16:9 SD Camcorder to iMovie to iDVD

I've looked, and gotten some answers, but they don't seem to line up with my experience, so I'll ask here.
I've got a simple Panasonic standard def camcorder, and am capturing the video using iMovie via firewire. Then I share it straight into iDVD. No fancy settings or anything. NTSC from start to end.
After burning to DVD, and playing it on my TV using a standard, cheap DVD player, I get massive combing during motion scenes.
I've read elsewhere in this forum that we don't want to deinterlace video destined for a TV, but how do I get rid of this combing?
Thanks.

So there's some problem with this flow and the XBMC.
I'm not at all familiar with XBMC. Are there any settings to tweak? NTSC/PAL, scaling, 4:3 vs 16:9 etc?
It might also help if you could put online few frames as a Full Quality DV export from the offending iMovie project.
Or extract a frame describing the problem and put it online:
iMovie automatically deinterlaces saved frames so you have to use QT Player or MPEG Streamclip to extract a frame: Select "All files" in MPEG Streamclip file open dialog and drill into the iMovie project's /Media folder. Then open some media file and scroll to an illustrative frame. Then choose File/Export Frame... and choose "unscaled". The comb lines should be exactly 1 pixel tall and you should be able to filter them off with Graphic Converter's Even/Odd field line -command -- if not then there may be a scaling problem somewhere in your workflow.

Similar Messages

I recently purchased a refurbed iMac with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. It came with iMovie ver. 9.0.5 installed. I do allot with iMovie and iDVD and would like to get a camcorder to add movie clips. Does anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably pri

I recently purchased a refurbed iMac with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. It came with iMovie ver. 9.0.5 installed. I do allot with iMovie and iDVD and would like to get a camcorder to add movie clips. Does anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably price camcorder that would work with my setup?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I recently purchased a refurbed iMac with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. It came with iMovie ver. 9.0.5 installed. I do allot with iMovie and iDVD and would like to get a camcorder to add movie clips. Does anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably price camcorder that would work with my setup?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

DV camcorder to iMovie / iDVD - Why does my DVD look so bad?

I have an SD DV camcorder (a canon opt-40 model which is quite decent for SD)which when I hookup directly to my TV puts out a pretty decent picture.
I have imported the video from this camcorder into iMovie and done the assembly. I then put it through iDVD to burn a DVD. Many hours later I get my 1 hour long DVD and put it into my DVD player and play it and see a significantly degraded poor picture (youtube quality).
Somewhere along the iLife chain I must have lost resolution but I can't seem to find settings to increase the quality or resolution.
What am I missing? What can I set to retain better quaility for my imported video?

Somewhere along the iLife chain I must have lost resolution but I can't seem to find settings to increase the quality or resolution.
You can't.
What am I missing?
iMovie 06.
For faster editing iMovie 09 uses single-field processing. This means every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, which reduces the sharpness of the footage.
Your primary workflow is editing DV clips and making DVDs, iMovie '06 is better suited. Your movie will arrive at iDVD in DV format, which is an ideal match for making a DVD: same resolution, same pixels, same aspect ratio, and original quality. If you share your movie from iMovie 09, it gets re-rendered at 640x480 or less, and then iDVD upscales it back to 720x480. The end result is obviously not as good.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 08/09 is a "lossless" combination.
You can get iMovie 06 in a number of ways. You cannot download it FROM APPLE any longer. You can also find iMovie 06 on the iLife 06 install disc. You can buy iLife 06 on Amazon or eBay.
But be prepared to pay about double the cost of iLife 09 (but well worth every penny). Seller's are becoming aware of its value.
I use iMovie 06 and iDVD 09 and my DVD's look like they came from Hollywood!
iMovie 09 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 downloaded a film from a sony camcorder to iMovie and then burned to a DVD in iDvd. When showing it on my TV their is a shimmering in certain edges.

