iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Chapter 12. From iMovie to QuickTime

For the best and most cinematic viewing experience, play your finished iMovie productions on TV, on a tape or DVD. That way, your public gets to see the full-sized picture that your camcorder captured.

But when you want to distribute your movies electronically, convert them into QuickTime files instead. Both Mac and Windows machines can play these files right on the screen with little more than a double-click.

Your distribution options for QuickTime files are far greater than for videocassette or DVD, too. You can email a QuickTime file to somebody or post it on the Web for all the world to see (Chapter 13). You can put bigger QuickTime files onto a disk, like a recordable CD, a Zip disk, or an Apple iPod, to transport them.

This chapter covers all of these techniques, step by step.

Saving a QuickTime Movie

After you’ve finished editing your iMovie production, save it onto a DV cassette (as described in Chapter 11) as a backup, even if your primary goal in creating the movie is to save it as a QuickTime file. Relative to the time you’ve probably spent editing your movie, the cost of making this backup is trivial, and it gives you flexibility if someday, somehow, you want to show that same movie on a TV or re-edit it in iMovie.

Once that’s done, you’re ready to proceed with the QuickTime creation process:

1. Choose Share → QuickTime.

   The Share dialog box appears, and the QuickTime button is selected at the top. (There are other ways to get to this dialog ...