IDVD fails at "writing lead in"

I'm trying to create a DVD in iMovie and burn in iDVD. The source file is a DVD that was made from a straight video transfer that my friend made of a low budget movie. That DVD is not encoded with anything.
I ripped in Handbrake and threw it into iMovie, made clips and chapters, yadda yadda. Exported to iDVD. In iDVD I selected one of the 6.0 themes, created backgrounds with still frames I modified in Comic Life and using music I ripped from the audio. Looks great, works fine in iDVD. Then I try to burn.
It takes hours to encode and when I get to Step 5 "burn", it quits after "writing lead in" and says there were problems with the burn process, but doesn't specify anything. It ejects the disk, which is still blank and usable.
As far as trouble shooting goes, I have 53 gigs of free space and have repaired preferences and disk in disk utility. I made a test DVD of some photos using the same theme and media (HP, not sure + or -) and it came out fine. So what gives?
Message was edited by: petehnek

Thanks for the reply. I created a disk image last night but didn't have the time this morning to burn it. I tried a quick and dirty in disk utility but I didn't see a "burn" option. Is that in the pulldown menu? The image did play in DVD.
Message was edited by: petehnek

Similar Messages

IDVD quits while writing lead in showing 3 minutes left

Start to burn disk and audio and video starts but as soon as it gets to "writing lead-in" it shows 3 minutes remaing. Progress bar stops moving. Drive ejects disk before it's done burning.
Using iDVD 7.1.2
Doing a Share to iDVD from iMovie 11.
Used Memorex dvd-r and Verbatim dvd-r with same results.
Made disk image that appears to be ok.
Is this proving to be bad DVD disk or is this something internal?

Thanks for the info.
I set burn to 4 x and best quality. Also used a more generic brand of DVD.
Combined it seemed to work.
I found out through an outside source that the coating on maxells wont work with older super drives.
The Verbatim didn't work either. It may have not worked because I bought the ones that are printed to look like vintage super 8 film reel. That extra layer of ink and coating may be part of the problem.
I got some generic office max dvd's. Worked fine.

Idvd ejects the disk during the "multiplexing and burning" / "writing lead-in" portion. When I check, there's nothing on the disk

idvd ejects the disk during the "multiplexing and burning" / "writing lead-in" portion. When I check, there's nothing on the disk.

What brand and type of disk are you using? What speed are you burning at? Are you able to create a disk image of the project?
Try this basic troubleshooting fix:
1 - delete the IDVD preference file, com.apple.iDVD.plist, that resides in your
User/Home/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete IDVD'S cache file, Cache.db, that is located in your
User/Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.iDVD folder.
3 - launch IDVD and try again.
NOTE: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Home/Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and hit the Enter button - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.

IDVD 09' Freezes when writing lead-out.

Everything seems to work fine until it gets to "writing lead-out" it then seems to freeze up, after about 15-20 minutes it will eject my dvd disc, the screen stays the same as if it's still writing the lead-out. When i play back the dvd disc it stops playing about 1 minute into the movie. but if i play the copy on my hard drive (the one i'm trying to burn to disc) it works fine. Any ideas? Thanks for your time.
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03

Hi DJHYPE
Welcome to apple discussions. Sorry to hear you are having troubles burning to Dvd-R.
Suggestion: Let's narrow things down a bit. Try burning a disc image first to the desktop. You can do that from the file menu within iDvd. Next I'd like you to test the disc image with apple's dvd player app. Assuming it plays as expected, then burn to Verbatim, Maxell, or Tiaiyo Yuden at 4x. Please avoid Memorex while trobleshooting. Thereafter / once we have the issue resolved, feel free to burn to whatever media works best for you and your mac.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1583?viewlocale=en_US
Hope this helps but if not just come on back.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Writing lead-out problem ...?