I downloaded a movie from a Sony camcorder to iMovie, did some editing and transfered it to iDVD where I burned it onto a DVD.
When I showed it on my TV I had shimmering on certain edges. Has anyone had this happen and if so how did you eleminate it?

Hi
A. Do not Use - Share to iDVD - in any iMovie version at all !
B. Start a BRAND NEW iDVD project
C. in iMovie'08 to 11 - Share to Media Browser and as LARGE - NOT HD or other resolution as quality will be even worse
- in iMovie HD6 - just close it and from within iDVD import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it)
- FinalCut - Export as QuickTime Movie - NO QUICKTIME CONVERSION - AT ALL !
D. When in iDVD - see to that in the Lay-out menu (when it looks like a box-plott) there ARE NOTHING in the upper left most box (Auto Start box). As this overruns any Menu.
E. Save as a DiskImage - TEST this first - befor burning any DVDs
Yours Bengt W

Camcorder support page for Imovie and iDVD

Can someone please let me know where I can view the support page for DVD camcorders that supports iMovie and iDVD.

Click here and here for some resources.
(40433)

Using WindowsDV .avi files in iMovie and iDVD

I'm about to buy a Mac after using PCs for many years. I'm still deciding whether to buy an iMac 20", upgrade the Ram and use an external firewire drive or to get a Mac Pro and use internal drives. Initially I'll use iMovie and iDVD and I have some questions regarding using files I've already created on my PC. Up until now I've mainly been using Ulead Video Studio 10 and Ulead DVD Workshop. DVD Workshop does not do 16:9 menus and has now been discontinued and I've been impressed with iMovie and iDVD when I've seen it in Apple stores.
I have some unedited 16:9 .avi files that I've captured from my Panasonic GS-400 camcorder as well as some already edited .avi and .mpg files. Will iMovie and iDVD recognise .avi DV files when accessed through my network or copied onto the Mac hard drive? I'll load unedited clips into iMovie for editing but anything that's already edited I'd like to put straight into iDVD, add chapters and make a menu etc.
Is this going to work easily or will I have to convert the files to an apple compatible format?
Thanks for any advice you can offer.
Ken
Windows XP Pro

Hi Ken and welcome to Apple!
You should not have a major problem. The AVI files should (repeat should) be recognized by iMovie. If not, conversion should (I love the certainty of that word!) be easy.
An iMac will do all you ask, but I recommend not less that 1GB of RAM.
At this stage, go get your iMac, and try to import the AVI files into iMovie. If that is not successful post back!
Remember: iMovie expects to be 'fed' by digital video through a firewire connection.
Any more questions, we are here to help!

Can I add charter marks after iMovie and iDVD

a few years ago I transfered old 16mm to my DV camcorder and then into iMovie and iDVD.
I was looking at one of them for a family reunion and on one of the DVD's I somehow forgot to put in the last 3 chapter stops.
Is there an easy way of redoing the DVD and adding the 3 chapter stops ?
I made several color and lighting adjustments to them and i did not keep anything on the hard drive as I did two B/U's of them.
Thanks
Greg

These links regarding chapter markers may also help thereafter:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/6.0/en/277.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/6.0/en/418.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/6.0/en/417.html

?Optimal Photoshop settings for slideshow-iMovie then iDVD

I know that there are many posts about file size and pixel size for optimizing photos prior to importing into iMovie or iDVD. I have read many of them, including many of them by Karl Petersen, but have been disappointed by the quality of the photos when viewed on the final DVD on my television. The problem I have it that almost ALL of my photos are portrait style and not landscape. A lot of the discussions center around avoiding pillarboxes, which I cannot avoid with vertical pictures
All of the photos are shot RAW on a Nikon D70 and imported into Photoshop.
Can anyone make recommendations on the optimal photoshop settings for creating the files to import for a slideshow in iDVD.
Specifically, in Photoshop, for vertically oriented pictures, what would be the recommendation for:
1) File size and best way to control that in Photoshop. Should I increase the file size on the original RAW image import? (I currently use the 2000x3008 6MP default)
2) Should each photo be cropped to an exact size or can I keep a specific aspect ratio instead?
3) Should I use a pixel aspect ratio other than normal? (These will all be viewed in the US )
4) Should the photos be imported into iMovie first and go through KB (even with no zooming) or can they go into iDVD?
Many Thanks!!!
Dual 1.42 MHz G4, 2 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) iMovieHD 6.0.2, iDVD 6.0.2

