[EnVoy]

So, I have a couple hours of video from an event on my Sony DCR-TRV18 that I want to put on a DVD. I just want the footage on DVD to watch/review. It doesn't have to be a DVD with menus, titles, transitions, etc.. Just a straight forward DVD with one long video on it.

I'm thinking of importing the footage into iMovie, then from there going to iDVD to make the disk. Is this the best way? Is there anything I should know before importing a 2 hours woth of video? Does iMovie/iDVD have limits as far as the amount of footage it can handle?

I'm would be using iMovie 3.0.1 and iDVD 2.1.

[Uncle Skeleton]

iDVD 2 (maybe 3 IDK) is limited to 90 minutes. If you want to encode to MPEG-2 yourself (with mediapipe or ffmpegX or a few other options I forget), you can try Sizzle (free) or DVDStudioPro ($999) to author a disc of any length

[AsahiToro]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
iDVD 2 (maybe 3 IDK) is limited to 90 minutes. If you want to encode to MPEG-2 yourself (with mediapipe or ffmpegX or a few other options I forget), you can try Sizzle (free) or DVDStudioPro ($999) to author a disc of any length

Are basically iDVD and iMovie the little brothers of DVDStudioPro and Final Cut Pro? Where does Final Cut Express fit in? For someone just making simple movies of family and friends(no major motion pictures), would it be overkill to use Final Cut Pro and DVDStudioPro? Would it be more complex/confusing for a novice or are they as user friendly with a just few more bells and whistles? Thanks for any input.

[Cory Bauer]

AsahiToro,

the process for making DVDs in iDVD is nothing remotely like making a DVD in DVD Studio Pro. Likewise, making a movie in Final Cut Pro is nothing like making a movie in iMovie. Final Cut Express is a scaled down version of Final Cut Pro for those who need more than iMovie but don't need the capabilities of a $1,000 professional application. Final Cut Express is Final Cut Pro's little brother.

For friends and family, stick to iMovie and iDVD. If you start spending more than 32 hours of work on a film, then you can justify using Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro.

To get an idea of the interfaces and complexity of DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro, check out apple's website for each product. They are very intuitive and well done products, assuming you're a pro user who is used to thousands of capabilities and functions in one program.

[AsahiToro]

Originally posted by Cory Bauer:
AsahiToro,

the process for making DVDs in iDVD is nothing remotely like making a DVD in DVD Studio Pro. Likewise, making a movie in Final Cut Pro is nothing like making a movie in iMovie. Final Cut Express is a scaled down version of Final Cut Pro for those who need more than iMovie but don't need the capabilities of a $1,000 professional application. Final Cut Express is Final Cut Pro's little brother.

For friends and family, stick to iMovie and iDVD. If you start spending more than 32 hours of work on a film, then you can justify using Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro.

To get an idea of the interfaces and complexity of DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro, check out apple's website for each product. They are very intuitive and well done products, assuming you're a pro user who is used to thousands of capabilities and functions in one program.

Thanks for the reply Cory,

I'm usually a quick learner but no, I'm no pro user and thousands of functions and capablities that I may never use might just complicate things more(assuming I don't need them for my purposes). I've read some mixed reports on iMovie 3 and iDVD 3. Should I stick to version 2 of those for now until some good updates come out for iDVD 3 and iMovie 3? I do want to expand my video skills so maybe Final Cut Express is a happy medium down the road some? I appreciate your advice on the subject.

[scottiB]

Asahi,

Regarding iMovie and iDVD3, if you check out Apple's discussion pages on the apps (where much wrath is being dispensed on the two--especially iMovie3), some tips are given on how to increase the usability of the apps.

For iMovie: Max your RAM and quit all other apps--iM3 is constantly rendering a .mov file in the background (I believe for back-up and to have the conversion to export to iDVD be faster). Secondly, if you can, capture and create projects on a second, internal drive. Thirdly, when importing photos, downsize them to 640x480 ahead of time--since iMovie will do that slower than an image app can. When applying the Ken Burns effect to a 1600x1200 image from a library, iM3 is scaling and zooming and panning and rendering, simlutaneously.

I wouldn't purchase DVDSP or FCP or FCE until, after use, I wanted capabilites that were beyond the two iApps scope. I did do that with FCP two years ago (I desperately needed two video tracks)--luckily, my GF was a grad student at the time, and I got the education discount. Now, I'd upgrade to FCE since I'm using strictly DV cameras.

With iDVD3 having chapter marks, I've postponed purchasing DVDSP (its learning curve, to me, is much steeper than FCP). Perhaps, if DVDSP v.2 is released with options that I can't live without (for my goofy home-consumer stuff), I'll bite. My GF graduates in May--I've got a couple months left for a discount.

[AsahiToro]

Thanks for the input Scott,

I'll keep all of your advice in mind. Hopefully Apple will improve/work out the bugs in the consumer level video/dvd apps soon. By then I'll need the pro stuff though !