IDVD Project location

When launching iDVD 6 and selecting "Open an Existing Project", it doesn't "default" to any projects. I know they're out there, but I can't seem to find them. BTW, I just did the iLife upgrade.
1. Does anyone know where I should be looking for existing projects?
2. Is there any way to look for files with the dvdproj extension?
All I can do is Create a New Project, but can't find my existing ones unless I remember the names of the projects and open them via Spotlight.
I looked in the following location - -
/private/var/tmp/folders.501/TemporaryItems
- - but it was empty!
Thanks!
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hmmm - OK, but that sounds like hard-coding of some sort? A bit un-Apple-like?
It does seem strange when other apps in the same suite allow you to choose your destination folders.
I've seen saving it to external hard drives be a
big problem for iDVD.
Uh-Oh! That's exactly what I have done!! I've not had problems so far, but I've only just got the drive (LaCie d2) and burnt my very first DVD yesterday.
I'll keep a very careful eye on things.
Thanks a lot for the advice
Jim

Similar Messages

How do I create a new iDVD project without a theme

I completed an iMovie HD project with an opening title (white letters on black) and all my edited film clips, transitions, sound, etc. It's just the way I want it when I play it back in iMovie. I shared it to Media Browser so I could import it into iDVD. When I start the new iDVD project is appears to force me to choose a Theme. I don't want a new theme. I just want my movie to look just the way I created in iMovie. How do I over ride this step?

A couple of ways to do this ....
1. What I recommend is an "AutoStart Dvd" which involves dragging and dropping your QT movie / file while in mapview to the first / top box. This allows the movie to play in Kiosk Mode and you can also select the loop function so essentially you never actually see a start menu (just the movie) since the dvd will automatically play as soon as it's inserted into most set top dvd players or computers. (the following pic is from iDvd6 however the procedure is idential in iDvd'08 as well).
Click Here
Click Here
2. A One Step Dvd from a QT movie / file is also possible and this approach has no menu at all.
To burn a OneStep DVD from a movie on your hard disk:
With iDVD open, choose File > “OneStep DVD from Movie.” as pictured above.
Locate the movie you want to add in the dialog that opens, then click Import.
Insert a blank DVD disc into your computer’s SuperDrive or an external drive when you are prompted to do so.
Hope this helps but if not just come on back.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

How do I move an iDVD project to external

I recently upgraded to iDVD '08 and see that now, one of the output selections is iDVD, meaning it goes straight to that. When this is selected, it automatically begins creating the file as opposed to asking where you'd like to store it. It ended up in my documents on my HD. I figured no worry, I'd just move it over to my ext HD since it was over 2GB. But when I did this and tried to open it, it said 2 files were missing. So, couple of questions. First, I remember with the last that you just output a file that you then, yourself, dragged into iDVD. This seemed very easy. But with this way, it seems to automate it. How can I output so that is does it the old way, where it generates a file that I can place in iDVD myself, and that I can store on an external. Second, if that's not possible, what files do I need to locate to move to the ext, where do they hide, and where should I store them?
Why do they make what was perfectly easy, hard?

If I understand you correctly, you are actually asking two different questions.
1. Do you mean that with iMovie 08, when you select to 'share' your movie to iDVD that iDVD opens a new project automatically?
You do not have to use the output options in iMovie. Just close your iMovie and open iDVD yourself, choose to create a new project, select a theme, then go to the Media tab, then 'Movies,' locate your iMovie and drag it onto iDVD's main screen. Be careful not to drop it into a menu Drop Zone.
2. You also would like to have your iDVD project saved to a different location than the default 'Documents' file. When you open iDVD and create a new project, you will see a dropdown box showing Documents as the save location. You can change that right from that drop box.
However, it is recommended that you save your project on your computer's drive, not an external drive. The iDVD application itself must run from your computer. Some users have successfully created and burned projects located on other drives, but many have run into problems.
You can certainly save your completed iDVD projects to an external drive by doing a 'save as disk image' from within the iDVD project. This will look like the burn process, and take just as long for the encoding, but the end result is a disk image file, not a burned DVD disk. The disk image file is a self-contained file that is an exact replica of your iDVD project. It can be moved without losing the ability to burn DVD disks from it in the future.
Remember that an iDVD project itself should be thought of as a container that has references to media files used in it, but it does not actually CONTAIN the media files. When a DVD is burned from an iDVD project, iDVD locates the needed media and copies it for the burn, doing this for each disk burned. Sometimes there are burn 'glitches' where the first DVD disk burns fine, but others may not. Also with an iDVD project, if you rename, move, change or delete any of the files used in the project, iDVD will be unable to locate them and will not be able to open properly. With a saved disk image file, you can safely delete the original iDVD project and the original iMovie, thus saving drive space.
Burning DVD disks form a disk image file using Disk Utility or Toast is a better way to burn DVD disks since the files are all encoded in the disk image file and do not have to be copied in each time.
Please post back if any of this is not clear, or does not answer what you need to know.

