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HalfMoth42 · Aug 2, 2001, 03:35 PM

A quick question to iDVD users... (Other than a copy of this post in another section of this Forum, I haven't seen this asked yet, so please forgive if I missed it somewhere.)
I'm guessing that, like iTunes & music, iDVD makes a disk image of your content (basically an all-in-one-place copy) which it then burns to DVD? If that's so, do you have left over a nice MPEG-2 or bunch of MPEG-2 files? Or does iDVD trash the "copy" when it's done? (Trashing it would make burning multiple copies of your DVD project a pain, if iDVD has to keep re-doing the compression!) Can I use iDVD to simply convert video & audio into an MPEG-2 file?

Anyway, thanx to anyone who can help.

--brian f.

bluedog · Aug 4, 2001, 06:04 AM

That's a GREAT question! I never thought about that with iDVD and have simply thought MPEG-2 was simply a format that wasn't going to get a lot of support in the MacOS for some time.

Anyone with an answer?

You may want to post this in the Multimedia forum.

[ 08-04-2001: Message edited by: bluedog ]

2far · Aug 4, 2001, 07:56 AM

Don't forget that iDVD runs only on Macs with Superdrives. So if you don't have a DVD-R drive, you can't run iDVD.

(Please provide a patch, someone.)

pjkim · Aug 4, 2001, 08:38 AM

You can run iDVD without a Superdrive just fine. Problem is that there is no way to do an MPEG conversion without the Superdrive.

You can run iDVD and do all the layout and editing that you want. It is only when you hit the burn button that iDVD checks for the presence of a Superdrive. Since the MPEG2 encoding occurs after the Superdrive check, you get no encoding.

Cipher13 · Aug 4, 2001, 09:43 AM

Transferring to Multimedia and DV forum.

HalfMoth42 · Aug 4, 2001, 04:08 PM

Thanx, Cipher.

Yah, my department's getting a new G4 with a SuperDrive, AND we have the need to make plain ol' stand-alone MPEG-2s. If iDVD will allow us to do this also, it's another nice selling point to bring up to The Boss. We actually make those standalone MPEG-2s more than we'd make DVDs.

Thanx for answering.

--brian f.

applenut1 · Aug 4, 2001, 04:57 PM

DVD Studio Pro comes with a Quicktime MPEG 2 encoder.

According to the Quicktime rep I talked to at MWNY he ssaid that MPEG 2 encoding and MPEG 4 support are expected to be part of the next major QT 5.x update (5.5 probably).

IMO, Apple will likely offer the MPEG 2 and 4 encoders for extra money to Pro users to cover licensing issues. MPEG 4 was amazin at MWNY[/LIST]

HalfMoth42 · Aug 4, 2001, 05:26 PM

(Cipher, please note the Multimedia & DV board is that other "section of this Forum" I also posted this question in. It's the other topic called "MPEG 2", a few lines down from this one... I didn't deliberately post on the "wrong" board to get attention, but funnily, that's how it worked out. Honest!)

I doubt I can convince The Boss to blow another $1000 on DVD Studio Pro just for its MPEG-2 encoding when free iDVD has to be doing it somehow... (For our purposes, iDVD is all we'll likely need in terms of authoring.)

If it turns out iDVD won't allow you to save off your individual MPEG-2 files, does anyone know if you can rip 'em back off the DVD you just made? Since I'd use iDVD and General discs, there'd be no encryption or other funky barriers, yah?

--brian f.

Cipher13 · Aug 5, 2001, 01:51 AM

No worries, thats a completely different topic, its all ok

Yeah, its possible to rip 'em, but if you can avoid it, you should

Media Cleaner Pro 5 has the ability to encode a movie to MPEG 2, if that would serve your purposes...

[ 08-05-2001: Message edited by: Cipher13 ]

HalfMoth42 · Aug 7, 2001, 11:21 AM

We have Media Cleaner Pro 5, but I think you have to pay a good bit extra for the MPEG-2 feature... either that or we don't have that version afterall -- I'll hafta check when I get back to the office. (It's on one of the Windoze machines.) I guess I should say I know we don't have the ability to encode MPEG-2s in the MCP we use. Basically I'm following along the Cheap Bastard path for the moment and have my attention focussed on what iDVD can and can't do. Anyone have that answer? Thanx! ("Thanx" is all I can offer, cuz, y'know, I'm a cheap bastard.)

--brian f.

stuph · 09:51 PM

edit

applenut1 · Aug 8, 2001, 02:41 AM

Originally posted by stuph:
<STRONG>

No, sorry, but I think you are 100% wrong. The unhacked version direct from Apple does not allow you to install it on anything without an Apple branded internal SuperDrive. {PERIOD!}</STRONG>

not true. the original version (1.0) works fine on machines without the drive up until you want to burn.

the new version breaks support (what a surprise:rolleyes

jac · Aug 8, 2001, 04:55 AM

HalfMoth, if it's cheap mpeg2 encoding you want, and you have a wintel machine, download Tmpgenc . It's free and according to tests I've read, it is the highest quality mpeg2 encoder at any price (hardware or software). Haven't tried it myself, but it's worth a go.

[ 08-08-2001: Message edited by: jac ]

HalfMoth42 · Aug 8, 2001, 08:29 AM

Thanx, jac, we're already encoding 'em on a Wintel machine via the Heuris plug-in for After Effects... I'd mentioned in a previous post that if I could tell the bosses we could do it easily with the new G4, too, that'd be another nice selling point. (They're happy to have the new workstation and DVD-burner... helping encode the stand-alone MPEG-2s would be bonus.)

stuph or applenut -- interesting points about iDVD, but any insight re: my questions?

--brian f.

GreenMnM · Aug 8, 2001, 07:45 PM

Apple had originally announced MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 support for QuickTime 5 before the release. Then it never appeared in the public preview. Then it did not appear in the final release...

Apple is apparently still working on it, so there is hope that with version 5.1 or 5.5 we will have QuickTime support (via QuickTime Player Pro) to encode and decode all those formats. We'll see!

-Doug