Just a quick question for those who have used both iMovie and FCE. I'm vaguely aware that both programs use different methods of capturing video, for whatever reason. What's the general difference between the two (capture-wise) wrt file sizes and quality? I did some very quick captures with the two and couldn't notice much difference in quality...
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FCE & iMovie users - help pls on capture filesizes
- Thread starter losfp
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-losfp
As far as I am aware, they both capture using the DV Codec.
It's FCP that it gets interesting...
As far as I am aware, they both capture using the DV Codec.
It's FCP that it gets interesting...
Ah, that might explain why they look similar then 
I might run a couple of 5-minute capture tests later tonight and see if there's much of a difference.. I only captured a few seconds off an old VHS tape before.
Cheers for the comments!
I might run a couple of 5-minute capture tests later tonight and see if there's much of a difference.. I only captured a few seconds off an old VHS tape before.
Cheers for the comments!
the only weird thing is that if you try to work with video in Final Cut (pro or express) that was captured in iMovie, than you must render the audio for it to playback. and everytime you move the clip around the timeline, the audio must be renedered again. i'm not sure why this is.
FCE capturing
For basic capturing file sizes and quality will be pretty similar, as they both use standard DV. The biggest difference in sizes will come in more advanced editing.
For example if you wanted to play the same clip twice, or you parts of certain clips multiple times. In iMovie it would duplicate the file, doubling the size. FCE will just use software pointers to the existing video files.
This means FCE uses space more efficently, but also plays alot harder. You will need a much more powerful hard drive to get good performance.
For example, my internal powerbook hard drive runs fine with iMovie. However FCE is next to unusable with it. My 7200 RPM external firewire drive is need to use FCE.
However iMovie 3 is so slow, buggy, nasty, annoying, and evil, that I would suggest that everyone who actually wants to do some neat video stuff buy final cut. It is an amazing program, and it's posibilities are next to infinite.
btw if anyone can explain the FCE audio rendering thingy, please tell. It is one of the very annoying parts of FCE. Thank gosh rendering it is so fast.
For basic capturing file sizes and quality will be pretty similar, as they both use standard DV. The biggest difference in sizes will come in more advanced editing.
For example if you wanted to play the same clip twice, or you parts of certain clips multiple times. In iMovie it would duplicate the file, doubling the size. FCE will just use software pointers to the existing video files.
This means FCE uses space more efficently, but also plays alot harder. You will need a much more powerful hard drive to get good performance.
For example, my internal powerbook hard drive runs fine with iMovie. However FCE is next to unusable with it. My 7200 RPM external firewire drive is need to use FCE.
However iMovie 3 is so slow, buggy, nasty, annoying, and evil, that I would suggest that everyone who actually wants to do some neat video stuff buy final cut. It is an amazing program, and it's posibilities are next to infinite.
btw if anyone can explain the FCE audio rendering thingy, please tell. It is one of the very annoying parts of FCE. Thank gosh rendering it is so fast.
You're right about the audio thing - I noticed that when I imported a 100-minute semi-edited movie into FCE Still, I just rendered it piece by piece as I went so it wasn't too bad. I think in future for "projects" I'll just work exclusively in FCE rather than iMovie. Probably doesn't make much difference if I'm converting VHS tapes to DVD though, I wouldn't do much editing apart from chopping out ads, and maybe the odd title.
Thanks for all the help, people - I'm still relatively new to this video-editing thing!
Still, I just rendered it piece by piece as I went so it wasn't too bad. I think in future for "projects" I'll just work exclusively in FCE rather than iMovie. Probably doesn't make much difference if I'm converting VHS tapes to DVD though, I wouldn't do much editing apart from chopping out ads, and maybe the odd title.Thanks for all the help, people - I'm still relatively new to this video-editing thing!