IDVD won't install from iLife '09 disk

Question

Are there any reports of bad iLife '09 DVD pressings? I just tried to install iLife on two of my late model Macs- a Dual 2.3GHz Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) with Superdrive, and an Intel iMac 24" (Mid-2007) model- and the installer grayed out the iDVD selection in the Custom Install on both machines, telling me that it could only install iDVD on Macs with a SuperDrive. WTH? They BOTH have SuperDrives, and they each have an install of iDVD from iLife '08. I know that these SuperDrives both work, because I've used iDVD to burn DVDs on both of them. What am I missing?

Answer 1

Honestly I don't know if iDvd'08 vs. iDvd'09 are the very same version. But they are very close. Not much has changed if you are looking at iDvd alone. Still no blu-ray support within either version. Seems to me that Roxio Toast and it's Blu-ray plug in, picks up where iDvd left off (with the exception of Apple's Final Cut Studio which is much more money and has rather large learning curve).
Btw, this is not intended to compare Toast with iDvd since really one is authoring software vs. a disc burning utility. It's like comparing apples and oranges (no pun intended). However, Toast is getting more improvements lately vs. iDvd.
Did a search on Yahoo and here's what came up which seems like a valid assessment:
iLife '09 isn't as large of an update as previous iLife releases. In fact, iDVD was hardly changed, if at all. GarageBand received a facelift and has a bunch of new features, probably the most prominent of which being the artist lessons. iMovie got a few new features like image stabilization, themes and more, and isn't as annoying to use as the previous version. iPhoto got a lot of small tweaks, as well as the Faces and Places features and integration with Facebook and Flickr. iWeb also got a few enhancements, like more themes, more publishing options, and more widgets.
As for which is better, go with iLife '09. Both are good suites of applications, but if you have the money, go ahead and upgrade. The few new features you'll find are worth it.
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Message was edited by: SDMacuser