IMovie import in Full or Large?

Importing from a 1080P Sony HDD camcorder. Which format should I use? I tried Full but the files were MASSIVE!!! I have a new iMac with a 500GB HD and it filled it to the top.

Get a nice, big, external, FireWire drive and use that for your media.

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Import 1080i full or large?

What preference should we import full HD 1080i into iMovie 08? Full 1920x1080 or Large 960x540?
My first import was Full. But all the share options (iTunes, Web Gallery) in iMovie 08 are Large 960x540. I tried to share via quicktime which gives you the option of making Full 1080i movie, but it turned out like crap. So I see no benefit of importing in Full.
The file size is a huge difference Full 40gb per hour vs. Large at 13gb per hour.
Can anyone share some thoughts or experiences on this?

I have the same concern. I acquired iMovie 08 because it was described as compatible with AVCHD Full 1920 X 1080. It can import and edit in that format but what is the use if you can not export preserve Full HD on export. Unless someone finds a patch we will have to wait for an update from Apple. To answer your specific question, I do not see any advantage. Whether you import in Full or in Large, when you export in Large to burn a DVD the results are the same. SONY Motion Picture Browser (and I understand Vegas 8) exports in Full but editing capabilities and scene transitions are inferior to iMovie.
Louis

When i import from my vidio camera into imovie the clips look tall and thin.tied different imports like full size or large but seem to make no difference everything seems to run ok including sound whats going on? the m

when i import from my video camera into imovie the clips look tall and thin. tried different imports like full size or large have imported both sd and hd but seem to make no difference everything seems to run ok including sound. whats going on?

Hi Brad,
when you use Streamclip to convert media, use the same name for the exported file (only with different extension). Then make a shell script calling
touch -r origFileName.mp2 newFileName.mov
This will copy the exact time and date from origFileName.mp2 to newFileName.mov
The script may look like this (save the file, give an exec permission to it and call it in the right directory):
#!/bin/bash
for i in `ls *.mp2`; do
NEWNAME=$(ls "$i" | sed -e 's/mp2/mov/')
touch -r $i $NEWNAME
done
You may need to adapt the extension names used (in the example above .mp2 is input file to get the date/time stamp from and .mov is the output file to stamp.
Have fun and cheers

How to down convert iMovie HD imported in Full 1920x1080 to Large 960x540

I have a Canon HD camcorder which captures video in 1080i format. I have been downloading my movies in iMovie using the Full - 1920x1080 option instead of the Large - 960x540 option.
But now I am running out of space!!! Also I don't see a big difference in quality between the two formats.
I want to down convert all my downloaded movies to Large - 960x540 format ... Can someone tell me how to do that in iMovie. I have already deleted the movies in my camcorder. Help!

I don't think that what you're trying to do is possible without reimporting the footage, which I understand is deleted. You can down convert to 540 on export without a problem from 1080, but you original footage will remain 1080.
The good news is external HDs are really cheap these days, so you can pick one up to store your footage with a very minor investment. Now you can switch to importing 540 as Apple recommends and you'll save a ton of space, and processing time, moving forward. As you've already seen, the quality difference is very minimal versus the space and processing cost.

How do I change from "Full" to "Large" - post import?

I have imported clips into imovie '09 in the "Large" size. Now that they are in imovie I would like to change the size of some of them to "Full". I want to do this to free up hard drive space and I don't need these clips to be that large.
I went under "file"; "optimize video" and changed them that way, but that actually takes up more space on my hard drive.
Thank you.

Large is 960x540. Full is 1920x1080. So large should be smaller.
You can change from Full to Large later, but you cannot switch from Large to Full.
Unless of course the files are still on your camera. Or if you created an archive of your camera so you still have the original files from your camera.
If your camera uses AVCHD clips, they are converted to Apple Intermediate Codec on import, so no need to optimize.
If your camera makes h.264 clips, they are not automatically converted to Apple Intermediate Codec on import, so by optimizing, you will get better performance. But when you optimize a 960x540 h.264 file, it is converted to a 960x540 AIC file (which is larger.)
Both AVCHD and h.264 are highly compressed formats. They will take 1 complete "photo" every 24 (or so) frames. The next 23 frames are partial frames which contain compressed information like what has changed since the previous frame, direction of motion, etc. When you "optimize", you are converting the file to Apple Intermediate Codec, which converts every frame to a full frame. For editing and rendering, you are much better off having the full frames, because it cuts down on the amount of processing that iMovie has to do.
If you will be doing a lot of video, you may want to consider a large external drive, because video files are large.
If I misunderstood your question, please post back.

