iMovie clip import speeds not going as fast as it could

[Scarlet Fever]

When i import MP4 clips into iMovie on my MacBook (see sig), Activity Monitor says that iMovie is using ~130% of the CPU, and that there is about 60% of the processor inactive, a majority of the RAM is inactive and a bit is still free, and the hard drive activity isnt huge. It takes almost 30 mins to import a 25 min (40MB) clip. Is it just that iMovie isn't optimised for the Intel chips yet, is this normal behavior on any Mac, or is something going on?

[gloss]

How fast does mp4 importing 'normally' run? I tested it in iMovie and Reelbean and got about the same speed for an mp4 to .dv conversion, which is slightly less than real time.

Didn't see an issue with it. Is it supposed to be faster?

[Scarlet Fever]

Didn't see an issue with it. Is it supposed to be faster?
im not sure, but handbrake rips dvds at nearly 3 times real time, so i cant see why iMovie can't copy files at real time or faster.

[gloss]

It's cross-encoding, which is probably way more processor-heavy. I guess see if you can find a program that'll let you queue a few imports and let them run overnight.

[cedric]

Does iMovie always go through the entire DV tape "looking for video" even if I only have a 5-minute video on the front end of the tape? Is that normal, or do I have to make some adjustment to the settings?