Video rendering "basic" question on Mac Pro using iMovie

[GPLaudio]

I am sticking my neck out here a little by asking a video question knowing that SOS has added at least a little video production twist to its venue.

BACKGROUND - Using iMovie, I imported about a 30 minute wedding video from a Mini-DV tape. After some very basic editing and application of a wedding theme I am now going through the rendering and iDVD production process. Looks like it may take at least two hours to complete.

COMPUTER - Mac Pro 2.66 Quad-Core Xeon with 3GB 1066 Mhz RAM running OSX Lion.

QUESTION - I am a relative newbie on video editing. Is this two-hour process typical for a 30 minute video rendering and DVD production? (Seems kind of long.) Would I expect to see any significant improvements by upgrading to 4 GB RAM or upgrading to Final Cut Pro X? Activity monitor shows about 140% CPU with iDVD and about 600 MB Real Mem.

Thanks for any insight you can provide. - Dave

[muzines]

Yes, it's normal. It's probably a single-core process. RAM won't really help, video rendering and transcoding is a highly CPU intensive process.

FCPX will multicore render, so will Compressor.

[GPLaudio]

Thanks very much for the response. Will see if I can round up the funding for FC Pro-X.

Once again - SOS forum is invaluable.
- Dave

[Samurai Jack]

Think yourself lucky! I regularly have to do some video editing/DVD production for work and my poor little MacBook White takes forever to render - it's a leave overnight job!
Also, if you haven't already noticed, the iDVD rendering to disk image process also takes a while, albeit quicker than iMovie.

[G-Doubleyou]

what version of iMovie are you using?

[4TrackMadman]

I've seen better speed with Roxio's dvd program, at least on the dvd formatting and burn side.
You might want to see if exporting the video from iMovie and then creating the menu in Roxio wont give better results.

[GPLaudio]

Am using iMovie11. Nice suggestion on Roxio. I do have Toast. Decided today on purchasing the new Final Cut Pro. There certainly is a learning curve but I noted that rendering goes on in the background. It is not as intuitive as iMovie but I am determined to master it as an alternative.

[4TrackMadman]

I did have some success with Adobe Premiere but have since moved on to Sony Vegas on PC, a lot more intuitive from the other "pro" packages I've used. iMovie still works for me for the odd project on a Mac.