Does iMovie alter movies imported at full 1080i (1920x1080) ?

I have a new Sony HDR HC9 1080i camcorder (Mini DV tape).
I heard rumors that iMovie converts movies imported at full 1920x1080 to something like 900 x 480.
Is there any truth to this ugly rumor?
Thanks.
Paul

This not not exactly true.
iMovie imports movies into Event files at the same resolution as their source. If you import 1920x1080 in AVCHD, the event contains an AIC file in 1920x1080.
However, when you use the Event footage in a project, the standard iMovie pre-sets for rendering top out at 960x540 (which is exactly half of 1920x1080). However, by using the Export to QuickTime option, it is possible to render in full 1920x1080.
However, for most people, the 960x540 is good enough. It is about the largest size that can be reasonably streamed over the internet. It is the largest size accepted by the Apple TV. And it easily upscales to 1920x1080 on a high quality receiver/TV with upscaling circuitry. If you are burning a DVD, it will be downscaled to 480i anyway.
As I mentioned, you can export in full 1920x1080 through QuickTime. The issue is "How do I play it?". Some people have reportedly been successful playing these files on a Sony Playstation 3. The new version of Toast allows you to Author BluRay DVDs and you may be able to play them on a BluRay player. You can also play them on your Mac Screen if you have the display resolution set high enough. A 1920x1080 will take up most, if not all, of your computer screen.
As for the Toast BluRay option: It is not practical for me to buy a BluRay burner for USB, since these run over $1000. The SATA BluRay burners are around $300, but my iMac does not have an external SATA port. However, with Toast 9, they claim you can make a BluRay-playable disk from a standard DVD. It holds about 20 minutes of high def content. I am going to burn a BluRay disk using the same project rendered in 1920x1080 and 960x540 to see if I can tell the difference.
Message was edited by: AppleMan1958

Former PC Movie Maker User with iMovie importing questions

I hope someone will be willing to help. I've combed through several different forums trying to get the best advice possible before beginning a major project, and need to make a decision soon. I apologize for the lengthy post too...
My goal is to produce the best quality iMovies possible from .wmv and .avi files so they can be burned to DVD, shared with family, and most importantly viewed on a large screen TV with as little loss of picture quality as possible.
I have 60+ hours of video downloaded on my PC from a Sony 8mm HandyCam. Some of the original files were analog and some digital. Not having much experience with video files, or actually anything video, (in other words, not knowing better) I used Windows Movie Maker to capture the video from my HandyCam. As time went on, I found another capture program that would convert the files and download them in .avi, a format I liked better. So, I have .wmv, .avi, and some .mpg video files I'm trying to import into a iMovie.
Anyway, I understand to get these files into iMovie '09, they have to be converted to a accepted format. On my PC, I used Roxio Creator 2009 Copy and Convert DVD-Video (complete, purchased version) to convert the .wmv to .mpeg-4 (it took hours and hours and hours to convert 120 minutes of .wmv files)...I copied the .mpeg-4 file to a SanDisk 8gb flashdrive and then imported it into iMovie '09. I thought I had succeeded...Only to find that the video quality is not good at all. I watched both sets of videos (the .mpeg-4 and the .wmv) side by side on my MAC and PC and find the PC video is MUCH clearer. While I like the color enhancements in the MAC version, I prefer the clearer picture on the PC. I thought maybe the completed iMovie would look better than just viewing the .mpeg-4 file, but it didn't...
Because I wasn't happy with the .mpeg-4 generated by Roxio, I tried converting the .wmv file to .mpeg-4 with Movavi Video Converter 7. I prefer the Movavi conversion better as the video looks sharper. But, the quality is STILL not good when I go into viewing the video full screen. The .mpeg-4 files are soooo much smaller than the .wmv files---does that account for the quality loss in a higher resolution? Is there a way around this?
When all else failed, I tried to convert the .wmv to HD, but you can't really expect to get good apples out when you put rotten apples in, right? My failure could also be due to my ignorance...
Now, I know I have the choice of making my movies on the PC, but I purchased my brand new MAC because of iMovie and iPhoto and REALLY would like to transfer ALL my videos from my PC to my MAC.
Before I start this project, which will take weeks, does anyone have advice? I've read about the Flip4Mac convertor but saw where it is not yet iMovie '09 compatible. I have also read that many of you recommend MPEG Streamclip for Mac from Squared 5...
In your experience, can I expect the quality of the conversion with either Streamclip or Flip4Mac to be improved over what I've all ready seen with the Roxio Creator 2009 or Movavi Convertor? I'm willing to put up with SOME reduction in video quality...(actually, one of the many reasons I left PC's Movie Maker was that the quality of the production was not that great...the quality of the .avi video viewed in VLC was much better than the final Movie Maker product). But, before I start, I want to make sure I'm using the best possible converter/procedure/technique I can because these video files cover a lot of years and are very important to me. I'm sure all of you know what I mean.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you care to provide. *I just can't figure out why iMovie would require mpeg-4 files? I think that's what I converted all my videos to so I could download them on my iPod, isn't it? The iPod vids look fantastic, but that screen is really small and my TV is really big, and I want to watch the videos of my kids growing up on my TV, not my iPod. (Sorry for the rant.)

