Apple responded to the ruckus by making iMovie available free for the downloading. Apple's generosity may have been inspired in part by Microsoft, which, in a dazzling display of its ability to innovate to the benefit of consumers everywhere, has announced plans to include an iMovie-like program with its forthcoming Windows Millennium Edition. The CD-ROM includes tutorial footage that the download version lacks. That footage aside, the downloadable iMovie is identical to the version bundled with the iMac DV models. Many users have even reported successful results from beige Power Macs containing G3 upgrade cards and third-party FireWire cards such as Orange Micro's OrangeLink family.
Camcorder compatibility is another story.
But this works only if you're using an iMovie-compatible camcorder or video deck. Stray from this list, and you risk problems, such as the inability to record a completed project back to tape. A monitor region displays video from a FireWire-connected camcorder and also shows a preview of your epic. Across the bottom of the screen is iMovie's timeline-like clip viewer , where you do most of your editing. To add a freshly captured scene to a movie, drag it from the shelf into the clip viewer.