iMovie Capture to External

[Merser]

Sorry if this has been asked already, I cant seem to find a thread.

I am trying to capture footage from my camcorder (firewire) directly to my external hard drive (USB2.0).

iMovie 08 gives me the option to select where to "save to" under the import from camera. The problem is that only my internal is listed as a possible location. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance

 

[-DH]

What am I doing wrong?

Using USB. You need a Firewire drive.

-DH

 

[Royale w/cheese]

It been a long time since I did it, but I am pretty sure iMovie 06 could be captured to a usb external. I don't know about 08 though.

 

[Merser]

Using USB. You need a Firewire drive.

-DH

Thanks for the reply...

Since I am using the firewire port for the connection to the camcorder, how do I use a firewire for the HD if the Macbook that I am using only has the 1 firewire port?

Also, so you are saying that you can only save directly to a external HD if it is firewire? How come iMovie "Help" doesnt say anything about that?

 

[Royale w/cheese]

You can use a firewire hub, or your firewire HD may have extra port so you can daisychain them. But your usb should work, I will have to mess with it this weekend when I am back by my usb external.

 

[Merser]

Setup faulty??

You can use a firewire hub, or your firewire HD may have extra port so you can daisychain them. But your usb should work, I will have to mess with it this weekend when I am back by my usb external.

Thanks, but just to clarify...

Here is my set up:

Macbook (1 Firewire port)
Sony Camcorder (1 Firewire Connected to Macbook) (1 Available USB)
External Hard Drive (1 USB 2.0 Port connected to Macbook)
iMovie '08

I go to "File" "Import from Camera" (Camera Screen Appears) "Capture"

At thsi point, the "Save to Screen" appears. Currently my Macbooks internal HD is the only available option on the dropdown menu.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[ftaok]

I don't have iMovie'08, so it may be different than what I know. But since you're still struggling, I figure maybe I could help.

With older versions of iMovie, the video would be imported wherever the project file was located. Can you create a project on your internal drive and then move it over to the external? Maybe then your imported video would be saved over on the external drive.

Does iMovie'08 even use "project files" anymore? The biggest difference is the inclusion of the iMovie Library.

They made mention of iMovie being able to find video clips from all attached sources and put them into a single library. There should be a way to import directly onto the external ...

Good Luck

 

[Merser]

I don't have iMovie'08, so it may be different than what I know. But since you're still struggling, I figure maybe I could help.

With older versions of iMovie, the video would be imported wherever the project file was located. Can you create a project on your internal drive and then move it over to the external? Maybe then your imported video would be saved over on the external drive.

Does iMovie'08 even use "project files" anymore? The biggest difference is the inclusion of the iMovie Library.

They made mention of iMovie being able to find video clips from all attached sources and put them into a single library. There should be a way to import directly onto the external ...

Good Luck

Ahh... thats a great idea! I'll try that as soon as I get home!

iMovie '08 has what are called "the event library" and "project library", so yes there are still project files.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Merser]

Using USB. You need a Firewire drive.

-DH

Sorry but to clarify this posting...

Do I NEED an external HD with a firewire port? I have a maxtor with a USB 2.0, no firewire.

 

[dolphin842]

Random shot in the dark: Try holding down the Option key when launching iMovie. Maybe it'll ask for a library location, ala iTunes/iPhoto, from where you can select the external?

 

[Merser]

Random shot in the dark: Try holding down the Option key when launching iMovie. Maybe it'll ask for a library location, ala iTunes/iPhoto, from where you can select the external?

Didnt work, but thanks.

 

[Merser]

Sorry to jump this thread again, but could this be the problem?

The external HD that I am doing is formatted in its factory state. Meaning usuable for both PC and Mac. Could it be that it needs to be formatted to Mac in order for me to save directly to the external HD from camcorder.

Also could someone please explain to me "daisy chain" and what features I would need on my external HD.

 

[boardtrick]

yeah the first thing you should check is the format of the external drive...should be MacOS Extended...not FAT32 or NTFS, those are PC file systems...open the disk utility in the utilities folder (command-shift-u in finder) and see if the drive shows up, you can check the file system type there

if you format the drive it will be wiped clean...if you leave it as FAT32 or NTFS you will run into file transfer limits (4gb max transfer to FAT32) and read/write restrictions (OS X can only read from NTFS, i think)

hope this helps

 

[Le Big Mac]

Also could someone please explain to me "daisy chain" and what features I would need on my external HD.

