4294928384 byte limit when importing in iMovie or Toast

I have been importing video to an external drive but was confused why it would automatically stop at 4294928384 bytes (4 gigabytes).

The solution came via Matti Haveri who pointed me to http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_bugs.html#formatting on the MacDV list.

The short version is that the drive must be formatted in HFS+. I had chosen UFS because I needed case sensitivity.

I had no luck finding this information via Google and Toast technical support was no use either, so I’m noting it here in the hopes that someone else might benefit from my experience.

By the way, I was going to try a HFSX until I read The dangers of case-sensitive HFS+. So I guess I’ll skip it.