Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Can I edit iMovie projects directly from this external HD ?

Well, it doesn't matter what harddrive you use(sorta) when video editing, as long as you can plug it into your computer. Now, I don't use iMovie anymore, as I am a Final Cut Pro guy, but I think that when you import video into iMovie, it saves somewhere in your movies folders, I believe. Just opened iMovie, and didn't see an option to change the location.
 
Well, I was editing directly from my bulky and heavy LaCie D2 external desktop hard drive through iMovie, when I plug-in the drive through firewire 800, iMovie expands a folder that shows my external drive + the projects associated with it.

I remember paying a little extra for my LaCie D2 hard drive, because it allows me to edit movies directly from it.

I was wondering what makes an external hard drive able to edit movies directly through it and would a portable hard drive that is powered through the usb/firewire port able to perform exactly like my current external LaCie D2 external desktop hard drive ?

I haven't been able to find the speed of the WD 640GB External Drive and I am not sure if the high "rpm" + "firewire" connection are all the requirements needed to edit directly from the drive.

I appreciate your help.

p.s. I am ok with having iMovie create a folder of the project on the computer hard drive, as long as the main components of the project meaning the large gigabytes of space that it usually takes, remains on the external drive and not take over my laptop's hard disk.
 
Ah, okay. Like I said, I no longer use iMovie, so I could be wrong about a few things. But you should have no problem using any harddrive, and putting your source videos on the external. BTW, I wouldn't get a harddrive that is specifically "for mac". They tend to be slightly more expensive. You can buy any harddrive you want, assuming it has the right cable to plug into your mac (usb, firewire 800, ect). To make your harddrive "for mac" (changing the filesystem to hfs+, which OS X can read/write to), you can plug in your external HDD, open Disk Utility, and reformat the HDD to be hfs+. Now, 7200 rpm + firewire would be a preferred speed. However, it is easier to use non-compressed file formats for video, as NLE's such as iMovie have an easier time working with them.
 
Thanks alot for your response brucem91, specifically for the tip on formatting the HDD for mac ! I am going to explore my options on non-mac drives and warranty is very important to me, so I'll try to find a portable firewire HDD in canada with a matching 2 to 3 yrs warranty like the Western Digitals and G-Techs.
 
Want to get a larger external Firewire 800 Portable External Hard Drive

Please share what you ultimately do. I currently have a Western Digital My Passport Studio 500 GB external portable hard drive ( WD5000MT-00 / WDMT5000TN )that I purchased back in April 2009 from Newegg.com for $140. I'm using it with my 15" 2.2ghz Macbook Pro. I wanted to replace it with a much bigger one that's like 1TB or so and I wanted to still have Firewire 800/FW 800 (assuming the latest MacBook Pro still has a firewire800 port - planning to upgrade soon).

The best I see right now seems to be the 640gb one on western digital's website: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=34

Once I replace w/ a new portable HD, I was wondering if it might be possible to take my current portable apart and use this hard drive in the latest MacBook Pro I'm planning to upgrade to in the next few months. With my older 320GB passport, when the holder started messing up, I took it apart and put that hard drive in my current computer (WD3200XMS-00 / WDXMS3200TN )
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back