camcorder to iDVD: any Mac experts ?

[ndbob79]

Because of the excellent advice I have received from this forum, I am now able to transfer miniDV digital camcorder film to my Powerbook G4 and then burn a DVD using iDVD. It took 3 attempts (the first 2 stopped due to errors) and I am wondering if the iDVD version 3.0.1 is a little too old (2003). The question is: would upgrading to iLife 05 (which includes iDVD 5.0) improve the performance and would it make any difference in terms of image quality. On the Mac, iPhoto, iMovie, and IDVD all communicate with each other making the process very simple. My current Mac has iPhoto 2, iMovie 3.0.3 and iDVD 3.0.1. I have been unable to find specs on Mac products and so do not know what format they use. Thanks again in advance.

Originally Posted by ndbob79

Because of the excellent advice I have received from this forum, I am now able to transfer miniDV digital camcorder film to my Powerbook G4 and then burn a DVD using iDVD. It took 3 attempts (the first 2 stopped due to errors) and I am wondering if the iDVD version 3.0.1 is a little too old (2003). The question is: would upgrading to iLife 05 (which includes iDVD 5.0) improve the performance and would it make any difference in terms of image quality. On the Mac, iPhoto, iMovie, and IDVD all communicate with each other making the process very simple. My current Mac has iPhoto 2, iMovie 3.0.3 and iDVD 3.0.1. I have been unable to find specs on Mac products and so do not know what format they use. Thanks again in advance.

Hello !

Well I am NOT an expert... but what I know of and do is using the latest version iDVD 5. It's much better than the previous ones.
I guess that after updating iLife, you will encounter no more problems !

With previous versions of iDVD many problems occurred, specially when burning. Took long time and didn't finalise...
See also the Discussions on Apple site http://discussions.apple.com/forum.j...rumID=896&ft=y

Good luck !

[Alps]

Guys, can I slightly bump this post...

I'm currently using i-dvd in conjunction with final cut pro 5.

Is there anyway I can create a blank i-dvd project? One that does not use any of the given themes? I have created a photoshop image that has specific places for the "buttons" etc but I have to use the most plain theme on i-dvd because I have no idea if it's possible to create a blank image.

Alps

Please check that your os versiona nd machine spec meets the ilife requirements (ignore the HD part if you aren't going to use HD just yet), better software is only better if you can actually use it.
I would recommend Roxio Toast for menu free DVD authoring, even toast lite v6.0 should meet your needs, which you can sometimes get for free by download or on magazines.

[Applespider]

There's little point in buying iLife 05 at the moment since iLife 06 will likely come out next week at Macworld San Francisco.

iDVD 05 did make a few changes to the encoding used which, to my eyes, makes the DVD quality look better, particularly during transitions where iDVD occasionally stuttered on some players.

So far as creating a blank theme, I'd go for a basic one and then customise it. If you use the 'Settings' panel in the Customise drawer you can change the background to your Photoshopped image and then add buttons where you like; then save that as a theme for you to use in the future. The other option is to ignore the menus altogether and have it just autoplay the movie when the disc is inserted.

[Alps]

Thanks Applespider.

I think that I've finally decided to splash out on DVD Studio Pro 4. I'm having way too many problems with i-dvd (multiplexer errors) and really do not find it good to use. But untill I can get some funds together it'll have to be i-dvd!

PS Any updates on having a Mac specific forum?

Alps

There are already a number of brilliant Mac specific forums, even MAcs own users forum is very helpful.

Good luck with DVD Studio 4, it is a brilliant package but give yourself a month to learn how to use it, you'll defiantely need at least one external 7200rpm firewire drive, which I'd even partition a few times.

[spinaltap]

Purely for your information, if you're interested, I've just bought Final Cut Express HD.

List price on the Apple Store is £199.95.
Education price on the Apple Education Store is £128.95.

But, I got it in the John Lewis clearance sale at £99 (mega bargain, sealed box - and they've got plenty more).