Howdy All,
I am using iDVD6 to burn a project to RIDATA DVD+R DL discs. The burn in iDVD6 90% of the time fails at the end (no error logs). However, after playing the DVD on a number of players (computer and dedicated) the DVD seems to be fine (all aspects - movie, slides, finish etc).
A hint at the problem may be that when I use Toast to burn data to the same discs it fails at writing the "Lead-Out" with Mac OS Error -5001. Searching the Internet hasn't really told me much about either of those (Lead-Out) or Mac OS Error -5001.
Burns have worked fine on the Samsung TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S182D DVD Burner before, with other media (Imation DVD+R DL). However, writing the lead-out also failed on an Imation disc when retrying it after it failed on a RIDATA disc. DVD burns the Imation succeed.
Would anyone have any idea of what is happening? Can I just ignore the problem? Is there any easy way I can do a bitwise compare of the DVD and, say, a disk image? Does iDVD do a verify of the burn (although having it tell me the burn failed isn't a good sign if it does)?
If this is a media issue, which I assume it is (although the Imation failing is a problem), what has it go to do with writing the lead-out?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions, experience, comments.
Cheers,
Ashley Aitken.

Hi Klaus,
Thanks for that, I kind-of guessed what "lead out" was about but thanks for giving all the details.
You don't provide any information on what Mac you
have, what OS, how much RAM (example: see my profile
at the bottom of this post), which would help a lot
in diagnosing your problem.
Power Mac G5 - original single CPU model (can't recall the speed) with 2GB RAM etc.
New Samsung DVD Burner (as indicated in previous post), original drive didn't burn dual layer disks.
I've since found that my "backup" with Toast (spanning multiple DVD+R DLs) that failed the Lead Out actually bit-compares with the original.
As the DVDs which failed also seem to work fine in DVD players and on the computer, I wonder if this is really a significant error.
Many here find that Verbatim DVD-R, as well as Fuji
DVD-R, give the fewest problems, even more so when
they are burned at only 2x or 4x.
Thanks that info - its unfortunate we have to burn at slower speeds than the drive is rated - kind of beats the purpose ...
I've previously had pretty good results with Imation DVD+R DL but wanted something that was inkjet printable (DL).
I could only find RiData locally. I now know that they are though of as second tier media, so perhaps the media is the problem.
Cheers,
Ashley.

Writing lead-out never finishes

Weird problem.
Project burns correctly, but iDVD 5 will sit on "Writing lead-out" forever. The first time this happened, I forced-quit iDVD 5, but could not eject the disk. I waited about 30 minutes before I forced-quit, then rebooted the system. I was able to eject the disk than, and it worked perfectly in my set top DVD player, as well as in the DVD player app.
Tried to burn again, this time let iDVD run overnight. Woke up this morning to see it still "writing lead-out". As before, the disk worked perfectly, but it required a force-quit/reboot in order for me to eject.
What's going on, and how do I fix it? This is a new clean install of 10.4, just wiped the system last week.

'Writing lead-out' can take a long time - especially on 'short' discs - but overnight is too long.
I suppose you could have a media problem or write speed problem (either of which can produce lots of burn errors).
Have you tried creating a disk image instead of writing directly to writable media?

"writing lead-in" problem

hello
we are experiencing an very frustrating problem. we are burning a Dual Layer disk with a one hour video, and a slide show. We have followed all of the pointers listed here about compatible file types and audio files. When we go to burn the disk it goes through all the processes until we get to "Burn" and then it simply ejects our disk (we have tried several different blank disks) and it gives the following message, "Current operation: Writing lead-in..." . the progress bar keeps going but nothing happens. Even if we put the disk back in this message remains.
We have tried the same process on the imac internal DVD burner as well as an external Sony DVD burner with the same result.
Does anyone know what "Writing lead-in" means and can you guess what might be causing idvd to eject our disk at this point?
Thanks in advance.
Bruce Trono

