[MacDV] Can't render/encode my iDVD project - Can't burn project to DVD

[Robert L. Vaessen]

On Oct 23, 2004, at 12:09, James Asherman wrote:

> On Saturday, October 23, 2004, at 01:43  PM, Robert L. Vaessen wrote:
>
>> I'm not sure what you're talking about. I took segmented VIDEO_TS 
>> (MPEG2 encoded Transport Stream) data into iMovie, and I'm taking an 
>> iMovie project file/folder/data (multiple files/file formats) 
>> directly to iDVD by clicking the 'Create iDVD project' from the 
>> iMovie's iDVD pane. iDVD creates an iDVD project file when you click 
>> the 'Create iDVD project' button.
>>
> So in this case what you want to do, would be,
> Save you iMovie project with the chapters.
>  RENDER  it as a separate new  DV movie.
> Drop that sucker onto iDVD.
> Yer done.

Jim -

What you are describing does not work (for me). I tried it. My copy of 
iDVD (version 4.0.1) will not accept a .dv (DV Movie format) file 
(Files ending with .dv) via drag-n-drop. It only accepts .dvdproj (iDVD 
project format) from drag and drop.

I used iMovie (4.0) to import my VIDEO_TS files* (using iMovie's 
File->Import function). Then I saved my movie (with chapter markers, 
transitions, soundtrack, music, some static pictures, titles, etc) as a 
.dv file using the QuickTime panel in iMovie's File->Share function (I 
used the expert setting to ensure NTSC video formating and 48Khz sound 
formating).

When I was trying to use iDVD, I used the 'Create iDVD project' button 
from within iMovie, which automatically opens iDVD, imports (into iDVD) 
the digital media from iMovie, and creates a new iDVD project file. You 
could also save the project (from within iMovie), then use iDVD to 
create a new project. Use iDVD's File->Import function to import the 
.dv file. You cannot however (or at least I wasn't able to) drag-n-drop 
a .dv file onto iDVD.

I tried the drag-n-drop method you described, but iDVD would not 
hilite/become a target for drag-n-drop of the .dv file. iDVD will 
accept the contents of the iMovie Media folder (The Media folder is 
inside the iMovie project folder (it's the folder that iMovie creates 
when you save your iMovie project)). Doing this is no different than 
using the 'Create iDVD project' button.

My problems are not getting iDVD to open my files. I can get my digital 
media from iMovie to iDVD with no problems. My problems occur when I 
try to burn to a DVD using iDVD. The process seems to be hanging at 
stage 2.

I encounter the same problems when I try to burn the iDVD tutorial to 
disk.

- Robert

* On a DVD disc, DVD movie files are stored in the VIDEO_TS folder (My 
movie was converted from VHS footage to DVD by a hardware converter). 
There may also be an AUDIO_TS folder, this is where DVD-Audio would be 
stored, but usually the folder is empty (The Audio data is usually 
multi-plexed into the video stream). Among other things (.IFO and .BUP 
files), the VIDEO_TS folder contains .VOB files (VOB stands for DVD 
Video Object). It is basically one of the core files found on DVD-Video 
discs and contains the actual movie data.

Basically, a VOB file is just a basic MPEG-2 system stream -- meaning 
that it is a file that contains multiplexed MPEG-2 video stream, audio 
streams (normally AC3 format) and subtitle streams. These files are 
usually segmented into chunks of manageable size. iMovie will not 
import these .VOB files (VIDEO_TS data), unless they are smaller than 
2GB.