[MacDV] Formac Devideon

[Donald C. Tully]

Dave - I've just started using my Divideon for burning DVD's (been burning
CD's for a while with good success.)  You're right. The authoring software
from Formac sucks - at least the burning phase - and so does their zero
customer support.  I purchased Toast Titanium last week and it works great.
I just created my movie with Imovie and dragged the reference .mov file to
the Toast window and let it do its thing. I'm running a G3, too. It took 27
hours to encode and burn a 15 minute Imovie on the high quality setting.
Only 4 hours at the standard setting. If you have the time, high quality is
worth the wait.

Toast is missing a couple of nice features that Formac has. For example,
After creating chapters with IDVD, I was hoping to have a button for each
chapter on the finished menu. Only got one for the entire movie. Also, you
can't change the title page background with Toast like you can with Formac.
Maybe there's something better than Toast or I need to learn how to use it
better...

> From: David Thrasher <idave at earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: "Macintosh Digital Video List"<MacDV at lists.themacintoshguy.com>
> Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 09:02:13 -0600 (GMT-06:00)
> To: "Macintosh Digital Video List" <MacDV at lists.themacintoshguy.com>
> Subject: [MacDV] Formac Devideon
> 
> Ok, I bought one and while it was in transit I find out on this list that (1)
> the authoring software may not possibly be able to "close the deal" burn the
> DVD after you do all of your authoring and encoding work) and (2) the burning
> inside the external case is a good one (a Pioneer). Omeone also mentioned not
> liking the case but for me that is just an interior decorating issue and
> unrelated to my interest, which is authoring and burning my own DVDs.
> 
> Now, assuming that the DVD burner itself is ok and the included software from
> Formac sucks, are there alternative DVD authoring solutions where I could use
> the same external combo drive (burns both DVD-R and DVD+R DVD disks)?
> Considering I already own a G3 iMac and my budget is small, buying a whole new
> computer is not an option. Nor is the iDVD part of the iLife package due to it
> wanting an internal burner. Doesn't Apple have other more flexible authoring
> software available? Are there any other third party authoring solutions that
> might work? I do have Toast 5.0.2. Assuming that the Formac software can get
> as far as creating the files necessary to put onto the DVD, could they
> possibly be put on the DVD by Toast?
> 
> I'm going to be trying out this new burner either this weekend or next. From
> the information I'm aware of, those who have tried this burner have been using
> Maxell DVD media (forgot if it was -R or +R) and since so many on the list are
> using Mac OS X, I'm going to assume that is the case here too. I'm going to
> try it on OS 9.2.2 and try other media other than Maxell and see if I have
> better luck. (I hope I can make it work after spending all this money.) I'm
> also going to check on eBay for other DVD authoring software for Macs (maybe
> there's an earlier verson of one of Apple's offerings for sale as an
> accessable price that will work with an external burner). I'll post what I
> find out. Thanks.
> 
> -Dave
> 
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