Speeding up iMovie 08 encoding

Question

Level 1

35 points

Speeding up iMovie 08 encoding

Hi,

Does anyone know how to speed up the encoding with iMovie 08. I really, really love working in 08 (does what I need it to do), but it takes a while to spit out results on my MacBook. I'd like to avoid going MacBook Pro. So, I was wondering if there was someway to accelerate encoding a movie.

For example, would the elgato h.264 turbo be usable with iMovie08? If not, is there another path you could take, that's cheaper than getting a MBP?

(Please -- if anyone has answers to these specific questions, I'd be much obliged. I'm not looking for information on iMovie06 or why I should move to a MacBook Pro, just on how to speed up encoding with iMovie08 on a Santa Rosa MacBook).

Thanks.

iMac Intel SRMB, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Jan 15, 2008 3:13 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 15, 2008 11:07 PM in response to bk1000

what I've heard so far, does the TurboStick only have a 'noticable' effect by usage on older G5 systems..

h264 encoding is a processs of high computation.. keep your Mac in good shape: avoid tasks as Filevault, Spotlight indexing, up/downloads.. plus: keep allways 10-15GB free on internal drive! if you partitioned your drive, these 10Gigs have to be free on the 'OS/System' Partition ..

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Answer 2

Jan 16, 2008 12:39 AM in response to bk1000

I'm just looking at the settings which my TurboStick provides, or allows, and I don't think that full, proper HD is one of them:

It offers iPhone, iPod High, iPod Standard, Sony PSP, Apple TV ..and then you can define your own output settings (..I use Archos AV500 for transfer to my pocket hard drive Archos..) but none of them is proper, full HD.

So I think it won't do what you want, I'm afraid.

The Turbo accepts input from a finished movie ..so you'd have to make your movie within iMovie '08 before it could be sent to the Turbo, anyway.

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Answer 3

Jan 16, 2008 12:58 AM in response to David Babsky

P.S: Don't forget to go to System Preferences>Energy Saver and choose Battery or Power Adapter, click on 'Options', and set your processor power to 'Highest', instead of 'Reduced' or 'Automatic'.

You'll get fastest movie processing on 'Highest'.

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Answer 4

bk1000 Author

Level 1

35 points

Jan 16, 2008 5:39 AM in response to David Babsky

Thanks for the replies. I went to the Apple store and purchased one, since there's no restocking fee. But playing with it last night, it definitely won't do what I want it to do. So, it's going back.

But, your note on upping processor performance has noticeably helped when I'm scrubbing video on my MB. It's more responsive now. Also, the encoding time improved. I had a sample 720p clip I am have testing against. After upping the processor (choosing "performance" over the default "normal") improved the encoding time from 65 to 48 minutes. That's a nice little boost. Thanks.

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Answer 5

Jan 16, 2008 6:28 AM in response to bk1000

You're welcome.

Sorry the Turbo won't do what you want, but now you're getting the most you can out of your Mac!

(Fans may run a bit faster, and it may be a bit noisier, and the laptop won't run so long on its battery, but you'll get the fastest performance that way.)

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