Since posting the test I suggested you run, Alesse, I've done some testing of my own, with some interesting results. They aren't going to help you much, I'm afraid, but they might shed some light on the whole process of making slideshows.
I do everything I can to maximize image quality in iMovie slideshows. Then I've wondered what affect iDVD has on the result.
So today I played the same slideshow from three sources. One version from the camera, one version from iDVD and one version from a Digital Video Recorder (DVR).
First I created a slideshow where the same photos were imported four different ways, each as a four 4-second clip. The test used rather simple photos, 1600x1200 jpegs, about 500k each, from an old Nikon Coolpix 950.
The images were delivered to the iMovie four ways:
1) I imported the sequence of images into QuickTime Player, then saved that as two DV streams, one Progressive and one Interlaced. These were dropped into the Media folder as described above. iMovie "adopted" them when I re-opened the project. (They were NOT imported by iMovie.)
2) I imported the same images with Ken Burns ON (but with no animation); and
3) I imported the same images with Ken Burns OFF.
The four clips of each image were arranged side-by-side on the Timeline, so I could easily compare their quality while played on the TV.
(The images were selected to include those that are easy to encode by iDVD and images difficult to encode — having lots of high-contrast lines like roof lines, lap-siding on buildings, telephone lines, the kind of content that tends to acquire the "jaggies". I avoided the bug where iMovie adds jaggies if you grant it permission to render UNrendered images as you export the project to iDVD or to the camera.)
I wanted to compare the quality of three kinds of slideshows:
1) the slideshow played from the camera;
2) the slideshow burned by iDVD and
3) the slideshow burned by a standalone DVR.
To make the three slideshows, I did this:
1) used iDVD to burn a DVD of the iMovie project;
2) exported the iMovie slideshow project back to the camera; and
3) connected the camera to a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) and burned a DVD on the DVR. This was so I could compare the quality of iDVD to a DVR recording.
Then I connected the camera to the TV so I could compare it, in turn, to each of the DVDs. Because each image played for a total of 16 seconds, I was able to play both the DVD and the camera simultaneously and switch the TV back and forth between the two inputs to compare the image quality of the camera to a DVD.
RESULT
• The camera image was superior in all respects to both the DVDs, as one would expect. Considerably better. There were virtually no jaggies. Subtler colors. Less contrast. iMovie 6 was obviously delivering the goods. Great quality, on every clip.
• At first I thought the DVR image was better than the iDVD image, but reconsidered that later. Each had its own positive qualities. There was little difference. Each was slightly better in some respects than the other, worse in others. It was basically a wash. Both had about the same amount of jaggies, sometimes in different places.
• Another interesting result was that all the clips — from all four sources — played basically the same on the camera and on the two DVDs. There was very little difference among the four import methods. (I expected more difference.)
• There WAS an obvious difference among clips played in iMovie, however. The DV stream exported as a DV Progressive movie displayed with better quality in iMovie itself. The difference wasn't huge, but it was sharper, more "life-like".
• It is obvious that encoding an iMovie project to the MPEG-2 format used by a DVD — whether by iDVD or by a DVR — sacrifices quality. You won't notice it much on some images — flowers, faces, landscapes — but you will see jaggies on others.
• When the test was over, I watched a DVD slideshow of the same images I had burned a few weeks ago containing three iMovie widescreen formats: DV Widescreen, 720p, and 1080i. It was a close call, but I think they were all slightly better than the DV slideshow. Some images, especially, were better.
CONCLUSIONS
If you want the best playback quality possible, use the camcorder to play the slideshow on the TV, not a DVD.
To avoid the jaggies, it may be necessary to avoid certain photos. It's hard to tell which those are until you play the DVD on a TV. Plan to burn a DVD, then purge the images that acquire bad jaggies and burn it again.
Softening the TV picture can help. My TV offers a tremendous range of sharpness, a feature common to new TVs.
• My guess is that until we can burn Hi-Def DVDs, our huger and huger TVs are going to make the problem of DVD quality worser and worser. My slideshows would probably all look great on yesterday's "huge" 20" TV.
• I don't have DVD Studio Pro to test. Perhaps someone can compare that too?
Anyway, I hope something here helps.
Karl