Hi Bruce!
For what it is worth, 'Lead In':
Marks the start of each session on the disc.
The process of writing a lead-in and lead-out is called disc fixation and it generates a new disc session.
On CD media it is the area that contains the TOC data and precedes each program area. The main channel in the Lead-in area contains audio or data null information. This area is coded as track zero. The Q Sub-channel in this area is coded with the Table of Contents information.
The DVD Lead-in area is the area comprising physical sectors 1.2 mm wide or more adjacent to the inside of the Data area. The area contains the Control data and precedes the Data area.
Which helps not a lot in diagnosing your problem!
Like F Shippey asked, what media are you using, and are you sure you have a superdrive that can burn dual layer disks?
Indeed, why are using dual layer disks when the project is only one hour long?

IDVD crashes while writing

So lately my IDVD program has been crashing while it writes whatever asset I've assigned to it. It goes through the encoding video/audio just fine, and it'll start writing, but before it manages to finish writing, or it gets to the Writing lead-out stage, it'll suddenly crash and that box will pop up and say, "iDVD quit unexpectedly".
I have been keeping my GBs above 25, so that's not the problem. Is there anything else I should do, or try?

Hi
*Not knowing the origin to Your problem - General approach when in trouble is as follows.*
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk if it is less than 10Gb should rather have 25Gb
• Hard disk is untidy. Repair Permissions, Repair Hard disk (Apple Disc Util tool)
• Delete iDVD pref file - *or rather start a new user/account* - log into this and re-try
iDVD pref file resides. Mac Hard Disk (start-up HD)/Users/"Your account"/Library/Preferences and is named.
com.apple.iDVD.plist
While iDVD is NOT RUNNING - move this file out to desk-top.
Now restart iDVD.
• Program miss-match. iDVD 5.0.2, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.5.5 - is OK - DON’T work under Leopard
• Program miss-match. iDVD 6.0.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.5.5 - is OK (might work under Leopard)
• Program miss-match. iDVD’08 v. 7.0.1, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.5.5 - is OK (might work under Leopard)
• iDVD (08) v7 Locate theme folder. Move out iDVD1, iDVD 2 and eventually iDVD4 folders to desktop - re-try
• Try a Cleaning CD/DVD that cleans the laser lens on the DVD burner/player
iDVD 6.0.4 and iDVD 7.0.1 are compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Last resort. from Craig. Solved the problem!! Finally!!
I deleted every iDVD application and folder from my boot drive,
emptied the trash and then installed iDVD 08 using the customize option
and I am up and running.
If You do a re-install be sure to get rid of all iDVD old parts AND then EMPTY the Trash-basket !
iDVD updated ?
Apple Codec updated ?
Start a New Clean project - or delete project assets
Yours Bengt W

IMovie less than an hour. share to iDVD failed. read to share to media browser. worked for one movie. tried on different one and iDVD hung up and had to use force quit to get out of it. tried several times -- same result. suggestions?

iMovie less than an hour in length. share to iDVD failed. read in support to share to media browser. then made DVD through iDVD. worked for one movie. tried on different one and iDVD hung up and had to use force quit to get out of it. tried several times -- same result. suggestions?

Why start a new and very similar thread to your other one which you have not responded to (have you read the replies?)
I suggest that no response is made to this duplicate thread.

DSP hangs on writing lead out

Has anyone else experienced this? I'm simply burning a disc with a :30 clip as the sole title and it's the first play. The encoding seems to go along fine, but the writing lead-out takes forever. When I force quit the app, I can't eject the disc without rebooting. When I test the disc, it plays fine.
Am I doing something wrong or is this a software issue?

