From Vegas to iMovie - Does the version of iMovie matter?

[and]

So my friend has iMovie and wants to play with my footage. What do folks recommend I set export settings in Vegas for if the original is 50 gigs of 1920x1080 60i AVCHD. I know iMovie likes .mov files, but I don't know what settings will keep enough quality for a 720p-ish final product that I can give to my friend on a little usb hard drive.

[aedipuss]

find a way to just give him the original. otherwise you are going to re-code, the imovie is going to re-code to an intermediate, then it's going to be re-coded again to the final output. one less step may keep the output watchable.

[and]

The trouble is that I put on some softening color correction and focal vignetting effects that he likes and can't re create with iMovie. So I just want to figure our if a m4v with something like 10mbps bandwith or something like that is a good 'nuf or if .mov of some type is better. There's no avoiding a transcode.

[aedipuss]

it's interlaced which is a bit more complicated. avc/264/mp4 is better off as progressive. you might try encoding to mpeg-2 interlaced.

maybe make a few 10 second test clips in a different formats and send those to him and see what imports ok.

[budwzr]

The trouble is that I put on some softening color correction and focal vignetting effects that he likes and can't re create with iMovie.

Seriously? Those are entry level edits.