Imovie/Idvd issues

Hi, I made a slideshow for a graduation party for a friend using Imovie and eventually used Idvd to burn it over to my DVD-R. It burns good with no issues and when its finished it ejects the disk and says that its completed. However, when I put it in any of the dvd players that we have, it doesnt work. The Sony dvd player says that "Playback prohibited by are limitations." And then I tried it in my xbox 360 and my brothers xbox 360, and it worked fine. It also plays back fine in my mac (figured that one would). This wouldnt be a problem, but the people im making it for dont have one and they wont be able to watch it. All the programs are fully updated, Idvd is in the NTSC format, and I've tried different "batches" of the dvd-r's. Im getting very flustered and have wasted many dvd's trying different things. Please help me. Thanks.

One experience: My iDVDs play fine on my PS2 IF i burn at 1X speed.....if I burn faster, they work great on all my players but stutter on my PS2.....

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Image quality issues - Sony Handycam (MPEG) to iMovie / iDVD

I have read through dozens of posts but the recommendations vary widely and am hoping I can get some guidance specific to my situation. The image quality I am getting from home movies I edit in iMovie11 and burn to DVD in iDVD are far inferior to the original material.
I have a Sony DCR-TRV17. This camera is a little over 10 years old. It is a miniDV with 500 lines resolution, 680K gross pixels and uses MPEG. While not HD, the image quality is exceptional. The DVDs I used to create using my Sony Viao likewise looked fantastic. But the results I get from iMovie and iDVD are on par with VHS -- very poor, especially in low-light.
I hope the issue is just the settings when I import, edit (iMovie) and share to iDVD. I generally use the default settings, and often alternate settings don't seem to be selectable. It also sounds from other posts like iMovie sacrifices quality for reduced file size and increased simplicity? I would appreciate help with the following:
1) Please list the settings I should be adjusting from default when I a) import, b) edit in iMovie11 and c) share to iDVD and burn -- and the recommended settings for each
2) Is there a process I should be trying? Should I be creating test DVDs using different settings at each stage and then reviewing various setting combinations to find the best one?
3) I will most probably buy an HD camcorder very soon, and plan to burn to Blue Rays. I have no problem with going ahead and buying Final Cut and an external drive to burn Blue Rays. Should I just go ahead and do it and get away from iMovie / iDVD entirely. Will Final Cut solve this issue for my old miniDVs without a whole lot of hair pulling? Or will I still have to tinker with a bunch of settings or convoluted processes to get it "right." I never had to tinker with settings on my Viao. Really expected Mac software to be more user friendly…
Thanks very much for any help or advice!

On Import you could try unchecking Optimize video and choose Full Size. Your disk space however will get eaten up incredibly quickly choosing these settings as each hour of video = 40GBytes of disk space. So be forewarned about how big those files will expand as they come off the MiniDV tapes.
Another thing you will immediately see a difference in is how you move files from iMovie to iDVD. Share to iDVD while named in an intuitive way, is NOT the best way to get good quality DVDs out of iMovie. Instead you want to Share to Media Browser. Choose the Large Size setting. Then quit iMovie. Open iDVD, click the Media button, the Movies button. Find your project listed under the iMovie star icon and drag it into the iDVD project. Burn the Disc and see if you get a higher quality disk by Sharing to Media Browser instead of Share to iDVD.
If you choose a Blu-Ray burner, also get a copy of Roxio Toast. The encoding to Blu-ray that Toast provides will be top notch and prevent you from making mistakes as the recordable Blu-ray disks are more expensive than DVDs. So every mistake will be expensive.

IMovie, iDVD storage space issues

I have transferred many clips from my cam-corder to iMac. I am now nearly exhausted for storage space. Am open to any suggestions for strategies that will recapture additional storage capacity on this machine. I thought of simply dumping the relevant video clips to the Trash Can after creating a disc (via iDVD); with the intent to subsequently bring the video back into iMovie from that very same disc so that I can fine tune the product with editing of themes; text; graphics; music etc. In other words, shuffle the product back and forth between disc and machine as my editing interests dictate. Don't know if these tasks can be accomplished as I have described. Surely there must be other strategies out there that I can explore to save valuable space on this machine???
Message was edited by: SandyBill

If you want to re-edit iMovie projects in the future, you will have to save the entire project & associated clips. While burning the clips to data DVDs sounds inexpensive & appealing, it is very time consuming, as each data DVD only holds about 20 minutes of captured clips and you're stuck with burn times, which are much slower than copying the files to an external firewire drive
So, it's time for a good external firewire hard drive (take a look at the Lacie d2 Extreme drives, for example).
And while it is technically possible to re-import video from a playable DVD such as ones you burn with iDVD, there is a significant loss of quality when you do the back conversion. Plus, you won't be able to 'shuffle the product back and forth between disc and machine as my editing interests dictate' because your editing commands are not preserved forward when you go from iMovie > iDVD > playable DVD. If you want to do that, you need to preserve your full iMovie project and associated video clips and other source media files.