Sectioning videos using iMovie and iDVD

I did my first conversion of some video from Mini-DV to DVD using my new iMac yesterday. I read the "Getting Started" tutorials for iMovie and iDVD and successfully burned a DVD. It came out good in the end, but I'm not sure I did things the best way. I wanted to section the video so when I watch the DVD I can click on a "button" from the menu for whatever section I want. So, I transferred all the video from the camcorder to iMac. That was easy. Then, I went into iMovie and marked off the sections of the video I wanted as "favorites" and it put a green line above it, then I selected the option for it to only display the favorites. So, it was easy to edit out the bad parts. Then, I dragged it all from the Event Library to the Project Library. I went to Share-Media Browser and clicked on Publish. Then, I went into iDVD and was able to get the video into it. But, I couldn't get it into sections like I wanted.
So, I went back into iMovie and did a File-Duplicate Project and named it with a "-1" at the end. Then, in the Event Library I selected the first section of the video (so it had the yellow boarder around it) then dragged it to the Project Library. Then, I did a Share-Media Brower and clicked on Publish. I went back to the original and did a File-Duplicate Project and named it with a "-2" at the end, and repeated the whole thing for the next section. I did this for each section, "-3", "-4", etc. Then, I went into iDVD and was able to get the video into sections like I wanted. I renamed the "-1", "-2" stuff to what I wanted and burned the DVD.
Did I do this right or did I do this the hard way? I have iMovie '08 7.0 (471) and iDVD '08 7.0 (1068).
Someone told me that the "sections" I'm referring to are called "chapters". I did a search for chapters and the only reference I can find is in the "iMovie '08 Getting Started" document where it says "Click Import. You can also import video from a project created in iMovie HD. … All chapter markers are also lost".

I would consider the usage of iMHD6 plus a slightly different 'structure' of workflow and final DVD ...
'problem' with Chapters, as they are implemented in iDVD, is, that they really functioning just as a bookmark... you jump directly to some specific position in timeline.. but then, the disk play 'til the end of a movie... (showing the next and the next and... chapters...)
iDVD allows sub-menus, think of it as 'Folders' ... which also could keep Folders..
create a movie, showing the whole program/dance...
now, select (in iMHD6) the few clips which show 'Right Hand Pass'
in the Export/Quicktime/Full Quality dialog of iMHD6, check the box 'selected clips only' ...
now, you get a/many .movs on your harddrive, with all the individual segments ...
due to lossless export, you can import that short clips into new iM projects and add content.. a slow-mo, a chart, some narration, recordings of other dancers doing the same 'move' etc ...
in IDVD, switch to 'map view' .. illustrated how-to here:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#idvd-create-67
now, create a structure for YOUR how-to... on top should be a button for the movie which shows the whole dance; create a sub-menu containing other sub-menus for 'spins', 'turns', 'passes' (= I have NO idea of Square Dance ); inside each sub-menu item (which is a 'Folder'), you place the concerning clip(s) (drag'n drop/choose form Media) ...
structured that way, you are allowed to add much more than just a chapter = a part of your movie; editing a 'standalone' clip of your section allows to 'process' that part, as mentioned above: you can repeat it, you can add slowmos, you can add stills/charts/paintings, explaining specificly that 'move', add a narrated and a no-audio version, whatever ... there's a nice plug-in from geethree.com for iMHD6, *Slick 6* (click here), called 'White Board', which allows drawings on videos..
when the 'chapter', which is now a clip/movie on its own, is finished, the dvd will jump back to the menu/submenu... and the viewer is allowed to watch it again, choosing the next one, a different one, or jumping to 'top level' to choose a different section or watching the whole dance...
only limitation: all movies added together should stay under 120min..

