Importing camcorder movies into iPhoto - Practical?

I recently discovered that iPhoto does see and can import video clips from my DSLR camera and digital HD camcorder. I'm the kind of guy who likes to take a lot of video but often gets around to video editing later or never. In that context, having video clips sorted along with my photos as events is convenient, both from a viewing and organizational standpoint. Also, it's my understanding that you can import photos and vides from iPhoto into iMovie later on for video editing.
So my question: is it practical to store digital camcorder video in iPhoto and only import into iMovie as needed? Will I be losing video quality if doing it in this sort of 1-2 approach due to file conversions (if any)?
A slightly related question: what sort of iOS devices could play digital HD movie clips? Neither my iPhone nor my iPad 2 have any problem playing iPhone-created video or older digital camera video, but I get a message saying that some newer digital HD clips (from my DSLR camera for instance) will not play on my iPad 2. This is in spite of the fact that the file format is .mov and the h264 codec was used for encoding. It it normal for iOS devices to reject videos of that format?

Practical? That's a question only you can answer from your own perspective, really. If it's a workflow that works for you then yes. No, there's no data loss adding to iMovie later.
As for the iOS query, I'd ask that on the iPad forum.
Regards
TD

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Seems to be quite the common plight but few resolved answers (that I could find) ...
Importing videos in to iPhoto from Sony Handycam "works", but upon viewing the quality is garbage with lines, shooting in 1080i mode at 30 fps.
I know I can import into iMovie but because it converts that to AIC it chews up way more space. I've also played around with ClipWare, but that only seems to reduce the distraction slightly.
Any other automated software out there to do this? Seems like a good market to make some serious coin for whoever comes up with software for it.

Lighten up Francis! It was meant to be lighthearted observation of some frustrating facts. Didn't you see my smiling winking emoticon?
It is cathartic to vent a little now and then by the way, you should try it sometime.
I originally posted to confirm for others that the bug was still there.
Your post was not helpful since you simply told me to stop doing what I need to do. I understand that is all the advice you could give since there is no workaround for the bug. I explained why changing to another video format would not meet my needs.
Your suggestion for contacting Apple directly and giving feedback is good but at this point we are probably having a tempest in a teacup over nothing since it will be a whole new ballgame in Photos.
So long and have a nice day.

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Ok so i am doing this school project and i recorded some film on my camera and then i imported the movies into iphoto. so my plan was to take those movies and move them into imovie.. but when i go to import, and i go to where my movies are, the computer wont let me physically press the movies so that they are highlighted. i kinda need to know why it wont let me import these movies b/c i need these movies to finsh my school project which is due nxt week. thanks so much!

i kinda need to know why it wont let me import these movies b/c i need these movies to finsh my school project which is due nxt week. thanks so much!
Since you clips were imported to iPhoto, I assume they were recorded on a digital camera which may use and number of audio and video compression formats. Since a file must contain "edit" compatible formats to be imported by iMovie '08, if the audio and/or video is incompatible, the file will not import. So, the first step is to open your clip in the QT Player and check the "Inspector" window to see what compression formats they contain. Once you know that, you can determine how best to convert the incompatible format(s) to compatible ones.

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Import Audio Files Into iPhoto

This is really a 2 part question.
I have been recording a few sound clips with a small digital pocket recorder that are family stories like "Remeber when Aunt Mildred lost her teeth?" etc. So far the only way I have found to get them into the Mac is as a Quick Time movie. It works. Naturally if there is a better way I'm interested. So the first question is: What are the ways to import small sound clips (Garage Band is my least favorite option).
On a regular QT movie, I can import them into iPhoto. But iPhoto refuses to import audio only movies. Having these in iPhoto would let me catalog these sound files in iPhoto along with the other photos and other digital camera short movies. So the second question is: How can I import sound clips into iPhoto?
By the way, setting "Open With" in the information viewer of a file [Command I] to open with iTunes get these clips into iTunes just fine. Why not a movie into iPhoto?
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iMac 20" Mac OS X (10.4.7) Long Live the Mac!
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iMac 20" Mac OS X (10.4.7) Long Live the Mac!

