iMovie: whats the fastest way to import > cut & clip > save?

[PicnicTutorials]

The way I did it was import the whole hour of video of the camcorder into iMovie. Then click "Create". Then highlight in yellow each clip I wanted to clip out. Then drag the clip into the bottom project area. Then click share > and file > and save it. Then once the whole hour is saved into clips I will move it all over to my external drive.

Is this the way you do it? Is this the fastest way? The reason I ask is because I literally have 2800 hours of video on my miniDV I need to import. So time saving tips will help.

thank you in advance

 

[RemarkabLee]

My advice is to not bother with iMovie for simple clip and save edits.


MPEG StreamClip which will edit the DV clip and save losslessly (i.e. no generation loss) and is WAY faster.

http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

 

[mtngoatjoe]

Is this the way you do it? Is this the fastest way? The reason I ask is because I literally have 2800 hours of video on my miniDV I need to import. So time saving tips will help.

2800 hours! Wow!!! What are you going to do with 2800 hours of video?

You might consider having iMovie analyze for shaking, but you'll want to experiment with that first. Sometimes it crops the video too much.

Anyway, there's probably not much you can do to speed things up much except buy another camera and computer so you can import two videos at the same time. On the plus side, you don't need much power to import DV video, so another computer would be pretty cheap.

Good luck!

 

[PicnicTutorials]

2800 hours! Wow!!! What are you going to do with 2800 hours of video?

You might consider having iMovie analyze for shaking, but you'll want to experiment with that first. Sometimes it crops the video too much.

Anyway, there's probably not much you can do to speed things up much except buy another camera and computer so you can import two videos at the same time. On the plus side, you don't need much power to import DV video, so another computer would be pretty cheap.

Good luck!

10 years with 3 kids and recording a lot lol. Over the years I pretty much started mainly using my digital camera for video instead like most. Thanks for the info. Yeah it will take awhile. The program mentioned above looks good. From what I can tell it just let's me import while I work which you can't do in imovie apparently. I will try that out.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

My advice is to not bother with iMovie for simple clip and save edits.


MPEG StreamClip which will edit the DV clip and save losslessly (i.e. no generation loss) and is WAY faster.

http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

I don't see a option to import from camera with this. Only from url, dvd, or file.

 

[RemarkabLee]

I don't see a option to import from camera with this. Only from url, dvd, or file.

Sorry, you will need to import it using iMovie or another application (QuickTime X?) first before you can edit the resulting file using MPEGStreamClip.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

Sorry, you will need to import it using iMovie or another application (QuickTime X?) first before you can edit the resulting file using MPEGStreamClip.

huh I fail to see its benifit then. I thought I could import with it while on worked on a project in imovie. Of I can't do that then?

 

[RemarkabLee]

The benefit comes in the time saved when editing and saving the new clip to disk - the import process is not changed.

iMovie will need to re-compress the edited video clip, which takes time and adds a generation of compression artifacts,

MPEGStreamClip will simply copy the imported file, excluding the portions you do not need. This does not add a generation loss of quality and the time it takes is restricted only by the time it takes to write the file to disk.

Give it a try.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

Well I just realized that if I simply want to keep the original formatted clips I imported I just have to take all the clips imported located in the iMovie library in original media. imovie library > show package content. Thats the fastest. AKA I don't have to export each clip.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

Well I just realized that if I simply want to keep the original formatted clips I imported I just have to take all the clips imported located in the iMovie library in original media. imovie library > show package content. Thats the fastest. AKA I don't have to export each clip.

No that doesn't seem to work. They are mov and they have no sound.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

Ok I need help please. Is there a way to simply take all the imported original media and just save it all in one fell swoop? Rather than having to import and then process/export clip by clip.

As stated above I thought I had a quicker way untill I tried to play one of the original media files - no sound and it was mov file. I assume mp4 is better???

 

[PicnicTutorials]

No imovie users here???

Can I take the original media files (mov format) and batch convert them using handbrake or MPEG streamclip? And if so would the resulting videos then have sound? And which is the best format (container codec whatever) to export them to? Thanks!

 

[mtngoatjoe]

Ok I need help please. Is there a way to simply take all the imported original media and just save it all in one fell swoop? Rather than having to import and then process/export clip by clip.

As stated above I thought I had a quicker way untill I tried to play one of the original media files - no sound and it was mov file. I assume mp4 is better???

I don't think there's much you can do. Importing an hour of video is going to take an hour. As you already know, you'll have to perform any edits you want, and then export as a file. There's just no way to speed that up accept with another computer and camera.

Your Mac is fast, so you export is as good as it's going to get.

An old Mac Mini is less than $300, or even an old iMac for less than $500. I'm not sure how much the camera would be. In the end, this is going to be the fastest way to process all your tapes.

