Superdrive preferable to external DVD for editing?

Here are some beginner questions. At some point I plan on doing video editing, and some transfering hi-8 to digital. I own an Imac with combo drive but was thinking about switching up to the superdrive model. Is there any disadvantages to using an external dvd burner in comparison to a superdrive, in terms of cost and speed and function? Also, is it practical to do all of one's editing on the harddrive and then transfer them at the very end to a DVD burner in my wife's laptop?

You shouldn't have too much of a problem if you are using iLife '05 which supports external burners.

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Using Superdrive as an external burner for iMac

I have an iMac flat screen (OS 10.4.6) Combo drive and an iMac (OS 10.2.8)with a SuperDrive. Can I use the older machine with the superdrive as an external drive for the newer machine?
iMac Flat Screen Mac OS X (10.4.6)

On your iMac flat screen you could use iDVD to make a disc image. Copy the disc image to your older iMac and use Disk Utility on that iMac to burn the DVD.

Hello MacHeads: I downloaded Handbrake 0.9.1 for Tiger, so I can upload a homemade DVD for editing in imovie. Problem is I can't even access Handbrake Help book, because I think my firewall settings are preventing me. I tried turning off all my firewall

Hello MacHeads: I downloaded Handbrake 0.9.1 for Tiger, so I can upload a homemade DVD for editing in imovie. Problem is I can't even access Handbrake Help book, because I think my firewall settings are preventing me. I tried turning off all my firewall settings.? IDK if I'm even doing that right. Can anyone help out here?

You don't need Handbrake for that if it is your own DVD.
You need to convert the VOB files in the TS-Folder of the DVD back to DV which iMovie is designed to handle.
a DVD is in a compresed format called mpeg2, which is standard across all DVDs. This is what is known as a 'final delivery format' and is not suitable for editing. Because is is compressed, a 4.7GB DVD can hold a two hour movie (dual layer DVDs twice that), whereas the DV stream from a video camera, which runs at about 13GB per hour, is not compressed and IS intended for editing.
In other words you have to 'reverse engineer' the DVD back to an uncompressed format in ordfer to edit it. There is a penalty for doing this in terms of slight quality loss, but it is one you can live with.
When you have your DVD as an icon on your desktop, double-click it, and it will open to reveal a TS-Folder containing a number of various files, some called VOB. These are the constituent parts of any video DVD.
When you have downloaded and installed mpegStreamclip, and purchased and installed the Apple mpeg2 plugin, open mpegStreamclip and drag the entire TS Folder into its window. Then using the various menus available to you (just explore them and you will get the hang of it) ask it to convert to DV.
That DV file, which will be many times larger than the original TS Folder, and which can a while to create (be patient - make coffee or prune the roses!) is what you can now import into iMovie for editing etc.
When you have finished doing that, you then have to turn the project back into a DVD.
mpegStreamclip can be downloaded from here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html
which is free, but you must also have the Apple mpeg2 plugin :
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
which is a mere $20.
Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:
http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm
which costs $25.
For the benefit of others who may read this thread:
Obviously the foregoing only applies to DVDs you have made yourself, or other home-made DVDs that have been given to you. It will NOT work on copy-protected commercial DVDs, which in any case would be illegal.

What is Microsoft's preferred 'No Code' solution for editing sharepoint365 forms ?

Hi,
I'm trying to edit a Sharepoint365 form in SharePoint Designer 2010. Although I get the option to edit the code view, I cannot edit the form in the no code view of SPD2010.
Furthermore, Microsoft seem to have removed the No Code option from SPD2013 completely.
What is Microsoft's preferred 'No Code' solution for editing sharepoint365 forms ?

