Archiving an iMovie Project

Howdy All,
For iMovie 6:
1. "Burn Project to Disc..." in iMovie sounds like it would burn all the files (maybe less cache files) in the iMovie project, as a package say, so you could reload it and it would be just like before (less cache files). Is this true?
2. "Burn Project to Disc..." seems to be limited to one optical disc. Is this true? If so, this seems to be a severe limitation, most projects I have done using DV are easily bigger than what a DL disc can hold.
3. If I archive the iMovie project via some other means (e.g. using Toast) will the project contain all the required resources (except, possibly fonts)? Assuming movies added to the project don't reference external movies!
Thanks in advance for any specific answers to these questions.
Cheers,
Ashley.
PowerMac G5 Single CPU + AL PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

1. Yes, it's still editable.
2. Unfortunately, you are limited to one disc.
3. I use Toast 7, which can span multiple discs. (Toast 8 can, too). NOTE: Use the "Data" pane in Toast, NOT the "video pane". You also need to backup all third-party plug-ins and fonts you may have.

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Can I archive my iMovie project to an external drive? how?

I have been searching this forum for an answer but so far have only found how to save my iMovie project to DVD. The problem is, my movie is too big to fit on one DVD. Trash is empty; still no go. I do have a LaCie external firewire drive - can I just do a Save Project As... to the LaCie, or do I have to do something else? I'm just looking to save my movie project so I can get it off of my Mac and free up some hard drive space again.
Many thanks in advance!

Hi Gretchen, regarding the large size of your project, keep in mind that in iMovie HD, an original imported clip is retained in its entirety even if only a small segment is used in your final movie - called non-destructive editing. Only those imported clips not used AT ALL can actually be trashed. This makes for very large projects and potential storage issues, but has the advantage of being able to recover and re-work clips, even after Saving.

Can I archive imovie project to dvd?

Is it possible to archive your imovie project to dvd when finished?

Yes, you can find out how on the iMovie forum.

Archiving iMovie Projects to DVD

I'm trying to archive my iMovie projects onto DL DVD+R's. Each project is about 12.5 GB, so they won't fit onto a single DL DVD+R. I've tried using Retrospect, but it fails after spending an hour "configuring" my DVD drive. The only thing I can think of is that it doesn't like non-rewritable media.
This is what I'm really trying to do. I have several tapes I've taken with two camcorders over the last ten years. One is a Sony 8mm analog camcorder and the other is a newer JVC GR-DVL520U MiniDV with FireWire connecter. I want to backup all the movies so that none of my footage is lost in case one of the camcorders fails. The 8mm one is already a bit flakey so I want to be able to get it off of 8mm while I still can.
I was planning on creating a viewable copy of each tape, record it onto DVD and then put that DVD in my safe deposit box. I would like to retain as much of the original quality/information as I can (I'm anal that way), so I figured that saving the iMovie project itself, in addition to a regular DVD burn, would be the best bet. Most posts mention storing projects on an external harddrive, but since I'm trying to keep my original footage safe, DVD seems like the best way.
I guess I really have two questions. The first is, do I gain anything by keeping the original iMovie project? My understanding is that iMovie will compress the imported video, resulting in some detail loss from what was on tape. (With the advent of HD TV this may be a bigger deal than it is now).
My second question is, how do I backup 12.5 GB iMovie projects? As I mentioned earlier, it doesn't seem to like my drive, or at least the non-rewritable media I'm using (Memorex DL DVD+R). I also tried using a CD-R, but it gave the same error while trying to "configure" the DVD drive.
Thank you advance and sorry about the long-winded post.
Cheers,
Rey
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2GB, Core 2 Duo 17"

A waste of time and blank DVD's.
Export to "tape" (back to the camera with a blank tape inserted). Cheap, real time and easy to do.
"Copy" your iMovie Project to external Firewire HD. Cheap (comparatively), reliable and drag and drop easy.
A simple scratch on one of your backed up DVD's could render it useless. Hard to store "large" Project files onto DVD media.
No difference in the data on a DVD and the same data on a hard drive. Saving the entire iMovie Project as "data" would allow you to "Open iMovie Project" in iMovie and continue editing as if you left it yesterday.
Better to concentrate on saving the original "capture" in .dv format. Export entire movies back to tape. Export "clips" as QuickTime (Full Quality). These .dv files can be burned to DVD as "data". Just try and keep the file size under the size of the media. DV Stream is 13 GB per hour so you would need 3 DVD's to burn it.
Backup (.Mac members get it) can be used on "large" files and is smart enough to allow "spanning" multiple discs so your large project could fit in your safety deposit box.

IMovie project from 10 years ago compatible?

