[MacDV] chapter markers in iDVD

[Ronald Woodland]

Rebecca,

Yes, it's very easy to create and export chapter markers from FCP 3.  
On the timeline and without any of the clips selected, simply position 
the time pointer on the timeline where you want a chapter marker and 
then push the "m" key twice.  The first push inserts a marker; the 
second edits the marker by open a dialog box.  In the dialog box, click 
on the "Make Chapter Marker" button (or whatever it says like that -- I 
don't have FCP open at this moment) and then give the marker a name.  
That's all there is to it, but when you export the movie, make sure you 
include chapter markers.  This is set in the Save File dialog.  You can 
bring more than 6 chapter markers into DVD.  If you have more than 6 
chapters, iDVD will just make a second menu for the chapters, but 
they'll all be accounted for in the menu navigation.  Typically, I 
export with current settings (720 by 480 pixels, DV codec, etc.) WITH 
the chapter markers included and let the DVD authoring software do the 
MPEG-2 encoding, build, and burn.

iDVD is very good in it's own right, but designed to have limits that 
you bump up against often so that you will be motivated to buy the pro 
version.  I have DVD Studio Pro 2.0.  It's wonderful (MacWorld gives it 
4 mice, I think it's even better than that) and not subject to any 
limits like iDVD.  The older version of DVDSP was less than friendly.  
The 2.0 version is like iDVD on steroids!  It provides template themes 
like DVD but is fully customizable.  In the next version, I'd like to 
see more typography control for the text in headings, sub-titles, and 
buttons, however.

Ron Woodland


On Dec 11, 2003, at 10:56 AM, R Underwood wrote:

> I'm working on an educational video having 10 chapters, each
> on a different topic.  I want to export chapter markers from
> Final Cut Pro (I have version 3.0.2 on MacOS 10.2.8) into a
> DVD application (I have iDVD version 2.1) such that I can create
> a simple DVD having a main menu like this:
>
>  How to blah blah blah...
>
>  1.  Blah
>  2.  Foo
>  3.  Bar
>  4.  Baz
>  ...
>
> such that students viewing the DVD can go directly to viewing a
> specific chapter within the 30-minute QuickTime movie.
>
> I've noticed that iDVD 2.1 imposes a 6-link limit on a menu.
> I figure I could work my 10 chapters around that if I had to.
> But is it possible to create and export chapter markers from FCP3
> into iDVD, or do I need to break down and buy DVD Studio Pro
> or similar?
>
> Thanks,
> Rebecca
>
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