How do YOU manage Home Movies in 2023? (I use iMovie HD 6)

[marioman38]

Hey everyone, it's 2023 and I still use minidv tapes and iMovie HD 6 for home videos.

I started using iMovie in the early 2000s when I was in probably elementary school, I took a summer class at a High School where my grandma lived in Wenatchee, WA. They had iMovie installed, and all kinds of cool Macs, Ruby, Indigo, and Sage iMac G3s, blue and whites, as well as minidv and Digital8 cameras to use for the class. When we were done, we actually exported the project to VHS tape, as iDVD required G4 processors which I don't think most of the classroom computers had.

Since then, I've had a Canon ZR85, and an HV20, and now a couple of HV30. I used to put a few hours of SD video on a DVD with iDVD. Now with the HD videos from the HV30, I have been using Toast Titanium (I can't remember the version, 11 I think) and putting 4-6 hours on a Blu-ray. I can then archive the minidv tape away in the closet, save the bluray .img file on the NAS, and burn a couple to send to family members to pop in their players. Even today I use iMovie HD 6 to import the minidv tapes, and drag them into toast to make a bluray. I'm using a Late 2012 Mac mini Quad Core 2.3GHZ i7 with 16GB RAM, and an OWC 2TB SSD containing 10.8, 10.9 and 10.15 partitions, hooked up to a 27" Thunderbolt Display. My blurays are not "Wisconsin Trip" or "Disney 2011" but are more whatever 4-6 tapes in a row chronologically that made sense. So I have "Dec 2018 to Apr 2019" and "June 2021 to Feb 2022" etc.


I would like to get away from using tapes, and old versions of iMovie.

I'm looking at something like the VIXIA HF G21, but I don't know how to manage all the files from the SD card.

Basically I always have my iPhone with me, and can quickly snap photos, quick 60sec videos of the kid, but the reason I have the movie camera is for 5,10,20+ years from now, my kids/grandkids will have the movies to watch. My grandma and parents have 8mm videos of from the early 90s-2000s that I enjoy watching now.

So, yes I have my iPhone, but the "big camera" is taken specifically to capture events such as trips to Disneyland, to visiting family, or just because its been awhile (like a month) since I've shot anything on the tape. Its kind of a nice linear format, where me actually pressing record is the editing. I don't do much of any editing later on, just export the tape and call it good, I've only hit record knowing it was a moment I really wanted to capture. I also have a Canon DM-50 Stereo Mic in the hotshoe for better audio capture.

So my questions are, does anyone NOT use their iPhone for home movies today? And, how do you navigate through the clutter on a non-linear format? What software is best for just home movies? Is iMovie still great? Or has it been neglected, or only good for certain YouTubers today?

Any insight is appreciated, I've used Adobe Lightroom in the past, as well as newer/current version of Apple "Photos", its just iMovie that I've been stuck in a certain workflow for 10+ years.

 

[lin2log]

Wow. The last two paragraphs would have been more than enough. 🙄

You can't install the latest version of iMovie because it requires macOS 12.6 and all your hardware is too ancient. Outside of maybe the iPhone.

 

[theMarble]

What software is best for just home movies? Is iMovie still great? Or has it been neglected, or only good for certain YouTubers today?

From my point of view, iMovie has been significantly dulled down ever since iMovie '08 came out. With iMovie 10 in 2013, quite a few features were added back, however it feels noticeably different to HD 5/6.

In my opinion, I would suggest taking a look at the free trial of Final Cut Pro, and seeing how you feel about it. FCP used to be "complicated" back in the day, but Final Cut Pro X has a new UI that is much easier to understand while retaining pro-level features. Even DV capture is still around in the latest version!

You can't install the latest version of iMovie because it requires macOS 12.6 and all your hardware is too ancient.

https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher · I'm using it on my 2015 15" MBP (running 13.4.1) to type this post. I edit 4K video in FCP, and create graphics for them in After Effects and Cinema 4D almost daily. No glitches thanks to the patcher.

Obviously it is getting old now and I am planning to replace it soon, however in the meantime it still gets the videos out, which is the key part. Therefore from my point of view, while it is 8 years old, it still runs the latest release of macOS at a speed which still feels fast, and still does the work I need it to. Not ancient in my books.

 

[ColdCase]

I have had a similar ride, but 10 years ago I captured all my DVT, Hi8, VHS tapes into FCP and used its powerful indexing and key word tagging to catalog events, dates, people. Today I occasionally use a Canon HV30, HFG40, and T70 to capture video and photos, or a GoPro when on the go. But the current iPhone takes really good family videos and photos while being easy to handle/carry so its rare that I bring out the big guns. If I need optical zoom for wildlife, or want to record an hour long game continuously I pull out the HFG40. I also have some so called game cameras for collecting wildlife video.

