Hard Disk Space For 60 Min MiniDV?

Reuben, miniDV tapes are now less than a quid (£1), once you have edited the source files and exported your movie to all the formats you want you can delete it from your HD, just so long as you store the original tape.

In this respect I find im7 extremely useful. With im6 it would take me forever to finish a project and often had my HD cluttered with unfinished projects, now I finish them much quicker and have much more room.

Agreed. This is where iMovie08 truly shines. You can import all your footage and do a quick editing with a (relative) ease, then share it with people quickly. As Winston said you can delete the event folder (where source footages are stored). You can also delete part of your library, or trim down the size of library to the bare minimun by deleting any unused clips. If half of your source footage was used for the cut, iMovie will remove the ununsed half and reduce the file size of source, which is a great way to preserve the editing project. Unlike iMovie 06, 08 doesn't store sources into one project file so it's easier to back up to removable disks also.

However, if you want to do the best picture quality DV output, don't use 08. The recent update (7.1) didn't change how it exports movies out of iMovie, and that is to deinterlace DV or HD footage.(the source is full quality, only output is compromised) Your movie will lose half the resolution, and also suffer from unnecessary re-compression. This is if you are not using the highend MacPro system because somehow iMovie exports full resolution movie on fastest Macs. (but still recompresses movies)

If you use Final cut pro or express, then you can capture footages and do a rough cut on iMovie 08 and export the XML file out for Final cut. FCP or FCE will open XML file and use the full res originals and you can do the best quality editing and output from those pro apps.

This is if you are not using the highend MacPro system because somehow iMovie exports full resolution movie on fastest Macs. (but still recompresses movies)

Please say more. You've found that iMovie '08 exports DV with no loss of quality on certain Macs?

I don't have the absolute fastest Mac to test, but my new Dual-Core 2.66 GHz Mac Pro — which is pretty fast — ALWAYS exports DV with a reduction in quality. That's true when I export to ANY kind of QuickTime movie. If the source video is DV, it loses quality when exported.

If the Mac makes a difference, I wonder if the video card also matters?

This loss of quality in inexplicable to me. And if it's affected by the speed of the Mac, doubly so.

Karl

DV Stream in standard definition format is 13 gigabytes per hour.