On the offchance this saves someone else some time...

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Level 1

13 points

On the offchance this saves someone else some time...

Hi all,

One question, at the end... but

I made 2 discoveries yesterday afternoon - all afternoon 😝 - probably common knowledge for the rest of you but I've had lots of help from these forums so I'm posting just in case...

Background info - in addition to time machine, periodically I backup my iphoto library to a portable hd, and I also back up the individual Events so they're compatible with a pc - just in case I ever need them. (I hate the fact that I can't view my photos in time machine, which I could in Lion.) That means exporting them. That's how Help says to do it, for stills and video. This is iphoto & imovie 11.

1st "discovery" - I didn't know that the videos I have in iphoto were made unreadable by exporting them, until yesterday when I decided to check because I'd taken some important mp4 videos last week. After they're exported, windows media player can't play them and neither can the mac. After a lot of fiddling around and experimenting, I found they have to be dragged from iphoto, then they're fine...which led me to the conclusion that it's the exporting process that corrupts them. So now I have to go back over several years' video...not fun, but I'm just glad I found out.

2nd - there's no direct way to get video from iphoto to imovie. This was a heart-starter moment, lol! Eventually discovered it can be dragged out of iphoto, then imported to imovie from almost anywhere - desktop or finder - except in finder the iphoto libraries are greyed out.

Just thought it wouldn't hurt to share this information.

One QUESTION - does anybody know how to see the size of an Event in iphoto?

Best,

Lynne

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Feb 1, 2014 12:02 PM

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Answer 1

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Yer_Man

Level 10

162,290 points

Feb 1, 2014 12:12 PM in response to lynnefrombc

1. Exporting a movie does not corrupt it. Exporting at the wrong setting produces the thumbnail of the movie rather than the movie. You need to set the kind to 'Original' in the Export dialogue to export a movie.

2. You can get a movie from iPhoto to iMovie by using the Media Browser in the iMovie window.

3. The size of an event is too vague a question. The size will depend on which export settings you choose.

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Answer 2

lynnefrombc Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 1, 2014 1:23 PM in response to Yer_Man

1. 'Original' - works like a charm - thank you so much, this will make it so much simpler from now on!

2. The first place I looked was the media browser, I expected they'd be there - I've never done an imovie from videos, but I've done a couple from stills. As far as I can see, the media browser in imovie only shows stills -- no videos. Am I missing something - again?

3. Sorry! I guess I didn't express my question well - wanted to find out how many GB an event is. I'd taken 14 videos and they were all in the same event - I was just curious to know how many gigs it was.

Thank you for replying 🙂

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,290 points

Feb 1, 2014 2:54 PM in response to lynnefrombc

There's no answer to the question... it depends (and varies) on the export settings you choose. If you export an Originals, that's one answer, at tiff another, at jpeg - (up to three different answers depending on the chosen quality setting), and so on. That's why iPhoto doesn't make that calculation.

I'd ask the specifics about getting video from iPhoto to iMovie on the iMovei forum as it's a bit different depending on which version of iMovie you use.

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Answer 4

lynnefrombc Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 1, 2014 3:25 PM in response to Yer_Man

Asking about the GB used by an event, I wasn't thinking about exporting - just wondering how I could see how many gigs are being used on the mac's hd by any event of photos and/or mp4's - just sitting there on the mac's hd, as is. Not getting exported.

That's a good idea to check on an imovie forum - there's definitely no videos showing up on my imovie media browser. There's no problem doing them the way I said though - but might as well find out if there's a right way, or a better way.

Thanks again.

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Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,290 points

Feb 1, 2014 11:33 PM in response to lynnefrombc

Asking about the GB used by an event, I wasn't thinking about exporting - just wondering how I could see how many gigs are being used on the mac's hd by any event of photos and/or mp4's - just sitting there on the mac's hd, as is.

Again, it's more complex than that... What do you mean by "Event" in this case: Just the Masters? What about the accompanying previews, thumbnails and metadata files? They're all part of an Event too...

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Answer 6

lynnefrombc Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 2, 2014 9:16 AM in response to Yer_Man

Oh. Sorry, I didn't know that. A little over my head, I'm afraid. Not important really - no worries.

Thanks

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