Section 22.9. Archiving Your Project


22.9. Archiving Your Project

Ordinarily, iDVD doesn't store any videos , photos, or sounds in your iDVD project file. It remains a tiny, compact file that stores only pointers to those files elsewhere on your hard drive.

That's why, if you delete or move one of those media files, iDVD will mildly freak out; you'll see a dialog box listing the pieces it can't find.

In previous versions of iDVD, you couldn't transfer a project from one Mac to another for this very reason. And that meant that you couldn't design a DVD on one Mac (one that lacked a DVD burner ), and then burn it on another. You also couldn't back up your project file, content that you'd included all of its pieces.

Fortunately, Apple packed a solution into iDVD 5. The Archive Project command lets you completely "de-reference" your project, so that the project file contains every file that you've incorporated into your project: movies, photos, sounds, theme components , and DVD-ROM files. Your project file is now completely self-contained, ready for backup or transfer to another computer.

It's also now really, really huge.

Follow these steps to produce your archive.

  1. Save your project .

    If you forget this step, iDVD will remind you.

    Figure 22-8. The Archive Project's Save As panel lets you specify whether you want to include themes and encoded files in your archived project. You can save quite a bit of disk space by leaving these options unchecked. The Size indicator to the right of "Include themes" tells you how much space your project will occupy.


  2. Choose File Archive Project .

    The Save As panel shown in Figure 22-8 appears.

  3. Turn the checkboxes on or off, if you like .

    "Include themes" copies your theme files into the projectsomething that's unnecessary if you're using standard Apple themes. This checkbox is important only if the themes you've used come from other companies, were designed by you, or are modified versions of Apple's originals .

    "Include encoded files" is the more important option, because it's very unlikely that all of your sounds, photos, and movies are also on the destination Mac.

    Turn the boxes on and off to see how much space you'll recover.

  4. Name the archive file, choose a folder location for it, and then click Save .

    Wait as iDVD builds the new archive. This can take a few minutes, so be patient. You may be working with very large files.

Archived projects look like any other projects, in that they use the same . dvdproj extension. But inside, they're very different. For proof, simply open it as a package (Section 23.8). Inside its Contents Resources folder, new folders called Assets and Themes store the extra archived elements (Figure 22-9).

Figure 22-9. When archiving a project, iDVD creates additional folders within the new project bundle. The Assets folder stores original copies of your audio and video files (in the "av" subfolder), DVD-ROM content (in "data") and images (in "stills"). If you've chosen to save themes, they show up in the Themes folder.



Tip: In order to turn your photos and videos into DVD material, iDVD must encode (convert) them into a format called MPEG. Depending on your Preferences settings, iDVD may constantly be working on this time-consuming task, or it may do the job only when you burn the DVD. Either way, an archived project also stores any MPEG files iDVD has created so far. They'll save you time when you burn the DVD, but they'll make the archive's file size balloon up like a blimp.If you'd rather keep the file smaller, choose Advanced Delete Encoded Assets before saving the archive. iDVD removes the remove encoded MPEG filesbut youll pay for this gesture in re-encoding time when you're ready to burn your discs.

22.9.1.

22.9.1.1. Copying the archive to a different Mac

Suppose that you've designed a DVD using a Mac that lacks a DVD burner. Now, as Apple intended, you've used the Archive command to prepare it for transfer to a Mac that does have a burner.

Transfer the archive project using any convenient method: copy it across a network, burn it to a CD or a DVD-ROM, copy it onto an iPod, or whatever. (It's too big for email, of course, but you could instead post it on a Web site for downloading.) The project opens normally on the other machine, with all of its pieces intact and ready to touch up and burn.

UP TO SPEED
Making DVDs Last

Your homemade DVDs (which are "burned" using dyes) probably won't last the 100 years expected of commercial DVDs (which are etched with lasers). But don't get too depressed by the occasional article about homemade DVDs "going bad" in a matter of months. Most cases of "DVD rot" come down to one of two things: problems created during manufacturing or poor handling by their owners .

There's not much you can do about manufacturing errors, apart from buying name-brand blank DVDs.

As for handling, these tips should ensure that your recordable DVDs will last for years:

Store your discs in a cool, dry place . DVD-Rs are sensitive to both temperature and humidity. In an ideal world, DVDs would love to live in a cupboard that's 68 degrees Fahrenheit with 30 to 50 percent humidity. In the real world, room temperature is fine as long as temperature swings aren't a fact of life. Recordable DVD's hate large changes in humidity, too.

Keep your discs out of the light . Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light degrades the organic dyes in the recordable layer, possibly making the data on your discs unreadable. Regular light may also hurt your discs, primarily through heat.

Don't flex your discs . With their laminated polycarbonate layers , recordable DVDs are very sensitive to of bending or flexing. In fact, the quickest way to destroy your disc is to bend it.

So don't. Store your discs in soft envelopes or in cases where you pinch a center hub to release the DVD. Don't store them in CD jewel boxes that have a snap-on hub.

Hold discs by the edges . Fingerprints, scratches, and dust on the disc surface interfere with a laser's ability to read data. DVDs are much more sensitive than CDs in this regard, because the data is crammed together so much more tightly.

Don't stick on labels . Adhesive labels throw off the disc's balanceand might even ruin your drive when the heat makes the glue melt. Instead, use a CD-safe marker to write on your DVD-Rs.





iLife 05. The Missing Manual
iLife 05: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596100361
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 314
Authors: David Pogue

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