Importing movies to a network drive in imovie

[Peej]

I am having trouble trying to import Movies to a mapped drive on our mac server in imovie09
Now I am a complete novice when it comes to macs, so I’m not sure if this is even possible!
We are trying to import the movies to the mac server to save space on the harddrives of the mac and to give the pupils a central place to store their work.
Can this be done?
I’ve tried importing the movies to the mac hard drive first and then moving the event into the mapped drive in the event library (but nothing happens). I have noticed that the mapped drive has a yellow explanation mark next to it in the event library!?
Hope this makes sense!!
Thanks
Paul

[rolfea]

Have you tried using the previous version of iMovie, iMovie HD?

we've had the same problems as you, had to make a drop box on the hard drive then the users copy the files to their work area.

However, with iMovie HD I've found it can actually find the server, and you can save projects to the server alot easier. Plus it is SO much easier to use.

[Peej]

Hi rolfea
Thanks for the reply!

Have you any brief instructions on how to create a drop box on the hard drive?
I’m just getting to grips with the Mac’s they just "appeared" at our school! ha ha

Also is imovie hd free?

Thanks again!

[rolfea]

I just created a folder on the root of the hard drive and gave permissions to students groups and teachers groups. If you don't want students to be able to open it, but able to drag and drop you can set it as write only

to set the permissions on a folder, right click it (or ctrl + click) and click on get info. At the bottom will be the permissions section. You can add the groups from the server in there (might have to be logged in as a network admin instead of local). Don't forget to unlock the pad lock at the bottom before so.

iMovie HD is completely free as long as you have iLife, and you have iMovie so yes, it is

[Peej]

Thats brillaint! thanks a lot!

il have a look into this!

[Peej]

also one last thing.

we have bind the mac client to our active directory

when our pupils log in with their network account. imovie tries to import to their windows network home drive. is there anyway to point the import directly to directly to the c drive?
it says its saving to macintosh HD

but error message says.

Can't Create Event

import was canceled you do not have pomission to /network/servers/"ourserver".internal/username/imovies/imovieevents.localized (which is their windows home area)

[nicklec]

Does '09 give you the option where to save? In '08 your tied to ~/Movies/iMovie.projects/events, to move an individual project is a pain in the arse 'cos the events aren't necessarily named the same as the project!

We also have ~/Movies 'local' - otherwise your going to get some serious slow down if more than one kid is editing video (even on gigabit).

[AntonioRocco]

Hi

iMovie '08 and iMovie '09 are designed to work across a network. In addition the applications are not officially supported by Apple in a networked home environment such as AD or OD.

iMovie '06 did work but again is not officially supported. It is possible to install iMovie '06 on the latest iMacs and have it work (after a fashion) when the OS is Leopard. I doubt if iMovie '06 will work at all with the forthcoming Snow Leopard (10.6) release?

We will have to wait and see.

Even Final Cut is not officially supported in a networked home environment. However it can be made to work successfully. There is more information contained in this recent thread:

Any ideas on how to use macs for video editing?

In the industry itself video creation/editing and playback would not be entertained across a network unless the network was a wholly fibre fabric augmented with gigabit and utilizing a proprietary SAN product such as Apple's XSAN.

Another approach is to ask yourself this question: "If my environment is all PCs how would I tackle the problem?" I'm guessing you would not bother and simply provide an external hard drive or an internal scratch disk to temporarily store the ingest and progress from there. Or create a single local generic 'Student' account and use that instead. Students can be trained how to do this as part of the class. You can specify their home directory to be mounted at log-in time. They can upload their work afterward.

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

[AntonioRocco]

"iMovie '08 and iMovie '09 are designed to work across a network."

This should have read:

iMovie '08 and iMovie '09 are not designed to work across a network.

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

[DMcCoy]

"iMovie '08 and iMovie '09 are designed to work across a network."

This should have read:

iMovie '08 and iMovie '09 are not designed to work across a network.

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

Well that is nice to know after apple sold me an education site license.

Apple and Adobe really have no idea what the education sector use computer for.

[AntonioRocco]

Hi DMcCoy

"Well that is nice to know after apple sold me an education site license"

I'm sorry to hear that. Asking the provider of the license the question should have given you an answer.

"Apple and Adobe really have no idea what the education sector use computer for"

You could look at that way I suppose? However you could also say the functionality you require is available if you're prepared to invest in the required infrastructure. A Fibre Channel Fabric (not cheap) and a proprietary SAN product such as Apple's XSAN product (again not cheap).

I know you know this but it's all about making money after all.

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

[DMcCoy]

Hi DMcCoy

"Well that is nice to know after apple sold me an education site license"

I'm sorry to hear that. Asking the provider of the license the question should have given you an answer.

"Apple and Adobe really have no idea what the education sector use computer for"

You could look at that way I suppose? However you could also say the functionality you require is available if you're prepared to invest in the required infrastructure. A Fibre Channel Fabric (not cheap) and a proprietary SAN product such as Apple's XSAN product (again not cheap).

I know you know this but it's all about making money after all.

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

Pity I have both an apple xraid box with its most unusual fibre channel over copper connectors (helpfully no use at all with my current fibre switches). I also have Xsan2 but it turned out to be not very good.

Currently looking to dump my xserves by extending AD and moving to netimage on a spare machine. I did (reasonably) assume that as imovie 08 worked with network home folders that 09 would too, not updated the image yet though so I've not tried it.

xraid has already been retired as a staging area for a windows backup exec server. At least when you reflash those funny FC copper cards you can use them with windows


With Apple I don't feel it's actually about money, it's about not knowing about any other sectors or how they use machines beyond a very static view of thier end users. No one thinks "what if I want to do this?" it's the one true apple way or nothing.

Adobe are worse, they know but just don't care - it's all about the money.

[Maffster]

I have created a folder that all student's have access to on the Macintosh HD - but the problem is that ALL students have access to this and therefore each other's footage, and they can only work on the one machine.
My solution is once the video has been imported, copy the file into iPhoto from the HD.
It takes a little time, but it adds the mobility from one computer to another.
They can then delete the original movie from Macintosh HD - so nobody else can access the footage.

Hope that helps.

--
Maff.

[rolfea]

Thanks for your reply Maffster, however I have managed to get round the problem you stated by telling the students to make their own folders in this shared volume. The folders the students made have permissions to only allow admins and the creator to access it.

We done this by telling the folder not to inherit the permissions from it parent folder.