IMovie Storage Needs

I have a client who is currently in the process of taking all of his HI8, MiniDV, and VHS home movies, and converting them to DVD. When he finishes the project he wants to be able to save 3 files (iMovie Project, iDVD Project, and the DVD image), which is about 30 GB per movie. He has over 100 movies, and needs storage to meet his needs. He is currently looking at an external Firewire 800 drive to act as a Data Warehouse, and still use the internal 400 GB as the scratch disk. Would it be more advantageous to look at network attached storage, and is there something that is gigabit capable, and has over 4 TB?
Thanks

I like WiebeTech's ComboDock which allows me to treat big (I have currently two 250GB DeskStars) bare ATA drives as large floppies.
http://www.wiebetech.com/products.php#drivedockproducts
I export selected clips in <9 min 27 second chunks as .dv streams with names like 20050828-20050829.dv, 20050829-20050829.dv etc (duplicate filenames have a, b, c, etc suffixes. I then archive them to the ATA drives. I also export them to two identical D8 tapes and burn a 65 minute DVD.
I settled for the 9:27 size in iMovie 4 and have continued so in iMovie 5 because handling very big clips isn't practical (I haven't noticed any audio sync issues with big clips, though).
My strategy archives flattened .dv but I use only minimal titles and transitions in that material so flattening doesn't matter much. iMovie HD projects tend to be big (because of nondesructive editing feature) so I don't archive them. Nor do I archive original footage (I very minimally edit some very important footage so it is almost original). Sometimes I do miss original footage but I have to draw the line somewhere or else I would have my closets full of tapes...
I think it may be overkill to archive the iDVD project -- what does s/he do with that? Re-author the menus etc? The DVD image and the burned DVD are identical but in a different format so it may be a good idea to have them both so the other acts as a backup.

Similar Messages

IMovie Storage - need to consume less space...

Following an import, my typical 4.5-5Gb raw files typically expand to 35-45Gb in .mov files (that amount of space has been killing me) as i now have 2 ext HD units (both WD) one 3Tb and one combo 6Tb unit. I was hoping to find a way to save them in their raw format following creation of a DVD for editing at a later date if i decide to do so - any suggestions? I was originally hoping to get FCE or FCP and use it to do that, but I'm not sure that's an option - help?

You should find out which app you are using when you double click on a movie.
See:
Change Finder mapping from file extension to application
http://osxdaily.com/2009/10/25/change-file-associations-in-mac-os-x/
Run
OmniDiskSweeper
"The simple, fast way to save disk space"
OmniDiskSweeper is now free!
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/download/
This will give you a list of files and folders sorted by size. Go after things you know that are big.
You can use the du command from the terminal to track down usage.
sudo du -cxsPh /Users/*
du -cxsPh ~

Can't back-up new iMac with fusion HD. The back-up proceeds to within 10% of the total storage needed and then the "of" number increases. I suspect there is a problem with backing up the fusion drive. We have a new 3 TB time Capsule. Any ideas?

Can't back-up new iMac with fusion HD. The back-up proceeds to within 10% of the total storage needed and then the "of" number increases. I suspect there is a problem with backing up the fusion drive. We have a new 3 TB time Capsule. I tried excluding different parts of the software from the back-up but it didn't make any difference. I even tried exluding "invisible items" to no avail. Any ideas?

When you setup the wireless and ethernet in the computer.. ipv6 will be on automatic.. this is wrong for the latest TC firmware and airport utility. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4597
Go to the wireless and ethernet setup in preferences and change ipv6 to link local.
Once you do the big backup by ethernet the wireless will function fine for incremental.. it is obviously not estimating the size correctly..
A full back-up on the iMac would be about 650 GB. The partial updates that I have been trying start out at 115MB and keep growing indefinitely. The original back-up never finished nor have any of the follow-up attempts.
The first estimate should be the full backup but it will keep growing as the backup advances.. I would also delete any inprogress files to make sure it is not messing up .. delete even a sparsebundle if there is one for the imac on the TC and start afresh once you have ethernet connection.
See A10 here.
Pondini may have some other clues there to give you an idea of why the backup is slow or not finishing.. there is a lot of issues with TM when it decides not to work.

IMovie HD need help please.

Hi,
I am the new guy in town. Ok here go's. I am wanting to see all my video clips on my ext. firewire hard drive. But for some reson sins iMovie HD saves your work in a projected all I see on my hard drive is the saved projected but I do not see the clips. Now I know on my Powerbook G4 it has just iMovie not iMovie HD it would let me save them as clips so I could use them in any programe I wanted to. Like toast 6. I could just pick clips off my ext. firewire drive and go.Please help.Thanks.

