Hi Larry, thank you for your suggestions. I do genuinely appreciate them and I'm sorry that you feel not enough information was provided. the site didn't suggest that more information was necessary and, without you making yourself clear about what 'background' you expect, i can't imagine what else you feel like you need to know. in any case, if you're interested in knowing more:
1 - i imported the movies long ago and they used to play in iphoto just fine. at some point i noticed that they no longer played. i have never gone into the iphoto library and have never messed with any of those files before. i have done absolutely nothing other than import the files from my camera into iphoto, then look at the photos/videos in iphoto.
i decided to try to see where the original file was, so i chose 'show original file' from the menu. nothing. all of the original files have apparently disappeared. i also checked the 'show file' option, which showed me a file with the video's original name, but which was now followed by .jpg instead of .avi, with the size of the file reflecting the change as well (meaning the size is now small, like a photo). if i click on that file, i get an image that opens like a photo, which is obviously a screen grab from the original video.
considering all of this, the only thing i could imagine was that one of the iphoto updates must have done something strange to the library and converted all my films to pics. in fact, i remember reading something to this effect some time ago when i did an internet search on the problem. other people had the exact same problem. in any case, all upates of iphoto were done via software update. i willingly admit when i've done something that could have interfered with an application's normal functioning, but in this case there is literally nothing i could have done to screw anything up. i've never liked iphoto and really just used it to stash my photos/vids until i could get around to finding a better program. so that's all i've done: import, open, look, quit.
2- no, the videos do not play in iphoto
3 - attempting to export as "kind = original" gives the msg. "unable to create". importing into iMovie is impossible because it doesn't recognize the files as video.