IMovie, iDVD

I've been working with iMovie 5 & iDVD 5 for a little while now and I've noticed some serious problems. I had initially downloaded an analog video into my computer, using Pinaccle Studio's video transfer device. At first I was pretty excited with some of the new features that came with OS X Tiger. That excitement quickly faded when I tried to modify an existing project. iDVD suggested that I delete my encoded assets if I was still working on an existing project and wanted to make another DVD of that project, while keeping the original iMovie project. I tried doing what is suggested, but it doesn't work. I found the only way to make iDVD work again was to delete the entire iDVD project and start over. Additionally, many of the options don't work properly in iDVD, like some of the settings, or modifying the "project tree" images. Another problem I've had is, whenever I re-export an existing project from iMovie to iDVD, problems with the encoding processes happens and the DVD doesn't get encoded properly and aspects of the program don't happen the way they are supposed to. For example, I'm still working on a video that I filmed. When I sent it to iDVD for the second time, "after" deleting the encoded assets, the next DVD I burned, didn't work correctly. Specifically, the chapter markers that I embedded and inserted into my iMovie project while editing. When I took the DVD from my computer and tried it on my dvd player, the movie played fine, but I couldn't use any of the chapters, even though they were there where I marked them. Still another problem that I have, is not being able to burn a DVD project that's over 60 minutes in length. My project was only over by 12.18 seconds, but problems across the board started happening with iDVD.
Other problems include ghosting. Some parts of my video that I had edited and deleted, keeps showing up, but I'm not able to get rid of them because even though I can see the image of the deleted footage, I can't get rid of it because iMovie doesn't see or, recognize the image. Additional problems include, not being able to delete an entire project when I'm finished with it. When I bought and upgraded to OS X Tiger, it did not come with iMovie, or,iDVD. I had to purchase a separate program disk, "iLife 5" to get these programs. I've read your forums and everything that is suggested has already been tried, but to no avail. It would have been better if Apple had included an additional step and option selct, to delete footage completely and another option of deleting an entire project, instead of having to search the entire hard drive for the project and to find all of the accompanying folders and documents created by iMovie & iDVD. That's fine if you're an avid worker of these programs and you're a computer wiz and expert. But for the common everyday person, it's just too much. I see from many of the posts on the discussion forum, that I'm not the only one who feels this way and that many other people also have the same frustrations that I'm dealing with now. What if anything, does Apple plan on doing about many of these problems and issues? We as apple users, are spending huge amounts of money on products that clearly have serious problems and issues that need to be addressed, resolved and fixed.
Froglips, from Alaska

froglips,
Sorry to read of your frustrations both here and in other posts.
Though it doesn't help you to hear it, I can say that I am happily using iMovie and iDVD. Both working "as advertised". I say this simply as a way of offering you hope and to tell you you've come to the right place.
You raise a number of issues in your post and, frankly, it's a bit hard to follow.
It might be easier for myself and others to help you if you post one question at a time.
One last thing, these are user to user discussions for technical issues. Apple will not respond here to questions directed at them.
Matt

HELP!!! - failures with a specific iMovie - iDVD save/burn attempts

I've successfully burned multiple iMovie/iDVD discs without problem, but I've got 1 movie that repeatedly fails with strange errors.
I've optimized the startup drive, the directory of the startup drive and there's 20G free on that drive (and 80+ on the video drive). I also deleted the old plist for iDVD, and ran Cocktail to clear the caches, rebuild permissions, etc.
I tried this with both the iDVD preferences set for 'Best Quality' and then 'Best Performance' (no difference).
I took the original (created in iMovie 4.x), when it failed repeatedly, I recreated it from scratch in iMovie 5.02... no difference.
When I tried to burn it (multiple times), it came back with 'Burn Complete, Found Errors During Burn' (irony here, it hadn't burned ANYTHING, the disc was untouched). Click on error details, and it says 'error #1'.
It had completed rendering the movie.
I also tried saving the iDVD file as a disk image, and it also failed, with a different error (can't screeen capture the dialogs!)... something to the effect that it couldn't initialize the tracks (it had completely finished rendering the movie).
I had seen some mention of a problem with background audio on the DVD Menu, so I also tried it with that removed. No joy.
Any ideas??? I'm desperate and frustrated... I really want to burn this thing for a Christmas surprise.
There's nothing remarkable about the iMovie, it is basically 1 piece, with Multiple Centered Titling on the intro, about 45 minutes long.
1.4 Ghz Sawtooth, 1.5G RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Pioneer A108 Burner
1.4 Ghz Sawtooth, 1.5G RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Pioneer A108 Burner

