iLife '04

When iMovie started refusing to import iTMS music a few weeks back (on my Mac), I had a feeling I knew what the matter was. iTunes 4.5 reworks its iTMS access system to break Hymn (f/k/a PlayFair), a program that strips the DRM from iTMS files. As a side effect, it also breaks older versions of the iLife apps, at least as far as their ability to use DRM'ed iTMS music goes. This was a bit disappointing because I had just purchased a ridiculously bad song to stick into a short movie clip for the humorous impact of its “badness.”

The fix is to upgrade to iLife '04 (I purchased my G5 two months before the new iLife came out). While I wasn't particularly happy about the software that came with Panther already being considered obsolete and not worthy of patching, I had been thinking about buying iLife '04 anyway and so I bit the bullet and ordered it (the MSRP is under $50).

Supposedly, iPhoto 4 is faster and can handle 25,000 photos instantaneously, and iMovie is suppose to be faster and leave backup unedited copies of DV footage. The new iMovie also has better compression techniques, if I understand correctly, which should yield results much more on par with Final Cut Express/Pro. Nice! Now, I just need time to try the package out. It arrived Friday and the box is presently sitting on my desk waiting for me to install.

It will be at least Wednesday before I get to that, but I will mention how it goes once I do.