0 For 3 In Making My First iMovie With iDVD (help!!)

Hello all,
I have just made my first attempt at making a DVD (via iMovie & iDVD). Firstly, this took a while, because the content (our honeymoon) was made w/ a mini-DVD camcorder (we've since exchanged for a Mini-DV camcorder), and I had to upload the movie to my Mac (miniDVD-->miniDV tap-->imported to Mac via iMovie {as one long clip which I segmented by hand later). Not sure if this was the best way of converting, but everything appeared to be going alright. Until....
Yesterday, I made my first attempts at taking my iMovie Project to iDVD to burn a DVD. Now everything looked ok. I played the movie in iMovie (everything good), and I set up everything in iDVD (and everything looked good). Unfortunately, the point where I have issues begin when I start to BURN a DVD.
Info on movie: it's about 59min; some music from my iTunes library; 4.0 Themes.
Attempt #1
After about 2.5hrs, I checked status, and iDVD was in a spinning ball state. This was during the "encoding audio" portion of process. Activity Monitor said iDVD & encoding server were "not responding". iDVD eventually QUIT.
Attempt #2
I then "deleted encoded assets" (found this suggestion from this forum), and made another attempt. This time I checked iDVD more frequently and watched specifically around the point when "encoding audio" began. This time iDVD made it through this process. And after an overall time of ~3hrs, my DVD popped out!!
I plopped it in my separate dvd player (and later MBP DVD Player app), and I got this frustrating result: audio for the menus (4.0 Fish theme), but no audio for ANY movie content! ugh!
Attempt #3
Once again after finding suggestions in this forum, I went about Saving As Disk Image via iDVD, and then went to bed. I woke up this morning to see that overnight, iDVD had "unexpectedly quit".
I'm at my witt's end here. I've read many forum threads w/ similar symptoms, but haven't found anything conclusive. There are a few things I may try:
o Import miniDVD directly to Mac via camcorder (no tape transfer)
o Not use any iTunes music in project
o Try a more "basic" them (not use movie clips)
In case you were wondering Disk Space shouldn't be an issue. The iMovie Project took up about ~20GB, and I still have about 70GB left out of the "spec-ed" 120GB (this is on a MacBook Pro w/ 2GB of RAM).
As you may guess, I'm a total iMovie/iDVD novice. I tried all the obvious things for making this movie and it didn't work. It seems I need a "work-around" here to make this movie. I thought this was "supposed" to be easy!
Please help!!
MacBook Pro (2.33GHz) Mac OS X (10.4.8) 120GB Hard Drive

Hey Sue Thanks for the quick response!!
Yeah, with regards to the DVD camera, that was a wedding gift out of my control (I had a nice miniDV on our registry, too!). oh well!
Is it really encoding audio from a DVD even though I saved the DVD movie onto a miniDV tape & then handled it that way on my Mac?
As for all my music media, they were all from my iTunes library and were AAC files. I had one of them which was "protected" (i.e. an itunes purchase). I just now removed it.
As for the DVD Media, I'm using TDK DVD-R. (should mention I actually have made another movie. However this was with video from someone's camcorder (i.e. really grainy). I just wanted to give it a try. I made this w/ a TDK DVD-R. However this is my first "real" movie.
Ok so, I'm giving it a 4th try. This time I'll:
o Remove the Protected iTunes song from iMovie & Save Project
o Trash the preference files from iDVD
o Run "Repair Disk Permission" via Disk Utility
o Save iMovie Project
o Share iMovie Project to iDVD & then give it another try!
Wish me luck! (& Thanks for the help!)

