Hi,

I know little about video processing so please excuse my ignorance. I am using an Apple Computer and I have been looking through some old hard drives and have come across several iMovie v1 and 2 project folders. These projects pre-date iMovieHD and the most recent version of iMovie will not import these projects claiming that it is unable to find any usable video. So a big thanks to Apple for that! However, some digging inside the folders reveals a number of files named "clip nn.dv".

The source of these files was a Sony TR805E Hi8 camera. I believe that I digitised the analog data by connecting the camera to a newer Sony digital camera that digitised the signal while passing it up to the computer running iMovie. I have discovered that an older copy of QuickTime will open these .dv files and will allow me to export them to a new file format. I am seeking advice on what settings I should use so that the clips may be edited in the future for viewing on an HDTV. Quicktime7 allows the files to be saved to a multitude of formats including "Apple Intermediate Codec".

Now for my questions:
1) Am I correct in thinking that I should use the Apple Intermediate codec?
2) Should I tick the "Deinterlace Source Video" option ?
3) The default dimensions are 768x576, are these large enough ? (I read that Hi8 records at 400 lines)
4) There is an option to use HD size with letter boxing. Is there any advantage to adding the letterbox at this stage or should it be added later once the clips have been assembled into a movie?
5) What software would you recommend to edit and assemble the clips given that I am less than thrilled with iMovie?


Thanks
Simon