Hi Simon,
If you'll read further back into the thread, you'll find that I've covered all known bases with this problem
I am indeed running the most current version, kept on scaling the size of the project smaller, I deleted the plist file for iDVD, ran Cocktail on the disk, etc. etc. etc.
I am now recreating the whole $%^&* thing from scratch again, and I'm crossing my fingers. One thing is for certain, it's NOT an issue of free disk space on the startup drive! This error occurs whether saving to disc image or actually burning the disc.
I was fortunate enough to check the system as it was in the last phases of encoding (audio at that point, and it failed at the end of the audio) and that's when I got the error.
This problem is specific to iDVD, Toast 6.x and now 7.x work just fine.
This is starting to become painfully embarassing to this MacEvangelist
I wonder if DVD Studio Pro ever does this?
Regards,
Bruce

IMovie, iDVD and iTunes authorization.

I've purchased several songs on iTunes and authorized them for use on my Mac. I can play the songs from my iTunes music library. However, if I try to use the songs in an iMovie or iDVD project, I'm continually prompted to authorize use, over and over... Consequently, I can't burn my iDVD project using the songs I purchased from iTunes. When I burn my DVD, I get all of the video and audio except the songs I purchased/authorized from iTunes. Any suggestions? l tried iTunes customer support...no help there. I'm trying to complete a DVD video project for someone this weekend. THANKS!!!

Thanks for the tips...really helped. I also found the following info from Kallie at iTunes support contact helpful.
Run Software Update and apply available updates, including Compatibility Update for QuickTime 7.4. Restart the computer after applying the updates. If that does not resolve the issue, follow normal troubleshooting for this symptom such as:
1) Check to see if the track plays in iTunes and QuickTime Player.
2) Check for non-Apple plugins in /Library/QuickTime/ and ~/Library/QuickTime/.
3) Try reimporting the track into your iMovie, iDVD or iPhoto project.
4) Check to see if the track works in a new project.
5) Check to see if the existing project works for a new user on the same computer.
Thanks so much Klaus1 for you CD tip...it really saved my _ _ _! Finished my video on schedule, YES!
Contiued Success! LK

Imovie storage issues

Alright, I'm undertaking a HUGE imovie project. I've got 37 or so 2-hour Hi-8 tapes from my camera. I've already got 10 or so on my computer in imovie, formatted. After I edit them in imovie, I export them to idvd to burn them onto dvd's. Now, I"ve noticed that the imovie files are around 25 gig a file. (25G for 2 hours or so of movie - give or take a few minutes)
Is there a way I can compress or store these files so I don't have to buy an external HD?
Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

Both DVD's and especially CD's are a terrible choice to backup movie files because they are too slow and too small...What you do't want as well is to rely on the DVD as an archive - it is compressed MPEG-2 and is lossy and hard to re-edit. $5 DV tapes are a great digital format to save forever.
There's different points of view about these issues, so I'll add a few cents.
1. We don't think we can assume tapes will "last forever" any more than any other storage medium. (If pressed, I think I'd put my money on DVDs outlasting tapes, but it's just a guess.)
2. In ten to twenty years, I suspect we will still have drives available that can play DVDs but not camcorders that can play tapes. That may make it impossible to exercise tapes, re-record them, or capture them to a computer.
3. DVDs are cheap and easy to use. At less than 50 cents per disk for 4+GB, they are actually cheaper than tapes. And backup software like Retrospect makes archiving easy too. You just insert the disks when asked.
When archiving data files, I like that there are no iMovie export issues. (I never entirely trust an export to tape until I play it from start to finish.)
4. There's nothing inherently lossy about DVDs. Yes, an MPEG-2 DVDs created by iDVD is compressed so it's lossy, but a backup of an iMovie HD project as data files to a DVD suffers no loss of quality.
5. I tend to use multiple backup media. Drives, tapes, MPEG-2 DVDs and data file DVDs. Multiple copies of each, actually. But I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy. I get uncomfortable putting all my backups in one basket.
Unfortunately, there is no one ideal archive solution. No medium lasts forever, no media hardware lasts forever, and there's no guarantee the software we use to create/retrieve an archive -- or for that matter play the iMovie project or the QuickTime movie -- will run in Mac OS XXV.
Most likely our data storage media will change dramatically in twenty years. Soon all our iMovie projects will probably fit on the head of a pin. Hopefully the archive solution we adopt today won't cause us to jab our fingers with the pin.
Karl