Hi computerguy,
please, don't take it as a personal offense, but....
you're posting in the iMovieHD help forum and your thread is titled "iMovie HD need help"...... for sure, EVERYbody here needs help ;-)), next time try a more discriptive line............
secondly, there's a new feature in this forum: you (and only you!) can click on a green star, which will mark this thread as "answered" - makes it for the "answerers" simpler, not to read the posts again&again........
//ooooh, these Germans, overcorrect, acting as policemen.......// ;-))
have fun with your Mac!

Need help with iMovie storage on external Hard drive

Is there any external HD that is fast enough to run iMovie? I just bought an 80gig ext. hard drive trying to solve that nasty memory problem that iMovie HD has... Well iMovie will not run because it's not fast enough, and the video clips play slow and choppy.. My question is does anyone know of a brand type or speed of ext. hd that is fast enough.. HELP!!! I need to finish this video pronto!
Thanks
ps.. the HD i bought was an iomega 80gig HD with usb 2 and 7200 rpm

Eric, for a few dollars/Euros more (..or whatever your currency is..) you could buy a FireWire enclosure ..that's just a box with a socket or two on the back. It's not a drive, but just a box to put the disc drive inside, and it's complete with FireWire connections.
Then unscrew the Iomega 80GB USB box, remove the 7200rpm 80GB disc drive, and insert it into the FireWire box, and connect up the multi-pin connector and power connector between the FW box and the hard drive. Connecting the drive is pretty simple. Look at "Mounting the drive into the bay", about halfway down this page.
Hey Presto! ..You've now got a working 80GB 7200rpm drive ..plenty fast enough for iMovie.. which can be connected to your iMac via FireWire!
Your disc drive is fast enough ..it's just your USB connection which is too slow; so just change the way that your drive is attached to the Mac, so that it uses FireWire.
Suitable boxes are this kind of thing.
It's simple: I have half a dozen assorted drives I've slotted into new bare-bones 'enclosures', and they all work fine by just plugging the enclosure (box) into a Mac FireWire port.
Quick 'n' simple, and cheap!
NOTE: Open up your Iomega box first, so that you can check what size of drive is inside, and thus what size of FireWire enclosure you need. A small 2.5" drive will certainly fit into a 5" enclosure, but a 5" drive obviously won't fit in a 2.5" enclosure! Though something like a WiebeTech DriveDock ..or the bigger and pricier ComboDock.. are open-ended, so they'll take any physical size of drive.

How can I reduce the storage needs for iMovie events (raw video)

Good news - After borrowing an 8mm analog camcorder (mine died years ago) and an older digital camcorder (mine doesn't support A/V in) I have been able to set up a "bridge" to convert our old 8mm home videos to digital and import them to iMovie.
Bad news - At 13GB per 8mm tape, plus the Mini DV tapes we also have, getting it all in the computer with room to grow is going to require at least 500GB of space, which I don't have. On hand are 120GB internal (MacBook), 120GB external (Time Machine) and 40GB portable.
After my experience with the 8mm analog camcorder (it died, couldn't buy them anymore, tapes useless) I want to get everything digital in a standard format with backup.
1) Is there any way to reduce the storage space required for the raw video (Events) without impacting image quality (already mediocre in the tapes converted from analog)?
2) What's the best way to squeeze an hour of video down to fit on a DVD but still leave the video available for re-import/editing in the future? I'd likely mail the DVDs to my parents house or something to keep them separate.
Thanks!

Hi
You can also use
Yousendit (google it)
where You can send 200Mb movies
- You download Your movie to them
- get an Internet address back ( url - I think it's called )
- this You copy and send in Your e-mail to those that want's Your movie
- and now they can get it from same address
If You pay You can send up to 2Gb (if I remember right)
BUT it will take time ! In most of my cases - burn it onto a DVD and send by snail-mail most often are a better solution.
Yours Bengt W

IMovie storage quandary??

