Talk:iMovie

Concern about Excessive Detail

I've been reading and editing this article and I've slowly come to the realization that this article might be overly-detailed. While I've edited within this precedent for now, I think we should discuss removing some of the non-notable content on this article. Specifically, the list of supported file formats would likely be targeted for removal under WP:INDISCRIMINATE. This level of detail isn't seen on similar articles, like Adobe Premiere Pro. The software versions might need to be trimmed as well. Major releases likely can be kept as notable, but smaller point releases, and much of the iOS version table, might need to be trimmed if 3rd party sources establishing notability can't be found. Let me know what you think. Herbfur (Eric, He/Him) (talk) 04:25, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

I think we should leave the supported versions in. Other stuff, I don't care. Thanks. Betaneptune (talk) 06:15, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

OTOH, the article doesn't look that long to me. Maybe leave it as is?

I can't believe anybody actually does any useful editing on an iPhone.

I meant supported file formats, not supported versions.

I think maybe we should increase the detail on the others! There are plenty of articles that go into all sorts of things in great detail, and still sometimes manage to miss something important. Betaneptune (talk) 06:20, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

It's not necessarily a matter of how long the article appears, it's a matter of whether the content is notable. Something like specific supported file formats is WP:INDISCRIMINATE information that can be found on the Apple website anyways. WP:INDISCRIMINATE specifically states that these articles shouldn't contain extensive version history logs without notability by third party sources. We might be able to trim it by adding a link in the see also section or a see also to a related Wikipedia article. Herbfur (Eric, He/Him) (talk) 16:54, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

1) I've had rather mixed success finding anything on the Apple website. Hell, why not ditch the entire article and replace it Apple links?

2) Looks fine to me. Maybe a little too much detail in all the software versions. But I looked at the versions I'm familiar with, and I'd like just a little more detail. Like the fact that iMovie 9.x became more and more dysfunctional each successive macOS upgrade, and is now not usable at all. In Mojave, it doesn't even launch at all except for the menu bar headings. This happened somewhere around El Capitan, I think. I do know that it got progressively worse with each OS upgrade. Buggy when it did launch fine.

3) Why is it a problem listing all the file formats? It's just a couple of tables. It'd be easier to find info about problems with older versions than on apple.com. Trust me, I've looked for info about what got lost when converting iMovie 9.x.x projects into iMovie 10. They had it many years ago, but when I needed it a year or two ago, nothing. Nada. And nothing about it here, either. I wish there was. And there was some compatibility. Certain things didn't come over right, like color corrections and maybe titles. I tried to look it up all over the web. and came up empty-handed. I made a detailed check of what settings carried over, and have it in my notes. Yes, backward compatibility seems to not be a concept that Apple is familiar with. At least with the drop of Quick-time architecture (or whatever it was) and the dropping of many video formats and 64-bit and whatnot, they gave us fair warning. The content seems quite notable to me. You asked, and this is my opinion. Betaneptune (talk) 19:48, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

Notability requires reliable third party sources. I'm having trouble finding them, and from what you're saying, it looks like there's a lack of them on the internet. Can you please provide them? Otherwise, the content doesn't seem to be encyclopedic. Even if information wouldn't otherwise be available online, it doesn't necessarily merit inclusion in a Wikipedia article. Herbfur (Eric, He/Him) (talk) 19:54, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

Adding on to this, the citation ([1]) we have right now on the file formats sections actually contains a list of supported file formats. The coverage of the Apple transition to 64-bit software largely focused on software programs and not video formats. I think there are ways we can reduce the length of the article to comply more with WP:INDISCRIMINATE while still covering the file formats in less depth. We could move the supported file formats section into the features section, and reduce the tables into a few sentences describing major file formats and the deprecation of 32-bit formats. A citation to the Apple website we have now will allow readers to see the other file formats, without need for excessive detail that wouldn't fit Wikipedia's policies. Herbfur (Eric, He/Him) (talk) 20:02, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

"The coverage of the Apple transition to 64-bit software largely focused on software programs and not video formats." Coverage by whom? As a Final Cut user who has digital movie files in the Apple Motion JPEG A format, I was very focused on the video file formats! And there are a lot of Final Cut users! And iMovie users! Don't be so dismissive!

I'll see if I can find the deprecated formats. Just a minute. . . .

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209029

In older versions of iMovie 10, there was a menu item called "Check Media for Compatibility". And the same in FCP. But not anymore. Here's the similar page for FCP:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209000

(I have these links saved from before, and I still have my old Mac, which is running Mojave, and can therefore use these abandoned video formats, and the apps have those menu items.)

If you're going to have the history of all the older versions, why not the older video formats? Seems you should have both or neither. I mean, who's using anything older than iMovie '11 (v9.0.x)? Good luck finding documentation for them!

I suspect these links will be removed by Apple sometime in the next couple of years. Hmmmm. I should save an on-disk copy of each for myself!

Anyway, you now have the links.

BTW, at least some 3rd-party apps still support the older video formats! (IINA, at least.) Apple apps do not.

BTW, the Version Table is empty.

Let me know if you have any further questions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Betaneptune (talk • contribs) 09:18, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

Supported formats should just be a link to Apple's site in the External links section, per WP:NOTGUIDE. Apple's site is the only possible reliable source for that info, and our content will inevitably end up wrong or out of date, and mislead users. Linking to that page in "External links" will help users find it, and avoid us having a potentially inaccurate table.

Betaneptune, I sympathize with your problems with iMovie; but Wikipedia isn't meant to be useful (sounds harsh, I know), or to help people with certain apps. It's meant to only contain encyclopedic information. Moreover, we shouldn't include external content that is only useful when presented verbatim (see the third bullet point).

The removal of 64-bit support should also be described in prose. We can even dedicate a whole paragraph to it. But what we cover must be fundamentally encyclopedic knowledge (i.e. professional users' reactions, Apple's intentions, how it was perceived, etc). But we can't list every single format (either supported, or dropped from the 64-bit transition), since it would be considered excessive, unencyclopedic detail. The fact is, in order for this article to become a Good Article, we'd need to remove most of these details anyway. No reason not to do it now. DFlhb (talk) 23:07, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

Done with changes; kept the supported formats table for now. Do you have any remaining concerns about undue content? DFlhb (talk) 02:46, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

Besides the current supported formats table, I have no other concerns now. Thank you so much for your hard work!Herbfur (Eric, He/Him) (talk) 03:35, 3 January 2023 (UTC)