Rules for iMovie/FCE/iDVD

Question

Reading through many posts seems I find some general rules of thumb not found elsewhere. Thanks in advance for all comments.
For serious video editing work and creation an external firewire HDD is needed, mainly to avoid dropped frames in either FCE or iMovie (iM). The new 20" iMac and external HDD (with 2 firewire connections, for the input device (DV camcorder or DV/SVHS deck) and to the iMac) should be able to run either FCE/iM.
I just did a 45 min project in iM with no noted dropped frames but likely would in much longer projects if I don't get the external drive?
Audio bit rate. Advice I read for iM is that without 16 bit audio the audio gets out of sync in long projects--does FCE also need 16 instead of 12? Not knowing this need, I've recorded a number of projects (with a DV deck and a DV camcorder) in 12--can I capture to the iMac/external HDD in 16 if I'm playing from a source tape that's 12?
Chapter Markers. Seems there are "Rules for Chapter Markers" that I won't repeat here but suspect they apply to both FCE/iM when used with iDVD. Do those rules apply when you use DVDStudio instead of iDVD? One rule I haven't seen yet is that one should likely not use the apply chapter markers option in iDVD as it could apply a marker that violates the "rules" and cause strange results in the DVD when played, right?
Any other rules or concerns I've missed--perhaps always max out on RAM even if its rather costly? What other basic tips or secrets should I know for editing with these products?
Dale

Answer 1

"..The new 20" iMac and external HDD (with 2 firewire connections, for the input device (DV camcorder or DV/SVHS deck) and to the iMac) should be able to run either FCE/iM.."
This may not be true if you're trying to connect a Canon camcorder to the Mac at the same time as an external hard disc: Canons like to have the FireWire circuit all to themselves, and so you may need to do it in two steps with a Canon ..capture to the internal hard disc, then unplug the Canon, plug in the external disc and transfer the movie clips across to the external, and then use that for editing. This doesn't affect Sonys, which happily work with other FW devices connected to the system. I don't know about Panasonics and other brands (..I haven't tried my Panny with an external disc connected, and am in too much of a hurry at the moment to try it. Maybe later today..)
"..can I capture to the iMac/external HDD in 16 if I'm playing from a source tape that's 12?.."
No ..FireWire's a digital connection system, so what goes in at one end (..12-bit source tape..) is exactly what's captured at the other end (..iMac/external HDD in 16..)
One way to convert would be to play your source video into another camcorder through analogue (RCA) connections, with the 2nd camcorder set to record in 16-bit ..or use some other device which accepts an analogue signal IN, and provides a digital signal OUT. That'll recapture the sound in 16-bit, and it can then be transferred into your Mac in 16-bit. But the video may be degraded a little, and it's rather long-winded.
It may be that, once imported as 12-bit, GarageBand can convert 12-bit audio into 16-bit ..I don't know: I'm not that familiar with GarageBand, sorry..
Just try testing your 12-bit audio in iMovie or FCE first ..some people have no difficulties with it ..others do. (..That may depend on whether you're using only your original 12-bit audio, or if you're also trying to mix it with 16-bit audio within the movie project..)
However, note that - once again - Canons are quirky. Because of the way that their own particular internal 12-bit timing runs, Canon-shot 12-bit tapes may give the audio drifting out-of-sync a little on single clips which are longer than 20 minutes. This shouldn't be apparent on ordinary short clips, but if you've shot, say, a school play or concert as a single take on a Canon in 12-bit audio mode, the audio may slowly go out of sync after 20 mins, and would need correcting in iMovie or FCE.
Can't comment on Chapter Markers in DVD Studio vs. iDVD ..I've never had any trouble with Chapter Markers.
"..always max out on RAM.." ..more RAM usually helps; the most noticeable improvement is when jumping up from, say, 256MB to anything above that. The next jump, from 512MB to 1GB is also useful, but doesn't provide such a spectacular improvement as that first increase. More RAM generally means that your Mac has less need to swap things from RAM to "virtual memory" on your hard disc, so less "disc thrashing" as material's repeatedly swapped back and forth, and greater speed of access if you're not constantly reading to and writing from the hard disc.
Fitting a second internal disc, in Macs which can take it, and putting your movie project on that ..or on an external disc, as you suggest.. also relieves "disc thrashing" and any instances of the OS trying to get access to the hard disc at the same time as the movie program wants access.
To stop any delays in accessing an external hard disc, as soon as you've reformatted it to 'Mac OS Extended' (..using Disk Utility..) then open System Prefs, and the 'Spotlight' preference, and then click the 'Privacy' tab, and drag the external disc's icon into the big square space which is labelled "Prevent Spotlight from searching these locations". That stops Spotlight indexing every video clip which you import onto the external disc, which can slow down disc access.
The cup-of-tea icon is a good thing to click on every now and again, in both iMovie and FCE. That lets you stop editing for a while, have tea and biscuits, and come back refreshed, with new ideas..!