Mac OS X
Version 10.5.8
iMovie HD 6.0.3
It is a Dazzle DVD Recorder Plus... the white one. It outputs to .mov files... I use a program called VideoGlide to record, since the Dazzle software doesn't work with my Mac.
It is the only iMovie project on the computer. I think I might have figured SOMETHING out. Even though each clip is only a few seconds long, when I click "show clip info," it says that each clip is 3-5GB, which was the size of the original movies.
I guess the problem is that for some reason iMovie is still storing the whole imported movie, even though I isolated a clip from each and trashed the rest. Any ideas?
Yup. iMovie 6 will retain the original clip and uses "references" to the original capture file for the portions you've selected. The
second link I posted about iMovie 6 trash makes this point.
Also, by default, VideoGlide will capture in the Dazzle's native format, which creates huge files (which iMovie will need to convert anyhow).
From the VideoGlide ReadMe:
Video Settings...
The Video Settings dialog has 4 or more panels. The panels may look somewhat different depending on the combination of system software installed, but all the information is basically the same.
Compression Panel
Compressor menu:
Choose the QuickTime format of the captured file here. "YUV422 Video" is the native format of your digitizer. However, the files generated using this format are enormous: approximately 1 gigabyte per minute. Many hard drives may not be able to keep up with the pace of the data, even if there is sufficient space available. Using any compressed format can dramatically lower the amount of space required.... For higher compression rates MPEG-4 or H.264 are good choices -however, these require very powerful processors to keep up with the video data. Be sure to check the frame rates being obtained in a few test samples before capturing important material.
I think if you re-capture, changing the settings in VideoGlide to a compressed video format (provided your Mac is fast enough to compress during capture) you'll find that the output files become much smaller. Reboot your machine before capturing and don't run any other Applications when capturing so that the computer has the best chance of
NOT dropping frames.
I would recommend using one of the DV formats (since that's what iMovie 6 natively uses and iMovie won't need to convert the video to a format it can work with). Use either "DV - PAL" or "DV/DVCPRO - NTSC" depending on your country. You'll know if you have the
wrong one (NTSC or PAL) if your video is black&white.
When you capture, try to capture only the portions you need as this will save space too.
I've tried the Mpeg4 codec, but as it stands, it's a pretty poor example of Mpeg4 compression.
When you create your new iMovie project, select the "Video Format" as "DV". You may need to click on the little triangle next to "Video Format" to see the choices. Anything other than plain "DV" (ie: HDV 1080i or HDV 720p) will be overkill since your capture device is certainly NOT HighDefinition. *see note below
Once you've dragged the captured footage into iMovie (and it "imports" or rather
copies the DV .mov file you captured), you can delete the .mov file that VideoGlide created to save space.
*NOTE: capturing as DV is overkill in itself, but when working with iMovie v6, it's the best choice due to iMovie 6's limitations as to what video codecs and formats it works with internally. Any other format will only get converted to DV when you import the footage into iMovie which will take time to convert AND potentially lose a little quality in the conversion process.
Hopefully, this all makes sense and helps you get your project done!
EDIT: to work around iMovie 6's holding onto the original full file after smaller clips are selected, you could use
MpegStreamClip to cut and create "rough cut" pieces of your VideoGlide catpure footage, saving them as smaller DV .dv files and importing those into a NEW iMovie project.
In MpegStreamClip, open your VideoGlide .mov file (which you captured using DV compression), drag the playhead to the start of the clip section you want and press "I" on your keyboard. Next drag the playhead to the end of the clip section you want, and press "O" on your keyboard.
Now, go to the file menu and select "Save as...", give the clip a unique name, and select the format as "DV" and click "Save". You will now have a much smaller .dv file you can drag to your new iMovie project. Repeat this for the other sections you need.
Use the "Save as.." option rather than "Export" since all you need to do is save the portion of DV stream into a new .dv container file. ie: No conversion needs to be done.
