Importing into iMovie/FCE

[x.sunrise]

Hi,

I've been working with iMovie HD for awhile now and each time I import a video file (usually mpg) it takes an excruciatingly long time (e.g., 55 min to import a 45min mpg). Also, the .iMovieProject files are enormous (all I did to that 45min mpg was clip a 3-min scene and the file turned out to be 10 GB). This isn't the first time, though, because I've saved files in the past such as a 3 min montage that I've been editing that takes up 70 GB.

I did some research and it looks like the reason may be that iMovie is converting everything into DV, which supposedly takes up a lot of space...? (I'm new to this stuff, I don't really know much about different types of formats.)
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/363944

Anyway, I've been considering getting FCE, so I'm wondering if the same thing would happen in FCE...?

Thanks.

 

[arjen92]

iMovie can not read the file (fast enough). So apple decided to make the file bigger, instead of forcing the processor to do more work. That's why it's converting the file (while on windows you can do it natively, but it'll require more processor speed).

I believe it's converted to AIC (apple intermediate codec) which just is less compressed => bigger.

Final Cut Express will do the same, maybe you can change some of the settings so the files will be smaller, but I don't think you'll be able to reduce the size a lot.

 

[Dave Braine]

I think iMovieHD converts to DV which is 13Gb per hour of video. Burning to dvd will shrink it back again.