Importing AVI in iMovie question

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Level 1

9 points

Importing AVI in iMovie question

I'm about 48 hours old in the Mac world, came from the Linux world previously. I've got an 10GB avi file that I want to bring into iMovie. I noticed it taking a long time to import and was wondering what was happening???

I used PowerProducer on my XP laptop before and it never took this long. I'm thinking it's taking it and converting it as it imports...correct? If not, why does it take so long to import?

On PowerProducer, I just dropped the avi (imported from a Sony Digital) into the timeline, made my bookmarks, did some other stuff and then burned away. Except the burn took about 2 hours...converting the avi to an mpeg I figure.

Thanks for the help!!

Tom

iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Nov 30, 2005 11:09 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 1, 2005 1:39 AM in response to twn2

An AVI is just a container that can contain video of (practically) any kind.

iMovie's native format is DV video (unless you specifically ask for HDV or MPEG-4) so everything imported is converted to DV, thus taking some time.

I guess PowerProducer's native video format was the kind of AVI your Sony produces.

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Answer 2

twn2 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 1, 2005 9:15 AM in response to Lennart Thelander

Ahh, that's what I thought. In Windows, or Linux (SuSE), I use the avi and work with that. Then after all my bookmarks and such are done, the authoring program I use converts it to mpeg...which is why it takes about 2 hours to finish burning from the time I say go. iMovie does it from the beginning, which I hope means that finishing takes less time.

If you plug in a DVR (like my Sony) into windows, one has a choice of how to bring in the video. Using the native windows program, it brings it in as an avi and about 12gb for an hour of video. Nero, PowerProducer, and other 3rd party apps gives me a choice, but normally those programs want to convert the video on the fly. My XP laptop is too slow to do that so my video comes out a bit choppy, which is why I stick with avi...or DV.

Thanks for the answer.

Tom

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Answer 3

twn2 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 1, 2005 9:16 AM in response to twn2

I forgot something. When importing, does iMovie replace my original video or just create a new video?

Tom

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Answer 4

Dec 1, 2005 10:06 AM in response to twn2

When importing, iMovie makes a copy of the original.

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Answer 5

Dec 1, 2005 10:10 AM in response to twn2

the authoring program I use converts it to mpeg...which is why it takes about 2 hours to finish burning from the time I say go. iMovie does it from the beginning, which I hope means that finishing takes less time.

Not quite right. iMovie converts to DV. Then iDVD encodes to MPEG-2.

it brings it in as an avi and about 12gb for an hour of video

That sounds very much as DV in an AVI container. iMovie works with DV without AVI or MOV wrapper/container.

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