AVCHD or MP4 HD using IMovie and IDVD

Okay,
I am new to Macs and like them alot. I transfered from PC to Mac mainly for IMovie and IDVD. Here is my issue:
I use a Sony TX7 Digital Camera as my camcorder. It creates MTS files which I have saved on my desktop. IMovie does not recognize these files which I already understand. I know that IMovie imports directly from the camera itself but still changes the format to AIC. What I am trying to accomplish in the future is the ability to create the best quality HD movies to burn to standard DVDs usin IDVD. I know next to nothing about the whole process of IMovie and IDVD. My main concern is how I should be recording video on my camera. Obviously AVCHD needs to be converted but I have know idea the exact settings I should convert it to in order to keep the majority of the quality. Should I just record in MP4 at 720p? My TV is 720p and I am not looking for the best HD ever. I am just looking for HD in 720p. How can I retain this quality using IMovie and IDVD? I have MTS files on my desktop that I tried converting and the quality is okay, but I would rather not have to convert files in the future. I don't want to copy the whole file structure each time I import my videos because I like to organize my videos in one folder by date. There has to be someone who has had success with this. I just want to produce great looking widescreen home videos using these two software programs. Then there is the whole other mess of what settings to use when importing into IMovie and exporting to IDVD. Can someone experienced with ILife explain this to me?
Thanks,
Matt

Well first thing is iDVD is SD not HD and does nothing HiDef. You need a Blu-Ray, Apple TV, or other device to watch HD.
http://unofficialimoviefaq.com/tt/BurnHD.html
Even "pro" apps like Final Cut will turn MTS files in to AppleProRes so you can edit it faster.
You need the WHOLE CARD not just the MTS files for proper editing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6QF-1WxNwI
Daniel C. Slagle
Keeper of the "Unofficial" iMovie FAQ
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link

Poor quality exporting from iMovie to iDVD

When I export a dv movie from iMovie to iDVD, the quality drops significantly. A nice clean movie imported from a dv camcorder to iMovie becomes horrible pixelated mess once exported into iDVD and actually burned into a DVD. No matter what quality settings one uses.
It seems like many people experience similar problems, judging by postings (unanswered, as far as I can tell). It also appears that basically everyone using iMovie has this problem, but most people are content with poor quality DVDs, or are they?
Does anyone know why this is so, and if there is any workaround? You know, the simplest way out is to switch to a PC and use one of their standard movie editing software, but isn't Mac supposed to be better for this purpose?

Hi
A.
If You included photos into Your movie and used Share/Export to iDVD. iMovie
asks to render the material = Destructive in two ways:
• Losy iDVD project
• Original iMovie IS HARMED: Photos needs to be re-imported and re-edited.
• Re do the import and editing.
• Close iMovier
• Open iDVD
• Drop iMovie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD
Done.
B.
There are a major difference between a Mac Monitor and a Standard TV (much less
sharpness due to 525 - 625 lines (NTSC or PAL))
I connect my Camera to my Mac (via FW) and analog out to a TV so that I can monitor
the process during iMovie editings. (iMovie preferences set Playback via Camera)
Yours Bengt W
Yours

Imovie to idvd back to imovie?