Similar Messages

Sharing iMovies with iDVD

On the older versions I was able to easily and quickly share my iMovie with iDVD - this version takes hours! Is there an easier way to send to iDVD?
Why is the rendering process so slow?
- James Canty: [email protected]

the newer version is therefore less user-friendly and more time consuming than the older version... who planned that?
Apple had found that many iLife users were not using iMovie, some would argue that iMovie 06 became "too good". Others will say that many of the features of iMovie 06 made it hard for beginners to learn, so iMovie 08 is usually easier for the absolute beginner.
I use both iMovie 06 and iMovie 08 (iMovie 06 about 90%, iMovie 08 about 10%).
Many reviews of iMovie 08 recommend using both iMovie 08 and iMovie 06.
I do find that iMovie 08 is "feature reduced" and not as DVD friendly compared to iMovie 06. iMovie 06 is "timeline based", iMovie 08 is "clip based". The lack of a true timeline in IM08 is hard to get used to for some.
iMovie 08 is NOT an upgrade of iMovie 06. It is a completely new application. iMovie 08 is better for absolute beginners that don't want to burn a DVD. Most others will like iMovie 06 for its far greater editing power and ease of making DVDs. (Like creating Chapter Markers and Share to iDVD.)
When iLife 08 is installed, all of the old applications are automatically deleted EXCEPT iMovie 06, because Apple WANTS you to have it.
iMovie 08 is a wonderful program assuming that you're using it for what it was designed to do, assemble simple videos to share on the Internet.
I find iMovie 06 to be easier and faster to use than iMovie 08 on longer jobs (more than 10 mins). iMovie 08 is faster for shorter jobs.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 08 is a terrific combination.
The Web site below has a good comparison of iMovie 08 and iMovie 06.
http://www.geethree.com/slick/imovie8.html

IMovie and iDVD help with low quality

I am working on a large project that consists of 480 still photos that will be set to music with motion, etc that is 1.3GB total. When I import them into iMovie the project quickly becomes 15GB+. I then exported it full quality to iDVD which compressed it to around 2.5GB. My issue is that the quality is bad...wavy type pictures, etc. Is this because I have too many pictures and the project is too big? What should my settings in iMovie be to get the best quality project. The photos are high quality shot with a digital SLR and look great by themselves so I know it's not the pictures themselves. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated!!

There are a heap of threads on how to improve the quality of your photo's from iMovie to iDVD. Any reason you are using iMovie for a slideshow? Do you have video in the project as well? I say this because iMovie is essentially a video editing tool, rather than a slideshow application. I use either iPhoto, FotoMagico or iDVD direct to make my slideshows. ALL much better quality than from iMovie.
My first project was a still photo slideshow made in iMovie and I was really disappointed with the end product (pretty much as you described it). It was recommended to me to try a couple of things.
1. Import your photo's with KB turned on (although this seemed to make my photos worse - it seems to work for some).
2. DON'T EXPORT or SHARE your iMovie with iDVD. Rather, save it and close iMovie. Then open your iDVD project and your finder where you will find your project listed in the movie folder. Drag it's virtual icon and drop it onto your iDVD menu. I found this worked particularly well for me. If you DO export or share with iDVD make sure you don't allow it to re-render things (it asks permission). That also may make a difference.
3. When you eventually go to burn your disc, save it as a disk image (the option just under the burn button in iDVD). Once it is saved to disk (this will take a while to render, so perhaps do it over night) then you can view it in your DVD player and if all is ok, burn it through Disk Utility or Toast at a speed of 1x or 2x.
Hope these ideas provide some help.

Will not share Imovie with Idvd. Gets so far and then a box saying Unable to prepare project for publishing because an error occured (-41)

Cannot SHARE project from IMovie to Idvd. Gets so far and then a box with a message saying Unable to prepare project for publishing because an error occured (-41).

