Crazy amount of time for iMovie to create video for iPod?

slackulaslackula
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I am following Apple's online instructions for saving an iMovie movie to QuickTime for iPod so that I can then load it into my new iPod video. My computer is a 1 Ghz flat panel iMac 2 with 1GB of RAM. The home movie is 55 minutes long. I had to let this run overnight and still today while I am at work. Checked it over lunch and it appears if may finish some time this evening.



Seems crazy considering last week I saved this moving to QuickTime using the "CD-ROM" settings (rather then the save to QuickTime for iPod selection under the "Expert" settings) and it took only about two or three hours then.



Anyone else use that "save to QuickTime for iPod" selection yet and has it taken an insanely long time on your computer as well?



Thanks!







P.S.--I'm talking here about just the saving to QuickTime and not even about the loading of the video into the iPod.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    Makes me wonder if it's saving to h.264 instead of mp4. Using a G4 processor to make such a conversion could take a long time for a 55 minute video.



    Or am I wrong?
  • Reply 2 of 4
    slackulaslackula Posts: 262member
    Yes, the documentation says it converts it using H.264. From the way you are talking, sounds as if that could be a time-eater, particularly with a G4 processor?



    P.S.--I'm not extremely familiar with codecs, etc.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,180member
    Cosmo sounds like he has it right.



    h.264 is hugely processor intensive to code. Even on a G5 it takes a while. (though 24 hours DOES seem like a bit much )



    Go to the custom settings and just save it as mp4 .... you can optimize it for the iPods screen ... mp4 should take 25% of the time of h264 (or less) ... regardless, re-coding video takes a long time when you're used to instant gratification.



    This will help you appreciate why Pixar and such set up huge "farms" of high-end machines to do their rendering.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    imac davidimac david Posts: 286member
    Sounds to me like your system has frozen somewhere.



    I have the G4 800Mhx FP iMac, and it takes 2 hours to render a DVD ripped to the HD into a .avi file for viewing on my palm (don't ask).



    Rendering a 30 minute iMovie ready for iDVD also takes a couple of hours - not the time you're suggesting.



    Regards,



    David
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