Hello. I am using the latest versions of both imovie and idvd. Here is my question.
I have a one hour movie that I have imported and edited in imovie. I sent my imovie project to idvd and than I burned a dvd in idvd. I deleted the original imovie file and idvd file from my harddrive. How do I get the movie from the dvd disc back into imovie? I want to do more editing of my project in imovie.
thanks
Ben

Hi, Ben,
You can extract from your DVD by using some third party extractors, but you may lose quality from your original movie footage. See this discussion: http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?128@@.68b7d7a6
In the future, you may want to export your iMovie back to your camcorder onto DV tapes so that you have a backup copy that you could reimport for more editing. You will not be able to CHANGE any prior edits--well, not very much.
If there is any possiblity that you will be re-editing, keep your iMovie projects!

Audio distortion when sharing iMovie to IDVD

When I burn an iMovie in iDVD the resulting audio on the DVD is distorted. The audio in iMovie is just great. What am I doing wrong?

Hi Bob,
Welcome to iDVD Discussions.
Did you import 16-bit audio from your camcorder?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=165285

I'm trying to burn an iMovie in iDVD and at the end of the whole burn process it says "Multiplexer Error" "there was an error during formatting". How do I fix it so that it'll burn?

I'm trying to burn an iMovie in iDVD and at the end of the whole burn process it says "Multiplexer Error" "there was an error during formatting". How do I fix it so that it'll burn?

