[dngonzales]

Hello everyone its been a while since i've been here
my questions are currently ive been using iDVD 5 to burn dvd's to play on my old panasonic dvd player hooked up to my HDTV. ive been converting my files into MP4 so iDVD can read (Which does'nt take near as much time) and import them into iDVD since i am working with files over an hour long so performance is default at best quality(which i prefer anyway). But iDVD takes around 6 maybe 8 hours or longer for a standard movie and then when i play the dvd the edges are cropped. the last footage i used was at 672X368 and was cropped when i played.
Question 1 what resolution should i use to prevent cropping? wiki says dvd resolution is 720X480 but it also says 480i is 640X480. which resolution range should i keep my videos under to prevent cropping since i dont have very many dvds to spare
Question 2 is there any other dvd burning utilities that might be faster at making a readable dvd for most dvd players including the older ones other than iDVD and still be 1 as easy to use and 2 have as good a success rate as iDVD i being the dvd is readable when completed and not a coaster

i like idvd very much but making a dvd is pretty much an overnight thing any help to speed up this process would be much obliged. as with anyone a free program is great but if everyone uses a program that you have to pay for and is a very good product with great reviews and will do what i am asking i would have no problem buying it

also i heard iDVD 6 might be faster is it ? should i download this http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Video/Apple-iDVD.shtml
i thought i would have to buy ilife 06 but it looks to me that this part of it is free

Current System Specs
eMac 1.25 768 ram superdrive 80gb hd
OS is current version for PPC 10.4.7
iLife 05

i know i cant expect this system to be a speed demon but for 400$ brand new with AP and BT it has been a wonderful system but something has got to be faster than idvd since other programs i use can convert formats of the same file in a much shorter amount of time

[msuper69]

1. Don't convert your video to MP4 and expect to get great quality. MP4 is a compressed format. Convert the video to DV, import to iMovie and then export to iDVD.

2. 6-8 hours is not unexpected with your hardware. The only way to get faster encoding is to have a faster Mac. My MacBook (2.0ghz) encodes a 1 hour DVD via iDVD in about 2-3 hours. That is compared to 6-8 hours on my G5 1.8ghz SP.

[Chuckit]

If you want to make multiple copies of the same DVD movie, try creating an image of it with iDVD and burning that to your DVDs. It should be a lot faster than redoing it every time!

[dngonzales]

well chuck thats not what i was asking but it shure was something i didnt know and needed to know
so instead of clicking burn you just go to file and save as disk image and save then do i burn with disk utility or idvd
i am guessing this way it still takes as long but it only needs to be encoded one time

and msuper 69 thanks i didnt know dv would yeild a higher quality thanks