[MacDV] Re: iDVD iDvDidn't- or- Blame the Victim

[Steven Rogers]

On Sunday, January 18, 2004, at 06:00 PM, Bobbo wrote:

> Steven wrote:
>
>> Well, Apple can hardly be responsible for the compatibility of your 
>> DVD players with the latest technology, or with the brand of blanks 
>> you're using.
>
> OK, I get it now. I asked for it. Musta been the short skirt and 
> provocative look.

Perhaps, but the thing you have to get over here is the idea that there 
has to be a "victim", and that its either you or Apple.

> OK, FYI, the disc failed to play on 4 machines, 3 different brands, 
> two of the machines less than 6 months old. Major brands all: Sharp, 
> RCA, and two models of Sanyo. Not an Apex or a Flookenheimer in
> the lot. But I guess it must be the brand of DVD I'm using, 
> KHypermedia...

Probably

> which burned just fine with iDVD 2 and, I believe, 10.2.3 (??). Sorry, 
> pal. You need to get more info before you launch into unhelpful 
> metaphors of blame.

The metaphors are dead on - you just don't want to hear it.  I can 
empathize with being annoyed with where technology is, but at some 
point, you have to buckle down and get real.

> But I would welcome any help in diagnosing the problem beyond my 
> current less than resourceful state. Oh, just for the record, I make 
> my living running an audio production studio,

And I'm corporate customer support - so I guess we're pretty well 
equipped for our roles.

> so I'm not that technologically challenged, though I'm the first to 
> admit I do have a lot to learn about video... and marketing promises. 
> OK, I mentioned I was pretty sore. Being patronized really doesn't 
> help.

Not intending to be patronizing, just trying to clue you in as to the 
actual nature of your problem. You can't move forward until you get 
past the idea that iDVD is somehow "broken".

>> You might as well rail on that Apple is stupid because the Mac won't 
>> run your PC programs. Or that your Sonicare toothbrush is stupid 
>> because the brushes for your Panasonic won't fit, or your Mr. Coffee 
>> is stupid because the cone filters for your Braun won't fit.
>
> Or that my e-mail reader is stupid because it doesn't filter out 
> messages that miss the point. As I said, any constructive suggestions 
> would be helpful. I expect my Sonicare to clean my teeth. It does. My 
> coffee maker makes coffee. Yay.

And your Mac makes DVDs and plays them back.  Woo-Hoo!

> And nobody ever claimed in a keynote address that my Mac would 
> natively run PC programs.

And nobody ever claimed in a keynote that your Mac would burn brand X 
disks that would play on brand Y players either.

> If that were what I wanted, I'd bloody buy a PC, and expect it to 
> perform as advertised. But the purpose of iDVD is simply expressed, 
> the claims are plain and expansive. It doesn't do the one thing it's 
> supposed to do. Now THAT's stupid.

It makes a DVD-R, which is what its supposed to do.  It may be news to 
you that there's a difference between brands of DVD-Rs and that players 
don't read factory pressed disks and DVD-Rs equally well. But that's 
the state of the art. It doesn't matter whether you're burning disks 
with a Mac, a PC, or a Match. There *is* no universal solution. It used 
to be the same way with CD-Rs - do you want the green ones or the gold 
ones, etc. Burn a CD-R on one machine, and it won't play on another 
one, etc. That's where we are now with DVDs.

>> The state of technology just isn't at a point that you can burn a DVD
>> on any arbitrarily chosen brand of blank and have it play on every DVD
>> player in the world. You can blame Apple for the state of the art, or
>> you can take the time to figure it out. Its really not that hard.
>
> I'm all ears if you have any pertinent, helpful suggestions.

The first thing I would try is burning the same project on Apple media. 
I have a fairly new Sony S560D which is quite picky about which kinds 
of disks it will play, and the Apple disks work more consistently than 
anything else I've tried.

Steve