Apple vs Microsoft Round 1: Movie Maker vs iMovie

You've seen the commercials, you've heard about the hype, and you're wondering which one is really better. Well, I wil be doing my best in order to explain which is better over the course of a next few weeks. Apple vs Microsoft.

Movie Maker vs iMovie

Thanks to youtube, bolt, and now myspace; we all love making custom videos. They are pretty easy to do, and not too time consuming if done right. I recently bought a MacBookPro in order to make higher quality videos. Thinking that with all the hype I have been hearing about Macs that iMovie must be the next wave of the future. I was planning on eventually turning my gears towards Final Cut Express, but oh wait Apple doesn't tell you that they don't have Final Cut Express for Intel/Macs, nor do they tell you it's not the easiest thing in the world to use on a laptop. Anyway I started using iMovie and I regretted not just upgrading my PC with all the money I had spent on MacBookPro. Here is why

1. Movie Maker allows you to choose how many megabytes per a second of film you want to use. For example: A higher quality video will probably use up about a gig for every two minutes, if you want to call it higher quality, it really all depends on the camera you are using. Making the file use up more gigs won't really do much for the quality of the video. iMovie just assumes you have the largest hard drive in the world and starts to import your video with only three options of quality. It doesn't say how much space per second of footage you will be using. Trust me it's so much I have to delete every 40 mins of footage I use to make a 5 minute video. I still have all my extra footage from all my old videos on my PC. Probably over 10 hours worth. The quality isn't even that much different either. 2 points Microsoft. 1 for choice of settings with explanation, 1 for the little amount of space needed.

2. Movie Maker allows you to slice clips in a simple process, and it will also allow you to have the clips on hand once they are inserted into the movie. iMovie automatically adds those clips to the field and if you want your original footage saved as a whole you will either have to copy and paste all the films into another project, or just reload it. Something you DON'T have the time to do with the Macs copy and paste speed for these huge files.Once you slice a clip, if you can figure out how to in iMovie, everything is messed up and out of order. If its added to the main project you better copy it and add it back to the field so that you don't lose it if you really like it. 3 points Microsoft. 1 for keeping the film intact. 1 for simple slice tool. 1 for not making you have to redownload your project, or copy and paste a whole other version to keep it on hand.

3. iMovie does have a simple layout, with a comforting display of where everything is. The options are all there, and it's quite easy to find out where is what for effects, and speed. They also allow different degrees of speed and to apply reverse to your editing. Movie Maker's lay out is bit more difficult to understand, you really have to figure it out to know what you are doing. 2 points for Apple. 1 point for different degrees of speed and effects. 1 point for layout and display of program.

4. When the movie is completed you want to be able to publish it with as little memory as possible, and as fast as possible. iMovie will not allow this to happen, you need lots of space for a reasonably good view of the movie. Moviemaker will allow for the video to be shown with little space used. Moviemaker does take awhile though to make the movie complete, while iMovie get's it done pretty fast when everything is already finished. Even. iMovie is faster at loading it, but uses way more space to save the file.

5. Freezing? Movie Maker will freeze on you, and you will lose a great deal, it is rough choppy and will cause you more problems then you need if you are using any other files. iMovie is a pain with rendering and adding other files to it, but nothing compared to the agony one will suffer when losing all their footage. 1 point for Apple for not crashing.

6. The completed project will look better with iMovie, but with Movie Maker there are many more options and surprisingly if you know what you are in both programs it is easier to use Movie Maker. Even, Movie Maker is eaiser, better looking with iMovie.

I haven't used the new Vista Movie Maker yet, but I can probably bet it is much better than the last Movie Maker I was using so I could even eliminate the crashing from it. There may be a lot more other features in it, but I haven't used it so I will not account for it in the overall point total.


Microsoft's Movie Maker wins 5-3. If you use any these programs for at least 5 videos each, you will agree. Today Microsoft is the Champion.