iMovie If you have an AVCHD-based camcorder with a hard disk or a memory card, you can make a backup copy, or an archive, of the camera’s contents on your computer or an external hard disk.
Because you can import video into iMovie from an archive, archiving the video on your camcorder can be useful if you want to do the following:
Quickly empty the contents of your camcorder so that you can record more video right away (rather than waiting for it to import into iMovie, which can take time).
Import the archived video on multiple computers without having to keep it on the camcorder.
To archive your camcorder’s video:
If you want to save the archive to an external hard disk, connect the external hard disk to your computer.
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Turn on your camcorder, connect it to your computer, and then set it to PC Connect mode.
(The name for this transfer mode may be different on your device. For some digital still cameras that shoot video, for example, you need to set the camera to Browse mode.) Your camera may automatically go into “connect” mode if you turn it on in playback mode while it’s connected to your computer.
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Click Archive All at the bottom of the Import window that opens.
If the Import window doesn’t open, choose File > “Import from Camera.”
In the Save As field, type a name for the archive.
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Choose where you want to save the archive, and then click Create.
Don’t save the archive inside the iMovie Events or iMovie Projects folder. This could make iMovie operate more slowly.
Archived video is stored on your hard disk and doesn’t appear in iMovie until you import it: Import video from a camera archive into iMovie.