Can iMovie save in ANY format other than .MOV

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Level 1

33 points

Can iMovie save in ANY format other than .MOV

I've just started using iMovie (10.1.10) and am curious if there is ANY other format option to save a movie in other than .MOV ? I have been converting 8mm film to digital; the output from the device is .MP4. I notice that the raw .MP4 file is greatly smaller in size than the .MOV once I've run it through iMovie. Case in point: a 12 minute clip in .MP4 took 902MB of space; a 37 SECOND clip I edited out and saved in iMovie took 653MB of space. Granted, I am saving the clips at high resolution and quality (which being old 8mm is probably a wasted effort). Any work-arounds to save space, or save as a different format?

Posted on Feb 8, 2019 5:28 AM

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Answer 1

Rich839

Level 8

48,168 points

Feb 8, 2019 7:02 AM in response to tandemtwins

Files will share out as Mp4/AAC in all iMovie settings except Best Quality (pro res), that will give you a .mov file 4x larger than the Mp4 file due to the much higher bitrate of pro res. So, to save space, share out at High quality rather than Best Quality (pro res). That will give you the smaller file size Mp4.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

tandemtwins Author

Level 1

33 points

Feb 8, 2019 8:11 AM in response to Rich839

I've been looking online for ways to save as an MP4, and was frustrated in that nobody mentioned what you just did -- that Pro Res only saves to MOV. I had never thought to try a lesser quality to find that option! Thank you for pointing out what (on all the other sites) should be iMovie 101 - and yet they didn't mention THAT little nugget of information!

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Answer 3

Rich839

Level 8

48,168 points

Feb 8, 2019 8:51 AM in response to tandemtwins

You are welcome. Glad I could help. :)

-- Rich

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Can iMovie save in ANY format other than .MOV

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