IMovie is lying to me about disk space!

Question

Hi,
Recently I tried to import a 1.53GB .mov file into an iMovie project.
I currently have 12.7GB of free space on my HD, but when I tried to import the file, I am told there is not enough disk space! What is this lie and why is iMovie telling me it?
So what can i do (short of moving files off my HD) to free up more disk space if it refuses to believe I have enough??
Thanks
James

Answer 1

"..imported it using Windows Movie Maker (because there are no Mac drivers available.."
You don't need any Mac drivers.
All you do to import from the TRV 255E is to plug a 4-pin-to-6-pin FireWire (..Sony call it "i.Link", and it's also called "DV"..) cable into the camera, into the i.Link/DV socket, and plug the 6-pin end of the cable into your Mac. Your Mac - and iMovie - should instantly recognise the camcorder.
Unlike using Windows, Macs will just have a look and see what's connected to them, and will adjust themselves to accept whatever's there (..without putting up a notice saying "New Hardware Detected - do you want to install this driver, or that driver, or what Windows thinks is most appropriate, or the driver you have on a disc?" etc, and then restarting, and then saying "New Hardware Detected - installing appropriate driver", and so on, and so forth).
Forget drivers. You can import directly from your camcorder into iMovie just by connecting the camera to a Mac. All your conversions (..into Windows, into a DVD movie, etc..) have compressed the original material into an ineditable state. So it's had to be -e-x-p-a-n-d-e-d- again into an editable format for use with iMovie ..merely because you've gone all around the houses to get it into iMovie.
A straight import into iMovie directly from the camcorder of a 33 minute movie would use up about 6.5GB of hard disc space (..or about 13GB per hour). The total space needed for a 45 min iMovie project would be roughly 9.75GB. That's if you'd imported directly from the camcorder.
All this "in-betweening", though has meant that you've had to store the 1.3GB file, then you've needed 6.5GB space to expand it into, and you've needed, say, 13GB space to handle the intermediate unwrapping and temporary storage of the original while it's being converted into that 6.5GB editable version.
If you still have the original material on miniDV tape - which you had before importing it into Windows Movie Maker - then buy or borrow a 4-pin-to-6-pin FireWire/DV/i.Link cable ..which looks like this:
..and throw away all the various bits of weird video which you've put on your Mac, and just connect the camera to the computer, open iMovie, and import the footage directly from the camcorder.
(If you're in England, you can get one from PC World, Jessops, Dixons, Currys, etc, or any shop which sells electronic bits or camcorders.)
You'll need 6.5GB of hard disc space to capture 33 mins' worth of video directly from the camcorder - that 1.3GB was severely compressed! - and you'll need about the same again of empty space for editing (..chopping and re-arranging..) the video, and you'll need to have some more empty space, equivalent to about 10% of your Mac's total hard disc space, to keep spare for your Mac to use for "housekeeping", note-taking, etc. (..So if your Mac has, for example, an 80GB hard disc in it, aim to keep at least 8GB empty, for the Mac's own use.)
See how that works!