iMovie questions

Just started using iMovie to edit video. Latest project was to DVR a movie, record to my DVD recorder/player, rip it to iMac, edit and burn back to dvd using iDVD. The 80 min. movie was ripped using Handbrake. It came to iMac as a 765 MB .m4v file. I imported it to iMovie, edited and exported as an 8.05GB .mov file. It seemed very large. When I clicked on the .m4v version, it opened in FLv Crunch, so I continued and converted it to .mp4, which came in at 4.65 GB. So the unedited movie was almost half the size of my edited .mov. I re-imported the FLv Crunch into iMovie, trimmed & edited to a 1.51 GB .m4v file. I then re-exported that as a 3.66 GB .mov movie. I realize that different formats, etc will be different sizes, but why so much of a difference? The iMovie Events file on computer is 17.49 GB big. Where is the size coming from? The only thing there is that original import of 765 MB? Also, I am assuming the larger .mov files are better to burn via iDVDF than the smaller .m4v files. Correct thinking on my part?

You are inventing an re-inventing the wheel several times over there. Far more work than you need to do.

If you don't need to edit the video from your DVR:

1. "Rip" it to your Mac (you don't say what process you use there, but it's not important.)
2. You now have the 765MB .m4v file. You can use Toast ($60-80) or Burn (free) to just burn it to a "movie" DVD from their presets. Both programs will have to convert the file to MPEG-2 (DVD standard) and that takes about 4.5GB for two hours' worth of movie. The conversion process takes quite a while depending on your machine, RAM, processor etc. Once converted, the programs will burn the disk and you're done.

Or if you need to edit the file and want to use iDVD:

1. Throw it into iMovie. Edit.
2. Share to iDVD directly from iMovie's "Share" menu (you don't say what version you're using but try to use the '11 edition of iMovie).
3. Choose your menu style.
4. iDVD will (again, eventually) burn the disc. It needs LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of free space on the boot disk to do this successfully but if there is plenty there then it will eventually spit out a DVD for you.

If you need to edit but don't need to use iDVD.

1. Open the file in iMovie. Edit.
2. Export as "large" (720x480). You'll now have the edited M4V file as well as the original.
3. Drag this to Toast or Burn and create DVD as mentioned above. This will take a long time.

The "long time" part is exactly why people don't burn DVDs much anymore and why Apple has thus stopped supporting iDVD. With an Apple TV or similar devices, you can just wirelessly stream the file to your HDTV using iTunes. WAY faster than fooling around with all that burning.

FLV Crunch should be uninstalled as it's not doing anything useful. At the very least, it should not be the default player for M4V files.

chas_m,
Thanks for your input. The FLV Crunch was an earlier download when trying to get a handle on Mac dvd burning. I did find it necessary, however, when I used my PC to convert a VHS to digital. Roxio's program converted VHS to .mpg but I found that iMovie was not importing it, so I converted to .mpg4 and then I was able to import, edit (tossing away those intros) and share as .mov.
I need some kind of portable media so I can play/view movies on different machines in my house. Only my main TV has cable box/DVR. That is why DVDs are being created by me.
?: when all is done, I have a .m4v and .mov copy of movie. Which one should I keep for digital backup? Any reason to keep the iMovie/iDVD folders with project info, etc? Trying to keep HD uncluttered

If the DVD has ended up to your satisfaction, then I don't see any reason to keep the iMovie and DVD project files. You could hang on to the m4v as a backup, if you like.

The iMovie Events file on computer is 17.49 GB big. Where is the size coming from?

Click to expand...

iMovie converts your video to Quicktime using the Apple Intermediate Codec(AIC). This works out at roughly 12-13GB per hour of video.