Saving movies to an external Hard drive

I'm confused by all the alternatives to saving my projects and/or events. I have a 500 Gig external hard drive on which I would like to back up my material in order to avoid all the clutter and clips on my iMac ( I use iMovie 11) which I can then presumably delete after backing up, but then import again if required from the external H/D. I am just using up a whole lot of space on my computer with all the movie files.
1) Do I finalise the projects before exporting ?
2) Under the "share" option should I use "export using quick time" ? What is the difference ?
3) I realise the importance of keeping the raw video the projects point to, so does the actual EVENT have to be finalised in some way before saving ?
4) I have uploaded a few movies onto Youtube (Restricted viewing) and they are automatically converted to MP4 presumably prior to publishing. Does the same thing happen when saving or archiving to an external HD ?
5) Is there any advantage in converting the finished project to another file type before exporting ?
6) When importing back into iMovie, does it have to be any particular file type ?
7) Is there anyway I can separate the events from the projects when saving externally ?
These are the questions that come immediately to mind, but I would appreciate hearing from others what they feel is the best way to back-up externally on a dedicated unit. I already have time machine, but I find that I would rather have all my movies together on one unit rather than search for them by date when saved with a whole lot of other stuff. I don't really want to burn each individual project onto a disc which is another alternative I suppose. I have lost precious video in the past and don't want to experiment before I know what I am doing.

To move events and projects to an external drive, follow the instructions here.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4141
To SHARE a movie to the external drive, use SHARE/EXPORT MOVIE or SHARE/EXPORT USING QUICKTIME.

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I think DebinSC might mean using the movies without copying to the iTunes library?
Maybe the solution is to uncheck this box?
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Hello, eco1.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
This sounds like you are wanting to move your iTunes media folder to an external drive and have iTunes this folder from this location. If this is the case then I would recommend taking a look at the article below.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
Cheers,
Jason H.

Hi! I got movies on my external hard drive that are AVI kind and won't play on my macbook pro? need some help please!!

Hi! I got Movies on my external hard drive that are AVI kind and won't play on my macbook pro? When I start playing the movie a message pops up and says "a required codec is not available". I tried flip4mac, xvid, divx already and still not playing my video. need some help please!! thanks.

Although vlc mentioned above is a much more powerful and better player you could try installing Perian if you insist on using the quicktime player. It may supply the codec it needs.
Not sure why you wouldn't be able to play straight avi files though in quicktime.

How Do I: store my iTunes Movies on an external hard drive?

Since my iMac hard drive space (2 terabite) is almost half-full of the Movies I have in my iTunes, I would like to be able to set up my iTunes to store and play the movies from an external hard drive. I just bought a 4 terabite G-Drive for doing this. I would also like to be able to view the movies on my two differant Apple TV's.
If anyone has any information on this it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
kalton

I have almost zero experience with Apple TVs. I saw one once in an Apple Store, across the room.
The easy way:
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Quick answer if you let iTunes manage your music: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Start iTunes with the option (shift on Windows) key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.
The easier hard way:
You will need delete the movies from your iTunes collection. Drag them to a folder on the other drive. Hold down the option key and drag that folder back to an iTunes window. Opton will prevent the files from being copied back to the drive. Drawbacks: 1) You must remember to do this each time you add an item or it will copy it to the drive. 2) Deleting it will remove things( metadata) such as ratings, last played, date added.
The tougher hard way:
Re-assign your media folder to a folder on the external. Consolidate just the movies to the external. Re-assign media back to regular location. Advantages: Will keep your metadata. Note - I have never done this.
Whatever you do, back up first.

APPLE TV (GEN 2): How to view the movies on my external hard drive?

Hello,
I have a Macbook Pro, with Itunes. I already know how to set-up HOME SHARING with the APPLE TV that allows me to view my Itunes library from my TV.
But on my laptop, with the FRONT ROW feature, I set-up a ALIAS in the movie folder on my computer so that the files from my external hard drive were viewable from the movies folder in FRONT ROW. This great feature now allows me to view my content on my laptop (on Itunes) and the movies on my external hard drive, all on FRONT ROW on the Macbook Pro.
When I opened and set-up the Apple TV (Gen 2), I was surprised that it isn't like FRONT ROW. Instead, it only allows the content on my Itunes to be viewed.
This is a downside because I have only 35 GB free on my internal hard-drive, and all of 350+ GB of movies are on my EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE (Western Digital MY BOOK). Also, the movies files on my external hard drive are .AVI, .M4V, and .MP4
Another question I have is what is the USB port on the back of the APPLE TV for? Can it be used for the external hard drive or no?
Basically, I want to watch all the movies from my external hard drive on my TV.
Can I set this up to happen and how?
If not, what should I do to be able to watch the movies from my computer/external hard drive on my TV?
*Please share as much information as you all can because I need to view all my options (if any) in this situation and I value all the advice....THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!*
EQUIPMENT:
Laptop: MACBOOK PRO 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4GB 1067 MHZ DDR3 MAC OS X 10.6.6
Apple TV: Gen 2
TV: Vizio 37" HDTV HMDI LCD
External Hard Drive: Western Digital MY BOOK (USB 2.0 + Firewire)