Bengt is as always entirely correct, but another meaning of error -41 is that you have chosen the wrong encoding setting for the length of video you have:
iDVD encoding settings:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1502?viewlocale=en_US
Short version:
Best Performance is for videos of up to 60 minutes
Best Quality is for videos of up to 120 minutes
Professional Quality is also for up to 120 minutes but even higher quality (and takes much longer)
That was for single-layer DVDs. Double these numbers for dual-layer DVDs.
Professional Quality: The Professional Quality option uses advanced two-pass technology to encode your video (The first pass determines which parts of the movie can be given greater compresson without quality loss and which parts can’t. The second pass then encodes those different parts accordingly) , resulting in the best quality of video possible on your burned DVD. You can select this option regardless of your project’s duration (up to 2 hours of video for a single-layer disc and 4 hours for a double-layer disc). Because Professional Quality encoding is time-consuming (requiring about twice as much time to encode a project as the High Quality option, for example) choose it only if you are not concerned about the time taken.
In both cases the maximum length includes titles, transitions and effects etc. Allow about 15 minutes for these.
You can use the amount of video in your project as a rough determination of which method to choose. If your project has an hour or less of video (for a single-layer disc), choose Best Performance. If it has between 1 and 2 hours of video (for a single-layer disc), choose High Quality. If you want the best possible encoding quality for projects that are up to 2 hours (for a single-layer disc), choose Professional Quality. This option takes about twice as long as the High Quality option, so select it only if time is not an issue for you.
Use the Capacity meter in the Project Info window (choose Project > Project Info) to determine how many minutes of video your project contains.
NOTE: With the Best Performance setting, you can turn background encoding off by choosing Advanced > “Encode in Background.” The checkmark is removed to show it’s no longer selected. Turning off background encoding can help performance if your system seems sluggish.
And whilst checking these settings in iDVD Preferences, make sure that the settings for NTSC/PAL and DV/DV Widescreen are also what you want.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1502?viewlocale=en_US

Sharing imovie with idvd. Having big problems!!!!

I have tried to "share" my imovie project (13.76GB in size, approx 48 minutes duration) with idvd and nothing seems to be happening.
I understand that it will take a long time but it has been exporting for the last 24 hours. I have opened the "project info" window to keep track of the encoding process. After a 24 hour period the encoding bar hasn't filled with any blue to indicate the stage it is at.
I have also made sure the is plenty of space. I read that I need 15-20GB free space. I have 18GB of free space)
Please help me. I thought this part would be hassel free.
ibook superdrive & imac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hi again wwww...,
The reason I recommend using the import video command from the file menu is so there is no chance of mistakenly dropping your 48 minute video into the drop box or background of your DVD menu. It is very easily done.
So, on with the show..... I can't say what is going on exactly, but please follow these steps and you should be up and running again in no time.
Firstly, restart your computer. Now install and run Onyx (it's a free disc maintenance app, link attached). Open Onyx and run 'Automation'. It will take about 10-15 minutes to do it's thing. While Onyx is running, open a finder window and type idvd.plist into the search box and delete this file. It is the preference file for iDVD. Be sure to delete this file ONLY. And repeat the process for imovieHD.plist and empty the trash. When Onyx has finished you will be promted to restart your computer.
After restart, open your iMovie project and go to the file menu>export or share>Quicktime and change the setting to Full Quality DV. Change the destination to the desktop for ease of finding. It will probably take an hour or so to export as a full quality dv movie and will be around the same size (GB) as your project. If you have 30Gb of free space this won't be a problem.
Now you have a self-contained, uneditable Quicktime version of your project. Now, open iDVD select your theme and then select 'import video' from the file menu and import the Quicktime movie. It should only take a few seconds to import. Then got to the file menu again and save the project (or apple command key + 'S'). And go back to the file menu and select 'save as disc image' and let it run. Don't use the computer while it's encoding the iDVD project and make sure you quit any other apps running and the screen saver too.
Just a final note. After you have exported your project to Quicktime you no longer need the iMovie file. You can delete it, however, you should also export your project back to your camera as another back up copy of your project. I have had some glitches with iMovie projects not seating into iDVD, which were solved by exporting to Quicktime. I never went into why, only how!
These steps should get you going again. It does seem like a lot of mucking around, but after you have it going again it will seem worth it.
Good luck and please post back with your results.
SR.
Onyx - http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html
G4 iMac, 15 Flat panel. 800MHz, 1GB RAM, 60GB HD, Super drive. Mac OS X (10.4.6) iLife 06, LaCie Ext F/W DVD-R/W & 160GB Ext HD, TiBook DVI, iPod Nano & Photo

The Real Question, Sharing iMovie With iDVD?