For tapes I found it most efficient to capture an entire tape at a time. Its captured real time as the tape is played by your camera. Then scroll through the captured video and tag segments. Later you can tell FCP to assemble all the clips segments of.. oh.. say Susie into one time line (movie). And you get a Susie movie source material. Or let the software pull all the clip Grandma and Susie were in. Or a specific event or time period. One has to be disciplined about tagging however, as garbage in garbage out.

Similar to tapes, insert a SD card and import the Video into FCP, then tag it. For iPhones you have the option to airdrop the video files, don't need to mess with cables.

I dunno of anything more powerful than FCP to organize home video. And while I purchased it mainly for that purpose years ago, I've taken advantage of the excellent video editing capability and rich aftermarket plug ins. The family appreciates the production values.

There are a dozen ways to skin the cat, this is what I do.

 

[dandeco]

I'm using a Late 2012 Mac mini Quad Core 2.3GHZ i7 with 16GB RAM, and an OWC 2TB SSD containing 10.8, 10.9 and 10.15 partitions, hooked up to a 27" Thunderbolt Display.

I have one as well! First off, you'll definitely need to upgrade to a newer Mac. For your purposes. an M2-equipped Mac Mini with 16 GB of RAM should be adequate, along with a Thunderbolt 2-to-3 adapter so you can use it with the Thunderbolt display. It'll come with the latest iMovie already pre-installed, but iDVD would be out of the question, but you can always get Roxio Toast 20 and use that for burning any DVDs and Blu-Rays. If you still need to archive your DV tapes (like if you have to re-capture something), you can use the FireWire 800 port on the Thunderbolt display and capture the footage using the modern iMovie or QuickTime Player. If you want more power beyond iMovie but don't want to spring for Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve yet, you could try Cyberlink PowerDirector for Mac; sure, it's subscription-based, but it's affordable and it's a great mid-range product for Mac video editors that want to go beyond iMovie but aren't ready for the professional apps yet.
As for the new camcorder, I do recommend the VIXIA HF G21. You can manage the files recorded onto the SD card by archiving them on an external hard drive or two. (I currently have a 4 TB Thunderbolt 3 external hard drive I use with my M1 MacBook Air for video work, and in addition to having the folders of video files from my Canon VIXIA HF R600 archived on that, I also have the same archive on my 4 TB LaCie rugged USB-3 portable external hard drive for when I am on the go and such, plus it helps to have a backup.
Hope that answers your questions. I rarely shoot family home movies nowadays; the last one I did was in spring 2018 of my mom's 60th surprise birthday party, shot on my VIXIA HF R600, edited on the then-current iMovie of the time, and then authored on Blu-Ray using Roxio Toast, all done on my Mac Mini like you have! But I do shoot quite a few fursuit vlogs using the same camcorder, and generally I edit them on the current iMovie, though once in a while I use Final Cut Pro for anything else elaborate.

 

[ChrisA]

Any insight is appreciated, I've used Adobe Lightroom in the past, as well as newer/current version of Apple "Photos", its just iMovie that I've been stuck in a certain workflow for 10+ years.

So you are not really making "home movies". It is more like a collection of video snapshots that never get edited into a story. In that case, all you need is Apple "Photos". Don't even bother with iMovie of FCP. Just browse the Photos library, remove the junk that you don't want to keep and let the Photos apps organize the snapshots.

Really, what you have is no different from a collection of still images, except they were shot in video mode.

"Editing" is where you take shots and cut them into a sequence and maybe create a soundtrack and titles and so on. If you are not doing any of that, then just use Apple's Photos.

As for storage, either use Apple's iCloud or buy a big disk and find a way to back it up, redundantly.

Don't bother with DVDs, not many people even own DVD players any more and in future years, no one will own them. Physical media is going away.

 

[lin2log]

I edit 4K video in FCP, and create graphics for them in After Effects and Cinema 4D almost daily. No glitches thanks to the patcher.

I'm sure you do. Never mind that we weren't talking about you and your machine so irrelevant either way. But yeah, you must be a real high-end up-and-coming with that setup! 🤣
And "No glitches thanks to the patcher"?? Wha? As if it somehow made anything better?? Oh please.
As if that wasn't just a matter of time before things go wonky if that hasn't already happened which I guarantee you it has. Of course, NEITHER AE nor C4D even require anything above OS 11. And by tricking apps (in particular FC) into thinking that your machine is compatible with endless frameworks et al that have been added since 10.11, that it's obviously NOT compatible with, you're just asking for trouble. You're clearly a real "pro" to have to do your work on such a ridiculous KLUDGE. 😂👍🏼
We'll also just ignore that using AE in the context of FCP and not Motion is equally ridiculous and completely counterproductive. Oh, right. You're probably "too pro" to use Motion? 😄