I followed exactly what you advised, and it all worked. I did convert the files first that were .AVI ---> .MP4 (the audio and video came out beautifully when viewed). I organized my files around a bit, and then I went into Itunes---> Preferences---> Advanced---> Changed where I want to grab my movies from. It keep all my previous music, tv, movies, podcasts files that I had in ITunes, and just "added" the new content without disrupting anything in my Itunes at all. I LOVED IT...so simple in the end.
The files did take a while to convert, but I only had to do the ones that I had that were labeled ".AVI". The program, HAND BRAKE, allowed me to set up a "batch" and I had them converting during the afternoon and into the evening.
All in all....THANK YOU/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png/___sbsstatic__ _/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/ migration-img-not-avail.png/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-a vail.png/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png/___sbsstat ic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png/___sbsstatic___/migration-ima ges/migration-img-not-avail.png
Since whenever I open my Itunes, all the movies display well, and so my APPLE TV can now view all my "content" in Itunes. I thought I was going to have to return that APPLE TV since I couldn't figure a way around it, and all in all, it wasn't all that bad of a process to convert and then change file location in preferences.
MANY THANKS and HAVE A GREAT WEEK

I have vlc player movies on my external hard drive; can i watch these on the apple ipad?

i have vlc player movies on my external hard drive; i normally watch them on an windows laptop; can i watch these on the apple ipad?

<edited>
There's a vlc streamer app in the app store, but you would need to also install the streamer helper on the device where the movies reside. This works between my macbook and my ipad, but if you cannot access the external drive and install the helper file, then probably not

I want to keep my music on my macbook and my movies on my external hard drive how do i get itunes to recogonise my external hard drive.?

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Post your question in the iTunes area:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/itunes/itunes_for_mac

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How do i Transfer Movies from my external hard drive to my ipad2?

Another way.
You can use a USB flash drive & the camera connection kit.
Plug the USB flash drive into your computer & create a new folder titled DCIM. Then put your movie/photo files into the folder. The files must have a filename with exactly 8 characters long (no spaces) plus the file extension (i.e., my-movie.mov).
Now plug the flash drive into the iPad using the camera connection kit. Open the Photos app, the movie/photo files should appear & you can import.
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How do I move all my movies onto an external hard drive and still run imovie

My Mac hard drive is full due to 300GB's of movies. I don't want to lose the movies and still want to work on them/create projects etc.
I've bought an external hard drive so have copied and pasted all the movies across from MAC hard drive to external hard drive.
I want to delete the movies off the MAC hard drive but still ensure Imovie picks up the movies from the external hard drive (continuously plugged in).
Can anyone let me know how I can do this?
Thanks

Hi
In regard to some versions of iMovie - and to ALL Video workings on a Mac
All - iMovie - all versions, FinalCut, Adobe Premiere etc etc
External Hard Disk - MUST BE - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted - Else broken files and all kinds of trouble
and rather a FireWire or Thunderbolt connected ext. drive - as USB/USB2 performs badly to me and especially when filling up, and when I use HD-Material (for SD-Video quality it may work better - but to a severe quality loss)
iMovie'08 and '09 and '11 ( Don't have iMovie'13 version 10.0.x)
DO not move or alter ANY video material - On DeskTop/Finder and in any folders named anything like
iMovie Event's - or -
iMovie Project's
If moved to e.g. another hard disk - the link back to iMovie app is broken - and this can be anything from HARD to IMPOSSIBLY to mend !
BUT instead.
Connect new (hfs-formatted) ext hard disk
Start iMovie
Move Event's and Project's - within the application
and now links to material is preserved - and space gained on the Start-Up (Macintosh HD) Hard Disk
Yours Bengt W

