Want to start editing on Mac

Greetings forum.
I want to start using my iBook to do some video editing but I'm running into some problems.
My iBook is a 12" @800Mhz with 640Mb of Ram. It's internal HD is a 30Gb.
I have a iPod Photo 60Gb connected to the iBook by forewire, so I have a little more than 30Gb to work with
Now, the case scenario:

I have installed Mac OS 10.4. My iMovie is from the Mac OS 10.3 original CD's.

1- Everything I do with iMovie is very slow. If I have a clip with 12 seconds and no sound, aplying a effect to the video takes more than 7 minutes. I can't imagine working with bigger files.

2- When I create a Keynote presentation and I export it to Quicktime, I choose best quality. After the rendering is done, I go and open the video with Quicktime but the playback is awefully slow. Like 5 fps or so.

Should I max the ram to 1Gb+128Mb? Or this wouldn't make a difference and 800Mhz is just not enough for video?

Thank you in advance,

You should at least try to get the iMovie '06 software. That might help a bit. But don't ever use iMovie '08 if you get an intel machine. It's crappy.

The RAM will help, but the G4 processor is never going to be super fast

my friend you need to not waste your time and upgrade.

iPod Nano said:

But don't ever use iMovie '08 if you get an intel machine. It's crappy.

Click to expand...

HOW is it crappy? Are you one of those whiners who couldn't make the adjustment from iMovie HD to 08? For as many people who complain about it, there are plenty of people who find it better than the previous versions.

A 800Mhz G4 (we assume because you mention a 1.25 memory upgrade possibility) is pushing it when it comes to applying effects, so do those last and don't over use them. Seven minutes is very extreme so it makes me wonder what effect that is. A simple cross fade shouldn't take more than a minute, I think, on that machine.

Adding extra memory will likely help iMovie. A lot of that 640MB is being taken up by OS X 10.4, so adding extra will give iMovie some breathing room if you don't open other hogs.

As for your Keynote export, what are the specs of the output file? Your iBook will not playback 1080p HD for example. Also, H.264 is a complicated codec to decode so you might want to try something simpler. Oh, I think the requirements for QuickTime was raised with the newer versions, so maybe that is having some influence on your playback issue.

Using an iPod as your project disk is NOT advisable. That alone could be the cause of much slow down. I also think you are going to shorten it's life. If you don't have a choice, then use your internal drive.

As a reference; I first learned editing on a G3 Powerbook with an upgraded 466Mhz processor. It was slow but workable with 384MB of ram. Shortly after I upgraded to a Dual 867Mhz tower which was a world of difference.

You may want to Google for experiences with the versions of software being used with your machine to see if others have had serious performance issues.

Thank you for the replies.
I would love to upgrade, but don't have the money for it.
I was wondering, what would be the best video editing software for a low end machine?
Best regards

A gig of ram is about $50.

An hour of DV material takes about 13GB of disk space. So if your main drive has the space available for you length of content, try using that to see if your 7 minute render of that effect is reduced and editing experience is improved. You might be surprised.

If you are short on space on the start up drive, you could temporarily move something big to your iPod.

An alternative editor is Norrkoss Movie. It costs $59.

Without some money, you need to experiment with what you have.

iPod Nano said:

You should at least try to get the iMovie '06 software. That might help a bit. But don't ever use iMovie '08 if you get an intel machine. It's crappy.

Click to expand...

It's not that bad. If you're not doing anything super fancy, it more than gets the job done. What in particular is so bad about it.

The machine you have is pushing it in terms of what it can do. What exactly are you editing?