With iLife 08, sharing to iDVD was a pixelated mess when played back on a DVD player. They stated that they changed this I think? Is this true? Does iMovie 09 share with iDVD like iMovie 06 to iDVD results?

iMovie 08/09 can only process progressive video.
08 -- during export -- deinterlaced the DV video by simply dropping 1 field.
The new Share option uses -- during export -- deinterlaces by combining both fields into one frame. Both PAL and NTSC are scaled to 960x540 which is a size that works for both ATV and iDVD. It leaves it to iDVD to re-size for PAL or NTSC.
The question is what iDVD does with 540p. It should re-interlace the video giving good results. Doing so will un-combine the fields yielding interlaced video without combing on moving objects when viewed on a TV.
So -- how do the DVDs look when played on a TV?

Sharing iMovie with iDVD

I have just made an iMovie that is about 90 minutes in length. I tried to share it with iDVD and it says the movie is too long. I can burn it to a dual layer DVD so room on the DVD is not a problem. Is it possible to share a movie with iDVD and have it run longer than 60 minutes (as opposed to iDVD encoding it down to 60 minutes? Or do I have to split it into two movies? thanks in advance.
Gary
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

You just need to change iDVD Preferences to Best Quality from the default Best Performance. Will encode for SL.

Burn Disk - Can I Share iMovie with iDvd only

After completing an iMovie, can you send it direct to iDvd, then burn it on a disk OR do you have to share in media browser to burn a disk using iDvd? I thought I only needed to share with iDvd and then I would be able to burn the disk. When trying to do so, there is a file but it says it was not rendered correctly and nothing happens when attempting to burn a disk.

Hi
• Share/Export to iDVD - Usually don't work for me and when working delivers a poor result
• Share to Media Browser and then from within iDVD and media collecting it works OK
BUT if DVD is Your aim and You want good result - then iMovie'08, 09 or 11 are not tools of choise.
• iMovie up to HD6 - and -
• FinalCut any version
ARE !
Yours Bengt W

Buring iMovie with iDVD

After completing an iMovie ( with Photos and Video clips) and burning with iDVD I get a "swimming" ie a wavy appearance when playing dvd on computer or tv. Any ideas?

Hi
To little info to be able to suggest.
• What version of iMovie
• How did video play in iMovie - was it stabilized ?
• Recorded with what Camera eg Nikon D90 or miniDV tape Camera ?
• Brand of DVD
• Type of DVD
More info that might help us to pin-point the culprit ?
Yours interested Bengt W

First imovie, now iDVD.

I have had my 2.4ghz Macbook Pro for three weeks now after converting from PC's.
My first problem was with imovie 7 which i still never solved after i decided to use movie6 HD instead.
Today i went to open iDVD and the icon in the dock bounced once and froze without opening the programme. I have used this programme before successfully and burnt a DVD but now it fails.
I have reinstalled the system from the factory discs twice today and it still doesnt work!
Apple is Pants.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Log into another account on your Mac or boot into Safe Mode and see if iDVD will launch. If it does then there's something amiss with your account.

I recently bought a 13" Mac Book Pro i7 dual core processor and everything was just fine until now. I have been using iMovie for about a month and it runs perfectly, but now I can't seem to use it for more than 20 minutes without iMovie crashing. Help?

When iMovie crashes it also makes my compute very slow and unpleasant to use. Has anyone else had this problem before? Should I take my laptop to the genius bar? I owned this computer for over a month now.

check out this link which answers your question http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1242
after re reading your post, I think you need an SMC reset instead: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
what does activity monitor show? screenshots?

Is there an easy way of making DVDs using iMovie without iDVD?

I can't seem to make / share / export a dvd in iTunes that can be read in a dvd player. The new operating system doesn't support iDVD so I can't easily make a dvd. I seem to be able to create a file with an m4v extesion and it looks great on my Macbook... only the Macbook. I tried downloading two different conversion applications that could create an mp4 file but it isn't working and it is messy. Isn't there an easy way?
Thanks, Brigid

If you have an early 2011 MacBook Pro it would have come with Snow Leopard which did include iDVD. If you upgraded to Lion iDVD will still be there. Lion does support iDVD - i.e. it will still run on Lion. It's just that Lion no longer includes iDVD if you get it on a brand new system. So if iDVD is still there in your Applications folder it will still run under Lion.

