crashing makes the baby jesus cry

November 6, 2005 5:06 PM

Problem with iMovie bloating files and crashing.

What am I doing wrong? There are two parts to this question, and they may or may not be related.

1. I have just started using iMovie on my iBook for the first time. When it starts a new project or file, it creates an incredibly large file, over 1 gig or so, without any clips imported. Is this normal? How do I stop these files from becoming so big?

2. I also have a problem with iMovie crashing. It either stalls when I try importing a DV file (that has been converted using MPEG Streamclip so I can hear the audio), or stalls when I shut it down and reopen it. Is that because the files are so big?

I'm normally a patient person when it comes to computing problems, but having iMovie crash so many times makes me just want to borrow a school PC laptop and be done with it. iMovie is the perfect piece of software, but not if the project takes up so much space on the HD and crashes all the time.

Please help! Google-fu and forum-trawling hasn't worked.

posted by chronic sublime to computers & internet (4 answers total)

I thought about not posting this, but since no one else has chimed in - are you still within your term of being able to call the AppleCare line without getting charged? They will help you through software problems as well as hardware.

(On looking at your profile - I'm not sure how AppleCare works in AU.)
posted by ArsncHeart at 5:56 PM on November 6, 2005

Not sure about the initial creation of a large file, but about your crashing: what version of OS X, what version of iMovie? Also, what's iMovie trying to do around each time it crashes? Is it sporadic, or is it crashing, say, every time you try to import one particular clip?
posted by emelenjr at 6:49 PM on November 6, 2005

If you're creating a new imovie project, and you haven't imported anything...and it's a gig...there's something wrong.
posted by filmgeek at 10:26 PM on November 6, 2005

Sorry it took so long to check my version of iMovie... 5.0.2, running on Tiger.

And yes, the gig file sizes certainly seems a little excessive, and I figure that could be why it's crashing.

emelenjr, it crashes for different reasons. It has crashed with nearly every file I have tried importing (although it has on occasion let some of those same files through as I have edited them with no problems) so there is no single file that I can identify. Also, if that causes the program to freeze up, the next time I start it up it occasionally freezes again loading up the previous project (I have a feeling that's because the file that caused it to crash is still sitting in iMovie's trash).

It sure is a puzzler... to me! And I thought I was doing so well sorting out the MPEG to DV audio problem by myself.
posted by chronic sublime at 12:13 AM on November 7, 2005