Saving and reopening an iDVD project from a hard drive - HELP!

Hello! I am a moderately experienced user of iLife and am starting to use it for a business(memorial videos, sports highlight videos, etc) My problem is this: After I finish a project and export it to iDVD I want to save it to my external hard drive and store it there(like a file cabinet for all my finished projects, so that I can come back to them later, if needed) and I am having difficulty when I do this and then go back to open it - iDVD can't find my files for the pictures and sometimes the audio and video. This said, this is my process: Create project in iMovie, export to Garage Band to create chapters, export to iDVD.(this is 08 BTW) At every step I save to the desktop. Then when I am finished burning my DVD, I create a folder(eg., Bob and Kate's Wedding) on my hard drive and put all the media from the desktop in that folder(eg, the iMovie file, the Garage Band file, the iDVD file and a folder of the pictures I used also.
If anyone can shed some light on a better process, or maybe a reason why I cannot just go into my hard drive and double click the iDVD project and burn extra copies, that would be fantastic!
I appreciate any insight. I love doing this work, but with 3 kids, I rarely get time to research the answers to my questions outside of this board!!!
TIA - Lis

Hi Mamalisa
iDVD can't find my files for the pictures and sometimes the audio and video.
And welcome to apple discussions. If you plan to do further modifications to your iDvd project then follow these steps. (btw, iDvd doesn't like it when you change the actual location of video / audio assets once encoded / burned to DVD-R unless it's saved or rather archived beforehand).
On the other hand if you plan no further changes then you may wish to follow this instead of the above.
By sdmacuser at 2009-09-03
Hope this helps but if not just come on back.

Portrait orientation not recognised in Older iDVD project

I have posted some of these symptoms in various places, but I have had so many issues with this upgrade that I haven't had the time to thoroughly address each on in detail.
I upgraded ti iLife06 over the weekend and now an iDVD project that I started in iDVD 5 is significantly "messed up".
Firstly, it cannot find the images in the new iPhoto Library's new paradigm for folder management. So I have to locate these manually. I have tried to point iDVD to both the "Modified" iPhoto Library folder and the "Originals". Not sure which is correct. (I know that some have advised duplicating your old iPhoto library and pointing iDVD 6 to the "old" version)
Second, after manually locating all of the photos included in the iDVD project, iDVD does not seem to recognise that some of the photos are Portrait orientation. These were automatically rotated by my camera and imported into iPhoto accordingly.
Does anyone have an idea why iDVD 6 cannot do this AND how to fix it?
Thanks,
J.E. Flynn

I have posted some of these symptoms in various places, but I have had so many issues with this upgrade that I haven't had the time to thoroughly address each on in detail.
I upgraded ti iLife06 over the weekend and now an iDVD project that I started in iDVD 5 is significantly "messed up".
Firstly, it cannot find the images in the new iPhoto Library's new paradigm for folder management. So I have to locate these manually. I have tried to point iDVD to both the "Modified" iPhoto Library folder and the "Originals". Not sure which is correct. (I know that some have advised duplicating your old iPhoto library and pointing iDVD 6 to the "old" version)
Second, after manually locating all of the photos included in the iDVD project, iDVD does not seem to recognise that some of the photos are Portrait orientation. These were automatically rotated by my camera and imported into iPhoto accordingly.
Does anyone have an idea why iDVD 6 cannot do this AND how to fix it?
Thanks,
J.E. Flynn

Is there a way to exort an iDVD project back to iMovie?

Hi.
I need some help please!
I made a training video a couple of years ago for a friend's company. She now would like to have additional copies burned. The problem is I saved the dvd project on my hard drive, but I deleted the imovie project.
Of course, this time she needs to change her company logo in the intro (which would require me to remove the first 5 seconds of the original movie)... and I'm unable to edit it. Can I extract the movie some how? or if save it as an "archive" would I then be able to move it to iMovie?
I would really appreciate feedback!