Can't burn imovie with idvd & can't keep the audio and video clips to ancho

Two questions:
I've been working on a series of short digital stories in iMovie and have been trying to put them on a dvd. Using iDVD wasn't successful. Couldn't get them loaded into the map on the DVD theme page. So I dragged finally gave up and dragged the iMovie filesinto the DVD icon on my desktop and burned them. But now I have to drag the iMovie file from the DVD onto the harddrive before I play them.
I would like to have all of the short movies in one DVD.
I would also like to have one longer iMovie file but I'm having a devil of a time making all of the files, audio, video, photo, etc. stay in place while I'm working on each section. Perhaps this isn't feasible?
With thanks for any help you can give me. I'm a novice at this program but enjoying the challenge.
I'm using a borrowed machine...2 GHz G5 with 2 GB DDR SDDRAM
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4)

I've been working on a series of short digital stories in iMovie and have been trying to put them on a dvd. Using iDVD wasn't successful. Couldn't get them loaded into the map on the DVD theme page. So I dragged finally gave up and dragged the iMovie filesinto the DVD icon on my desktop and burned them. But now I have to drag the iMovie file from the DVD onto the harddrive before I play them.
Were you dragging the project file into the right place? Try a simple theme like the Portfolio Colour theme under the iDVD3 collection. By the way, the simple thing first, I hope you were using iDVD5 not iDVD4.
There can also be problems if the iMovie projects were created in iMovie4 and converted to iMovieHD. If this is the case load each one again. Make some simple change, undo if you wish, then save again.
In any case try using file > Import and note what happens. I think this (old fashioned) way is easier than gragging in the projects. You can tidy them up later.

A REQUEST FOR GENERAL ADVICE : useful apps to use with idvd

Hi
My situation:
I have had an emac for 2.5 years, but only now have got around to using idvd, so i'm an idvd & digital video novice.
Secondly, i have imovie 3 & only idvd 2.
Over the 2.5 years, i ve built up a fair number of imovie projects & also various audio & video clips form the web.
First problem, is none of my imovie quicktime files or my web quicktime clips are transporting into my idvd project.
Okay - i found an app called MPEG streamclip which seems to be getting me ahead.
My post, is a request for further apps which people use & also web sites which offer support & advice on this complicated area of digital technology.
Thanks for your time
Didier

I have imovie 3 & only idvd 2
I wouldn't recommend anything other than iMovie for where you are now. Your problem is simply that iDVD2 will only accept iMovie2 and probably iMovie1. Either get iDVD3 or go the full way and upgrade to iLife4 or iLife5 where both versions of iDVD will read your iMovie files.

First time with encore help plz

ok so i ve got my dvd compalation into encore got menues film footage ect all linked up and checked ,,,,, checks found no errors ,,,,, now ive gone file/build/dvd folder to make what i was expecting to be a "video ts " folder containing the dvd files ,,,,,,,,, the film is 1 and a half ours long ,,,,......... now 2 hours after pressing make dvd what seems to have happened is it is stilk going and what i have is a folder called " mlf.cache.MACC2" containing a whole bunch of MPEGINDEX files ................ is this correct and can i be expecting this encoding to take like 14 hours ???

Not for the faint of heart.
Or for the gentically unorganized. Still, using duplicate Menus to simulate something is very rewarding, from a design standpoint.
There are several recent threads with details on how to do this. One is the "Talking Menu" thread. Though it concentrates on Audio Motion Menus, the theory is the same. Jeff Bellune also covers this in great detail in his excellent Focal Easy Guide to Adobe EncoreDVD 2.0, Focal Press. It was written for Encore 2.0, but 100% of his book applies through CS4. Only thing missing from the book is En CS4's Dynamic Link.
First thing that I suggest is that one get a piece of paper and a pencil with a good eraser and draw out a flowchart. I do my flowcharts in Illustrator to save the eraser! Next, that they name all Menus and Buttons carefully, so that linking is much easier.
Good luck,
Hunt

0 For 3 In Making My First iMovie With iDVD (help!!)

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