Issues Creating DVD of Music

Question

I am trying to create a DVD with favorite Christmas music that I have purchased over the years. I created still pictures (limited to 1 minute each) of the album cover and copied into iMovie repeatedly for length of each album and imported sound files, then matched lengths. Problem is that iDVD interprets this as a movie (which of course it is) and does not seem to be able to compress it enough to get several albums on the DVD. Even at full quality AIFF there should be enough room on a DVD for many albums with artwork. It looks like making each album a slide in a slideshow would not work since music is so long and I would like to be able to have a 'play all' option. I hope this makes sense - any help appreciated!
-Bob

Answer 1

Perhaps I'm old fashion, but I still prefer using CD's when it comes to audio. But it's not impossible to place audio on a DVD. But you might have better luck with Roxio Toast in this particular situation. Have you considered making a Music DVD with Roxio Toast?
At least that's the app /approach I'd take. And here's the way to do it (directly from Toast's Help Menu):
Making a Music DVD
A Music DVD can be played in a set-top DVD player or in a Macintosh or a Windows computer with a DVD player. A Music DVD should not be confused with a DVD-Audio disc. DVD-Audio discs require a special DVD player. A Music DVD is a standard DVD that contains music (and can also contain photo slideshows and videos), has full navigation menus for song selection, and can be played in any set-top DVD player.
A standard Music DVD can contain over 50 hours of music with Dolby Digital sound. If your recorder supports dual-layer recordable DVDs, you can create a Music DVD with over 100 hours of music.
To make a Music DVD:
1 Click the Audio tab at the top of the Toast window.
2 Click the Formats tab in the left drawer and choose Music DVD.
3 Choose optional disc settings:
• Menu Style: Choose the style for the menu background image, text and buttons.
• Auto-play disc on insert: Select this option to automatically play the first playlist when this disc is inserted into a DVD player. The DVD main menu is not displayed, but is accessible by choosing the MENU button on the DVD player remote control. Some players may not support Auto-Play.
• Play all items continuously: Select this option to automatically play each playlist on the DVD without first returning to the DVD main menu.
• Include Shuffle play: Select this option to include a Shuffle button for each playlist and SmartList in the DVD menu. Clicking the Shuffle button when playing this DVD will play the tracks in a random order.
• Include SmartLists: Select this option to include SmartLists in the DVD menu. SmartLists are automatically generated playlists for all Artists, Albums and Songs on the DVD.
Click More for additional disc settings. See DVD Disc Settings.
4 Choose the audio encoding format:
By default, Toast records Music DVDs in Dolby Digital 192 kbps audio. This compresses the audio to maximize disc space to fit over 50 hours of music, but maintains full Hollywood-style fidelity.
To change the audio format from Dolby Digital to uncompressed PCM audio, click More and choose the Custom option from the Encoding tab. Choose PCM for the Audio Format.
Toast records PCM at 48 kHz / 16 bit levels, which is higher than standard CD quality, and exceeds the levels of most songs in your iTunes library. Audio that has been recorded at 96 kHz / 24 bit is downsampled automatically unless you choose the 96 kHz / 24 bit option, which maintains the higher quality but significantly reduces disc space.
There are also optional Encoding settings which apply to photo and video content. See DVD Encoding Settings.
5 Drag and drop audio files into the Content Area from your hard disk or the Media Browser.
To use the Media Browser, click the Media tab in the left drawer and choose Audio from the pop-up to browse your iTunes library. You can also use the "+" button at the bottom of the Toast window to add files, or drag and drop a mounted audio CD from your Desktop.
You can add any non-protected QuickTime supported audio files, such as AIFF, MP3, WAV, AAC, and even MOV. You can also add audio files that QuickTime doesn't support - such as Dolby Digital AC3, OGG and FLAC.
Each group of files you add into the Content Area appears as a playlist. Each playlist will have a button in the DVD menu that you can choose to play the music. You can duplicate, rearrange, remove or edit playlists. See Working With Playlists.
You can also optionally add photos and videos into the Content Area.
6 Insert a blank recordable DVD.
7 Click the red Record button and choose a recorder from the list and optional recording settings, such as "Number of Copies."
8 Click Record to continue.
Toast displays a progress bar and status information as it records your disc.
Suggestion: Make certain to study the difference/s between Making a Music DVD vs.
Making a DVD-Video.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser