Best OS X for iMovie HD 6 and iMovie '11 (9.0.9)

[esbardu]

Hi

I'm setting up a Mac Mini just for editing old video material (DV an 1080 cameras). I loved iMovie 9 ('11) and even though I am now editing with the new iMovie 10 I still miss the old interface. I also have some projects in iMovie HD 6.

Regarding the HW I understand that the faster the better even if it's not an early Intel Mac, so I will go for a 2012 i7 Mac Mini (I also have 2006,2009 and 2011 minis)

As for the OS I decided to choose Mavericks as the look 'n feel is similar to SL, Lion and Mountain Lion. My understanding is that last OS to run fine with iMovie HD 6 and iMovie 9 is Yosemite.

Any suggestions about which OS to use for this "project?, would Mavericks be the best choice?

Thanks

 

[Wowfunhappy]

iMovie HD 6 can technically run even on High Sierra, but you have to either edit the app's info.plist or remove it from macOS's incompatible apps blacklist: /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/Exceptions.plist.

However, there's a difference between running and actually being usable. I used iMovie HD for many years, and my memory is that it became progressively more crash-prone with every OS update. However, it was never the most stable of apps to begin with, and I'm not sure when it actually became a problem.

Mavericks is probably a fine choice if you've already installed it; it's a particularly nice release in general, and you might see a modest speed boost from its ability to use memory compression. If you run into stability issues with iMovie HD on Mavericks, I'd recommend trying Snow Leopard next.