On the plus side, you should be able to resell the equipment for close to what you paid for it, assuming you don't spend years on this project. And this is the point I think you need to understand. This project is HUGE! Even if you could process 5 tapes a day, you would still need 560 days to copy all your tapes. The only way to make a dent here is with a second, or even 3rd machine.

On the plus side, with Mavericks and the latest iMovie, you can set up your projects and then before you go to bed, you can export them (because iMovie can export in the background).

Let us know what decision you reach. -Joe

 

[PicnicTutorials]

I don't think there's much you can do. Importing an hour of video is going to take an hour. As you already know, you'll have to perform any edits you want, and then export as a file. There's just no way to speed that up accept with another computer and camera.

Your Mac is fast, so you export is as good as it's going to get.

An old Mac Mini is less than $300, or even an old iMac for less than $500. I'm not sure how much the camera would be. In the end, this is going to be the fastest way to process all your tapes.

On the plus side, you should be able to resell the equipment for close to what you paid for it, assuming you don't spend years on this project. And this is the point I think you need to understand. This project is HUGE! Even if you could process 5 tapes a day, you would still need 560 days to copy all your tapes. The only way to make a dent here is with a second, or even 3rd machine.

On the plus side, with Mavericks and the latest iMovie, you can set up your projects and then before you go to bed, you can export them (because iMovie can export in the background).

Let us know what decision you reach. -Joe

Thnaks. I tried MPEG streamclip amd each time it says error. Tried handbrake and the resulting clip is noticeably pixelated.

I don't mind the hour import. I just want to to stop there. What I mind is the additional hour it takes me to export to mp4 clip by clip. So again I tried MPEG batch and it says erro cannot complete task. And batch handbrake and it's pixelated. Any other way to batch export all the clips at once to mp4???

 

[mtngoatjoe]

Thnaks. I tried MPEG streamclip amd each time it says error. Tried handbrake and the resulting clip is noticeably pixelated.

I don't mind the hour import. I just want to to stop there. What I mind is the additional hour it takes me to export to mp4 clip by clip. So again I tried MPEG batch and it says erro cannot complete task. And batch handbrake and it's pixelated. Any other way to batch export all the clips at once to mp4???

Sorry, you're just gonna have to use iMovie. If you have the latest version, and Mavericks, you can batch export. Basically, you set your project up, click share, and pick your format. Repeat for each project. Sharing is done in the background, so you can repeat for several projects before, for example, going to bed.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

Sorry, you're just gonna have to use iMovie. If you have the latest version, and Mavericks, you can batch export. Basically, you set your project up, click share, and pick your format. Repeat for each project. Sharing is done in the background, so you can repeat for several projects before, for example, going to bed.

I don't mind using imovie. you sure you can batch export with imovie? I googled for that for a bit earlier today and didn't see any talk of it. If so anyway you can detail that a little more cuz I looked earlier and didn't see how. Thank you

 

[PicnicTutorials]

ok after too long I think I have figured out a quick workflow. I import all the clips > I do not create a project I instead leave them be as simple clips in the bottom section of the program > I quicky highlight each clip in yellow > export each clip as is (aka native res and default named file). This way I can manually process 30 clips or so in about 8 minutes and then imovie takes about another 10 to finish exporting all of them. So for each tape it's an hour import and about a twenty minute export process times 50 or so tapes should take about 4000 hours or so. EDIT Lol that's why it seems high - 4000 minutes not hours. That seems so very high but the math is correct. Good thing I like waking up early and drinking my beloved coffee.

 

[mtngoatjoe]

I don't mind using imovie. you sure you can batch export with imovie? I googled for that for a bit earlier today and didn't see any talk of it. If so anyway you can detail that a little more cuz I looked earlier and didn't see how. Thank you

It's not truly a batch export. It's just that iMovie 2013 with Mavericks can export in the background. So, you can start exporting a clip, and then select and export the next set of clips, and so on.

This lets you import several tapes before you export any of them. You don't need to wait for the export to finish before moving to the next tape. You can, for example, import tapes all week, and then start exporting them on Sunday night. Since you've imported a bunch of tapes, it'll take your iMac a while to export them all.

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ok after too long I think I have figured out a quick workflow. I import all the clips > I do not create a project I instead leave them be as simple clips in the bottom section of the program > I quicky highlight each clip in yellow > export each clip as is (aka native res and default named file). This way I can manually process 30 clips or so in about 8 minutes and then imovie takes about another 10 to finish exporting all of them. So for each tape it's an hour import and about a twenty minute export process times 50 or so tapes should take about 4000 hours or so. EDIT Lol that's why it seems high - 4000 minutes not hours. That seems so very high but the math is correct. Good thing I like waking up early and drinking my beloved coffee.

4000 minutes isn't that much. With a determined effort, you should be able to plow through that a month or two.

Also, I don't know if I'd bother exporting anything from iMovie just yet. It's probably worth the time to add some titles and trim out the junk. And everybody prefers when you trim out the junk.