Tom, Alternately you can build SVCDs that will play on many DVD players with ffmpeg, VCD Builder and Toast. Here's my install info from last week: Part One The Encoder ffmpegXv0.0.6f Installation and Operation Tutorial by Kunga part 1 I spent a lot of time getting the multi-format encoder ffmpegXv0.0.6f working this morning. Link to it is at the bottom of this message. I thought I'd share how to install it with everyone just in case you run into the problems I did. It works beautifully if you get it configured correctly. That is the trick. 1. The ffmpegXv0.0.6f download that you get from <http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/wa/ default?user=major4&templatefn=FileSharing1.html&xmlfn=TKDocument.1.xml& sitefn=RootSite.xml&aff=consumer&cty=US&lang=en> is not all you need to download. 2. You also must download the "Last Binary" Folder from this link which activates an auto download when you get there. <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mplayerosx/lastbinary.sit?download> Unstuffit. 3. You mount (if it didn't auto mount) the ffmpegX_0.0.6f.dmg-link.dmg disk image 4. I copied the entire disk image to my Applications—>Video Applications Folder (option drag to prevent an alias only copy). 5. Put the "last binary 090203" Folder in that new ffmpegX folder as well. 6. Download the text file "mpeg2enc" which comes in as "mpeg2enc.txt" from <http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net/MacOS/> (option-click the link and choose "Save link on the disk") 7. Put it in the ffmpegX folder too. 8. Run the ffmpegX engines installer where you press locate buttons for "mpeg2enc.txt" first, then the other two which are inside the last binary 090203 folder. Then press Install and watch the Terminal program ask you for your password and hit return and watch for the words "Installation Successful". 9. Now you are ready for the easy part: Encoding your first SVCD file. Launch ffmpegX0.0.6f and pull down at the bottom where it says "Quick Presets" to "SVCD (NTSC)". 10. At the top press the "Open..." button and choose your iMovie 3 Full Quality DV Export file. 11. Right under that press the "Save As..." button and give your SVCD file a name. 12. Press the "Encode" button in the lower right corner of the interface box. 13. Watch and wait for ffmpegX0.0.6f to generate any number of files that ultimately get recombined into one final .mpg file that is your final MPEG2 movie ready for Toast. You can play this file with Vic (someone please help with the URL for Vic) or, if you have the $20 MPEG2 addition to QT6, QT Player will play it as well. Next step is to assemble several of these SVCD files in the brand new 1.1.1 (Feb 4.03) VCD Builder. <http://homepage.mac.com/johan/> Then that multi movie assembly (like iDVD Free) gets burned with Toast in the Other—> Multitrack CD-ROM XA format. I got a 14.5 MB movie from a 159.5 MB Full Quality DV Export file with my first test of the old 47 second iMovie Tutorial set of clips of Matty and the Kids. Now that's effeciency. Extrapolated out it's about 20MB per minute or 35 minutes on a 700 MB CD-R/RW. But the content of your video will result in different times because it's a variable bit encoder. So long speeches will fit with more time than an action video with lots of changes. End of Part One. On Thursday, February 13, 2003, at 03:13 AM, Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote: > On Thursday, February 13, 2003, at 01:56 AM, Tom Kirshbaum wrote: > >> I'm really confused about Toast. I can't even find the answer on >> Roxio's web >> site. >> >> Can Toast burn an iMovie onto DVD, or is it necessary to go through >> iDVD >> first? > > Yes, Toast can burn an iMovie onto DVD, but not in a manner that's > useful without some authoring program. For one thing, iMovie files > aren't compressed. > > There's a workflow that goes: > > 1. digital video clips in (camera, analog-to-digital converter) > 2. iMovie to arrange clips in correct order and edit them > 3. author video, including compression > 4. burn to disc > > Toast can do 4 > iMovie does 2 > iDVD does 3 > >> If it can, then what are the advantages to having iDVD at all? > > Want chapters? Want to include stills? Want something that plays in a > consumer DVD player? > > -- > _Deirdre http://deirdre.net