[MacDV] Burning (DVDs) and Boosting (iMovie audio) questions

[James Asherman]

John Teffer wrote:

>Hi all, this is my first time posting a real Mac DV post here, so hopefully
>these are pretty easy questions.
>
>I'm working on a little documentary video (only about 15 minutes long) for
>an animal rescue group I volunteer for, and have only sporadic access to a
>school computer lab to do my editing.
>
>The machines in the lab are G4 towers, with the built in "SuperDrive" DVD
>burner.
>
>My first question is, what type of media should I buy to burn my finished
>project to DVD?  I was at Best Buy this afternoon and asked, but no one
>there knew anything about Macs.  Does the SuperDrive record to DVD-R,
>DVD-RW, DVD+R, or DVD+RW?  (I think those were the ones they had.)
>  
>
DVD-R

You can try DVD-RW if you want.

>Second question:
>
>Most of the audio in the video is voice-overs, which I recorded at home, by
>connecting an external microphone to an iMac, and recording an Audio CD.
>
>When I import the CD tricks into iMovie, it sounds great, but the few times
>when I need to hear the audio from the original video, it is much too soft.
>
>I've figured out how to LOWER the volume of a clip in iMovie, so I guess I
>could just lower all the voice-overs to match the video audio, but I'd much
>rather amplify the original audio somehow, to match the voice-overs.
>
>My somewhat clumsy idea so far is to connect an audio amplifier between the
>camcorder and the DV bridge when I import the video, so that I can raise the
>audio level where it is needed, but if there's a way to do it within iMovie
>without having to lug my stereo's cassette deck (the closest thing I have to
>an audio amplifier, at least it has meters and level controls) to the
>computer lab, I'd much rather do that.
>
>Thanks for any ideas,
>
>John
>
>
>  
>

> Using the cassette deck if that's  the only preamp you have is fine.
>
Jim