[Susan]

I'm transferring my VHS collection to DVD and have just burned my first DVD successfully--after many many hours of failed attempts.

I'm using iMovie and iDVD.

First off, if anyone has any tips or suggestions for a better way to go about this, I'm soooo open you have no idea. I have many hours and about a half dozen coasters under my belt, black rings under my eyes and a WHOLE list of inventive new cusswords. So please don't hold back if you have advice, tips on using other software, or some plain vanilla commiseration, even.

What I'm looking for now is a way to save my encoded & compressed project so I can burn it later without having to encode and compress again. I put the project in iDVD from iMovie, add my menus & themes, and then when I select 'burn' it takes some hours (!) to encode and compress the thing, and then the last stage is actually burning to DVD. Is there a way to save the project in its encoded/compressed state so the next time I launch it in iDVD I can just burn it to DVD and not have to go through the hours and hours of encoding/compressing again?

I've downloaded and printed Apple's pathetically inadequate Tutorial and looked at a couple of others on the web but haven't found the answer to this question.

[Uncle Skeleton]

I, uh, commiserate you.

Maybe you should try VCD sized video instead of DVD. VHS quality is only about as good as VCD anyway (if you recorded it yourself it's probably worse than VCD; if it's a fantastic, pristine, professional VHS production it might be slightly better). Anyway, take a look at this here: http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=165821

If you still decide to go DVD, try Sizzle for authoring (you can open the dvdproj package and pull out the encoded files and drop them in Sizzle and burn with Disk Utility or Toast). The menus aren't as flashy as iDVD, but it's a simpler option and might work when iDVD out-smarts itself.

[Susan]

Thanks, Uncle Skeleton. A lot to read there and digest.

[scottiB]

Unfortunately, iDVD doesn't saved the encoded project state prior to burning. I've no clue as to why. It may be due to how iDVD creates the disk: it creates a temporary copy of the DVD, then burns that to disk (this is why one needs twice the available hard disk space of the disk to create a DVD). If you need to make copies of a DVD you authored (rather than reauthoring in iDVD), you can use Disk Utility (Applications>Utilities) to copy it.

Without using outside software, I'd suggest to stick-out the complete process and burn copies from the completed DVD-R. I feel your pain--I have a slower Mac and a first generation SuperDrive.

Here's a FAQ from a member of Apple's discussion forums:

http://www.kentidwell.com/idvd4/#faq_07

[xMetal]

while not the solution you are looking for, DVD Studio Pro has this functionality.

Unfortunately, it is $500, so if you aren't doing this stuff for a living, it's probably not worth it.

Making DVDs of any kind is a time-consuming and very processor intensive process though, no matter how you cut it.

[Susan]

These are incredibly helpful links and tips. Thank you all so much.

I think I'm getting the hang of it.

I'm still looking for some way to reduce the time in encoding, compressing, etc. What about VCDs? I've heard the quality is less, but that might be okay for some of my recordings.

How do I go about creating a VCD?

[KeyLimePi]

I've wondered about this, too and, although I've never tried it myself, it occurs to me that it would be much easier to just duplicate a DVD than to re-encode it each time, wouldn't it? Our homemade DVDs aren't encrypted like commerical DVDs, so it shouldn't be a problem.

This Apple tech database article describes how to duplicate a DVD that was created in iDVD, but Apple's disc burning process always requires the extra, time-consuming step of creating a disc image. Roxio's Toast burns CDs and DVDs much faster because it skips this process.

Toast, by the way, is also about the easiest (and only) way I know of to make a VCD.

Hope this helps and let us know if you have any success.

[Susan]

KeyLimePI

Thanks for the response.

I've come to much the same conclusion myself about just duplicating the DVD. How long does that take, by the way? I'm using a new P'book G4/133 12" which burns at 4x.

I did my first experiment with making a VCD using Toast. I saved a 45-minute iMovie file in quicktime>save for CD. I didn't time the process but it was lengthy, and the final result was just about unviewable. I chose 'standard' quality after first trying the high quality option (in toast) and getting a message that my project wouldn't fit on the disk.

Is it possible to make a VCD and burn it to DVD? I apologize for all the questions. Usually I'd just figure out these things by myself but trial and error is daunting when it takes so many hours to complete anything.

TIA

[xMetal]

Originally posted by Susan:

Is it possible to make a VCD and burn it to DVD? I apologize for all the questions. Usually I'd just figure out these things by myself but trial and error is daunting when it takes so many hours to complete anything.

TIA [/B]

I do not believe this is possible. VCD is a "standard" format, much like audio CD or DVD. I've personally not tried it, but I believe it would require a regular CD for delivery.

BTW, the resoution for a standard VCD is 352x240, roughly half of VHS resolution. You might try outputting your quicktime at this size and then using Toast. VCD is a "not greaet" format as the resolution is low. I guess it would depend on your audience, and how important visual quality is.

[Uncle Skeleton]

no. VHS res is about 240 lines tall (horizontal resolution is kind of a meaningless number for analog formats). Furthermore, VCD spec video is fully compliant with DVDs (not vice versa though). Read the thread I linked to in the second post.

[SeSawaya]

the trick is getting the first one burned. that is the real issue normally with the failed attemps for me. THEN, I use "DVD Imager" from version tracker. to extract it as an image file, then use toast to burn copies.

I've burned around 280 dvds so far on my iMac 17 1 ghz. Its a job thats for sure and theres no quick way to do anything it seems!!!

[Susan]

I'm doing ok, I guess. After a few coasters, all seems to be clear sailing. Very time consuming, but the DVDs are usually coming out ok.

I've followed KeyLimePi's advice for making a disk image of the DVD and that works. It doesn't take very long and it's a way for me to archive the files on hard disk, which I think may be morer reliable as a backup than a second DVD.

Thanks to all for your help.

[fulmer]

Originally posted by Susan:
I'm doing ok, I guess. After a few coasters, all seems to be clear sailing. Very time consuming, but the DVDs are usually coming out ok.

I've followed KeyLimePi's advice for making a disk image of the DVD and that works. It doesn't take very long and it's a way for me to archive the files on hard disk, which I think may be morer reliable as a backup than a second DVD.

Thanks to all for your help.

for backup I like encrypted images. I create one, copy my files there, and unmount it. I'll then burn it to disc or copy to an external drive.