Multiple Libraries using iMovie/iDVD

When you create multiple libraries in iTunes,
How does it work when selecting music
when working in iMovie, iDVD?
Does the Music interface show the two libraries
in these programs?

Does the Music interface show the two libraries
in these programs?
Unfortunately not. They only show the last used or active library.
Note that iTunes 7 is a recent release and iMovie, iDVD and iPhoto probably don't know (yet) that iTunes can have more libraries.
M

Lost iMovie & iDVD on OSX 10.4 upgrade

I upgraded from OSX10.1.5 to OSX10.4 (erase & install). I have reinstalled iPhoto as it came on a disc with my Mac, as did Appleworks6 (on Applications disc), and iTunes as it is available from Apple as a download. But iMovie and iDVD are buried somewhere on one of the six Software Restore discs that originally came with my Mac.
How can I restore my copies of iMovie & iDVD?

I recently upgraded from OSX10.1. to OSX10.4 (erase & install) as related by Ken Grace and have a similar experience that I no longer have i-movie 2. I thought I had saved it but it seems I only saved the alias. Apple personnel recommended I reinstall original OS9 disc which I did but no result. I read the solution proposed to download 'Pacifist ' but cannot understand how I cannot reinstall i-movie* if I have the original discs ? ie how did I get it when I first started..Unlike Ken I have only three restore discs which came with my MAC.. I am prepared to do a complete reinstall of everything if it would help.
* I need I Movie 2 for earlier projects which will not run properly on I-Movie 3 which came with Panther or on I-Movie 5 which I purchased with I-Life.

Using purchased music with imovie/idvd

Apologies if this has been answered...these threads get too long to look back and back. Haven't used imovie/ idvd much since 2003-4-- so the copy protection measures on the latest version look very restrictive. Do I have this right: I make a slide show or movie via imovie-- I use music from a song purchased via the itunes store, I burn the slide show/movie to a dvd/ I give the dvd to 6 relatives, i.e. not for commercial use... and could it be that the dvd will not play with music unless I authorize their computers? In other words what exactly does that message mean than pops up that says the file won't play the music on another computer, unless it's authorized. Will it play on a burnt dvd, played on a TV?

I burn the slide show/movie to a dvd/ I give the dvd to 6 relatives, i.e. not for commercial use...
It's not legal, even though you're not charging for the DVD (copyright laws apply even when there's no commercial gain involved, hence the many suits the RIAA has filed against people sharing via Limewire and other P2P networks). Music you purchase, whether from the iTunes Store or via CD, is for your personal use and cannot be given away. If you want to create a video or slide show that you're going to give away, either obtain royalty-free music - there are a number of web sites where you can obtain such tracks - or create your own using GarageBand or a similar music creation package.

IMovie/iDVD vs Adobe Premiere Elements Comparison Question

Has anyone used Adobe Premiere Elements and iMovie/iDVD to be able to make an objective comparison? It appears APE has the same feature content as iMovie/iDVD.
How well does APE run on your typical Core 2 Duo Windows laptop (1.6mhz)?
Just curious.
14" 1.2mhz iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 1.25m ram, Superdrive

Okay, so here's my settings for my project...
To begin with, my output is to a WD HDTV Plus which needs a H.264 1920X1080i30 file.
The source footage is SONY AVCHD 1080i60.
My Import Prefs:
AVCHD: Apple ProRes422
AC-3 Audio: Plain Stereo
RT:
Both Dynamic Playbacks
Unlimited RT
Exported using QuickTime Conversion:
Compression: H.264
Frames:
Current
Key Frames:
Every 24
Compressor Quality: Best
Data Rate: Automatic
When it gets played back, still elements look "HD" but moving objects are jittered....HELP!
thanks
Marshall

