[brigadeer]

I recently got a great deal and purchased the entry level MacBook that does NOT have the superdrive.

I am wanting to convert all of my home movies shot using a Sony Digital Hi-8 camcorder into DVD movies. From what I understand, you compile and edit the movies using iMovie, and then send them over to iDVD for burning. So, my issue is how can I burn my home movies using iDVD if my MacBook doesn't have a DVD burner?

This is a little excerpt I read off of the product description of iDVD:

"With support for a wide variety of DVD media formats — including DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD+R DL — iDVD 6 teams up with a compatible Apple SuperDrive or third-party DVD burner to offer you more media options than ever. You heard right: iDVD lets you burn using compatible third-party DVD burners.

iDVD even lets you archive projects as disc images. Saved this way, your projects are extremely portable and take up less space, and are read-only. What’s more, they’re already encoded, so you can quickly burn them to DVD whenever you have a free moment or a burner handy."

If I am reading the above correctly, I can simply save the project, and then burn it later using a third party DVD-burner. Here is the question. Can I take that saved iDVD file, transport it via a portable USB 2.0 hard drive, and then burn it using a program like Nero on my Windows desktop computer, or will the iDVD still be the ONLY program that can actually burn the movie (i.e.- You can save the movie, and even burn it using a third party DVD-burner, but in the end, it will still have to be burned using iDVD?)?

[JKT]

Short answer - no you won't be able to burn it on the PC. Not because iDVD is the only programme that can burn disk images, but because a disk image is a Mac OS specific format. FWIW, you can burn them using e.g. Disk Utility or Toast if you want, but you will need to hook up a third party burner first.

[brigadeer]

Thanks for taking the time to consider my issue and reply. I actually visited another Mac Forum earlier this afternoon and posed the same question. Here is the response I received:

"Once you have created a disk image, it will be, byte for byte, exactly what goes onto the DVD disk. So yes, you can burn it with whatever you want."

Obviously that is the complete opposite of what you just said. I'm not saying I don't believe you, I'm only saying that I have been told two different things. Does anyone have the authoritative answer on this one?

[JKT]

iDVD will create a disk image and save it in a .dmg wrapper which is a Mac-only format. Unless something has changed on the Windows side of things, none of the software on a PC will be able to mount the .dmg to burn it. Yes, the mounted image will be byte for byte the same, but you will still need software to mount the image from the .dmg.

What you could do, is just give it a go. Maybe I am wrong and Nero can do this now? Alternatively, if your two machines are networked, you could try copying the mounted image over to the PC and seeing if you can burn that.

[brigadeer]

Originally Posted by JKT

iDVD will create a disk image and save it in a .dmg wrapper which is a Mac-only format. Unless something has changed on the Windows side of things, none of the software on a PC will be able to mount the .dmg to burn it. Yes, the mounted image will be byte for byte the same, but you will still need software to mount the image from the .dmg.

What you could do, is just give it a go. Maybe I am wrong and Nero can do this now? Alternatively, if your two machines are networked, you could try copying the mounted image over to the PC and seeing if you can burn that.

JKT, I think you are right. I think iDVD will in fact wrap the movie in a Mac only format making it impossible for Nero or a Windows PC to burn.

So, my only other alternative is to purchase an external DVD-burner. Two questions. First, can I assume that iDVD will work and burn fine using an external DVD burner? Second, if I can in fact use an external DVD burner, would there be a connection preference here, USB 2.0 vs firewire?

[JKT]

On a Mac Firewire is just much more reliable and experiences better transfer rates than USB2.0. But you should try copying the mounted image to your thumb drive first and seeing if you can copy and burn that on your PC.

[macboy]

Another option for you is to make a VCD from your Combo drive. Just edit the video in iMovie and export it as an .avi or whatever - then you can easily use that file to make a VCD on Mac and PC (Toast and Nero)

[Tsilou B.]

Of course you can burn your iDVD disk images on a PC. You just have to convert them from .dmg to .iso first. Here are instructions:

http://homepage.mac.com/geerlingguy/...g_img_iso.html