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ghporter · Dec 26, 2009, 10:08 AM

I have a number of movie trailers, mostly in AVI format, that I'd like to burn to DVD so I can show them on my big screen TV. I have read a lot here about a number of different apps that should help me do this, but most of what I've read has been "appX will do that for you..." I want to be able to set up a menu so I can select which trailer to play, as well as have the disc set to autoplay if I leave it, so this isn't just a matter of converting audio and video. I have some time, but not a huge amount, so the whole "do the research" thing is kind of a challenge, since I would have to research a number of different products in order to figure out which one to learn...

Can someone walk me through converting multiple short AVIs into something I can burn onto a DVD, and then how to build that DVD with menus? Recommended (free) software is of course a real plus. I have ver 7.x of iDVD and iMovie, as well as Handbrake and VLC. I'd sure appreciate any and all support!

TETENAL · Dec 26, 2009, 11:18 AM

Apple - iLife - Find out how to use iLife applications on the Mac.

ghporter · Dec 26, 2009, 01:35 PM

I have used both iMovie and iDVD with directly imported digital video from my camcorder, so I know something about them. Assuming I can import the AVIs, then I should be able to use the features of these apps to do the menu stuff I want.

The help in iDVD talks about finding out which codec was used in the AVIs I want to put together, but there's nothing in iMovie about them. Wouldn't I need to import the video into iMovie to put the trailers in order? How would I do that? Wouldn't I also need codecs for iMovie? How would I add them? Or am I overthinking this?

reader50 · Dec 26, 2009, 02:01 PM

Apple products generally use QuickTime for their video conversions. So install Perian then try to play your AVIs in QT Player. Chances are if QT Player can play the videos, then import will work too.

ghporter · Dec 26, 2009, 08:36 PM

Apparently Perian doesn't like iMovie-I can play the AVIs just fine via QT/Perian, but iMovie won't accept the file. Nor will it accept a version of the file in M4V format when converted by Handbrake. Thus my quandary. Perian seems to be up to date, my version of iMovie isn't ancient but isn't one of the problematic recent versions, yet my AVIs don't stick when I drag them to iMovie, and when I select them via iMovie's import function, they never go anywhere.

reader50 · Dec 26, 2009, 09:17 PM

Apple Support isn't good about supplying software specifications. Near the bottom of this page, I finally found the filetypes iMovie can import:

You can import video from any file in one of the following formats: MPEG-4, DV, or .mov files.

You'll need to convert AVIs to one of those three before importing. QT pro can do it, as can the free BitPlayer, which is a front-end for the QT libraries.

TETENAL · Dec 27, 2009, 04:20 AM

You can use Handbrake to convert your AIVs to MP4. You don't need iMovie, just iDVD.

ghporter · Dec 27, 2009, 10:11 AM

So I'd import the trailers in the order I want with iDVD, then use iDVD's menu creation system to set up my menus? I can do that fairly simply. I hadn't found anything in iDVD's documentation that said what formats it imported. I tried it and it turns out that it's incredibly easy-just drag the AVI to the main screen (in order, but you can fix that by removing and re-dragging), and the file is imported. Much easier than I thought it would be. I may need to tinker with this for a while to get what I actually want as a finished product, but it's a lot farther along than I was before. Thanks all!