Macworld: Archiving Videos via iMovie and iDVD ...

Ok, Chris. This is all really quite easy. We are on the Mac platform afterall.

As the previous poster said, I start the archiving in iMovie. That captures the video in DV stream at 12 GB per hour and puts it in your iMovie clip pane and the files are stored under the 'media' folder in the iMovie project folder. I then edit the clips and do some cutting as necessary, since there is usually a few seconds of blue screen at the start of the first clip and at the end of the last clip and such. I then drag all the clips that I imported to the iMovie timeline at the bottom of the screen. Then I export in iMovie from file->export. In the resulting dialog box, under the export dialog box, choose 'to quicktime'. You will then see a new dialog box called formats, choose expert settings and then click export. This will bring up the standard OS X save dialog box. Near the bottom of the screen, there is another export pull-down menu. Choose movie to quicktime movie, and then press the options button just to the right of the pull down. Once you hit options, you will see what might appear to be a cluttered and confusing movie settings menu. The top half of the menu is for the video settings, and the bottom half is for the audio settings. Click around in each of the buttons to find all of the settings that we have discussed here in this thread. When you are all done getting all the choices set up, press ok in the video settings, and then save in the quicktime save. This will export the video in mpeg4 codec as a quicktime movie. As I stated before, I can not remember if this requires the pro version of quicktime or not. I have quicktime pro, so I can not tell. If you can not do this without QT pro, I would say that having the ability to archive to mpeg4 is well worth the $29 QT pro upgrade cost.

To archive this to iDVD later, you can simply drag the movie from your HD to an IDVD theme, or choose 'import' from iDVD. However, as the previous poster stated, if your primary goal is the archive the video straight to iDVD, there is a tab for doing that right in iMovie. Just drag all your clips to the timeline in iMovie, and then press the iDVD button on the far right next to cips, audio, photos, etc. The only reason to bother with the export to mpeg4 is if you want an archive on your HD or if you want to edit the video later.

To edit the video later after it is converted to a quicktime file, you can either launch iMovie and import the video right into iMovie (remember iMovie can only handle 9 min 28 sec clips, so you might have do some cutting before importing), or you can do what I prefer to do, which is to cut the clips in quicktime and export straight to DV stream format. I usually find that I am only interested in making a movie from a few 20 or 30 second clips from my 1 hour movie. So I usually use QT to trim down to just the clip I want, and then I do an export to DV stream format right in quicktime. I then import the DV stream clips into iMovie. you can export the DV stream clips in QT by selecting file->export and the choosing the movie to DV stream export option. To save one step in the process, you can even create a new iMovie project, and then export your DV stream clips directly to the media folder of the iMovie project folder. The next time you open that project, iMovie will prompt you to add those clips to the clip pane.

When I say data DVD, all that I mean is a DVD that contain data files, just like a typical CD Rom, as opposed to a DVD that was burned in iDVD that can play on a standard DVD player. The apple finder is capable of burning data DVDs. Just buy a blank DVD-R disc, put it in your superdrive (of course you have to have a DVD burning superdrive to burn DVDs) and then drag your quicktime files to the DVD disc icon in your desktop or in the finder, and then select burn. Violia - you have a DVD that contain your QT files on them as backup. Personally, I use toast, because it is more stable for burning, and burns better to the generic media that I use.

At this point, you should be safe to erase the files off your HD, but I would definetely test the DVD file first to make sure it works. Play the video off of it, or better yet, copy the video file from the DVD back to your HD, and zip through the video and make sure it works fine from start to finish. You do not want to find out later that the DVD has a problem. Me personally, I keep all the original mpeg4 QT files on my HD and look at the DVD as a back-up to protect against HD failure. But I also have 3 HDs totalling 380 GB on my PowerMac.

I just made a command decision when I bought this machine that I was going to do it right and not mess around or skimp in any way. That is why I am on the Mac platform.

Heck, it took me a few extra years of saving to be able to do this, but I am so glad that I have the set-up that I do to handle my massive video/photo/music digitial hub project. I have imported all my videos that I have ever recorded, all my CDs and all the good photos since my daughters were born (scanned about half of all of the pics we took on film, plus has about 3,000 digitals). My digital hub now totals nearly 100 hours of video, 7,000 photos and 15,000 mp3 all on my HDs available and ready for editing at my fingertips. The awesome integration of the iApps, combined with all my content contained in iPhoto and iTunes and the ease of use of iMovie and iDVD really has me in digital hub heaven. I love my Mac because it has enabled me weave some incredible master pieces using all my precious memories. Check out some of the video and slideshows on my web page. This video is one I am most proud of from my hiking trips, and This one is a pretty cool one of my daughter that I made for her on her 6th birthday.

Good luck!

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