Burn DVDs using iMovie3, 2 Macs, and Panther(help?)

[Dennis R. Cohen]

On 12/8/03 at 3:52 PM, R B Williams <brucewll at comcast.net> transmitted
the following electronic message:

>Mark is right - the burner is in a Beige G3 (rev 2) 400 mhz. Also, I
>have a Pioneer DVR-105 in transit intended for the B/W system. Has
>anyone used Toast 6 to create a burnable image from iMovie3 as Mark
>describes?
>
>Another thought... Could I use iDVD3 for a more elegant long term
>solution by installing a G4 into the B/W? I have a Powerlogix G4
>350MHz CPU Upgrade somewhere, but hate to go to the trouble to install
>and then discover that it is of no benefit for this specific use.     
>Bruce
>

Just for gits and shiggles, I created a burnable image with Toast 6
shortly after I got it. I wanted to compare the results with those
achieved using other tools (iDVD, ffmpegX, Sizzle, etc).

Toast's menu structure is pretty simplistic -- pretty much what you get
with a standalone DVD-R unit like the Panasonic: 3 buttons per screen,
up to three lines of text for each button. Additionally, there are only
two encodings: Standard and High -- essentially the 90 minute and 60
minute CBR encodings found in iDVD, respectively.

If you don't need a menu structure, ffmpegX is the clear choice for me.
I just feed it the reference movie, choose the DVD preset, make any
tweaks I want such as one- or two-pass VBR, and let it rip. Out the
other end comes a DVD img file, all set for burning with Toast.

For a menu structure, Sizzle gives you some options. It isn't nearly as
easy to use as iDVD, nor as capable, but it's pretty decent for
"non-motion" menus. The downside here is that you still need a MPEG-2
encoder to create the input files Sizzle will work with. Sizzle also
produces image files all set to burn with Toast.

Suffice it to say that I bit the bullet and purchased a copy of DVD
Studio Pro 2. Simple stuff where length isn't an issue still gets done
in iDVD3. Movies that don't need a menu structure get done with ffmpegX
and Toast. More advanced projects (more than 90 minutes, for example,
with menus) get DVDSP.

I just don't want to pound nails with a screwdriver or use a hammer on
screws ;)

By the way, all of the above gets done on a 15" iMac 800 with
SuperDrive, so I sacrificed some speed to put the money into software.

-- 
Dennis R. Cohen