Boris
There are various apps that might help with working with these sound files. What format does your recorder use. Personally I use Audacity as a sound editor (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) it's Open Source. For capturing sound that's otherwise difficult to get I use Audio Hijack (http://www.rogueamoeba.com).
When QT saves the files they are saved as .mov files, and while the Finder calls them QucikTime Movies, they are not, and iPhoto will not import them unless they have a video element. Of course, they import perfectly into iTunes.
Some suggested solutions:
Make slide shows of Aunt Mildred, and for a soundtrack use the story of unfortunate teeth, simply by pointing to the relevant track in iTunes.
Make a movie. If you have quicktime pro it's quite easy and fast to paste some pics of Aunt Mildred to the Soundtrack. It's a little slower - but you have more options - to do it with iMovie or with PhotoToMovie (www.http://www.lqgraphics.com)
But in any event, it's only by having a movie that iPhoto will wok with the files.
Regards
TD

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I have a Sony DCR-DVD103 and when I go to File>Import Movies I do see my Finalized DVD, but all the files including the Import button are grayed out. How can I import the Finalized movie into iMovie?
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I noticed that iMovie 08 imported my movies from iPhoto, but strangely not all of them. A quick search of the support forums indicated many others were having the same issue.
After comparing file attributes of movies that were importing successfully into iMovie versus movies that didn't show up, I found that a rogue character ("&") was preventing iMovie from importing the file properly.
Renaming the title in iPhoto does not resolve the issue, since the file name (in Finder) remains the same. However, if I make a copy of that file outside of the iPhoto Library, rename it in Finder, then re-import it back into iPhoto, then iMovie will see it. I didn't rename the movie file inside of the iPhoto Library for fear of corrupting the library structure.
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Message was edited by: tsanga

+I didn't rename the movie file inside of the iPhoto Library for fear of corrupting the library structure.+
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Import existing folders into iPhoto without copying

It seems like this should be an easy function, but I can not seem to get it to work correctly.
Just got my new Mac today and am still trying to navigate around (too many years of being a Windows user!) and would like to import my photos into iPhoto. I have a TON of pictures already on an external harddrive that are already categorized into descriptive folders. I'd like to import these folders into iPhoto, but want to keep my existing folder locations. Is this possible?
In the Preferences, I turned off the "Copyfiles to iPhoto Library folder when adding to library", but it seems that it is still creating a COPY of the photos in the DATA folder in the iPhoto Library folder. But in the ORIGINALS folder, the shortcut (alias?) is pointing to the original location on my external drive, not inside the Libary folder.
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cohencl
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
ut it seems that it is still creating a COPY of the photos in the DATA folder in the iPhoto Library folder.
These are tiny thumbnails that iPhoto uses for display.
But in the ORIGINALS folder, the shortcut (alias?) is pointing to the original location on my external drive, not inside the Libary folder.
Correct, the alias is exactly what I would expect to find.
Is this possible? Or do I have to import all my files (essentially creating a duplicate of all files), and then delete the original locations that I have set up?
This suggests to me that you've not quite grasped iPhoto, and how it differs from other apps.
It's a photo Organiser, and the idea is simple: do your organisation in the iPhoto Window and let it look after the files. Otherwise, all you need is a file organiser - put files into folders - and an image viewer. The catch with that system is that you need multiple copies if you want a pic in more that one album.
iPhoto works on the basis that where the FILES are is unimportant to you, it's the PICTURES that count. So, it, in the default setting, imports the pics to the iPhoto Library Folder and you can forget about them. Then set up your albums, smart albums etc., in the iPhoto Window. The same pic can be in 5, 50 or 500 albums with no wasted disk space.
You can very quickly recreate the filing structure you have in iPhoto: simply drag the folders of pics to the Source (or left hand) pane and iPhoto will create a new album with the same name as the folder, then create your enclosing folders in iPhoto (File -> New Folder).
Some people resist this because the feel they'll be unable to find their pics should they want them: There are three ways (at least) to get files from the iPhoto Window.
1. Drag and Drop: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. File -> Export: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. Show File: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
Rolls in the iPhoto Window (View -> Film Rolls) correspond exactly with the Roll Folders in the Originals Folder in the iPhoto Library Folder. You can move photos between Rolls, you can rename rolls, edit them, create them, as long as you do it via the iPhoto Window. Check out the Info Pane (wee 'i', lower left) the name and date fields are editable. Edit a Roll Name using the Info Pane, the Roll Folder in iPhoto Library Folder/Originals will also have the new name.
You can run the iPhoto Library Folder from an external HD with no problems, just copy the iPhoto Library Folder there and then hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. Select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. Thereafter that will be the default iPhoto Library Folder.
Finally, if you choose to use iPhoto in the non-default setting, then remember iPhoto will not be responsible for the file management, you are. Therefore, you need to put the pics where they're going to live beofre importing, deleting will also be a multi-stage operation, as trashing the file in iPhoto will not remove it from your filing system. Migrating to a new machine can be more tricky as well. Frankly, I've never seen a good reason not to use the default setting, unless you're using two photo organisers.
Hope all this helps, by all means, post back if you need more info.
Regards
TD

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Importing camcorder movies into iPhoto - Practical?

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