How do you copy the entire folder structure? I normally go to my computer (on a PC, my mac's not arrived yet) and the camera appears as a drive. If I open this up I find a folder with all my images/movie clips in. I just lterally drag and drop these files from the camera 'drive' onto my hard drive. Obviously I'm just dragging a whole heap of individual files though, not an entire folder structure.
I do still find it strange though that my old PC running old software can do this simple task ot reading/using mts, yet a brand new all singing all dancing mac with new software can't. Why is it that PC doesn't need these metadata files and the Mac does? Or I should really ask, why doesn't the Mac have the capability of reading/using files without this data when an old PC can?

Can't check photos to import in full screen preview

Hi All,
Bit of a frusting bug, unless I misunderstand it, but when I import photos using Aperture from a SD card, I can only do so in the tiled view (max 9 photos to a screen on my 21" Mac)
I'd much prefer to select the files to import in the much larger single photo view so I can see them better before deciding to import.
As in the screenshot above, there is a check box in the single photo preview, to the bottom left, but it doesn't seem to do anything. Only photos checked in the list or tiled view are added to the photos to be imported.
Any ideas why this doesn't work (or what the check box in the single photo preview is for if not this??)
Thanks in advance.

Just to be clear, it might be easier to screenshot!
I tick the checkbox in the large import preview - notice the import checked remains greyed out - it doesn't recognise it:
If I then go back to the grid view. The photo is still checked, but Aperture still doesn't recognise that it is to be imported:
However, if I stay in the grid view, remove the tick and add it again, Aperture import does recognise it and adds it to the import list. I can now use the import button.
Not the end of the world obviously, but when going through hundreds of photos, it would be very handy to scroll through full screen previews with the arrow keys so I can see them better and check them to be imported as I go.

How do you make an iMovie HD movie full screen in Keynote presentation?

Hey everybody, and Happy Holidays!
I have a presentation tomorrow morning where I will be using a VGA connector to a video projector to present my Keynote presentation. I have tried just about every way I know how to make my imported iMovie HD film full screen during the Keynote presentation, but so far the best I can do is making the slides the 1024 size, which still leaves a black background above and below the movie when it is playing.
Basically, what can I do to make my iMovie film full screen in Keynote?
Thanks!
-Randy

First off, I'd be a bit worried if the movie wouldn't play in Quicktime Player -- that's pretty odd, since QT is essentially what Keynote is using for playback as well.
If you have a new MacBook, then its display's "native" resolution is 1280 X 800, which is pretty much HD (which is 1280 X 720). By way of working through this, I'd first set your screen to 1280 X 800, and then set the slide size in Keynote to 1280 X 720 (which is one of the default sizes, precisely because it fits HD). If you do this, and if you set your movie as wide as it will go and centred, then it will leave 40 pixels at the top and bottom of the display when you play the presentation. There is no way around this, as it is simply the case that the height of the movie in pixels is less than the height of the screen. If you tried to fit the movie onto all of the screen, you'd either have to blow it up so that the top and bottom were at the screen edge, which would cut off the left and right parts of the movie (this is like what is done in "pan-and-scan" or "full-screen" DVDs of theatre films), or you'd have to "stretch" the movie vertically, which would distort it.
Complicating all of this is your projector. Even if it is just mirroring your display, if it is a digital projector, it too has its own "native" resolution, and unlike your MacBook, it is very unlikely to be a 16:9 ratio, but rather a 4:3 ratio (800 X 600, or 1024 X 768). So even if you hook up your 1280 X 800 MacBook, the projector will still at best project a squarer image, which may show up as narrow bands of darkness above and below your "mirrored" display.
In short form: there is no way to avoid the black bands -- they arise because the movie isn't as tall as the display, and there's no way around that.