Ten years ago or more, I made a bunch of iMovies and burned them to DVD. Thinking I might want to make more copies later, I archived the iMovie projects.
Flash forward: here I am years later, and I do want to open some of these project and burn them to DVD.
BUT my iMac is now running 10.9.2, and iLife does NOT have iDVD!
I'm afriad to even try to open the projects, because now iMovie wants to 'update' the files, and as I understand it they are not backward compatible.
I guess my questions are these:
What would the new iMovie do with/to the 'old' iMovie files? Would they open? Would they look the same? There were a lot of special effects, layering of sound, etc. Would all that work? Are all the movie clips, stills, and music/sound bits, contained in the archived project?
I'd really appreciate any help understanding what I'm in for.
Thanks in advance.
Hal

When iMovie 10 updates files it does not affect the imovie 9 (or earlier) projects and events folders so you can still use the old version of iMovie.
I believe that earlier versions at least back to iMovie 6 will still run under Mavericks but I'm not sure which is the earliest version that iMovie 10 can update. There is no danger in trying.
If you still have the old iMovie application are you sure you don't also have iDVD? The update to Mavericks does not delete it.
If you still have the DVDs you could also consider just duplicating them. See for example: http://www.wikihow.com/Copy-Your-DVDs-With-Mac-OS-X
Geoff.

If I back up iMovie projects to an external drive does it take the media with it? I want to free up space and remove pictures that were in iPhoto...that were used as media by iMovie when project was under way. In short I want archive iMovie stuff

If I back up iMovie projects to an external drive does imovie take the media with it? I want to free up space and remove pictures that were in iPhoto...that were used as media by iMovie when project was under way. In short I want archive iMovie stuff. If I pull pics out of iPhoto, and later want to drag an archived projet bac into iMovie and the pics are no longer in iPhoto, will I be able to keep working in the project in iMovie?

Very likely not, as the iPhoto's can be used for something else.
More like it took a copy, or it's referencing that spot on the drive in the editable files and most likely made a copy to create a new permanent export file.
Sample one picture and a iMovie file and see what happens.

Once I finish an iMovie project and I publish it to various destinations (Dropbox iTunes YouTube etc) do I need to keep the original raw video on my MacBook or can I archive it to an external hard drive.

I have now finished 3 iMovie projects and have learned how to prepare them for sharing through various media like Dropbox, iDVD YouTube iTunes etc. but I now have produced a huge number of related files which are filling up my hard drive to the point that I can't import any further raw video until I archive or delete many of these files.
What files do I need to keep on my MacBook in order to be able to keep these various shared locations functioning, and what should I delete or archive?

iMovie works best with uncompressed audio. If your track is MP3 or AAC, you may get better results by converting your track to the AIFF format and then using that in iMovie.
You can do this in iTunes. Go to iTunes/Preferences and click the General button. On the General page, click the Import Settings button. Choose IMPORT USING: AIFF ENCODER.
(note: remember what you changed it from so you can change it back later, before you import another CD)
Now, in iTunes, select your track. Then click FILE/CREATE NEW VERSION/AIFF VERSION.

Archiving an iMovie HD project to a DVD disc

I want to back up an iMovie HD project to a DVD disc in order to free up some hard drive space.
To do so I:
1. Chose "Burn project to disc" from the File menu.
2. Confirmed that I wanted to create an archive of my project, and
3. Inserted a bland DVD-RW, and clicked "Burn".
A dropdown told me that the "Project was too large to fit the disc". (The movie was l hour, 2 min. long). I subsequently tried to archive a 25 min. movie with the same result.
Any help will be appreciated.

If your iMovie HD movie is in DV video form, it requires 13 GB of space per hour! This means you could fit about 20 minutes of DV video content on a DVD. You would need to do this from the Finder.
BTW, iDVD isn't designed to archive iMovie movies to DVDs, it's designed to mpg-2 encode video content and create video DVDs.
iDVD will let you create an iDVD project archive that contains ALL the elements that went into making that project. However, for the reason above, such archive will be VERY large and will require storing on something like an external hard drive.

Export iMovie project to archive?

I have some projects that I have finished, and will almost definitely not need to do any more editing on. I'd like to archive them onto an external hard drive, to clear up some space on my MBP.
I have used iMovie to archive events from the Events Library (Command-drag onto the external drive as it appears in the Events Library), but how do I export the Projects?
Can I just go into Finder, find them in the iMovies Projects folder and move them to the external drive, or do I need to do it somehow from within iMovie?
(using OS X 10.6.7, and iMovie 11, v. 9.0.2)

Normally you would do this the other way around.
Command drag your project from within iMovie onto your external drive and you will be asked if you want to move just the project or consolidate your media by moving the events etc as well.
Your external drive shows up at the bottom of your project library listing.
Type Consolidate into iMovie Help for more information.
Z

Archiving a 7.5G iMovie Project

I'm tyring to archive an iMovie I just made. It's about 7.5G so it won't fit onto a regular DVD. I'm trying to use a double layer DVD+R and it's not working. Anyone know why? Do the iBook G4s not work with double layer DVD+R, and if that's the case - any suggestions on what to do?
thanks.
crocks

