15.8. OneStep DVDs You know how iMovie offers the Magic iMoviea very limited, one-click method of dumping a videotape into iMovie without any work on your part? In the same vein, iDVD offers a one-click method of dumping a tape onto a DVD. You just plug in a camera and record directly to a DVD, bypassing iMovie altogether. You could argue that this feature is even more useful than Magic iMovie. Think of it: This feature turns any camcorder into one that churns out DVDs instead of tapes. It's also a handy way to offload footage from a bunch of tapes, either because blank DVDs are cheaper than tapes, or because tapes have a more limited shelf life. You should note, though, that the OneStep DVD feature is just as limited as the Magic iMovie described in Chapter 4. For example: -
iDVD can record only from a prerecorded MiniDV tape in a camcorder. It can't record from the TV, a cable box, an analog-digital converter box, or your digital camcorder's video pass-through feature. -
You can't edit the video or choose which parts to include. -
Unless you intervene (details in a moment), iDVD will rewind the tape automatically and transfer the entire thing to the end of the recorded portion. -
You can't customize your project in any way; the resulting DVD won't have a theme, a menu screen, or buttons . Instead, it will be an Autoplay DVDa disc that begins playing automatically when inserted into a DVD player.
Note: As with iMovie, OneStep DVD does not play well with 12-bit audio, which is the standard audio-recording setting for most new digital camcorders. Record your video using the 16-bit setting (which you change in the camcorder's menus ), otherwise your audio and video may drift apart on the DVD.
Here's how you use OneStep to copy a tape onto a DVD: -
Insert a recorded DV tape into your camcorder, and connect the camcorder to your Mac using a FireWire cable. As noted in Chapter 4, the camcorder's FireWire socket may be labeled FireWire, iLink, IEEE-1394, or even Digital. -
Turn on the camcorder and set it to VCR mode. This mode may also be called Playback, VTR, or Play. -
In iDVD, choose File  OneStep DVD. Alternatively, just close whatever iDVD project window is open . You arrive at the dialog box shown in Figure 15-21; click the OneStep DVD button. If your Mac's DVD drive has a slide-out tray, it now opens automatically.  | Figure 15-21. The Create Project dialog box in iDVD is a lot like the Create Project dialog box in iMovie. That is, it appears whenever you close your iDVD project window without quitting. | | -
Insert a blank recordable DVD. Close the DVD tray, if necessary. -
Wait. iDVD takes over your camera, automatically directing it to rewind, play back, and stop. After the capture process is complete, iDVD takes the normal amount of time to compress your video and burn it to disc, so schedule the whole thing for a time (a long time) when you won't be needing your Mac. Go get a coffee, found a new spiritual movement, or do something else that will occupy you as the tectonic plates move on inextricably and California continues its long, slow slide into Alaska.
Tip: For best results, make sure that no background programs are busyrendering iMovie effects, downloading e-mail, playing iTunes musicwhile you're capturing directly to iDVD. A busy computer may introduce video glitches (like dropped frames ) in the video capture.
15.8.1. Overriding OneStep You don't have to live with OneStep's super-simple, super-limited way of doing things. If you're clever, you can work around some of its limitations.  | Figure 15-22. Top: If, at any time during the camcorder-capturing process, you think you've messed up, you've inserted the wrong tape, or you just don't want to continue recording to disc, click Stop in the OneStep dialog box. Middle: At that point, iDVD asks if you want to cancel the recording or continue creating the DVD using the already-captured video.
Bottom: As a matter of fact, OneStep doesn't actually begin recording the disc until after its video-encoding phase, which can take several minutes to several hours after the video-capturing process is complete. You can click the Cancel button at any time during this processing (encoding) stage to quit without burning, too. | |
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You don't have to start from the beginning. Although OneStep prefers to rewind every tape to the beginning, you can easily override this tendency. That is, you can specify where you want the transfer to begin, just by cueing up the tape in the camcorder before you begin the steps above. Then, after you insert your blank disc, iDVD displays a "Waiting for Device" message. At that moment, put your finger on the camcorder's Play button. Once iDVD recognizes the blank DVD, OneStep begins the rewindingbut you can interrupt it by pressing Play right away. You've just convinced OneStep that the tape has now been rewound completely. iDVD starts the capture at that point. -
You don't have to wait till the end. OneStep ordinarily tries to transfer the entire recorded portion of the tape to the DVD, but you can override this setup, too. Whenever you feel that you've transferred enough of the tape, press the Stop button on your camcorder to end the capture process. OneStep doesn't bat an eye; it moves right ahead to the compression and burning stages. -
You can bail out at any time. As shown in Figure 15-22, you can cancel out of the whole OneStep process at any time. |
