Way to "fit to disc" a movie longer than 2 hours?

Question

Is this possible in iDVD 08? If not, how to go about it in Toast? If the movies in question are NOT VOB / VIDEO_TS folders from a DVD, etc. but are .avi for instance?
Thanks, Deborah

Answer 1

This is possible in Roxio Toast (Fit to Dvd option) and DVDSP but not iDvd since the latter app doesn't yet have a fit to DVD option per se.
Let me qualify this in that iDvd can at times allow for a few minutes over and above the advertised 2 hour limit; depending on other items added or not to the finished Dvd (for example, motion menus, slideshows, data to the dvd-rom section, etc.) All of these consume disc space and thereby reduce available run time and disc space.
On a separate note, is it possible to trick iDvd?
I know for a fact it is. But not always with anticipated / expected results. Hence the recommendation not to exceed 120 mins. max (2 hours) for best results. If you do not follow this recommendation, then the quality of playback will suffer significantly.
So what do I mean by tricking iDvd?
Let me give an example. In prior versions of iDvd media choices were once limited to single layer DVD-R (minus media mainly). + Plus media was reserved for data. And using DVD-RW was nearly out of the question (due mainly to low surface reflectivity of this particular media). However, we quikly learned that it was to possible to write to DVD-RW media through what we called a "bait and switch" operation.
When the drive prompted us to insert the dvd-r into the S-Drive after hitting the burn button in iDvd, .... we would. But a few seconds later, once it accepted the dvd, we'd simply hit the eject key again (or F12) prior to stage 4 burn cycle and remove the dvd-r in favor of Dvd-RW. Worked fine most of the time like a charm. Did apple recommend this at the time? Probably not.
In this vein, I will offer up the following link for your own consideration:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8559922#8559922
(Note the post by Kenneth Chen toward the end of the thread).
Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software products that may be mentioned in this topic. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information above at your own discretion.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser