Converting Full Quality HD files to Large-possible? desirable?

Question

Last year I bought a camera that shoots AVCHD files and have been importing them into iMovie using the Full Quality setting. My HD is now maxed out and I'm realizing that I can't afford to keep such big files stored. What I'd like to know is (a) is it possible to convert all my files to the Large size? and (b) would I regret doing so?
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

It all depends.
If you want to keep all the raw footage then you will need to move it to an external HD, since all iMovie does is create a file, "Project" that tells exactly where to go to get everything and plays them, video clip, music, titles etc. together. iMovie cannot ever play that movie if you get rid of any part of it.
you have several options. IF you want to keep the ability to always edit your movies then you must keep everything in those movies. On the other hand if you are done with the non-used raw footage and only want a high Quick Time movie, Go to the "Share" file and "export to QuickTime", pick the "HD" option and iMovie will import it into a QT movie that looks as good as the iMovie original, and never needs the individual parts to play again.
That movie will reside in the iMovie project file for that iMovie (Users -> MOvies ->iMovie Projects. You have to Click on that file with the control key pressed to "see package contents" and then if you want you can move the .mov file somewhere else.
Then you could trash the video that is taking up all the room. The thing is you never really know if you want to edit that film again. If you feel comfortable trashing the clips you don't want but still want to keep the clips you have and the ability to edit the movie again, you can do this 2 ways and save LOT of HD space.
Again, you could have all the data (events) on an external HD, but then that HD has to be attached to see or do anything with a project. I have all my stuff on a laptop and dont like that option.
So assuming your events are stored on your main HD, to free up space on your main HD (but still able to play complete projects from the main HD) you have 2 options and they do different things.
If you pick an event (click on it) then go to File Menu -> "Move event to trash" it will give you an option to
"Delete" which deletes (to trash) the entire event (essentially destroys project), or "Delete Unused" which moves to the trash all the parts of each and every clip (within that Event) that is not in any project.
The other option is to choose (doesn't matter what you choose first here) File menu -> "Space Saver"
and choosing that ("Reject and review") will move ANY clip in ANY event that is not used, into the trash, but leaves the clips you are using alone. The difference here is that, say you use 50% of a given clip from an event in a project, "delete unused" deletes the other 50% (while also deleting any clips that you use 0% of in the project), while "Space saver" leaves the 50% of the clip not used alone, leaving any used clip intact no matter how much of that clip is in a project, and only deletes (trash) clips in which there is nothing used for a project
The advantage of Delete unused is that really trashes everything that you arent using (btw you have go through that process for every event individually) and frees up the most space. The advantage of "Space saver" is that if you decide you want a second or two more from that clip in your project, it is still there. but then it frees up less space.
It kinda depends on how you film and how much film you use. I film my kid's games and a game (event) may have 45 clips, start and stop camera each is a clip. I may use 10 of those clips for a highlight film. If i used all of the clips, even 1/100th of each clip, then Space saver would not delete anything. but since I use , eg, only 10 of the clips, Space saver really opens up space on my harddrive. I used to use "Delete unused" which opend up even more room, but then if I want to go back and use more of each clip into the project, I cannot because it is gone forever from my HD.
write back if confused.
roger