Novice. Creating a DVD from camcorder - help please..

Question

Hi all,
I am tasked with creating a DVD from some of my dads camcorder tapes. Can anyone provide a simple advice list. I assume that iDVD (which i have never used) will be the software to use?
Look forward to hearing from you helpful and intelligent people out there.
From a complete simpleton.
Kind regards,
Alan

Answer 1

Hello, Alan,
First, you need to determine if these tapes are digital or not. If they are not digital, you will need to convert them into a digital media format that your version of iMovie can accept. (For example, iMovie 6 can accept only DV footage).
Does your dad have the camcorder that he used to record the tapes? If his tapes are not digital, you can connect his camcorder to a digital camcorder and record each tape to digital miniDV tape. I think it is easier to use iMovie 6 for your movie-making, especially if you are thinking about editing this footage, cropping out bad parts, adding titles, effects and/or audio clips. That is why I am recommending recording to miniDV tapes.
Having the original footage on miniDV digital tapes is also a good way to store the originals, takes up very little space.
If his tapes are some other format, post back for info regarding how to proceed,
What version of iMovie do you have? I am assuming that you have iMovie08 since you are posting in iDVD08. As stated, I recommend that you do this project in iMovie 6. If you don't have it on your computer, you can download it here:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html
And, I recommend viewing this tutorial: http://www.apple.com/support/imovie/tutorial/
Once you have the footage on the miniDV tapes, you can connect your digital camcorder to your computer's Firewire port, open a new iMovie project and import the footage. You should limit each iMovie to about an hour and a half, if possible. A single-layer DVD can hold about 2 hours of content maximum. It doesn't matter what the size of the iMovie is in GB, only its length matters for iDVD.
After you import the footage you want, you can edit the clips and place them on iMovie's timeline in the order you wish. You can choose to add titles, transitions, effects and audio. iMovie has one video and two audio tracks so you can easily see what you are doing. If you want to have different chapters(scenes), you mark them in iMovie. Another advantage of iMovie 6 over iMovie 8 is that you can put chapter markers where you want them, not just at specified intervals.
After your movie is finished, close iMovie.
Open iDVD, create a new project in which to place your movie.
You should do this tutorial before you begin to work in iDVD:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#idvd-create-63
Once you get your first iDVD project ready to burn, do a 'save as disk image' and then burn the actual DVD from the disk image using Disk Utility. You will need to use a good brand of DVD-R disks, such as Verbatim or Maxell. Memorex has been problematic for many, and don't use a cheap store brand. Select a slow burn speed, 4x or less.
That's a brief summary.....
Post back if you need further information! Good luck with your task!