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So could I take everything off my external hard drive, save it to my Mac, then re-format it for my Mac and move everything back to the external hard drive?
Yes. Keep in mind that you need to back up all data, including the data on an external drive. So if you're going to use the external drive to store original data, as opposed to backups, then you really need another one to back up the first one. You also need to back up the data on your internal drive, of course. This isn't optional. You must do it, or you'll lose everything sooner or later. All disk drives fail eventually, often with no warning.
If I do that how do I format the external hard drive for my Mac?
Launch the Disk Utility application and search the built-in help for "erase."
Would it be easier to just buy a external hard drive that is for a Mac?
All external hard drives work with Macs. Some might come pre-formatted for use with Macs, but it only takes a few minutes to do that yourself.

I want to keep my music on my macbook pro and my movies on my external hard drive.

I want to keep my music on my macbook pro and my movies on my external hard drive how do i get itunes to recogonise my external hard drive.? so i can drag more movies across later. i am able to plug my external into my Apple Express to stream to my apple TV arent i..???

michols wrote:
I want to keep my music on my macbook pro and my movies on my external hard drive how do i get itunes to recogonise my external hard drive.?
iTunes > preferences > advanced.
point iTunes media folder location to the external
on the same tab, ensure the copy files ... when adding option is checkmarked
okay out of preferences
highlight the content to be moved (i.e. the movies) in iTunes and right-click
select consolidate files from the pop-up menu
wait for the process to finish
when done, you may delete the original files from your boot drive. you may also want to point iTunes media folder location back to your local iTunes folder.
i am able to plug my external into my Apple Express to stream to my apple TV arent i..???
no. airport express does not support the airdisk feature. you'd need an airport extreme (or time capsule) for that.

Can a time capsule store a movie from an external hard drive then allow that movie to be played on an iPad on the network?

Can a time capsule store a movie from an external hard drive then allow that movie to be played on an iPad on the network?

I don't use ipad for this so i am just googling.
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/media-player-playerxtreme/id456584471?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/oplayerhd-lite-best-free-video/id385896088?mt=8
http://www.freemake.com/blog/5-free-video-players-for-ipad/
Anything that will play from Samba network file store..
You will probably also need filebrowser loaded on the ipad to find the files.
Is the ipad necessary btw.. ?? If you only want to play the file to your TV you can buy a WD Live TV.. unlike the Apple TV it is a media player.. and can play files of almost any format direct from the TC.

Problem saving .dv file to external hard drive

Hello -
I'm trying to copy an old VHS tape to DVD. VCR to camcorder to iMovie 4.0.1 and edits all went smoothly. To create the .dv file I did File > Share > QuickTime tab > compress for Full Quality DV and created a 5.68 GB file movie1.dv - all OK.
I don't have a DVD burner on my Mac, so I'm trying to copy the file to an external USB hard drive (Maxtor, FAT32 format) for transfer to my PC. The drive seems to work fine, and I can copy other files to it. But when I try to copy the .dv file to the HD it goes almost all the way through with the save and then I get an error: The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in the "movie1.dv" could not be read or written. (Error code -36).
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I have been using a Lacie 120 gig drive for file saving. I just bought another external HD, it is a Maxtor. I installed the OS X version of drive format, but it WILL NOT work with I-Movie--as soon as you try and import video, it freezes and quits. I can copy files to it, but have not tried seeing if they play back or burn properly (I don't want to waste that much time copying huge files). Does anyone know about external hard drives that do NOT work well with IMovie? This model has a USB A-B connection and it operates at 9600 rpm.
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HT1351 I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7. I saved my iTunes on external hard drive and reinstalled them. My iTunes no longer recognizes my device - a 5th gen. iPod. I can's synch

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At a guess you followed the process in HT1364 - iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder which would have moved the media folder to a new path of your choice. This process leaves the library database files back in the original location of <User's Music>\iTunes. Often people assume that all they need is now on the external drive and wipe the internal drive, or discard their old computer, before backing up the all important iTunes folder. If you have a backup of your user's profile folder from before the upgrade the iTunes library folder should be in there somewhere. Restore it to <User's Music> and your original library should pop back into existence. The external drive would need to have the same drive letter that it had previously.
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If you have an iPod or iOS device my scripts ImportDevicePlaylists and SyncStats may well let you recover ratings, play counts & playlists from the device.
When you've fixed up your libray you should consider getting a second external drive to backup to.
tt2

Saving movies to an external Hard drive

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