Apple iMovie '08 - Manual (Page 15)

Chapter 2 Learn iMovie 15
5 From the Save To pop-up menu, choose a disk where you want to store the
imported video.
You can choose any supported hard disk that’s connected to your computer with a
FireWire cable. It takes about 13 GB to store an hour of standard definition (DV) video
and 40 GB to store an hour of high definition (HD) video, so make sure you have
enough space on the disk you choose. The amount of free space on each available disk
is shown in parentheses next to the disk’s name in the pop-up menu.
6 Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library:
 To add the imported video to an already existing Event, select “Add to existing
Event,” and then choose its name from the pop-up menu.
 To create a new Event, type a name for it in the “Create new Event” field (for example,
“Birthday Party”). If you want to create a new Event for each day on which the video
was recorded, select “Split days into new Events.”
7 If you’re importing 1080i-format video, make a size selection from the pop-up menu.
Large size video is of high enough quality to view on a high definition television
(HDTV) and for most other uses. However, if you’ll be exporting your movie to
Final Cut Pro, or if you have some other reason to maintain the original, full size of
your video, choose “Full - 1920 x 1080” from the “Import 1080i video as” pop-up menu.
8 Click OK.
The tape in your camcorder automatically rewinds to the beginning; all the video on
the tape will be imported, and then the tape rewinds again.
The tape plays as it’s imported. You can watch the video as it plays (the audio plays
only through the camcorder) or leave your computer and let the importing continue
while you’re away. It can take longer to import the video than it takes to watch it.
After importing, iMovie takes some minutes to generate thumbnail images of each
video clip.