Has anyone else had trouble with certain brands of media?
You can find here info * about quality media *. You can use Toast to read the manufacturer ID in your media to double check its not a fake one. Try to use allways first quality media.
Besides that, you must find your best combination of madia brand + burner. In my personal case, I found the best results using Sony DVD-R . . . the ones that don't work for you !
You can try * Creating Disc Image in DVDSP * and burning with Toastand/or Disk Utility.
Hope that helps !
Alberto

Writing Lead-out

"Writing lead-out" seems to take forever - ten minutes anyway. Why? Is there a way to speed this up? I had a two minute DVD that I can burn quickly but then writing lead-out goes on and on.
Thanks

and it will go on and on.
What is surprising, is that the longer the DVD, the shorter the write out.
But writing the lead out on really short DVDs takes a bunch of time. No way to speed it up.
best wishes
David
Remember to mark a response helpful or solved

Idvd fails to open

Idvd fails to open. Mine is 6-04. Any advice?
thank you
coco

Perhaps you could try downloading and installing the update package again?
iDVD 6.0.4: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL191
iDVD 7.1.2: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1414

IDVD (and Toast) never complete writing lead-outs

Hi,
I've noticed occasionally that when using Toast 7 and iDVD 6 that during the writing process, the application in question persists on writing the lead-out. I understand what the correlation between lead-out and DVD playing length are. However, the drive just spins and spins for hours if left to do so. It is a Pioneer DVR-109 (not Apple blessed). The media is Memorex DVD-R 16x and I frankly haven't spent time trying other media yet.
I'm unable to halt the spinning by any means other than rebooting the computer. Usually, the result is fine. Sometimes the DVD doesn't conclude viewing properly.
Any thoughts? Thanks!

Yup, the Memorex disks have been a bit problematic. I was able to burn to an image with iDVD.
I happened to have some TEON DVD-R 8x media a friend gave for another project, and that worked fine. The Memorex 16x media burned at 8x had the same issue.
I had had poor experiences with Verbatim media in the past. But co-workers have raved about the DL disks and the single-layer ones lately. Perhaps I will give them a try.
Thanks!

IDVD failed to render movies...will not burn

I created a movie on iMovie and then brought it in to iDVD. When I hit burn it told me that it failed to render movies and will not burn what can I do?

hi Ed:
Why not try saving as a disk image and then burning that from the Disk Utility?
Sue

IDVD failing to encode audio

Help ! I am making a DVD for the high school baseball team and the banquet is next week. I did the same thing 2 years ago without incident. My iMovie is a slideshow of digital photos set to music. When transferring to iDVD, it encodes the menu, encodes the video (takes 2 hours) and then fails to encode the audio. The colored circle spins for a few minutes. The burn circle stops spinning. My laptop (Powerbook G4) spits out the DVD disc blank. I tried taking off all songs expect one that I used 2 years ago without incident. Did not work either. I am very very disappointed. The kids were going to love this. Any ideas ? If worst case scenario occurs, is there someplace (I live in Ann Arbor) I can take the iMovie file to and have them make a DVD ? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I am working with iMovie 5 and iDVD 5. Will it help to upgrade to ILife 06 ? Thanks

I only have 1.21 GB at this time because I
transferred the iMovie to my laptop. Having said
that, the reason I put it on my laptop is that I made
the iMovie on an external hard drive with over 300
GB. The problem first occurred on the external hard
drive (Western Digital). I thought moving it to my
laptop might make a difference. It did not.
iDVD needs to use your start-up hard drive for many things when creating a DVD. You need to freeup at least 10 GB (15 or 20 would be better) for things to work.
My son plays for Huron. We split with Pioneer. I live in A2
but went to ND. Are you still willing to help me ?
Certainly - but since I live near Rochester, NY all I can do is offer written support here in the Forum
Just as a general rule of thumb, OS-X needs something like 10 to 15% of your drive kept free of OS use. So if you have a 60 GB drive, you will need something like 6 GB free JUST FOR THE OS! That's why I said you need to freeup about 10 to 20 GB.
The problem first occurred on the external hard drive (Western Digital)
What is the format on this drive? They usually ship with a Windows format and need to be reformatted to a Mac format to work well with all things Mac OS-X.
F Shippey

IDVD fails at "writing lead in"

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for