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Newbie question on iMovie - please be gentle

charlyee

charlyee

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 9, 2011
536
1,598
Wisconsin
Hello all, I am brand new to Mac with a Macbook Air. I have managed to fumble through and edit one of my wildlife videos. There is one question and a couple of related items that I have not found an anwer to.

Finishing a Project - This renders in 4 different formats for me, 1080, 720, large, and medium. I understand that the different formats are for different applications, but I don't need all four versions for every video.

Is there a way to either choose a format or delete the ones not being used.


Thanks much. :)
 
It seems that you're trying to save the video to the media browser. If so, you get to choose which sizes you want by checking the corresponding boxes after you choose Share->Media Browser.

If you don't want a certain size, go to the very bottom of the Share menu, Share->Remove From->Media Browser.

It shouldn't be rendering all sizes automatically...
 
huck500 said:
It seems that you're trying to save the video to the media browser. If so, you get to choose which sizes you want by checking the corresponding boxes after you choose Share->Media Browser.

If you don't want a certain size, go to the very bottom of the Share menu, Share->Remove From->Media Browser.

It shouldn't be rendering all sizes automatically...
Click to expand...
No I am not at the point of saving or sharing yet. I finished the project and then chose File>Finalize Project and at this point it starts saving it in the four formats.

I found some information in the Help Menu but no specific answers.

Thank much
 
You don't need to do the File --> Finalize Project. Just go to Share and Export Movie and then select the type of file you want. It will only save one file in the format you choose and not four different ones. See attached screen shots.
 

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SandboxGeneral said:
You don't need to do the File --> Finalize Project. Just go to Share and Export Movie and then select the type of file you want. It will only save one file in the format you choose and not four different ones. See attached screen shots.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much. Now I understand, I was thinking "Export" meaning sending it out to something.

Of course, now I have two more questions: :D

1. What is the best place to save my movies to, I believe the default is "documents"?

2. How can I access the the redundant formats and delete them?

Thanks again.
 
I have a folder under my username called Movies where I store all of those. To delete the redundant formats, you'll have to locate them through Finder and manually delete them.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
You don't need to do the File --> Finalize Project. Just go to Share and Export Movie and then select the type of file you want. It will only save one file in the format you choose and not four different ones. See attached screen shots.
Click to expand...
One more question, after I Export them, can I delete the projects and the events?

Thanks again. :)
 
charlyee said:
One more question, after I Export them, can I delete the projects and the events?

Thanks again. :)
Click to expand...

Yes. But remember once you do that you will not be able to modify the project if later you want to change the exported file - you will have to start all over.
 
How can I access the the redundant formats and delete them?
Click to expand...
They should be in Home Folder/Movies/iMovie Projects/your movie name. That file is a package containing the various formats of your project. You can just delete that file, or right(ctrl) click to have a look inside.

In iMovie if you delete just your Project and leave the Events, you can redo a project again, but if you delete just the Events, then the associated Project won't run.
 
jwheeler said:
I wouldn't. You could delete the unused videos inside the event. But you'll still need the videos in the event in order to edit later.
Click to expand...
Oops! Runs to go rummaging in the Trash. :eek:

Thanks
Dave Braine said:
They should be in Home Folder/Movies/iMovie Projects/your movie name. That file is a package containing the various formats of your project. You can just delete that file, or right(ctrl) click to have a look inside.

In iMovie if you delete just your Project and leave the Events, you can redo a project again, but if you delete just the Events, then the associated Project won't run.
Click to expand...
Thanks very much, I got my events back and deleted the projects. :)

Thanks for the info on where the different formats are hiding.
 
charlyee said:
Thanks Thanks very much, I got my events back and deleted the projects. :)
Click to expand...
But you will have to start again if you want to edit again.

Its best just to decide what you want to keep. When I edit my summer project, I'll store all my footage on a firewire harddrive that is not backed up. And I'll also store the footage on DVDs as an archive (so i'll always have them - a backup in itself, if you will).

The project files, however, should only be relatively small so I'll keep them local and backed up. When finished I'll delete all files off the firewire harddrive (Well maybe one episode at a time after they're released).
 
jwheeler said:
But you will have to start again if you want to edit again.

Its best just to decide what you want to keep. When I edit my summer project, I'll store all my footage on a firewire harddrive that is not backed up. And I'll also store the footage on DVDs as an archive (so i'll always have them - a backup in itself, if you will).

The project files, however, should only be relatively small so I'll keep them local and backed up. When finished I'll delete all files off the firewire harddrive (Well maybe one episode at a time after they're released).
Click to expand...
Thanks very much. At this time I only have 4, 5 min videos so starting from scratch is okay but I can see in the long run that will not be a good idea.

Thanks, I am glad I found this forum I am learning something new everyday :)
 
SandboxGeneral said:
I'm glad we could help. Please stay and enjoy the forums. :)
Click to expand...
I am very much so. I have a lot to learn, infact I have one immediate question:

I would like to store some of my video clips externally, I was looking at the Superdrive, is that the right choice?

I would like to play them back in HD, either on my Macbook or on the TV, what would be the recommendation?

Thanks much. :)
 
First thing. No the superdrive is a CD/DVD drive. It's not a hard drive. Unless you want to store your video on a DVD or something then yes you could burn it to a disk with the superdrive.
As for wanting to watch it. You can watch it on your Air (Just double click the file) or you can actually hook your Air up to your TV (Probably). You will need an HDTV with an HDMI in a VGA in or a DVI in then a display port to HDMI or VGA or DVI. You could also get an Apple TV but you can only watch it in 720 instead of 1080 (1280 x 720, and 1920 x 1080). This sounds like a big deal but it really isn't. Apply TV is 100 dollars so that might be too much. You can burn it to a DVD and then watch it in your DVD player but that won't be HD. If you got a blu ray burner and you have a blu ray player you could burn it to blu ray but this is expensive, both as the cost of blu ray disks is quite high and the cost and complication of getting a blu ray burner.
 
Thanks very much, I would like to store the videos externally instead of leaving them on the MBA but not lose the HD. Sounds like the Superdrive is out, so if I store it on an external hard drive, will it maintain HD at 1080 or even 720 when playing back from it on my MBA or TV?

Hope I made sense

Thanks much.:)
 
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