imovie optimisation problem

[Paul mcFarling]

Hi
I am new to iMovie (9) and have used handbrake to convert a dvd of old home movies into MP4 format. My problem is that the file is 2.2gb and 1 hour 50 minutes long. When I import into iMovie it tells me that it will take 29 hours to optimise.. Clearly I am doing something wrong can anyone help?

 

[MightyGem]

Did you have the Optimize option ticked in the Import dialogue box? If so, untick it. From iMovie help:

If you’re importing HD video, choose a size from the “Optimize video” pop-up menu.
The option you choose overrides what you chose in the HD Import Setting dialog the first time you imported from a device that records HD video

It could also be because your Handbrake file is compressed using H264. H.264 is a interframe compression codec. It's used in acquisition and in delivery. Because compression is spread across multiple frames it's not suitable for editing/production. Either a system converts the media to an intraframe compression, where every frame is encoded separately and can be edited with precision, or the system does this on the fly. No Apple applications do it on the fly. It is simply too great an expenditure of processor resources. iMovie will be converting it to the Apple Intermediate Codec(AIC) format.

However, 29 hours does seem rather long.

 

[Paul mcFarling]

Imovie Optimisation problem

Thanks Mighty Gem that has sorted it out.

I changed the Handbrake files compression from H264 to MPEG 4 and it all worked perfectly. Finished optimisation in less than 29 minutes..

Thanks very much for your help.