IPhoto library size and movie imports - getting HUGE!

In iPhoto 08- (in my primary library) I have 23,000 photos, and about 300 movies (some MPEG) from an older Sony digicam, and now I have a Canon Powershot TX1 which is a flash based still digicam/720P HD camcorder that captures very large AVI's (depending on shot length, they range from 30MB to 400-500MB). I know I can choose on import to not bring them into iPhoto, and just bring in the still shots. However, it does make it easy to bring them into iPhoto along with the still pics, but I am concerned about the growing size of my 45GB library (1 of 3 libraries - I have not been splitting them up in the last couple of years, relying on the fact that iPhoto is stable with very large libraries- and going to enable a Time Capsule w/ Time Machine very soon). Time Capsule would save me here, right? Am I playing with fire here on the library size, and setting myself up for a crash?? There are so many downsides to multiple libraries when it comes to projects, searches, imports, etc. I'd love to know that I can safely stick with one.
Wondering also if I should NOT import the movies into iPhoto, and keep them seperate? The benefit to doing this, is that we can post MULTIPLE movies to the .Mac gallery at the same time, and have them appear as seperate movies...whereas in iMovie 08, if I put a bunch of clips into a project to post to .Mac gallery, it compiles them as a single movie - which is, many times, not what we want.
Any advice here is greatly appreciated!!!

GaryFL1:
You might consider creating a separate library for the movies and see if that will speed up your primary library. If you needed a movie in an album to create a web gallery you could put it in an album in the Movie Library and copy that album to your working library.
A lot of iPhoto's quickness depends on both CPU power, RAM and free space on your boot drive. I would imagine your iMac would be your primary iPhoto machine and it should meet the CPU and memory criteria. How about your free space?
Time Machine is a very good backup device in my experience. Depending on how big your backup drive is and how much you're backing up, you can go back in time a fair amount. I've got a 750 GB TM drive backing up my boot drive and one external. It now goes back 5 1/2 weeks for me.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.≤br>
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

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  • Error message:Won't open an iphoto library file & will not import new pix

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  • Photos in iphoto library that were not imported

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  • "Photos have been found in iPhoto library that were not imported" .. There's no Import Folder to delete

    Please read the entire post prior to giving a response.
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  • Photos  have been found in the iPhoto Library that were not imported

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