The answer depends on what you have available.
The best method is to locate the movie footage used in the original iMovie and reimport that into another iMovie project and create a new iDVD project with it. There will be no loss of quality.
Just so you know, saving your iDVD project is nearly useless without saving the movie that is in it. An iDVD project is not self-contained. Think of it as a file that holds aliases. When you create an iDVD project, the iMovie used is referenced, not physically moved into the iDVD project. Same for any photos or audio files used. It is unlike an iMovie project (at least version 6) where the movies, photos and audios ARE moved into the iMovie project. When iDVD burns a project, it collects the referenced files for the burn, but does not keep them permanently in its project. So, if you have saved any iDVD projects, and you did NOT save the media used, all you have is the 'shell' of the iDVD project. If you open it, iDVD will not be able to locate the missing media and will alert you that it cannot find the proper files.
If this is the case, and you no longer have the original movie footage, or you don't want to have to re-edit it, you will need to get one of the burned DVD disks, and extract the movie from it.
Any type of extraction of compressed data will result in some loss of quality because the data must be decompressed and then recompressed again for another DVD.
If you don't have one of the DVDs you previously burned for this project, you will not be able to create another iDVD project from the first one, and without the original movie footage, you are out of luck.
If you do have one of the old DVDs, you can use a variety of software to extract out the video: Handbrake, Ripit, or Streamclip. I have not looked into Handbrake, but many use it and think it works well. Ripit will extract the video into format for iMovie....seems easy enough as reviewed in MacWorld recently. Others use Streamclip.
If you think that you will need to create more DVDs of this project, or if you would like to save your complete iDVD projects in the future so you can burn more DVDs, you should do a 'Save as Disk Image' from within the iDVD project for each one. This process looks exactly like the burning process, with the same encoding and taking the same length of time to complete, but the end result is a disk image file, not a burned DVD disk.
The advantages of having a disk image file are several:
First, it is self-contained, with all the media data encoded in it. So now, you CAN safely delete both the original iDVD project and its original iMovie without losing the ability to burn disks in the future.
Another advantage is that it can be a backup for all your burned DVD disks. What if a disk is damaged/breaks/melts/ etc.? With a disk image file, you just burn another one.
Disk image files save drive space because they are smaller than the combination iDVD project /iMovie projects used to create them.
You never need to worry about renaming, moving, deleting or changing any of the media used in any of your projects causing iDVD to lose connection with them. All the media encoding is in the disk image file.
And, another advantage is that you can burn DVDs from the disk image file, using Disk Utility or Toast, getting more consistent burns, since you are not depending on iDVD to pull in the media.
Here are some helps for creating a disk image in iDVD:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/6733.html
Burning from a disk image using Disk Utility:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2087?viewlocale=en_US
If you have some previously burned DVD disks and you think you would like to have had disk images for them, you can create a disk image file from a burned DVD disk.
Here are instructions for that:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2059?viewlocale=en_US

Error message opening iDVD project

Need some help figuring this out. I have completed my first DVD project. It is a simple slideshow of a recent trip. I made an image yesterday and it played OK and its 625 MG.
I decided to burn it to my LaCie external burner today, but I can't even open the project. I get the following message: Connection Failed: This file server is running on your machine. Please access the volumes and files locally.
I've tried opening the project by clicking on it or through iDVD and get the same results. I've restarted my Mac. I've always been able to open the project previously as I worked on it.
Your advice to solve this problem would be invaluable. Thanks!

Where are your images stored? Where is the iDVD project stored? How does a 'file server' come into play? What is on the network?
I think you've hit on the problem if I'm understanding. The images and the project are stored on my computer. However, when I first tried burning this project about a month ago, I had an error message (can't recall what it was). I decided after that incident that my processor was too slow (700 MHz Power PC G4).
I decided I would use our iMacG5 which has a faster burner so I used our network to transfer the project to the iMac from my eMac. The image I had created played well but I started having problems when I wanted to open the project and burn the DVD. For one thing, the iMac only has iDVD 4. I could see that this wasn't going to work so I went back to the eMac.
Is there any way to salvage all my work. I really don't want to start over.
When you create an iDVD 6 project, the assets you used remain in their original location - if ANYTHING changes , you have a problem.
The photos I used are still in iPhoto and the original project is still on my hard drive. Do you need any other information?