To the video and storage gods - On the 1.5TB internal HD on my iMac, I only have 300GB left. Most of that space is taken up my my massive iPhoto and iTunes libraries. Most of the iMovie imported footage is sitting up on my NAS now (I pulled it off of an external drive because I wanted to centralize it). On the 5TB of NAS (HP Mediasmart 490EX WHS server actually) space I have, I have about 2.5TB remaining. I dumped all of the imported HDV tape video I had (converted and imported them all as iMovie events). I now have an AVCHD camcorder (Canon HFS100) for about 9 months now, and I have been archiving a copy of the SD card up to the same NAS as well (RAID protection is on where I drop the SD archive, since unlike the HDV footage, I obviously dont have a tape backup). I realized I should probably instead of doing a card archive up to the NAS, be doing an import in full quality as an iMovie event (or should I)? I'm confused about several things and hoping someone who understands how iMovie and NAS works can help.
1. Right now, when I launch iMovie, and have the NAS mounted, every time, it wants to "Optimize" the video, which takes over 10 minutes...quite a pain. Any way around this.
2. Although I am on a Gigabit wired ethernet to the NAS, the video playback from those mounted events is still choppy...I dont understand that. Is that normal??
3. Would I be better off scrapping the NAS altogether and going with a locally attached Drobo? A Drobo FS (networked version) would leave me with the same issues as I'm dealing with now, wouldn't it?
4. I'm wondering how you guys manage your flow of video import on tapeless HD cams or AVCHD. Do you just get a copy of the card, or are you importing video as you shoot it (I think importing it takes up a signicant amount more space, does it not)?
5. Finally - when you do import, are you bringing it in as "Large" or "Full"? I almost hate to think about "Large" because it seems to defeat the purpose of having such a high resolution cam to begin with...even though it looks great.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated...whether on all 5 questions or 1!!

I will separate my answer into primary storage and backup storage.
Primary storage are my working files. I have all my iMovie Events for DV, VHS, AVCHD, 8MM, etc. on line. It is a great convenience of iMovie to have all your Events available to any movie. I also keep archive copies of the SDHC card, so I can reimport if I ever need to. All my primary storage is local (Firewire 800). With disk space costing less than 10 cents a gigabyte, I am comfortable with the cost.
All this fits on less than 4TB. There is no thumbnail generation on startup.
For backup, I keep all my DV events, all my VHS events all my 8MM events stored, because they don't take up much room. Even though I still have the original tapes, I do not want to ever have to import them again. For AVCHD, I back up only the archive copy, not the AIC Events.
For backup, I have 2 bootable copies of my startup disk through SuperDuper, so I always have one from last night and one from the night before. I then keep offsite copies of the contents of my external drives, except for the AIC events.
Message was edited by: AppleMan1958

How can I record my voice on iMovie without needing to place a photo or video in?

I'm trying to make an anime review. But before placing photos in it, I wanted to record my voice first before adding pictures in it. So I was wondering what do I do to actually get my voice in it without it being cut because there were no photos or videos placed in? (I use a macbook)

You could insert a bunch of placeholders in the timeline before doing the voiceover.
You can find a range of placeholders (they are actually templates used in iMovie Trailers) in the Maps, Backgrounds & Animatics browser. This is the last browser at the end of the centre toolbar, after the Titles and Transitions browsers. Click on it and scroll down to see all the animatics (aka placholders or templates). Drag a number of these into your project timeline - as many as you think you need to cover your audio.
When you've finished the voiceover, drag photos directly onto the animatics and select Replace from the pop-up menu. Adjust the timing by using the Inspector (double-click a photo to open the Inspector, then change the duration).
John
EDIT: Sorry, beaten by Bengt (again)!
Message was edited by: John Cogdell

Storage space - How to save adjustments and economize on storage need

I am workeing in PSE 8. I would like to know how I best save processed images while economizing on personal storage space requirements. I.E. If I save a version of a 15 GB image does this take 30 GB's of storage for the original plus version? If I save an image as a newly named image what is the impact. I wish to retain a copy of my original RAW file while having access to one or several processed versions. If I save numerous versions of an image do all impose a full (original) atorage space requirement or only a small file that represents a version recipie that relates to the original RAW file? What is the most economical strategy?

monza5335 wrote:
I am workeing in PSE 8. I would like to know how I best save processed images while economizing on personal storage space requirements. I.E. If I save a version of a 15 GB image does this take 30 GB's of storage for the original plus version? If I save an image as a newly named image what is the impact. I wish to retain a copy of my original RAW file while having access to one or several processed versions. If I save numerous versions of an image do all impose a full (original) atorage space requirement or only a small file that represents a version recipie that relates to the original RAW file? What is the most economical strategy?
To start with, most users want to keep there original files (raw or jpeg). The most economical way of storing version sets applies when you can do all your edits in ACR. Your edits are saved in a tiny .xmp sidecar files, negligible in size. Just clicking 'Done' saves your edits. Clicking 'open' lets you open the file in the editor, from which you can print or save the file in various formats such as jpeg, pdd or tiff. If you only print you don't even need to save anything. If you don't add any edits in the editor, you don't need to save the result : ACR will keep all the previous settings.
Now, if you have to do ulterior edits in the editor, most of the times a jpeg with high quality will be what you want for a quality printing, say 1 to 2 megabytes.
That's not a real problem for size.
If you use a lot of layers and want to keep a record of sophisticated edits, you'll choose psd or tiff formats, which will produce big files. In many cases, you'll choose this procedure until you are satisfied the edits are definitive, and delete those files and only keep jpegs or a flattened psd or tiff.