Hi,
The reason why removing Design and Split views of page editing in SharePoint Designer 2013 is that, the Design view “is designed to only understand the unique features
of a SharePoint web page”, which is not as up-to-date as the current Internet Explorer as well as the new web design technology.
An official blog about this for your reference:
http://blogs.office.com/2012/10/10/changes-to-the-design-view-in-sharepoint-designer-2013/
I would suggest you do the customization in Code view in SharePoint Designer 2013 which can provide more flexibility in page designing, though it will require a bit
more knowledge of web designing(HTML, CSS and JavaScript).
Thanks
TechNet Community Support
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact
[email protected]

Importing a DVD for Edit on FC 4

Is there a way I can import a finalized dvd into Final Cut Express for editing? I need to adjust audio in one DVD and then re-burn the dvd.
Thanks,
Gene

You need to transcode the MPEG-2 video from your DVD into QuickTime for use in FCE. There are several software products which do this. My favorite is DVDxDV, $25, as I recall.
http://www.dvdxdv.com/
This assumes, of course, that you have the rights do use the material and the existing DVD is not copy-protected.
Message was edited by: R. Mitchell Fore

External DVD for Imac

Hey quick question I say a Samsung Tru-Direct 20x External USB with lightscribe and all that for $59 at frys. Ok, that said, does the IMAC support all external DVD burners or what? and does imac support lightscribe? just curious

As long as the software in the DVD Players box supports Leopard then you should be fine. This isn't a matter of whether the Leopard supports Lightscibe it's a matter of does the manufacturer of the burner supply software that supports Leopard. I looked up this product on Samsung's web site, it appears they only support Windows on this product so I would strongly recommend against it and look for another Lightscribe drive that supports Leopard.
Lacie is the inventory of Lightscribe, I know they make at least one external drive that supports Tiger, you might want to contact them to see if it also works with Leopard, it should.

Help with importing DVD for edit

Hey guys, i need to re-edit a film that i made using final cut pro but i deleted the rough file with all the footage and things in it and exported the final product to a dvd. i know how to import the Video_Ts and audio_ts files back on to my computer and copy the dvd but i dont know how to make that information available to put back in to fc so that i can take out some scenes that im not too happy with so i can send it to colleges. If anyone know how to do this i would be most appreciative. thanks

One clumsy but effective way to do this is:
put the dvd disk into your stand alone player.
hook the video and audio outs from the player to the a/v ins to your camcorder.
set your camcorder to do Analog/DV conversion.
connect your camcorder to your computer through firewire
in fcp set your capture to NON-CONTROLABLE device with a capture limit of the length of the DVD.
Start capturing in FCP and hit play on the DVD player.
Hit stop when you have your material.
For what it's worth - throw the camera that records mpeg2 (aka DVDs) into the nearest large body of water (lake, ocean, whatever) and get something useful. This will be a continual pain.
x
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External's for Editing

Hey,
Just a quick one. What would be the best type of external drive or connection from external to mac be if I wanted to edit with material directly off the external?
Firewire would be acceptable for lower file siezes, but what would be the best for when I'm working with large res/files as firewire just can't cope with it, particularly if working with multiple layers.

Obviously SATA allows level of performance that is hard to come by with FireWire, where you have a single bus. SATA has more bandwidth and less trouble.
If you really do still have 2GB RAM... that is an issue.
So if you have an available PCI slot (4x or 8x) and plan to use more than one drive in the future, or RAID, and for backups, in the long run eSATA is the way to go.
I assume you already have 4 internal drives, too.

Converting DVD for editing in FCP

Hello All.
I am converting DVDs in MPEG Streamclip but need help reducing the size of the exporting file.
I regularly receive DVDs of performances to edit. This specific one in question, as many are, has a video size of 720x480, the aspect ration is 4:3, format NTSC. It is Standard Definition. I use MPEG Streamclip to convert the DVD, which is 999 MB. I will export via QuickTime, to some variation of Apple Pro Res, or DVC PRO...at varying percent of quality, but the file always comes out much larger than the original. Depending on clip size, it will come out at 2-20GB in size.
Does anyone have any suggestions or informantion on how to reduce the file size of the DVDs I am converting?
Thanks much for your time and assistance,
Paolo

Most importantly, for storage space reasons,
Storage space is really cheap. If you can't get more storage then do what was previously suggested by David. Capture everything as DV/NTSC. That will give you the smallest file size for your capture
as well as because I will be uploading them to YouTube, where there are limits to the size of file you can upload.
You're not uploading your captured footage file to youtube. You need to convert to a format that youtube will accept. This file has limitations not the captured file.

