A few questions

Hey everyone. I just got my new Mac yesterday and am just now beginning to transfer things like videos and pictures onto my Mac. I have some questions about the organization of those things, and how to play certain video file extensions. Your help is deeply appreciated.

1.) I just transferred a ton (near 2000) of pictures from an external hard drive onto my Mac. I placed them in the Pictures file that is accessible when accessing my "username" in Finder. I then proceeded to import all of said photos from Pictures into iPhoto 08. I now assume that when I go to Pictures and click on iPhoto 08 library, I will have all said pictures in there too. Therefore, do I have two sets of the same 2000 pictures? This is taking up hard drive space, so my immediate thought is to delete all the photos still in the Pictures folder and just access the ones I imported into the actual iPhoto 08 library. Is my thinking behind this correct? I'm afraid to delete them because I don't want to open iPhoto one day and click on a picture to edit it and have iPhoto tell me "error, picture can't be found..." I don't know if a Mac organizes itself this way or not. I'm just speaking from experiences on a Windows machine, where I had THIS EXACT SCENARIO and I subsequently lost many pictures...I want to keep this Mac very well organized and have all media types in one location. I don't want them scattered around my hard drive in different places.

2.) I have some video files that are .avi, .mpg, .mp4, and the infamous .wmv. I haven't tried playing any of these yet. Before I do try, what are some essential programs/plug ins that I should install? I would really like to watch all my videos with one program. I don't want to have to view .avis and .movs only on QuickTime and then have to watch .wmvs and .mpgs on some other player. I heard Flip4Mac is essential, and that VLC can play anything. Is that the case?

3.) Let's say I get some music off a friend's external hard drive. Or perhaps I download some music from a website. I then want to be able to play these files in iTunes, and have them organized and placed in my iTunes music folder. How do I go about doing this? Do I just drag and drop into the iTunes music folder in the Finder? Will they then be seen on iTunes when I next open it?

4.) What is a fast, easy to use, reliable (priorities are in that order) bit torrent client? I've heard Transmission is good, but slow. Any advice/tips?

Please help!

Many thanks

-Oni

Hi Oni,

1.) In iPhoto, in the menu bar click iPhoto --> Preferences --> Advanced - there is an option that says "copy items to the iPhoto library", if this is (and was when you imported them) on (it is by default) then yes, you have two copies and can delete the copies in the finder.
FYI, the same applies in iTunes.

2.) Quicktime can handle mpg and mp4, Flip4Mac will enable wmv support - I am not entirely sure about avi, but I imagine Quicktime will be able to handle it. I think you'll be fine with Quicktime and the Flip4Mac plugin.

3.) Open up iTunes, in the menu bar click iTunes --> Preferences --> Advanced. Tick both the "copy files to iTunes music folder..." and "Keep iTunes Music folder organised" - then to add your files to iTunes simply click File --> Add to library, after importing you can delete the original files just like with iPhoto.

4.) Transmission; although if you use Limewire, that has torrent support too.

I don't know where you heard Transmission is slow. Its the only one I use and I usually (on good torrents of course) pull my max bandwidth.

lifeafter2am said:

I don't know where you heard Transmission is slow. Its the only one I use and I usually (on good torrents of course) pull my max bandwidth.

Click to expand...

Agree 100% with you...I've yet to use another program that is faster then Transmission

I wouldn't trust my photos to iPhoto alone. You have just turned over control of your photos to a proprietary third party program (iPhoto). Even though that third party is Apple, I just wouldn't do it. ALWAYS keep a safe and separate copy of your photos at all times. That is my advice anyway.

Where can I get the Flip4Mac plug-in? Is it free?

Thanks for all the help so far!

You can download it from here, and yes, it is free
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...4D-D747-4180-A400-5F06B1B5E559&displaylang=en

Thank you

Ah, wait, more help!

So I downloaded Flip4Mac and can now play all videos fine. Except for .avi. For that, I installed the following Quicktime component:

http://n.ethz.ch/student/naegelic/download/

I downloaded that, but then 2 issues arise:

1.) Where is the component actually saved? All I have to access it is the disk image on my desktop, right below my hard drive.

2.) I can open my .avi files, but sometimes only the sound will play with no image. Sometimes no picture or sound will appear at all! Is there another codec or player I should download?

3.) And this one is sort OT from the others, but how do I change my weather location and time in Dashboard? It keeps telling me the time and weather in Cupertino, but I want to change this to my home location.

Nevermind, I downloaded Perian and have solved all of my problems. Except for question #3. Any help?

bump, please?

When you hover the mouse over the weather widget, a small "i" should appear in the bottom-right corner, click on it, and you can change your location there.

Excellent, thank you.

great thank you

2.) I have some video files that are .avi, .mpg, .mp4, and the infamous .wmv. I haven't tried playing any of these yet. Before I do try, what are some essential programs/plug ins that I should install? I would really like to watch all my videos with one program. I don't want to have to view .avis and .movs only on QuickTime and then have to watch .wmvs and .mpgs on some other player. I heard Flip4Mac is essential, and that VLC can play anything. Is that the case?

i like vlc player, so far plays everything