Exporting iMovie Project using Compressor.

Question

I've just finished a 4-hour concert video in iMovie HD 6. I wonder if I could use compressor to encode file without exporting full quality movie at first. I have not enough HDD space left. I also tried to import iMovie project file to FCP but the timeline didn't work very well.
Thx

Answer 1

Sorry for the delay..
In FCP, use File and Open, then navigate to an iMovie project and select it - which should work even though "Standard Files" is shown as the format at the bottom of the "Choose a File" window. Then FCP will say "Reading Project", and then will ask where to store this new FCP project, and it would normally go in your "Final Cut Pro Documents" folder.
You may then get a "Media Performance Warning", which may say that the media files are not optimised for Final Cut Pro. But just click on OK, and they should load and play perfectly ..at least, mine do.
You say that you get the following error:
"File Error: 1 file(s) recognized, 0 access denied, 1 unknown."
That might be some kind of permissions error ..but you don't say what happens next: if it's "0 access denied", that suggests that FCP does have access to the file and should open it ..but maybe it stumbles over that "1 unknown".
So tell us; what happens after you get that error message? ..Does the file open or not ..and what happens instead of it opening? And why d'you get only "..1 file(s) recognized.." if you're opening an entire project which would normally consist of several files?
You say "..when I try to import my imovie file.." ..but why are you IMPORTING rather than simply OPENING the iMovie project in FCP? FCP can read iMovie projects, so it should simply be a matter of opening the project, not exporting it from iMovie and then importing it into FCP.
Look: here's a project in iMovie..
..and here's the same project opened (with File and Open) in FCP:
All the source files are there (..in that little list at top-left..) so that the whole project plays in FCP just as it does in iMovie HD 6.
[..For a bigger, easier to see, view of these pics, click on 'Start Slideshow' on this page..]
As for "..How can I get a copy of QT6 and keep it seperate?.." erm, if you were still on OS X 10.3.9 you could 'downgrade' from QT 7 to QT 6, but I don't know how to obtain - apart from your asking someone who has it - a copy of QT 6 now that only QT 7 is downloadable ..or search amongst your original installation discs.
Maybe somebody else here knows where to find and download QT 6; but I can't think where ..sorry! (..I don't know if this old version will work for you or not, or if it would interfere with QT 7..)
NOTE: That REMOVING QT 7 may interfere with running FCP!
NOTE: That if you have QT Pro 7, then going back to QT 6 may mean that your 'Pro' key will no longer work with QT 6, and you may be left with just the QT 6 player.
..That's why I advised keeping separate versions of 7 and 6, so that FCP isn't affected by the 6 downgrade. To keep them separate, you'd leave QT 7 in your Applications folder, and put QT 6 in, say, your 'Movies' folder. I do NOT know, though, if they use the same - or different - 'preference' files (..normally stored in "com. apple.quicktime.(etcetera)" in <your User name>Library/Preferences and in other Libraries).
I suggest NOT rummaging around and changing/moving/exchanging those preference files unless you KNOW what you are doing, or are advised by a specialist like Karl.