G5 Power PC vs Imac...which is better for editing with final cut studio 2?

This is my present computer:
iMac 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo (2008 model)
4 gigs of 800 mhz ddr2 sdram (this is the max ram for this computer! )
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS 512 MB
Hard drive: 465 gig (I use mainly external drives for editing)
I use this mainly for video editing with final cut studio 2.
Rendering in compressor takes forever!!!
A friend suggested I pick up a used G5 Power PC.
I found this one, here are the specs:
APPLE POWER MAC G5 PowerPC DUAL CORE (2 x 2 GHZ)
System Mac OSX 10.5.8
RAM 12 GB
1 Hard drive of 160 Gb
Superdrive 16x CD/DVD/DL DVD (32x)
Video card NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (VRAM 256 Mb)
3 open PCI-Express expansion slots.
1x FireWire 800
3x FireWire 400
4x USB 1 and 2
2x Ethernet Port
2x Displays ports
Is this insanity or a smart move to move over to the older G5.
According to my friend, the older G5s are much better at processing video.
Is a dual 2 GHZ processor enough or would I need a 2.3 or 2.5?
OR is there another option that someone might be able to suggest?
I would be so appreciative of any opinions regarding this issue.
Thanks in advance.
Bill

Save your pennies and look for a refurbished or used MacPro. Early 2008 or newer 8 core machines w/8GB of RAM running 4 instances in QMaster will chew through material.
Beyond running compressor, it is just a better all round machine for editing video.
• it has multiple internal drive bays which run via SATA connections - much faster than the FW800 limits of the iMac for external drives
• it has 3 slots which give you the option of an i/o card from AJA, Blackmagic or Matrox so that you can actually monitor your video properly as well as ingest high end formats
• the slots give you the ability to connect esata raids for even higher data speeds
• you have much greater flexibility with computer monitors
• you have much greater RAM capacity
and so on ...
x

Advice on 2TB external storage for 1080 DVCPRO HD footage

I'm trying to find the best external storage for editing on a 17" Macbook Pro.
I'll be working on a feature shot with the HVX-200 at 1080i/24pa. I'm figuring we'll need approximately 2TB of storage.
Are FW800 drives fast enough to edit 1080?
Is it possible to run a 2TB SATA raid off the ExpressCard?
And as a side question, is the Macbook Pro fast enough to handle 1080? (we haven't purchased the system yet). It sounds to me like it will be, but wanted to see if anyone had any real world experience with it.
To be honest, I know just enough about the brave new world of the HVX-200 to get myself in trouble, so bear with me.
Any advice on the drives, and even good vendors to get them from, is much appreciated.
17" Macbook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Why are you shooting 1080? This camera does best at
720p. And in fact, the files sizes will be very
small at 720p24...just 22GB/hour. And since the
chips are really ideal for 720p...I see no gain in
shooting 1080i.
But that is me.
I just finished a show that was a mix of Varicam and
HVX and I edited 720p, and output to 1080p, and it
looked great. Airing on TV this Friday. Sadly, in
Standard Def...
Shane
That's a good question. lol.
The director wants 1080 because there's potentially going to be a 35mm blowup at the end of all this. Depending on who you ask, I've heard 720 may lose anywhere from 10-30% resolution on blowup compared to 1080.
Though it's been a back and forth decision. He's not 100% sold on 1080 (especially because we're finding few people have done it with the HVX-200) and 720 sure makes the workflow much easier.
That's been a question we've been unable to find a good answer to, is shooting 1080i really that much better (to justify all the extra work in the process) than just shooting 720/24pn and doing an upres at the end?
how exactly are the chips ideal for 720p?
By the way, I've been reading your blog. It's one of the best sources I've found out on the net for this stuff... Keep up the good work.
17" Macbook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
17" Macbook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