Can't open saved iDVD project

I've been working on my first iDVD project for some time now using iMovie/iDVD08. The first version (movie and slideshow) works fine and I can open the associated .dvdproj file and make amendments if and as required. The DVD which was produced looks good.
However, as it's a 57-minute long movie, I was keen to introduce chapters. I used GarageBand for this purpose, sent the movie with chapters back to iDVD and added appropriate Scene menus. All worked fine on my computer. I saved the new project and retrieved it (just to be sure to be sure). All OK so far. I burned a new DVD which looks good and scene selection works great, however ....
can't now retrieve the .dvdproj. Any attempt to do so causes iDvd to hang. Activity monitor shows "Encoder server not responding." I need to force quit this process and also iDvd itself to get out of this bind. Very frustrating. I've been through this entire process now twice (recreating from first chapter-free version) and the problem recurs.
Can anybody assist?

Hello, Conor,
Welcome to the discussions.
First, you should delete iDVD's preference file. With iDVD closed, go to your home folder(YourUserName)/Library/Preferences/com.apple.idvd.plist.
Drag this plist file to the trash. Don't worry; iDVD will create a new fresh one when you relaunch it.
See if you can open your project now.
Post back if this did not work.
Now, if you had an iDVD project that burned successfully, and you still have that iDVD project saved, you should be able to open it just as you did when you were working on it. Getting that message about the encoder server not responding is strange. Your project should already have encoded since you were able to burn a DVD. That problem may be resolved by deleting the plist file. You might also try just shutting down the computer and restarting it.
However, remember that iDVD is not like iMovie where the project's contents are actually saved within the project. An iDVD project should be thought of as a virtual or alias project. Its files point to their location on your computer. So, your iMovie is not physically within iDVD's files. If you move or delete any files that your iDVD project needs, iDVD will not be able to locate them.
It is highly recommended that you do a 'save as disc image' for each of your iDVD projects. This process looks just as if iDVD is burning a disk, but it is creating a disk image that can be used to do the actual burn, using Disk Utility.
It is useful to keep your projects as their disk images to do further disk-burning of that project in the future. The disk images cannot be edited, so be sure you are completely finished editing your project before creating a disk image. A disk image is a self-contained file, so you no longer need to keep your original iMovie or iDVD projects. Keeping only the disk images will also save drive space.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/6733.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93006
Why do you still need the iDVD project if you have already burned your DVD? If you want to make further edits to your iMovie and burn a new DVD, you can always recreate your iDVD project.....not the simplest solution, nut once you have created an iDVD project, it is usually fairly quick to recreate it .
If you just want to burn more disks from that project, you can always use the first DVD to make a disk image of your project, and use that disk image for further burning.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1945.html

Old iDVD projects won't load correctly!

Hi,
A few years ago I bought a Titanium Powerbook and made many iDVD projects with it in iDVD 4 and iDVD 5. I recently migrated all my stuff over to my new Intel Mac. I tried opening my old projects in iDVD 6, but it says it doesn't have the theme I used (Sky), so it reverts to the 'Travel' theme and all the fonts and placement of menus is screwed up. Can someone please help me? I've spent countless hours on all of these old projects and would like to retrieve them on my new Mac. I almost always used 'Sky' because it was a simple theme where I could just drop all of menu screens I created in Photoshop. Re-creating each menu all over again would be unbearable!
Thanks!

SKY is one of the very old themes that dates before iDVD 3.
As you have found out, it is not included in the iDVD versions that come with new machines.
Do you still have your Ti book?
Apple has changed the location of the iDVD themes - in iDVD 4 and earlier, the themes are in the application package. That changed - I think in iDVD5 and they are in another location in the Library.
If you still have your old machine, there is a very slight chance you might be able to use the extracted Sky theme in newer versions.
Otherwise, you need to bite the bullet and redesign your projects. Green linen is fairly plane and you might be able to use it as a basis for your redesigned themes.

None of my finished idvd projects have audio, although they did in the past. Also, none of and none of the idvd themes have audio, although they always used to open with accompanying audio.

None of my finishsed idvd projects have audio, although many were finished and had audio before. Also, none of the idvid themes have audio, although in the past they each opened with their own canned audio. Any ideas on where the audio went and how to get it back?