Does the hard drive have a firewire port that you could connect it to your macbook with? If so, it probably also has firewire out. You could then plug your camcorder into that jack, and put it directly onto the drive.

Macbook<...>Ext HD<...>Camera

 

[Merser]

Does the hard drive have a firewire port that you could connect it to your macbook with? If so, it probably also has firewire out. You could then plug your camcorder into that jack, and put it directly onto the drive.

Macbook<...>Ext HD<...>Camera

The External HD only has one port and its the USB 2.0.

What if I get a My Book Pro with the tripple interface? It has 1 USB 2 FW400 and 1 FW 800. Would this solve my problem??

 

[Merser]

WD My Book Pro

Would someone mind describing "daisy chaining" and how I would do it with a WD My Book Pro assuming that I want to capture directly to the external HD.

Thanks, ans sorry for the noobie questions... I am new to this.

 

[Merser]

Please explain!

I know people say that it is incredibly helpful to have Firewire when capturing video directly to an external HD, but do I NEED to have firewire? My current ext HD only has USB.

If I can just use USB then could someone please tell me how to setup my configeration to get this to work??

Please read a couple of posts up to see my current gear.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ftaok]

I know people say that it is incredibly helpful to have Firewire when capturing video directly to an external HD, but do I NEED to have firewire? My current ext HD only has USB.

If I can just use USB then could someone please tell me how to setup my configeration to get this to work??

Please read a couple of posts up to see my current gear.

Thanks in advance.

Mercer,

iMovie should work with your set-up. There must be something wrong here. I can only think of two things.

1. Your USB drive is formatted in FAT16 or FAT32 and maybe iMovie doesn't like that.

2. Longshot - try repairing permissions or rebooting.

BTW, I checked the Apple Support Forum and there are read similar issues for external drives. As of yesterday, no one had any answers ... yet.

ft

 

[Tofaha]

im having the same issue.
i have a WD external hard drive with 2 firewire ports. one is connected to my Sony DV camera and the other to my macbook pro...but it won't let me save to the external hard drive!!!!!!

 

[Merser]

Mercer,

iMovie should work with your set-up. There must be something wrong here. I can only think of two things.

1. Your USB drive is formatted in FAT16 or FAT32 and maybe iMovie doesn't like that.

Thanks guys, so let me get this straight...

Again here is my current set up... Assuming I will have to buy a new external HD because I cant format my current one without loosing my 20gb worth of photos and such. Which is fine, I can budget it...

Macbook (1 Firewire port) (2 USBs)
Sony Camcorder (1 Firewire) (1 USB)
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro (2 Firewire 400s) (1 USB) (Formatted to Mac)
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MAU4F7500G16/
iMovie '08

What I need to do is the following... correct??

1. Use FW400 to link the camcorder to the external HD...
2. Use the other available FW400 to link the HD to my Macbook

Although I still dont understand how my macbook will register the camcorder without it being directly connected to it...

Thanks in advance... If this is correct let me know so I can order that HD ASAP as I need it for vacation next week...

Thanks again guys

 

[Tofaha]

even though my camera isn't directly connected to the computer (it's connected to the hard drive) the computer knows and it plays just fine. my problem is moving footage from the camera to the external hard drive instead of camera to internal HD

 

[stfan1]

You won't be able to get iMovie to recognize your external USB hard drive if it's formatted as FAT32 because of the reasons listed here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6409017

..Basically, FAT32 has a 4GB file size limitation, which iMovie could possibly exceed when importing video. It is thought that iMovie blocks FAT32 filesystems for this reason.

I have worked around this by formatting my external USB hard drive as NTFS!

Mac OS X will treat a NTFS partition as read-only unless you do an extra little trick with some open source programs, one of which comes from Google.
Search Google for:
NTFS-3G (latest version today is NTFS-3G_1.2216-stable-catacombae.dmg)
and
MacFUSE (from Google, latest version is MacFUSE-Core-10.5-1.3.1.dmg)

...There are readmes, FAQs, and installation notes which you won't have to completely understand to get this working. It's pretty easy. Do NTFS-3G first, I think.

Users have complained that this NTFS driver or MacFUSE are slow, but I have never had a problem importing video from my camera directly to my NTFS hard drive. I think those who complain may be performance enthusiasts.

For me, another benefit is that I can use my same files on my Windows machine where I have some specific video tools (Premiere Elements). Windows just won't understand Mac HPFS filesystem, so this solution above is the only one that seems available.

Good luck!