[MacDV] Moving into DVD - help!!!

[James Asherman]

On Monday, November 10, 2003, at 12:41  PM, Karl Hayden wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> This may be a bit long but hope you can stay with me and offer any 
> advice you may have.
>
> Increasingly I am being asked for finished work on DVD. The programme 
> I most often use to edit with is iMovie2 as the material usually 
> consists of simple cuts, I gave up on iMovie3 as a bad joke. Mostly I 
> would send out the finished material to someone to burn the DVD, but 
> it is costly and can sometimes be more trouble that it is worth. The 
> problem with trying to produce the DVDs myself is:-
>
> 1: I am using iDVD and that limits the amount of running time I can 
> produce on a DVD-R 4.7Gb to less than 50mins.
>

Use iDVD3 in OSX.

> 2: Too often I have had my DVDs returned as they won't play on other 
> machines.

Try a diiferent brand of media. Wait until encoding is finished before 
burning.

>
> 3: The burning process often fails before the DVD is finished.

Again wait till the encoding is done.

>
> 4: The amount of time it takes to burn a DVD ties up my computer for 
> far too long.

Whining.

>
> I need to move up a gear and start producing the DVDs myself. With 
> something more reliable than iMovie or iDVD. So this is where I need 
> the voice of experience, ie: YOU.

Final cut express and iDVD3.

>
> As I understand it there are a number of options open to me.
>
> 1: I make more use of FinalCut Express, which I understand has a DVD 
> facility to it, but I have never used.

It makes the chapter markers. iDVD3 imports and makes use of these 
markers.
Makes for a nice user experience
>
> 2: I buy a copy of DVD Studio Pro to produce the DVDs after editing on 
> FinalCut Express.

Of course that is ideal. DVDSP requires quite a bit more work to make a 
DV than iDVD.
Flexibility comes at a price in both learning curve and attention to 
details.

>
> 3: I upgrade my current iMac SuperDrive to a G5.

You could start by upgrading your software and learning OSX and it's 
apps.

>
> 4: I buy an external DVD burner for faster burn time.

Take out the DVDR103 and put in a 105 or 106. Very easy.

>
> Or an alternative which has been suggested to me is to buy a DVD video 
> recorder.

A handy alternative that I keep at my side.

>  I have one on trial at the moment, Panasonic DMR-HS2. It has a 40 GB 
> hard drive, so if I need to produce multiple copies I can load that up 
> and keep replacing the DVD-R for each copy. This alternative is 
> OK(ish) but, the firewire connection does not work between the 
> computer and the DVD video recorder,

If you cannot by any means ( and there is quite a lot of fiddliing to 
do before deciding this)
make the firewire work to cut a DVD than screw it.
I have to power down the mac and repower-up with the DVD recorder on to 
make a solid firewire connnection.

>  the firewire between camera (Canon XL1) does work,  but there are a 
> lot of pixel drop-outs and other distortions which take away from the 
> reason to have a DVD video recorder. I have tried using the composite 
> connections, s-video connections and the composite to scart 
> connection. But, that is just adigital signal converted to an analogue 
> signal converted back to digital and I can see the difference between 
> this and the firewire connection. AND one of the main reasons for DVD 
> is to be able to create chapters and graphics to go with them but I 
> can't do that with this machine.

Aside from your connectivity problems and compatablity issues you havve 
to prioritize your work soo that each type of DVD is madde on the right 
stuff approppiuate to what is needed. Straight archive: standalone 
recorder.  You wanrt bells and whistles; do it all inj the Mac.

>
> So here I am..... am I expecting too much from a semi-professional 
> set-up? Do I need to take out a mortgage to buy all new equipment and 
> go state of the art?

If you have a superdrivve Mac and a big HD and a DVD recorder and an XL 
1
you're doing pretty good. They may not all like each other though.

>
> Any help, advice or guidance anyone can offer would be very much 
> appreciated at this point. Please don't suggest talking to an Apple 
> agent, buying a magazine/book or to look up the internet. I need to 
> hear from people with experience of DVD production and who have no 
> particular affiliation to one product line or brand. This move 
> represents a big financial investment for me and I want to get it 
> right.
>
> Many thanks in advance for your time.
>
> Karl
>
>