Section 14.10. iDVD

14.10. iDVD

You have iDVD only if you bought a new Mac containing a SuperDrive DVD burner , or you bought Apple's iLife software suite. In any case, iDVD is designed to let you turn your digital photos or camcorder movies into DVDs that work on almost any DVD player, complete with menus , slideshow controls, and other navigation features. iDVD handles the technology; you control the style.

Sure, you can export your finished iMovie project back to an old VHS cassette. But preserving your work on a DVD gives you a boatload of benefits, including better durability, dramatically better quality, no need for rewinding, duplication without quality loss, and cheaper shipping. (And besides, you can fit a lot more DVDs on a shelf than VHS tapes.)


Note: DVD players sold since 2002 are generally a safe bet for playing back homemade DVDs, but check the master player compatibility list at www.dvdrhelp.com if you're ever in doubt. Some players are fussy about which DVD-R brand discs they play, too.

Here's the basic routine for converting an iMovie movie into a Blockbuster-style DVD.

14.10.1. Phase 1: Insert Chapter Markers

DVD chapters let viewers skip to predefined starting points within a movie, either using a Scene menu or pressing the Next Chapter or Previous Chapter buttons on the remote control. Thanks to the partnership of iMovie and iDVD, you can add chapter markers to your own movies markers, perfectly replicating this feature.

  1. In iMovie, click the iDVD button to open the iDVD palette .

    You'll find it among the other palette buttons, just to the right of the Effects button, as shown in Figure 14-11.

  2. Drag the playhead to the position for your new chapter. Click Add Chapter. Type a chapter title into the Chapter Title box .

    Whatever you type here will wind up as the chapter name in the finished DVD menu.

  3. Repeat step 2 until you've created all the chapters for your movie. Save your project .

    If you've added a chapter in error, click it and then click Remove Chapter.

14.10.2. Phase 2: Hand Off to iDVD

Now you're ready to hand off the movie to iDVD, where you do your menu design and DVD burning.

Figure 14-11. The iDVD palette lets you add, remove, and name chaptersand then publish your iMovies to iDVD. New iMovie chapters are numbered sequentially, as they appear in your movie from left to right. Chapter references appear in your timeline as small yellow diamonds, just above the video track. iMovie can add up to 99 chapters per movie with the iDVD palette.


Save your project, and then click Create iDVD Project at the bottom of the chapter list. Your hard drive whirs, thunder rolls somewhere, and after a few minutes, you wind up in iDVD itself. You'll know when you get there: Empty postcads scroll slowly from right to left, confirming your arrival in iDVD land. (This is the Travel 1 theme , described in a moment.)


Tip: To turn off the Apple logo that appears in the lower-right corner of every iDVD Project, choose iDVD Preferences and turn off "Show Apple logo watermark."

Figure 14-12. The Customize button reveals iDVD's Customize drawer . When you click one of the buttons at the top, the pane changes to show its contents. For example, Themes lets you choose a design scheme. The Settings pane lets you choose motion menu duration, background video and audio, title fonts, and the look and placement of buttons. The Media pane links directly to iTunes and iPhoto.


Select a theme by clicking its thumbnail. The main menu screen takes on your chosen theme instantly. If your DVD menu system has other screensa scene-selection screen that lists your chapter markers, for examplechoose Advanced Apply Theme to Project, so that every screen looks alike.

14.10.4. Phase 4: Edit Titles and Buttons

On the main menu screen now before you, you'll find two buttons:

  • Play . On the finished DVD, this button will mean, "Play the movie from the beginning."

  • Scene Selection . On the finished DVD, this button will take your audience to a second screen, which is filled with individual buttons for the chapters you created. (In fact, this second screen may well have arrows that lead to third and fourth screens, because iDVD can fit only six buttons per screen.)

You can edit these text buttons just as you would Finder icon names : Click inside the text to open up an editing box, type your changes, and then press Enter or Return.

Editing button names works almost the same way, except that you single-click the button first, and then click the text itself to open the editing box.

14.10.4.1. Button images and button videos

Almost every button displays an icon, picture, or tiny movie clip to give viewers a hint as to what lies in store if they click it. To specify what that image is, see Figure 14-13.

Figure 14-13. iDVD can display up to 30 seconds of a movie right there on the button. Turn on Movie, and then use the slider to specify where you want the tiny button movie to begin looping. To make your button's face a still image instead, turn off the Movie checkbox, and then drag any graphics file right onto the button; you'll see the image change instantly.


14.10.5. Phase 5: Burning Your DVD

Once your menu screens are looking pretty good, you're almost ready to burn the DVD. Before you go using up a blank disc, however, you should test your creation to make sure that it works on the virtual DVD player known as the Macintosh.

  • Preview the DVD . iDVD's Preview button lets you test your menu system to avoid unpleasant surprises . When you click it, iDVD enters Preview mode, which simulates how your DVD works on a standalone set-top DVD player. You even get a simulated remote control to help you navigate. Click Stop (the filled square) or reclick Preview to return to iDVD's Edit mode.

  • Check the length . iDVD prefers to burn 60-minute DVDs, because they have the best quality. The instant you try to add the sixty-first minute of footage to your project, though, iDVD invites you to switch to 90-minute modeat lower qualityor to delete some video from the project to make it fit within 60 minutes again.

When you've finished editing your disc and testing it thoroughly, it's time to proceed with your burn.

  1. Check your Motion setting .

    The Motion button at the bottom of the window determines whether or not your finished DVD will have animated menus, buttons, and backgrounds, and whether or not music will play. If the Motion button is green, you'll get all of the above. If you click to turn the Motion button off (gray), then motion and audio features won't appear on the final disc.

  2. Choose File Save. Click the Burn button twice .

    The first click on the gray, closed Burn button "opens" it, revealing a throbbing yellow-and-black button. The second click begins the burning process.

  3. Insert a blank DVD-R disc when the Mac asks for it .

    Be sure you're using the correct kind of blank DVD for the speed of your DVD burner. For example, don't attempt to burn 1x or 2x blanks at 4x speed.


Tip: Depending on your Mac model, you may be able to use either blank DVD-R discs or blank DVD+R discs. (Yes, these are really two different kindsnote the punctuation. They're essentially identical after burningbut some Macs can't burn DVD+R.)To find out which kinds of discs your Mac can burn, open Applications Utilities System Profiler, click Disc Burning, and look at the formats listed next to "DVD-Write."


Switching to the Mac[c] The Missing Manual
Switching to the Mac[c] The Missing Manual
ISBN: 1449398537
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 371

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