Setting iMovie storage preferences

I am running into a storage problem with iMovie files. I recently installed a 240 gb SSD as my primary disk, and have 3 1 TB HD's internal. I now have almost fully loaded my SSD with these files and I would llike to change this set up.
1. How can I move my existing imovie files to another HD?
2. How can I locate and delete thse iMovies files from my SSD?
3. How can I set up preferences in iMovie so that the movies are loacted on ather HD, not my SSD?
Any suggestions and/or direction is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Probably the shortest description you can find is located here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16925411#16925411
AppleMan1958 has a good write up for using an External HD but this applies to you too, because your boot drive is like an Internal HD with all your other drives as addition internal drives and are acting like external drives. So just make sure they are formatted properly and INSIDE of iMovie relocated those Project/Event folders by dragging them to the other hard drives you have installed.

IMovie User needs help moving up...

Ive been editing for a while in iMovieHD, but also have FCHD, and would really appreciate a little help in translating my iMovie editing process to FC.
Im editing single-camera shoots of 1-take process demos, so the most typical thing I do, after extracting the audio, is to slice up longish single clips to whittle them down to the essentials, deleting the pauses, errors and redundant footage, as opposed to dragging together lots of separate clips after adjusting I/O points. I do the same thing with the associated audio of course, but the edits are almost never in the same place, and it still needs to be synced to the video action that does make the cut. So I do a lot of relinking of audio to later clips before I delete earlier footage. I also do a lot of pasting over at playhead with stills, both from the video footage and from Photoshop, to go with audio that doesnt have appropriate video, or to stop motion so that details can be seen better.
So, Im having a hard time seeing the FC way to do what Im already doing pretty efficiently, but often not precisely enough, in iMovie. None of the instructional material Ive got for FC seems to cover precisely this kind of weeding-out editing in which the audio and the video need to be weeded separately, but still stay (or get) synced.
Sorry to be so long-winded; hope Ive actually managed to clearly describe my situation.
Anybody else doing something similar in FC or know of some good links/books/vids that cover this kind of editing?
Many thanks for any comments!
dc

I'm a little confused as to what you are editing.
is your picture and sound coming in together?
I had a little play around with imovie but i find it a little wierd.
its almost like it encourages you to pull huge chunks of footage into the timeline then cut out the bits you don't want.
a bit perverse by my reckoning.
I select the shots (I/O points) in the source monitor before pasting them into the timeline.
then any work you do in the timeline is trimming etc.
it's funny you ask this because the first time i used FCP it was a mac in a graphic design company.
I was in between jobs (i.e. unemployed).
they asked if i could cut a music promo for them and i said well yeh but i'll have to learn FCP as i'm going.
they were cool with that.
the funny thing was, one of the designers was watching me cutting one day and commented on the way that i used the timeline/source-edit monitors in a completely different way to him.
the thing is he's from a graphics/web design background and i mainly work in drama/features.
the beauty and also the pain in some respects of FCP is it is endlessly adaptable to you personal working style.
I suppose in a way what i'm saying is there's an element of trial and error going on here.
feel your way around the system.
don't worry about learning the ins & outs in record time.
pick up the basics and the rest will come.
enjoy!

IMovie project needs to play on PC, MAC and DVD

I created a short iMovie9 project, 173MB, about 4min long. I need to burn file to a disc (CD) and have it play on a PC, MAC and DVD player. What is the best movie format for this? Right now I have it saved a couple of ways, as a QuickTime (.mov) and "protected MPEG-4 movie" (m4v). Both dont' play on all. Please advise.