No Video Images Appear In iMovie Import Window

My Vixia hv 30 mini DV is connected and recognized, and when I choose to import video manually, and hit the iMovie Import button, the video plays on the camera screen but not in the iMovie import window on my iMac. Nor does the counter move, although a large message in the iMovie window says "importing". The camera's counter in the upper right hand corner of the window counts off, but not the counter next to the controls at the bottom of the window. A file name is created in the Event Library, but there is nothing in the file when I click it.
I have tried importing segments of all sizes and lengths to see if there was an issue there but no video appears on the iMovie screen, and there is no message that thumbnails are being created.
I have watched tutorials online to see if I am missing something but I have found no answers. I was able to import a one-minute segment automatically a few days ago when I first got the camera, but now Automatic does not work. It begins to import, with no images appearing in the iMovie import window and no movement in the counter, then after a few seconds the "Importing" message changes to "Stopped"
In my 'Save To" window, it says I have "5.7GB free/25 min.)" on my Mac's HD.

I found that this was due to my tape having been recorded on an older DV camcorder rather than an HDV. You'd think either iMovie or the Canon Vixia would simply tell you that in plain language, rather than give you the kind of cryptic meaningless message that the camera displays.
If you have this problem, go into the camera menu and make sure the format —DV or HDV— matches the content on your tape.

Droping frames after Imovie import

I imported 4 Imovies (20- 30 secs each). I exported from imovie as a full quality dv and then imported them into FCE HD. I was able to include 3 out of the 4 movies into my FCE HD sequence; however one of the Imovie clips causes dropped frames. I reloaded the clip and and it worked, however, once I put the in and out points in , it created the same dropped frame problem.
any ideas?

There are *so many* reasons you could get dropped frames.
If the dropped frames occur in the same clip, at the same point in the timeline, that would lead you to suspect something is up with that clip.
However, if the dropped frames occur randomly, including at different locations in a single clip each time you play it, the problem is likely not in the clip itself.
The general sequence of things I do, is make sure all the video & all the audio on the timeline is rendered; make sure all the audio on the timeline is mixed down. I always select all clips in the timeline, Render All and then Mixdown Audio just in case I may have missed that 1 frame somewhere that didn't get rendered earlier.
Keeping your system cleaned up is another essential practice - use a utility like Coctail, MacJanitor, Onyx on at least every other month to clean out everything.
Other 'little things' to keep in mind - once your scratch HD gets ~50% full the incidence of dropped frames starts increasing; your system HD should never be more than 80% full; USB drives are killers; close all apps other than FCE especially when you want to Print to Video or render; Appletalk should always be turned off in Network Preferences.
The list goes on & on. Hope this short one helps.

IMovie imports in slo mo with Leopard

iMovie recognizes the the camera ok, but plays in slow motion as it imports. It overall seems sluggish. I do have iMovie 7.01, and the iLife update. Is there a setting I missed?
Thanks. . . . Jim C

Hi Jim
What Camera did You use ? 4x3 miniDV or HD 16x9 or ?
Did it import at full speed - prior upgrading to X.5 ?
Yours most interested Bengt W

Numbers-the document cant be imported because file too large

i have an exel file i am trying to work on and open but i keep getting this instead"the document cant be imported bcecause its too large"....how can i fix this its an urgent matter and i have to hand in a report

Hi Yarash,
I suspect the message is telling you that the Excel spreadsheet has more rows than Numbers's maximum pertable, 65,536.
Try splitting the Excel file into two smaller spreadsheets.
Regards,
Barry

My macbook pro recognizes my sd card on the desktop, but when i go to the imovie importer it goes straight to isight camera. Ive imported via this method before but now i dont know whats going on.

My macbook pro recognizes my sd card on the desktop, but when i go to the imovie importer it goes straight to isight camera. Ive imported via this method before but now i dont know whats going on.

Use iMovie > Help on your Mac or here -> http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2153
Treat the "sd card on the desktop" as a connected hard disk.
Message was edited by: EZ Jim
Mac OSX 10.7.4

Can imovie import mpeg-2 formats

I am working now with imoive version 10.0.1. I want to import certain videos which will be on a CD in the mpeg-2 format. Does imovie import this format without problems?
Gerhard

Yes.

IMovie import in Full or Large?

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