Hi
Multiplexing error is a very complex problem due to many things (long long list following) - one common but not obvious reason is that material on the iDVD menu goes outside the TV-Safe area (or just touching it).
So first - turn on TV-Safe area and move any object well inside of this.
Wide screen stretched - usually (as I think) it is due to making a 4x3 movie in a 16x9 wide-screen project OR the other way around. This forces one to on flat-screen TV (or other) set the presenting view right - My has 4x3, wide-screen, zoom and auto-wide-screen and I have to switch this by my remote for some DVD I've made "wrong" way.
Now my long long list on Multiplex Error
LONG LONG LONG LIST
Multiplexing Error
PART One.
Use of strange video/audio material e.g. .avi, .wmv, .mp3 etc.
I only use.
Video - StreamingDV (miniDV tape via FireWire) and
Audio - .aiff (as on audio-CDs) (else converted to this .aiff 48KHz)
Photo - .jpg (.bmp known problematic)
Chapters !
A. Using strange letters in video project name e.g. +,/; etc. keep to a-z and 0-9 strange letters in project name e.g. +
as described by Donnyboy69. Does the title of your project have any symbols or decimal points in it. If so, that is why you are getting the error. I had a project that had a + sign which caused the same problem. I renamed it without the symbol and low and behold, it worked.
B. Location of Chapters
• Can’t be at start or end of movie (Skip first/start one - iDVD sets this by it self. At the End - no need)
• Not in a transition (or within 2-3 seconds from it)
Important when from iMovie HD6 or previous - Now also observed when using FCE 4
PART Two.
from Robert Modero.
"Multiplexing Error. Problem during initialization of tracks"
Simply remember to add subtitles to your Quicktime files and menu buttons.
Once I did that, I was back in business.
from Boise Jim
Do a safe reboot (by holding down the shift key until you see the spinning gear on gray background, then release, then restart when your start-up screen appears).
I always makes a DiskImage first and test this so that it runs OK
I use only - Verbatim DVDs
I use only - DVD-R
I burn at an as slow speed possibly e.g. x1
This gives good DVDs
PART Three.
Multiplex Error
Chuck, Chicago 2/7/2009.
Back again. Here is what I have found to work. I also have and use a LaCie DVD-R/RW DL external drive and a LaCie external hard drive as well. Since yesterday I have tried a few ways to burn a themed iDVD project having four 56 minute movies on it, amounting to 226 minutes onto a DVD DL disc, capacity 240 minutes. Apple tech support really didn't know what to do but gave me a very good tip. I had two options left. Apple tech support's tip was to try disc image. One of the replies on a thread with this subject said not to, but my experience today is good. Put your project onto "Burn to disc image," under "iDVD, file." Yesterday encoding took me 23 1/2 hours. Overnight for iDVD disc image, encoding took 21 1/2 hours (again) while I slept. This morning I tried to copy/burn disc image to a DVD with Roxio Toast 7, and it stopped near the end of the burn with some kind of "error" message. So then I tried Utilities> Disc Utility> Burn icon, and followed it through. Be sure to click the DVD DL drive in the window "Burn disc in.". I had one other problem though. At the end of a 46 minute copy, it started to verify, and at the end of verify it rejected the burn. So I tried again, and when "verify" appeared, I clicked on "Skip." The disc finished burning and is doing fine and well. A long and tortuous process, but at last something works. I made several additional copies using Disc Utility. Best wishes. Chuck, Chicago.
2. Disconnect any other external devices not absolutely needed.
e.g. external USB/USB2 hard disks, other FW hard disks etc.
3 Chapter marks in transitions - minimum 2 sec from
FROM Bev.
(Not a 'guy' but I will answer!)
First, I do not think that mixing wide-screen and standard makes a difference in iDVD.
Second, you should use a better brand of DVD disk. Also, many of us have experienced fewer problems on playback with DVD-R disks. Recommended brands here are Verbatim, Maxell and Taiyo Yuden. Memorex and TDK are not consistent and may not give you a correct burn. They apparently have fewer layers in the composition of the disk. I have always used Verbatim DVD-R disks and have not had any burn problems.
Also, choose a slower burn speed, 4x or less.
Third, to determine if the iDVD project will burn properly, create a disk image file (from within iDVD, go File->Save as Disk Image) and test it. Mount the disk image and then open DVD Player (in Applications) and view your project. If it plays correctly, you can then burn the actual DVD disk from the disk image file using Disk Utility.
From. Boise, Idaho
I did everything I've seen suggested, but a friend (who used to be an Apple Genius) suggested that I do a safe reboot (by holding down the shift key until you see the spinning gear on gray background, then release, then restart when your start-up screen appears).
It worked, and I got a clean burn from iDVD.
Hopefully this can help other people.
by dheb0422
Well, I finally got it, and it was odd enough to post here incase anyone looks this topic up again. Many things were tried, including burning the unedited film, the edited film without titles and chapter markers, abbreviating the chapter markers in case length was the issue (remember the old iMovie used to truncate them when moving to iDVD?). In the process, I noticed that one, and only one, chapter marker was on the same line as the title marker. All the others were on the line above. The only way I seemed able to change that was to clip a few seconds of film. After that last clip, the offending marker took a place on the line above, as were all the others. That run published, compiled completely and burned. That's one for the books.
One user more writes
To add my experience with Multiplex Errors using iDVD (7.0.4), I recently created two iDVD projects
Video from both passed from FCE 4.01 with chapters
One project worked fine in creating disk image file
The other gave Multiplex Errors
I tried suggestions to remove special characters and no chapter marks at beginning, but nothing worked
Note that I've used iDVD for dozens of projects and this is first time I've run into Multiplex Errors
Anyway, for problem project, I tried an experiment where I removed all chapters in FCE and passed to new iDVD project
This time multiplex errors gone
So had something to do with chapters
So now I tried numerous experiments to remove individual chapters and try again creating disk image with new iDVD project
After numerous tries, I was able to narrow problem down to 1 "Bad" chapter mark
That is, when I left the "bad" chapter in my FCE project and passed to iDVD, iDVD gave multiplex error
When I removed "bad" chapter mark (and others in), no multiplex error
As a final experiment, I moved "bad" chapter mark about 5-10 sec's beyond original point and passed to iDVD, the multiplex errors now magically went away and I was able to finally create my disk image.
I have no idea why this worked, but thought I'd mention here in case someone else runs into similar problem.
Rich839
In addition to Bengt's fine advice, burning errors can occur if you have located any of your menu buttons wholly or partly outside of the safe TV viewing area. Go to your main project menu, then click on View/Show TV Safe Area, to check. Drag into the safe viewing area any buttons that are outside the safe viewing area.
Russ One - suggest this
Multiplex Error-There was an error during muxing preparation
One thing that worked for me was to export the video w/o chapter markers as a self contained movie (thereby not loosing the edits & etc). Then make a new FCE project and import that movie into a new sequence and add the chapter markers. I've used "-", "&" and "," with no problem in the chapter names. Removing the markers or exporting without them did solve the problem but renaming them with just numbers 1,2,3....5, did not solve the problem and since this problem seems to happen with with iMovie as well, it would suggest the problem is in the video or audio and in combination with the chapter markers iDVD just can't handle it. The only other possibility is that both iMovie and FCE share the same or similar chapter marker code that some how is corrupting the markers.
Summary - What to try
1. Chapters
• Only A to Z and 0 to 9 in chapter title
• No Chapter mark at very beginning of movie
• No Chapter mark in or within 2 seconds from any transition in movie
2. TV-safe area for buttons (no one outside this)
3. Safe re-boot
4. No other external devices connected - that are not needed
SDMacuser adds to this
• On #4 ... No ext. devices. Some think this applies mainly to ext. FW. Not the case. Also applies to ext. USB2 as well (not to mention flash drives too).
Do not leave 3rd party devices / camera / camcorder plugged in unless it is being used with iDvd's One Step process. Certain web cams can trigger this also (especially ones with added features like LED light/s that draw additional power from the FW or USB bus).
5. Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-up hard disk
6. Make a DiskImage first - reduces where problem originates
7. Trash iDVD pref. file
8. Make a new iDVD project
9. Movies in project with same aspect ratio e.g. 4x3 or 16x9
10. No other programs/applications running during iDVD process. e.g. Internet, screen & energy savers
Yours Bengt W