In addition to deleting the iDVD preference file delete the contents of the iDVD cache folder:
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.
OT

Burning iDVD projects with external LaCie burner

I recently purchased a LaCie DL d2 DVD RW with LightScribe 16x from LaCie (12/07/2007). The primary reason for my purchase was that I wished to create/burn iDVD projects on my iMac computer. The reason that I needed this product was due to the fact that, when I purchased my iMac, I made an error and ordered the iMac with a combo rather than SuperDrive. So, while I am able to create iDVD projects and iMovies, I am unable to burn DVDs with my project.
Thus far, however, I have not been able to burn a DVD with any of my products. When I attempt a “burn” the Creating your DVD menu appears and when I put in a blank DVD+RW 4x 4/7GB, it goes through the process (Prepare,,, Process Menus... Process Slideshows... Process Movies and Burn procedures). The DVD is then ejected and a message says its done and is “cleaning up.” However, that message never leaves the screen and when I click on the “Cancel” button, nothing happens. The iDVD application seems to lock up and I have to do a “force quit.”
I have tried this with three different project, all with the same result. When I place the supposed “burn” DVD in the Combo Drive, it spins for a while and kicks the DVD out.
I have also tried launching Toast Titanium (software that came with the LaCie burner). However, I see no place where I can “drag & drop” a iDVD product to the “drop zone.’
Can you help me out. Should I be able to burn iDVD projects with this unit? If so, what am I doing wrong.
Thanks for any help that you can provide.
Jeff White

"Should I be able to burn iDVD projects with _*this unit?*_"
Which "model" & "generation" G5 iMac do you have?
Need this info so that the knowledgeable users can provide you with the proper troubleshooting solution(s).
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301724-en How to identify your iMac
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh355.html Getting information about your computer
You can have this info displayed on the bottom of every post by going to 'My Settings' which is located in the column on the right under your name, and filling in the information asked for.
Thank you
Have you contacted LaCie Support?

Can't burn new DVD on older iDVD project

I made an iDVD project with all our summer pics for the kids, and burned DVDs for them. I got the pics from folders I'd made in iPhoto. Now I'm trying to burn another DVD and get the following message: Errors in Project. There were errors during the project validation. These errors have to be fixed before burning the project."
I have no idea what the errors are - the only thing I've done since burning the original DVDs is delete the old folders in iPhoto. The pictures are all still in the library.
Please help & thanks - J

Does this mean that I have to somehow "save" or "lock" the folders that I've used to create an iDVD project?
Just don't change any names or paths to images used in your active iDVD projects if you expect to reedit/reuse them.
Once you have finished a iDVD project, save the encoded project as a disk image file. The disk image file is not dependent on the orignal source content file name/location. This will enable you to burn additional copies to writable media in the future. You can NOT reedit a disk image file without using something like DVDxDV to convert the mpg-2 content to something that can be reused by iDVD in a new project.
If you have LOTS of external hard disk space, you can save your completed iDVD project as an iDVD Project Archive file. This will contain all the source material needed to reedit the project and as a result may be very large!

Saving iDVD projects

Since all of my iMovie source video (events) and projects are located on an EXTERNAL drive, I also like to store my iDVD projects there. I created a folder there to save them in.
Why then do SOME of these iDVD projects also end up in the Document folder of my iMac INTERNAL drive? SOME of them are 2 and 3 gig files!
Don't get it, and I'm afraid to trash the ones in the document folder.
HELP

I've noticed that the Documents folder is the Mac's 'default' destination, ie, unless you tell it otherwise, your work will be saved there. The key seems to be to watch the screen carefully when saving out so all your stuff goes to where you want it to go.
As to whether it's OK to transfer files out of Documents over to the external -- someone else will have to weigh in on that. Or you can run a small experiment on a short practice project.

Deleting IDVD Projects

While trying to download a movie from IMovie I apparently open five new projects how do I delete these open projects?

hey there Mrs. Barbara & welcome to discussions,
iDVD projects are located in your Documents folder. if you no longer need/want the project just drag it to the Trash & empty the Trash.
good luck.

Unable to load previous iDVD projects

Hi all I know this has been mentioned before but I cant find any threads with a positive outcome! Im unable to open previous iDVD projects now I have installed '08.
Help anyone...?

Let's try this first:
Quit iDVD.
Locate a file named com.apple.iDVD.plist and get rid of it. iDVD will create a new one the next time it runs. Empty the trash and run a permission repair using the Disk Utility.
The files can be found here:
-->/Users/YourName**/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iDVD.plist
or you can use the finder (happy face on the dock) to copy and paste the bold type above.
Make sure to Restart the computer as well once the above has been performed. Hope this helps but if not, come on back.

IDVD Project location

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