Choosing a Way to Share Your iMovie

When you're ready to export your iMovie, simply choose File, Export from iMovie's menu bar. Then choose one of three options in the Export Movie dialog box: To Camera, To QuickTime, or To iDVD.

Exporting to Camera

When you export to camera, you're connecting the same camcorder that you used to capture your video and sending the finished iMovie back out to Mini-DV or Digital-8 tape. From there, you can watch the finished product by connecting the camera to the television, recording from the camera to your VCR, or sending the tape off to have a number of copies duplicated .

Exporting to QuickTime

When you export to QuickTime, the method you choose to share your iMovie results in a particular kind of file, based on the settings that are chosen and iMovie uses to conform the file to a particular format. For example, when you export an iMovie that you want to email to someone, it creates a relatively small file because it has to travel over the Internet and you don't want the person on the other end to have to wait too long to download the attachment. Or, when you want to burn a CD with iMovie, the CD can hold a much larger file than an email could handle, so the movie quality is much better, but still not as good as the original iMovie.

Exporting to iDVD

When you export to iDVD, the option is basically a preset that generates a high-quality video file that iDVD then converts for use on a DVD disc. It takes up the largest amount of hard-drive space of any of the export options.

Besides exporting to iDVD from the Export dialog box, there's an iDVD palette that lets you add "chapters" to your movie in iMovie and then launch it as an iDVD project. We'll talk about how later on in the chapter.