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PapaJohn
Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 8
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
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 Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 8:16 pm Post subject: A Few Questions about my MacBook |
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After a day and a half playing with a new MacBook (not mine... a friend's... he loaned it to me to learn so I could teach him)... I've got a few questions.
1 - the first thing I did was capture a one hour mini-DV tape using iMovie... via firewire from a mini-DV camcorder. At two points during the hour there was some visual/audio studdering, as if it was dropping frames... recovered both times to normal
Is it such that when the preview is dropping info for a bit, the capturing is still probably OK? Does iMovie provide info about dropped frames?
2 - I connected one of my external USB2 drives to see if movie making stuff would work ok with it, versus an external firewire drive.... when I tried to tell iMovie to use the extrnal drive as the place for a new project, it said the drive was full, or I didn't have permission. I did a quick info check of the drive, which said it was Read permission (didn't mention write)... but then I used the Disk Utility which said it was both read and write.
Is there anything special I need to do to use an external USB2 drive as I move it back and forth between Windows computers and the MacBook?
3 - If I couldn't write to the USB drive, I figured I'd use it as the source of DV-AVI files going to the camcorder. I created an iMovie project on the MacBook hard drive and imported a bunch of DV-AVI files on the USB drive as inputs. That took a long time... I didn't know that iMovie would need to copy all the files to the main drive.... but it did, as I was able to remove the USB drive before exporting the project to a mini-DV tape.... and the free space on the MacBook is down another 13 GB. The export worked fine.
Now I'm trying to find out where the video files are on the MacBook drive, and can use some pointers about finding such files... and how to delete them. The MacBook makes it easy to add files, but I'm not skilled enough to know how to manage or delete them.
Cheers from the MacBook side of my room... funny when I started up my computers this morning I spent some time on MacBook trying to find the files from the iMovie session.... I had a good bit of time to use as I was waiting for the Windows systems to start up. 
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skierhughes
Site Admin
Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 328
Location: Staffs, UK
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| Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 8:05 am Post subject: |
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1. No idea
2. Can't remember, but I think an ext drive has to be set up to be read by both.
3. Maybe it is a temp file residing somewhere still.
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Colin
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 117
Location: Milton Keynes, UK
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| Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:12 am Post subject: Re: A Few Questions about my MacBook |
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| PapaJohn wrote: | | I created an iMovie project on the MacBook hard drive and imported a bunch of DV-AVI files on the USB drive as inputs. That took a long time... I didn't know that iMovie would need to copy all the files to the main drive.... but it did, as I was able to remove the USB drive before exporting the project to a mini-DV tape.... and the free space on the MacBook is down another 13 GB. The export worked fine. |
John, I'm surprised that you were able to use DV-AVI files at all in iMovie. You didn't convert them first?
| PapaJohn wrote: | | Now I'm trying to find out where the video files are on the MacBook drive, and can use some pointers about finding such files... and how to delete them. The MacBook makes it easy to add files, but I'm not skilled enough to know how to manage or delete them. |
If you know all or a bit of a filename, just use the Spotlight search facility. Normally, iMovie will keep all the relevant files in one place so that they can moved easily.
| PapaJohn wrote: | | Cheers from the MacBook side of my room... funny when I started up my computers this morning I spent some time on MacBook trying to find the files from the iMovie session.... I had a good bit of time to use as I was waiting for the Windows systems to start up. |
I have exactly the same scenario at the beginning of each working day. I boot up my Windows file-serving machine at the same time as my non-Intel Mac Mini, and the Mac is up to steam within seconds while the other chugs its way through the startup!
Colin
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PapaJohn
Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 8
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 3:13 am Post subject: |
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thanks...
found the files in the trash... still taking up space until I take the garbage out.
I guess iMovie didn't use the DV-AVI files directly. It took 45 minutes to copy them from my external drive to .DV files on the internal drive, and then used those.
Sitting here at Barnes and Noble with both laptops... seeing if they'll take to each other via bluetooth... no luck yet getting them beyond shaking hands
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skierhughes
Site Admin
Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 328
Location: Staffs, UK
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:29 am Post subject: |
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get a pair of female ones then they'll talk non-stop 
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Colin
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 117
Location: Milton Keynes, UK
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:37 am Post subject: |
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| PapaJohn wrote: | | Sitting here at Barnes and Noble with both laptops... seeing if they'll take to each other via bluetooth... no luck yet getting them beyond shaking hands |
That's unusual because my Mac Mini "sees" any Bluetooth-activated device instantly. My son takes loads of photos and video with his mobile video when out on the town and as soon as he switches his bluetooth on the Mac sees it and he's transferring files. The first time I activated Bluetooth on the Mac we did this almost by accident!
BTW - always a good idea to de-activate Bluetooth on any device when not in use as it's an easy-peasy illicit back-door entry into the device. I have it switched off by default on my phone after hearing horror stories of phones being hijacked.
Colin
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Look out for some great digital video-making features in "Digital Video" (Issue 0232), "Computer Buyer" (Issue 195) and "Computer Shopper" (Issue 235) magazines. And others I can't remember!!! |
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Arpe
Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 80
Location: New Zealand
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:37 am Post subject: |
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That actually made me laugh out loud
Edit: Skier's comment that is, not yours Colin.
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PapaJohn
Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 8
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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good point Graham... the apple must be a female because someone took a big bite out of her logo...
and my big HP laptop 'affectionately named Hummer' is a bruiser, so it's probably a 'he'...
I must have accidentally got them beyond shaking hands last night... I just turned on the MacBook bluetooth feature and one of the options it offered was to send a file to the Hummer... I picked a 243 MB DV file for starters... it's chugging through it without me having seen any kind of notice on the Hummer about the transfer. They're bonded with no more permissions needed.
Wonder where the file is going!!!! 2 hrs, 10 minutes to go. No hurry!!!
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PapaJohn
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PapaJohn
Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 8
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 11:10 pm Post subject: |
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finished the first transfer.... a bit over 100 MB per hour. The 249MB DV file plays fine in my Quck Time Player...
C:\Documents and Settings\PapaJohn\My Documents\Bluetooth Exchange Folder
turning around to go in the other direction, XP says the MacBook doesn't support the 'File Transfer' service... another day!!! Maybe I can get my camcorder to talk to the MacBook.
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PapaJohn
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