Hi
Only thing that works is - Make a Video-DVD as the limiting factor is the DVD-Player as this only accepts one standard. DVD-standard (interlaced SD-Video PAL or NTSC - nothing else)
But such a small movie leaves space to also add to the DVD a Data-part and here You also might add a QT.mov version as this plays in higher quality on Mac and PCs (with QT-player for windows).
In iMovie
• Share to Media Browser and as Large (not HD or other resolutions)
• also Export out to desktop a full Quality QuickTime .mov
• Close iMovie
• Open iDVD
• Import movie from Media button - Movie and here select Your movie and drop it into the iDVD menu window
• Under Advance - bottom title - about "Edit content for DVD-ROM" here You add the QT.mov file
Yours Bengt W

Imovie storage issues

Alright, I'm undertaking a HUGE imovie project. I've got 37 or so 2-hour Hi-8 tapes from my camera. I've already got 10 or so on my computer in imovie, formatted. After I edit them in imovie, I export them to idvd to burn them onto dvd's. Now, I"ve noticed that the imovie files are around 25 gig a file. (25G for 2 hours or so of movie - give or take a few minutes)
Is there a way I can compress or store these files so I don't have to buy an external HD?
Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

Both DVD's and especially CD's are a terrible choice to backup movie files because they are too slow and too small...What you do't want as well is to rely on the DVD as an archive - it is compressed MPEG-2 and is lossy and hard to re-edit. $5 DV tapes are a great digital format to save forever.
There's different points of view about these issues, so I'll add a few cents.
1. We don't think we can assume tapes will "last forever" any more than any other storage medium. (If pressed, I think I'd put my money on DVDs outlasting tapes, but it's just a guess.)
2. In ten to twenty years, I suspect we will still have drives available that can play DVDs but not camcorders that can play tapes. That may make it impossible to exercise tapes, re-record them, or capture them to a computer.
3. DVDs are cheap and easy to use. At less than 50 cents per disk for 4+GB, they are actually cheaper than tapes. And backup software like Retrospect makes archiving easy too. You just insert the disks when asked.
When archiving data files, I like that there are no iMovie export issues. (I never entirely trust an export to tape until I play it from start to finish.)
4. There's nothing inherently lossy about DVDs. Yes, an MPEG-2 DVDs created by iDVD is compressed so it's lossy, but a backup of an iMovie HD project as data files to a DVD suffers no loss of quality.
5. I tend to use multiple backup media. Drives, tapes, MPEG-2 DVDs and data file DVDs. Multiple copies of each, actually. But I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy. I get uncomfortable putting all my backups in one basket.
Unfortunately, there is no one ideal archive solution. No medium lasts forever, no media hardware lasts forever, and there's no guarantee the software we use to create/retrieve an archive -- or for that matter play the iMovie project or the QuickTime movie -- will run in Mac OS XXV.
Most likely our data storage media will change dramatically in twenty years. Soon all our iMovie projects will probably fit on the head of a pin. Hopefully the archive solution we adopt today won't cause us to jab our fingers with the pin.
Karl

Imovie transitions NEED HELP

I have put my photos into imovie and I am trying to add transitions and a box pops up with "Something is wrong with the plugin Posterize (X), Mosaic (X), Solarize (X) and a bunch more. Anyone know what is wrong and how I fix it!!!!

Actually, they are Slick Vol 1 plugins. I have them and they do run on my iMovie 6, so there is something odd about yours. Maybe they do need updating though.

At wit's end with imovie project -- need Help!

Aloha:
I am in the middle of doing a documentary movie of the yearly Air Show put on by my RC model airplane club. Over the past several years I have made a handful of other documentaries and all with out problem, they worked just fine.
On this one, however, I have run into problems that are new and completely frustrating. I have finished editing the movie and all works well in the iMovie mode. I can play the entire movie and all the parts and pieces work just fine. But when I burn the results onto a DVD some scenes (only a few) lose camera audio. This is also true if I export it to Quicktime.
My movie uses camera audio, imported background music and narrative voice-over. And all those play just fine in the iMovie program. But there are several spots where the camera audio doesn't come across in the final product, just total silence except for the background music or any voice-over narrations that may be present during those times. The camera audio just does not come through.
I am at wit’s end and need some help. Has anyone come across this and what did you do to fix it?
Thanks
Dan Page
Maui, Hawaii

Hi: Thank you very much for the rapid come back, most appreciated.
Hi Dan
A wild guess. Can it be so that those clips are
recorded in Your Camera with
the sound set to 12-bit (often factory/default set).
Should be 16-bit
I'll check the camera for that, but the same camera was used in all the clips and only two or three were missing audio when exported.
Try to extract the missing sounds from each clip and
redo a disk image in
iDVD and see if the sound is back.
That sounds like a great diagnostic and should be far less time consuming than burning a DVD.
Thanks for the hints.
Dan Page
Yours Bengt W

IMovie Storage Needs

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