This error means that you tried to copy a file which is 4GB or larger to a FAT32 disk, which the disk's format cannot support. Options for dealing with this issue include:
1. Using the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to reformat the whole drive in the Mac OS Extended format. You should choose this option if you don't need to use the drive with a PC.
2. Segmenting the oversize file with one of these applications.
3. Following the instructions in this article.
4. Installing MacDrive on any PCs which need to access the drive, and then following #1.
5. Install and use MacFUSE on your computer, and reformat the drive to NTFS in Windows.
(20733)

Archiving iMovie projects

I have about 300 GB of iMovie projects which I am working through to produce DVDs. MPEG2 is Ok for quality on a TV, but I'd like to keep a higher quality version so that I can reauthor when the next generation DVD format is available.
Once I have finished with each iMovie I'd like to compress the DV .mov file and save it somewhere (probably backup to one or more DVD) to free up disk space.
Given that H264 isn't readily available today, is there a recommended way of compressing DV that gives a good trade off of file size vs quality?

I was hoping that there would be a simple "compress with xyz codec at abc settings" to get a file size for each approx 1 hour (or less) movie that I can backup to DVDR.
Yes, the app is called iDVD ;-)
Seriously speaking: DV is compressed. Compressing it more will cost you quality.
I use Retrospect backup from http://www.dantz.com/ and a stack of empty DVD-Rs. It will not compress anything on the DVDs, but it will restore exactly what you backed up. If you back up your Project folder, you will be able to restore it EXACTLY as you left it and can continue editing.
You can do this with toast if you fit the clips to the DVDs yourself, remember to copy each and every clip.
Using Retrospect you can backup and restore anything on your hard drive(s), even your System. It will keep track of what went to which DVD for you. You get incremental backups, backing up only files that changed since the last backup.
If you just export back to tape, you can never undo a title, transition or effect.

How to duplicate (finished) iMovie Project?

Hello,
I went on vacation with my wife and we shot some video all around town.
I've put together all of the footage and trimmed the video, tweaked the audio, etc. for OUR video archive.
The project comes in at just under an hour.
Our friends want to see footage of the trip, but nobody wants to see an hours worth of their friend's vacation...just the highlights.
So, now that I have the MASTER video for my archives...how can I duplicate the iMovie Project so that I can trim the copied project down to a "Friends & Family" version without jeopardizing the MASTER video?
I thought of just going into the Finder location for the iMovie Project, Copying and Pasting a duplicate copy that way, but don't want to chance it.
Any advice would be great.
Thanks,
Justin

Nevermind.
I was trying to duplicate the project from within the "Event Library" and also while I was in Edit mode for the project in question.
I just noticed the "Project Library" button and see that the Context menu does have a "Duplicate Project" function.
Thanks
Justin

Putting multiple iMovie projects onto one DVD

I was wondering if there was a way to put multiple iMovie projects onto one DVD using iDVD?

actually none of those options worked probably since the movies were in IMOVIE2
Ah... You didn't say it was an iMovie 2 project. iMovie project is different from iMovie HD.
I want to store the image file from the dvd's off site as I don't have the space to archive the projects - it seems I can't do that as it copies over to the server but shows up as a 4kb file - any suggestions how I can do this?
I might be wrong (since I don't have iMovie 2), I assume iMovie 2 has the similar QT "reference" movie as the iMovie HD. This "reference" movie is not a "self-contained" (a QT term) movie, i.e. it only has instructions of the makeup of the "real" movies. You cannot use it to archive. If you want to offload your movie from your computer, you should copy the entire iMovie 2 project folder to an external archive.

Exported mp4 movie bad quality, deleted imovie project! Help!

Hello,
My girlfrien exported an iMovie project using Quicktime in mp4 format, but forgot to check the quality. Now the quality is extremely poor and this has happened to all her videos. She deleted the original projects, including the iMovie clips. All the movies were exported to an external HD and there is no sign of the original files in the computer.
Anyway you can compress/decompress the video back in order to gain good quality again?
Best

Sorry, but unless you can get the original files there's no way to recover the quality. I would recommend saving your video files to Blu-ray for archiving. Blu-ray encoding is a relatively cheap format and easy to encode.

Archiving a FCE project

I know that in iMovie I can easily archive Events by going into iMovie, finding the external drive and dragging events from the internal hardd rive folder into the external drive folder. Is there an equivalent in FCE?
I have about 35GB of elements (video clips, music, etc.) that FCE knows where to find on my internal hard drive. I'd like to store these on an external drive. How can I move them to the external drive so that FCE knows where they are? Or do I just move them off, and then if I ever need to use them again, move them back onto the internal drive?
Thanks in advance for whatever advice you can offer.

Hello Roger,
To archive an FCE project you need to keep the _FCE project file_ and any _source media_ that you used (video clips, stills, audio files, etc).
Normally,
FCE project files are in the +Final Cut Express Documents+ folder
Video clips are in the +Final Cut Express Documents/Capture Scratch+ folder
Other media (stills, audio) will be where ever you saved them on your hard drive.
For project archiving, I usually copy all these files to a single folder having a logical name that identifies the project.

Archiving an iMovie Project

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