[Treebeard]

OK. I just realized that iDVD2 can't handle doing integrated chapters (i.e., the movie keeps flowing between independently selectable chapters). That sucks IMHO. My wife and I have been working on paring down 4.5 hours of vacation video into 1.5 (we're at 1:58 so far...editing is tough! ). Seems I have to choose between being able to select a different chapter, vs having the movie all flow together normally. Stupid dichotomy. In neither case can I press the fast forward jump button and go to the next segment. Which is just dumb.

But I had a revelation on a potential, partial workaround. Quicktime Pro is capable of doing chapters, right? Is it possible to add the chapters in between the iMovie stage and the iDVD stage using QTPro?

1) Edit the movie in iMovie2. Export it for iDVD.
2) Open the resulting QT file with QTPro. Add chapters. Save.
3) Insert tweaked QT file (with chapter markers) into iDVD project.
4) This results in being able to fastforwardjump to the next chapters (or previous ones), although not in being able to select them in the main menu.

It's a long shot, but can anyone tell me why this wouldn't work...besides the fact that there's no reason it should ?

Has anyone tried this before? Success? Failure?

Don't get me wrong; I think iDVD is great so far as it goes. But even the shittiest commercial DVDs have chapter selection. Is this work-around-able? Or are we poor schmoes--who haven't seen $1000 since we sold the farm to buy a G4 in the first place, and won't see it again for a while, if ever--screwed (at least as far as the admittedly minor subject of navigable DVDs goes)?

thanks for the help/criticism/insults. It's late and I'm going to bed.

Treebeard

[NeoMac]

This a very big complaint about iDVD and iDVD2. Make sure to email Apple and complain big time. This is a screw-up in iDVD.

Their answer, for now, will be: buy DVD Studio Pro.

Other option: instead of chapters, divide the film up into different clips.

Hopefully, Apple fixes this in iDVD2.1 soon and not make us wait until 3.0!

[Luuthan]

Can I just ask how do you add chapters in QuickTime Pro? I have been trying to find that functionality in QuickTime Player but haven't been able to find it. Thanks.

[lucylawless]

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/produ...tertracks.html

I think chapters are very cool

I've had problems with Add Scaled, though (step 9). It makes duplicates of about half the chapters. So just use Add. Or try it and see. It's not like encoding video where each try takes hours...

[Kristoff]

I think that the "Buy DVD Studio Pro" is a valid statement.

I don't miss chapters at all. I like iDVD.
I find it works quite well, and it allows you to make a hierarchical structure out of your vacations/events.
For example, in my recent trip with my wife and two year old sun to San Diego, we made our first iDVD using iDVD2 in OSX complete with custom themes and motion menus, music, etc.
The first screen has three options:
The Room, The Beach, Seaworld
The room has three clips of us messing around in the room.
The Beach has 2 beach clips and 2 clips walking around town.
Seaworld has 6 clips ranging from petting the dolphins to Shamu.
The disk is 1:30 hours long and the clips range from 5 minutes to 15 minutes in length.
This is my ideal way to capture our life and presents a great way to view it later. I dont' see how chapters would make it any better.

[ 12-11-2001: Message edited by: Kristoff ]