This is my first time using iphoto, I am trying to make a slide show that I can then burn to a dvd. The slide show is complete, but I'm not sure where to go now. Can I burn the slide show from iphoto or do I have to export to imovie or idvd?

I have completed the slide show i am making, but not sure what to do now. I want to burn it to a dvd, but not sure if i can do that from iphoto or do i need to export to imovie or idvd? If i need to export, will iphoto save a copy in iphoto? This may be really stupid, but I don't see an obvious way to save my slide show in iphoto. Please Help!

Export the slideshow out of iPhoto as a QT movie file via the Export button in the lower toolbar. Select Size = Medium or Large.
Open iDVD, select a theme and drag the exported QT movie file into the open iDVD window being careful to avoid any drop zones.
Follow this workflow to help assure the best quality video DVD:
Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.
To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.
Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.
If iDVD was not preinstalled on your Mac you'll have to obtain it by purchasing a copy of the iLife 09 disk from a 3rd party retailer like Amazon.com: ilife 09: Software or eBay.com. Why, because iDVD (and iWeb) was discontinued by Apple over a year ago.
Why iLife 09 instead of 11?
If you have to purchase an iLife disc in order to obtain the iDVD application remember that the iLife 11 disc only provides themes from iDVD 5-7. The Software Update no longer installs the earlier themes when starting from the iLIfe 11 disk nor do any of the iDVD 7 updaters available from the Apple Downloads website contain them.
Currently the only sure fire way to get all themes is to start with the iLife 09 disc:
This shows the iDVD contents in the iLife 09 disc via Pacifist:
You then can upgrade from iDVD 7.0.3 to iDVD 7.1.2 via the updaters at the Apple Downloads webpage.
NOTE: If you're running iPhoto 9.5 the export options will be different.
OT

16:9 SD Camcorder to iMovie to iDVD

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