After that, you can export your video to any device you want, such as iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple TV 4K, iPod, Samsung Galaxy, Smart Phone, Android Generic, Google Pixel, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PSP, and Smart TV. Then you can upload it to YouTube, Filmora provides you to export your video to Youtube directly. All you need to do is logging your Youtube account and export.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Part 4: FAQ: Does YouTube use AV1 or VP9?

For today, YouTube encodes all the videos with the VP9 codec, but for some reason displays for low view count videos. AV1 usage also had been pushed to very low view counts. When it comes to cost or quality tradeoffs, AV1 took about 18 times longer to encode than x264.

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Part 4: FAQ: Does YouTube use AV1 or VP9?

For today, YouTube encodes all the videos with the VP9 codec, but for some reason displays for low view count videos. AV1 usage also had been pushed to very low view counts. When it comes to cost or quality tradeoffs, AV1 took about 18 times longer to encode than x264.