Imovie - idvd 5

I have just recently switched from windows to the mac mainly on the fact cos the Imovie/Idvd in ilife 05.
But, when i create a movie in "I movie" the click the "idvd" button to encode it over to "idvd", the "idvd" screen comes up fine with the new movie in there but in the status box it just dont decode at all???
Sorry for being so simple, but i am trying to get my head around all this!
Please help

but in the status box it just dont decode at all???
Hi Grant,
iDVD has 2 encoder modes: "Best Performance" has an option to encode it in background, given time you movie will eventually encoded. The other mode, "Best Quality" will only start encoding when you "burn" or "save as disk image" your project. Encoding takes a lot of times and processor power, it does not complete in a flash.

Exporting iMovie/iDVD project for PC friend to edit

I recently posted a question about how to take an iMovie/iDVD project and export the files so that a PC user could take the project and edit on his PC using a video editor. It was suggested that I share the iMovie project to QuickTime and then burn on to a CD. This sounded good at first but then I did some research and saw that sharing to QuickTime means that the quality will be lost (saving to CD setting) and will only be something like 320 x 240. Plus, it takes forever. Even longer if I set it to full quality but by that point, the file wouldn't fit on a CD anyway.
I did see that I could save the movie back to a mini DV tape and then give that to the PC person so that they could just bring it into their computer via their camcorder. But what if that person doesn't have a digital camcorder?
For the project in question, I've been asked to take some VHS tapes and convert them to digital. I've done so using a digital converter. They want a DVD of what was on the tapes, which I've done, but they also want the files so that they can later edit to their tastes on their own time on their PC and then later create a DVD. Given the above, what would be the best way to do this? Isn't there something in the movie project files that I can dump to disk?

a) consider the usage of an ext. harddrive...
b) in iM's "share" dialog, you find the option "selected clips only"; so, select a few clips you like to export, check that box, done... you can "split" your clips at any point to create segments of approbiate size by hitting apple-t at any position in timeline..
c) share/Quicktime/expert options/click "share"/ offers you a dropdown menu, where you can choose the "avi" container...
(your User Interface is for sure english!)
you can click options, and choose the dv codec (which is your project's native video codec)... no loss of quality, and probably compatible for your friend..
d) a dataDVD-r fits ~20min of dv video... 4 disks?
e) using Disk Utility, make sure, you use a PC-compatible disk format....
f) Plan B) export your project back to tape, give your friend the miniDV...

IPhoto to iDVD issues

I posted a similar thread in iPhoto but I think this is more of an iDVD issue. When in iPhoto I have created a slide show and I also created an album. With either version once I had it in the order I wanted I went to SHARE send to iDVD, before iDVD opens I get a box that says The following files could not be found: File location and all 290 photos I am sending over.
I have tried to use the Find File button to no avail. I did rebuild my iPhoto library as suggested in the iPhoto post. I understand that I have a data base issue I just do not know how to fix it so I can fininish this project.
Thanks for your assistance.

Hi
Select: Audio track view (clock symbol - down left)
• Set play-head where You want Your audio to start
• Import
• FROM iTunes there is a problem with copyright mechanism
You need to in iTune export out the nine audio portions as an .aiff audio-CD
• Import Your music from this new audio-CD AND IT WILL WORK !
(else it seems to work till You burned Your DVD - It will be silent!)
• Audio on the two lower tracks can be selected and cut as a video-clip
• Audio level can be altered in full from 0% to 150% but You can also turn on
"Show audio-levels as clips" called rubber-band where You can do fade ins outs
and adjust to Your liking.
Hopefully to some help not just confusing
Yours Bengt W

Having IDVD issues. How do I uninstall and reinstall IDVD only?

Hello
I am trying burn a dvd, and I am having all kinds if idvd issues, possibly stemming from a cloning process I used after replacing my original hard drive on my Mac Book Pro, not exactly sure.
Anyway, I would like to reinstall idvd only, but not sure how to do this. Also, do I need to uninstall it first? If so , how do I do that?
Please help.
Thanks,
Anneita

If you are having iDVD issues, you really should post in one of the iDVD forums. It's where the iDVD users hang out at.
To custom install an app, boot from your System DVD #1, the one that originally came w/your computer.
Look for the *Bundled Software* folder. If iDVD is not there, then search the Application folder.
Follow the onscreen instructions for custom installations.
!http://i50.tinypic.com/izvwo1.gif!

Imovie/Idvd issues

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