How do I use iMac as monitor for external DVD player (HDMI to Mini DisplayPort)

iMac 27" (late 2009). Internal DVD is region locked. I would like to use an external DVD player to watch DVD's from other regions.
I can't use the new Apple SuperDrive because they say it's not compatible with iMac's before 2012. (Is it??)
My iMac doesn't have Thunderbolt. It has mini displayport.
I have resigned to getting a generic DVD player and plugging it into the screen.
I have found this in Apple support pages...
Can I use the iMac in TDM as a display for my gaming console, DVD player, or other device?
The Mini DisplayPort port on a supported iMac can receive DisplayPort compliant video and audio signals. Converters not made by Apple may provide options to convert other electrical, video, and audio protocols to Mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt compliant signals.
( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3924 )
What is DisplayPort compliant video and audio signals? Does HDMI fit into that signal type?
Is it possible to get an HDMI to Mini DisplayPort converter?
Will it work if I get a generic DVD player with HDMI output? (and connect it to the iMac through MiniDisplayPort)

First try VLC.
<http://www.videolan.org>
On many Macs, it will play DVDs even if the region codes don't match.
The Apple SuperDrive should work if you use the terminal (Utilities foldsr) command:
sudo nvram boot-args="mbasd=1"
There are also non-Apple USB or FireWire external DVD (and Blu-ray) drives, such as:
<http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-drives/superdrives/>
Apple's DVD player may not work with external drives, but you can use VLC or Blu-ray™ Player
<http://www.macblurayplayer.com>
There is a converter to connect HDMI to the iMac via TDM
<http://www.kanexlive.com/xd>
but it will run at 720p (1280 x 720) and may have problems with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) on HDMI from Blu-ray or DVD players.

Buying an external DVD burner, what to look for?

Hi, I am buying an external DVD burner in the morning, anything I should look for feature wise, any models which are recommended?
Cheers, S.

Patrica, we'll forgive you this once! For future reference at the top of each Discussions Forum section there's a blue "Post a New Topic" link - that's where you start. Anyway as to your problem as to what to do now. You can ignore the "Easy Media Creator" disc - this is an application for Windows machines.
All you need now is a blank DVD to record onto. Usually LaCie include a complimentary DVD-R disc - didn't you get one?
It's useful because it will give you a good idea as to which brand of disc works best with your burner. My LaCie likes Maxell and Verbatim but not TDK even though it's on LaCies's approved list (which you can find on their website). Buy a small pack until you are sure they work OK. Whether you get DVD-R or DVD+R is up to you, but the minus format tends to work better with domestic DVD players.
I don't know what you want to burn onto DVD - is it files or movies? If it's the former you have all the software you need in Disk Utility. As far as I know iDVD on the other hand doesn't work with an external burner (someone please correct me if I'm wrong!) you need to buy something like Toast for that. I notice also that you're in the PowerBook forum although you have an iMac! Does this not have an internal DVD writer? I thought all versions of the G5 had a SuperDrive? My final bit of advice to you would be to get yourself whichever of these http://www.missingmanuals.com/ you feel you might need. Certainly the 10.3 book will help you enormously. Good luck.

Best external DVD writer for iMac

What is the Best external DVD writer for iMac

i use the apple superdrive its expensive but its good quality no blueray though. I love it though.

Best External dvd burner for dual layer disks?

Hi everyone,
At some point my internal dvd burner in my mac book pro died, and apple replaced it. After that, I couldn't burn a dual layer disk. They've changed it twice more to accomodate me (the genius bar is awesome), but I still only have mediocre results. No problem burning regular dvds or cds. So I wondered is there a REALLy good external burner for DVD-DL that you have experience with? Thanks!

A good bootable multi-interface enclosure (empty) for an external CD/DVD drive will run about US$70.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MRSFW8U2RF/
They also sell SATA drives pre-installed in that same enclosure.
Many users find installing an internal drive themselves no more difficult than doing a memory upgrade themselves.
Others prefer not to work inside their computer.
Based on your graphics card and the original drive, I expect your Mac Pro is an older model. All before 2009 accept an ATA INTERNAL drive such as this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/superdrive/Mac_Pro_Xeon
That page also has a video of how to install a replacement DVD drive.

Superdrive preferable to external DVD for editing?

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