Videos taken with iPhone 4S not playing properly on iMac

NoBite · Apr 18, 2012

I love taking videos with my iPhone 4S. But, when I import them into my iMac, they play back in a jerky fashion, not smooth. This raises two questions, one regarding the iMac and one regarding the iPhone 4S.

Is there a setting or a fix for this playback issue in my iMac?

Is there a way to export my videos on my iPhone 4S in SD instead of HD? (A variation of that question might be, is there a way to take SD videos with the iPhone 4S instead of HD videos?)

Skull One · Apr 18, 2012

I have OSX 10.7 (Lion) and have no issues with playback of videos taken on my iPhone 4S. Your issue could be one of three things:

1) Not enough CPU power.
2) Older OSX and playback software.
3) Not enough memory with the background applications you are running.

And no, at present you can't not record a SD video on the iPhone 4S. You can however down convert it with a software package once it downloaded to your machine.

NoBite · Apr 19, 2012

Skull One said:
I have OSX 10.7 (Lion) and have no issues with playback of videos taken on my iPhone 4S. Your issue could be one of three things:

1) Not enough CPU power.
2) Older OSX and playback software.
3) Not enough memory with the background applications you are running.

And no, at present you can't not record a SD video on the iPhone 4S. You can however down convert it with a software package once it downloaded to your machine.

Thank you. I believe you have identified the culprit(s). I am running Snow Leopard on a 5-year old iMac. So, points 1 and 2 are likely true. I wonder if there is a way to improve my playback software?

You mention I can convert the HD video to SD using a software package. Can you recommend one?

Thanks for your help!! I cannot afford a new iMac at this time and hope to patch this one to be able to view my videos.

Skull One · Apr 19, 2012

I am actually only a recent convert to OSX. I am using Parallels so that I can run Windows at the same time because I haven't found replacements for all of my software yet. One of the packages I still haven't replaced is Video Editing. I use the AVS4You suite at present and there isn't unfortunately an OSX version.

Now from time to time I have seen a company named Nova run the "Mac Superbundle" where they offer 10 or more software packages for a pretty low price. I think the last one I saw had a video editor involved in the deal. You might want to check into that and see if that can help.

Wish I could be more help than that, but I still have a lot to learn myself on OSX.

mwhartman · Apr 19, 2012

If your budget can handle check Apple's Final Cut.

NoBite · Apr 20, 2012

Wow! $300. I must confess that I really have no desire to get into movie editing and production. Just does not interest me. Simply want to see my videos smoothly on the iMac. I suspect converting them to SD would do the trick. Does iMovie offer that option? Doesn't seem like much to ask and I really expect Apple to go to work on the camera and video capabilities of the iPhone to allow a bit more flexibility. Or, maybe an app for that!

Edited to add:
It appears that the app, ProCamera, does offer the ability to take video in SD format. Hmm. May have to give that a try.

crjackson · Apr 20, 2012

Let us know how that app works out please.

NoBite · May 21, 2012

Okay, folks, I have purchased ProCamera and have dabbled with it a very little bit. My main concern was the video. There are several video settings to choose. I just shot a video in the HQ setting, which is the third of five settings, less than HD for sure. This video played back on my iMac perfectly! Very clear, no jerky motion and no real loss of clarity. I am quite satisfied with this and it will serve my purposes very well!

The app has so much more to offer, much more than I will likely experiment with. For the ability to now record videos and play them back successfully on my iMac, I am quite satisfied.