IMovie audio stutter+ iDvD audio encoding = Toast ?

Question

In the 8 days since I finally got into iMovie, then iDvD, I've encountered both the skittery / unstable audio Playback of iMovie audio & now iDvd's audio encoding issues . [ app "not responding" while still chuggin' away, etc\etc. ]
It was good to hear from an iApp specialist that these are known issues being 'addressed'.
But it's quite disheartening when a GoOgle ( or Forum ) Search shows woes & hope from 2005 & before.
Will iLife 7 iron out much ? [ or introduce a whole new set for us to spend months grappling with ? ]
My real question here, well the head-of-the-line question ! . . . is > after reading a Macobserver post from 2/06 on Toast 7, I have to wonder if it fills in many gaps and opens the pallette while solving some problems.
It doesn't have slide transitions , but it's work could go to iMovie/iDvd ??
( too many toys in the toybox !! -- pardon my overwhelment )
One hard-fact question that's more answerable is > After my 1st "hung in audio // not responding" Disk Image burn , a Wec-Chat Agent considered it 'dead' & I cancelled it. Is there a headless body in a folder somewhere ?, and is that what "delete encoded assets" is for ??
_TIA_
~~~=Dave

Answer 1

So !...I'm a' confused w/ all the ways to 'archive'
an iMovie project. i created an .img, a
Data-Disc...which could burn a DvD of the project,
but not open in iMovie...yes ?
Warning: we're going to jump a bit from topic to topic.
• An archive is a backup copy of something. The purpose of the archive is to preserve the thing as it exists today. An archive of an iMovie project "captures" it as it exists today. If necessary, months from now you can use the archive to re-create the project as it exists today.
• The archive can take many forms. It can be stored as a disk image — a file stored on your computer that uses a .dmg suffix and looks and acts like a hard disk. Or it can be a ".zip" file created in the Finder. Or it can be a simple duplicate of the project stored on a hard disk or DVD. (A disk image file or zip file does not save significant hard disk space. An iMovie project can't be compressed to any significant extent.)
• iMovie's menu command File > Burn Project to Disc is there for the convenience of iMovie users wanting to copy the project to a DVD — as a computer file. But iMovie can burn a DVD only if the entire iMovie project fits on one disc. Technically, it doesn't create an standalone archive, it simply copies the project — with all the files and folders the project contains — onto the DVD, then burns the DVD.
• The Finder lets us create an standalone archive of a file or folder, using the File > Create Archive Of command. The command copies everything to a file that has a ".zip" suffix. If we want, we can tell the Finder to burn the zip file onto a DVD. The zip file has to fit on one DVD.
• Backup applications like Retrospect can create archives too. Retrospect can store the archive on a variety of media. The backup is stored in a format only Retrospect understands.
• Most of us also have another backup solution available to use with iMovie. Exporting the iMovie project back to tape is a good backup. For most projects, the clips return as clips when the tape is re-imported to a new project. Clips like titles and transitions are no longer editable, of course. Note you must re-import the material to access it.
IS there a way to save a 29 GB project to one DvD
• Regrettably, no. An iMovie (or iDVD) project cannot be larger than will fit on one DVD. Most iMovie projects are larger, of course. For them, the File > Burn project to disk command cannot be used.
• Software exists, however, that lets us back up an iMovie (or iDVD) project across multiple DVDs. These include Toast and Retrospect, the pre-eminent Mac backup software.
• iMovie projects stored on DVDs have one huge disadvantage, however. We must copy the project back to the hard drive to open it in iMovie. iMovie doesn't let us open a project stored on a DVD, for Movie can't write to the disc. (The DVD is, by definition, a locked medium.)
Note too that if the backup DVD is created by Retrospect, Retrospect is required to copy it back to the hard disk. (Sorry, I'm not familiar with Toast.)
• The Finder's File > New Burn Folder lets us burn computer files to a DVD as files. It can copy disk images, zip files and any other kind of computer files and folders to the DVD. Used in this way, the DVD functions like a small hard disk. It can't burn across multiple DVDs.
• A DVD containing data files is different from the DVD iDVD normally creates for us. DVD Normally creates TV-playable DVDs, not data-file DVDs. For these, iDVD encodes the video of our iMovie projects as MEPG-2 video, the language a DVD player understands. No computer data files are involved, at least not files a computer normally understands.
• The iDVD command File > Archive Project serves a different purpose than the archive of an iMovie project. Yes, it backs up the iDVD project too, but we usually make it for a different reason.
The iDVD project has no video or audio of its own, just a link to the reference movie iMovie stores inside the iMovie project. If we want to be able to burn a DVD of the current iMovie project some time later, or burn a DVD after the iMovie project has been discarded, we will have a problem. The source material may be gone. The iDVD archive solves this problem by storing a copy of the source material inside its archive.
So If you want to preserve an iDVD project as it exists today you can tell iDVD to create an archive the includes all the necessary source material from the iMovie project. Now the source material will be "static". We can open the archive sometime later, edit the DVD menus if we want, and burn another DVD.
• iDVD also offers the File > Save As Disk image. This command is not associated with archiving. This command is almost the same as burning a DVD, but it "burns" the encoded material as a disk image file instead of a physical DVD.
The disk image can be played in DVD Player on our Macs, and we can use Disk Utility to burn a DVD of the disk image.
"Burning" a disk image from iDVD is a good way to check the encoding by iDVD. If the disk image "burns" okay, the physical DVD we burn with Disk Utility will probably be okay too.
• As you suggested, the best solution may be an external hard drive. It's not only the easiest to use, it lets us access the iMovie project whenever we want.
• Much of what I've said is associated with routine backups, so I want to say a word about those. We always need backups of our important projects. At the very least, we need to keep a copy on a separate drive. Drives fail.
Experts say that we need to back up our computers daily, and maintain three backup copies, called backup sets. We need two backup sets that we alternate every day or so, both stored on site. And a third backup set stored off-site. (Off-site because our beach house may burn down and the high tides caused by global warming may carry the ashes out to sea.)
Retrospect does an incremental backup for me each night, backing up all the Macs in the house. The on-site backup not being used by Retrospect is stored in a fireproof data safe — a fireproof paper safe isn't cool enough. The third backup set is stored in a safe deposit box at a bank. I rotate the bank set every month or so with one of the two in-house backup sets. The two in-house backup sets are rotated every few days.
For backup media I use "bare" drives connected to a Firewire "dock", like this ComboDock. The drives snap on/off in seconds.
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/ComboDock.php
• Some on-line retailers include Retrospect with the drives they sell.
Hope something here is useful.
Karl