[Macworld.com]

Is your hard drive filling up with iMovie '08 video clips? iMovie '08 Library Compressor can help. [more]

[pyang]

Is there anything like this for iPhoto?

[MacKayaker]

I expect, in time, this change between the two versions to be problematic. It made a lot more sense to the average user for footage associated with a project to be stored with the project - and easily deleted or archived when that project is done. It's lame now, that if I have several projects in process, I have to wade through footage from other projects while working on any one. It also makes clearing out un-needed footage far clunkier - especially if I have a lot of clips for any one project. Not cool.
This approach makes more sense in a professional context, but not in a consumer context - especially when storage space is often at a premium. In truth, I understood what was going on with this change, because of time spent with Final Cut and After Affects - not applications the average user will encounter, nor have to understand. It's a setup - one I will have to rescue customers from - I'm sure. Glad to be wrong on this one - time will tell.

[Dan Frakes]

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I expect, in time, this change between the two versions to be problematic. It made a lot more sense to the average user for footage associated with a project to be stored with the project - and easily deleted or archived when that project is done. It's lame now, that if I have several projects in process, I have to wade through footage from other projects while working on any one. It also makes clearing out un-needed footage far clunkier - especially if I have a lot of clips for any one project. Not cool.

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iMovie automatically imports clips into events, just like iPhoto, so you can quickly view just those clips from particular events and dates without having to wade through all your clips.

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This approach makes more sense in a professional context, but not in a consumer context - especially when storage space is often at a premium. In truth, I understood what was going on with this change, because of time spent with Final Cut and After Affects - not applications the average user will encounter, nor have to understand. It's a setup - one I will have to rescue customers from - I'm sure. Glad to be wrong on this one - time will tell.

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I think the fact that iMovie '08 works similarly to iPhoto in this respect is a good thing -- like iPhoto, people will quickly learn that iMovie is a tool for managing video as well as creating things from it. And I also like that when you want to make a movie that includes clips you've previously used in other movies, you no longer have to re-import those clips; they're all there for you to use whenever you need it.
Luckily, storage is getting cheaper and cheaper /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[edmetric]

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storage is getting cheaper and cheaper /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

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Where is that itty bitty button in iMovie 08 that allows me to use cheaper and cheaper external hard drives for my projects?

[Dan Frakes]

When you import video, you get a dialog that asks you where you want to save the new event; choose an external drive and you're set. (All my video clips [Events] are saved to a different drive.)

[EmilSkoda]

MPEG StreamClip (http://www.squared5.com/) is my tool of choice for converting video. It will batch process video from most formats into QuickTime / H.264. I convert video first, then import it into iMovie. And it's free, so no $30 QT Pro required.

[Dan Frakes]

As I mentioned in the article, there are other ways to do the actual video conversion -- some faster, some cheaper. The appeal of Library Compressor is that it automates the process and, perhaps most importantly, tweaks the resulting files so they retain their original positions in your Events Library.

[ajs811]

I am a recent convert from Windows so please excuse the naive question.



Is it reasonable at this point to use iMovie (or anything else) to manage all of my DV files? I have several years worth of videos I've taken of my family. How much memory would I need (order of magnitude) to store all of this at full DV quality and using the Better compression you recommend? What about using a program like Foot Track which I believe lets you catalog then erase your DV files so you can always go back to precisely the tape you need at the right location?



Thanks a lot.