iDVD on my Combo Drive iBook

[mrgreen4242]

I have a 933mhz iBook w/ a combo drive. It was supposed to come with iLife '04, and all of the other apps are there (iPhoto, GarageBand, etc), but no iDVD. I have a DVD burner in my PC and wanted to use iDVD to author DVD images and burn them on my PC, or perhaps get an external firewire casing for the drive and use the easter egg in iDVD 4 to burn directly to that.

There was no CD included with my iBook for iLife, and the other other apps seem to be on Disc 2 of OSX 10.3. I feel like I am entitled/licensed to use/have iDVD (the information on Apples website says it came with iLife, including iDVD), but I can't seem to figure out how to get it onto my system. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rob

[mrgreen4242]

Hm, maybe I wasn't very clear with my request, or maybe I just missed everyone who might have an answer...

Does anyone know how to get iDVD onto a G4 iBook with a combo drive? All of the other iLife apps, including Garageband, were preloaded, and I can also find them on disc 2 of the OSX discs that came with the computer, but I can't find iDVD anywhere on the computer or the discs that came with it.

Thanks,
Rob

[reaper]

Have you tried re-installing iLife again from the discs that came with the iBook? It's possible that it just didn't come pre-installed because of the lack of SD in the iBook.

When I purchased my G4 tower, though, it came with a combo drive and had iLife + iDVD installed, so it has to be somewhere. Anyone else have some ideas?

- reaper

[reaper]

Wish me luck on my pending deployment for the US Army Reserve!

Thank you for serving and defending our country!

- reaper

[mrgreen4242]

Have you tried re-installing iLife again from the discs that came with the iBook? It's possible that it just didn't come pre-installed because of the lack of SD in the iBook.

When I purchased my G4 tower, though, it came with a combo drive and had iLife + iDVD installed, so it has to be somewhere. Anyone else have some ideas?

- reaper

I didn't get an iLife specific disc with my system... should I have? All the other apps are on the second osx 10.3 disc, but not iDVD... I am going to end up calling Apple tomorrow if I can't figure it out.

Thanks,

Rob

[Awimoway]

You're probably out of luck. iDVD might even be left off the discs that came with your iBook. And even if you purchased an iLife disc separately, it probably won't install on any Mac without a superdrive. Furthermore, even if you could get iDVD to run on your iBook (there may be a hack out there, somewhere, that fools your iBook when it checks for a Superdrive, but I kind of doubt it), I don't know how you would get your PC to read the file that iDVD creates. It is in a .dvdproj format. I could be wrong—I'm not an expert on this—but that sounds like a proprietary format to me. iDVD has to read that .dvdproj format and turn it into a standards-compliant DVD, and I bet that only iDVD can do this. The only possible workaround would be to get iDVD to "burn" the project to a virtual disk, creating a set of files you could copy to your PC and burn to a real DVD, but I don't think it's possible to fool iDVD into thinking a virtual disk is a DVD-R.

All is not lost however. You can create great-looking movies using iMovie and then export them to a number of different formats, including some lossless ones ("Export to Quicktime" is, I think, how it's done—I'm not an expert on this either, so you'll want to ask around for more details). It will create a .mov file (other formats are available too, I think) that you can transfer to your PC and burn. The chapter markers you create in iMovie probably transfer too. The drawback to this method, of course, is that you won't be able to use iDVD's themes. But that's the only loss, and although the themes are really nice, it's not the end of the world. It's the movie itself that matters most, right?


I wish you a safe deployment. Thank you for protecting us.

[Awimoway]

P.S. You probably aren't "entitled" to have and use iDVD. There is probably some fine print somewhere that specifies that it is bundled with "Superdrive-equipped Macs only." I can pretty much guarantee you that that's the party line they'll give you if you call.

[Pcy]

even if you purchased an iLife disc separately, it probably won't install on any Mac without a superdrive.

I have iDvd installed on a machine with Combo drive - it doesn't install by default, you need to click custom installation and then check the box to install it from the iLife DVD

[DavidLeblond]

iDVD 4 will install on Macs without a Superdrive. They just won't be able to burn. You can fix that with the hack though, I tried it and it works fine. (you gotta have a DVD burner handy though)

[evil_santa]

Just tried a install on a imac 233 the only error i was this..

[jaw04005]

P.S. You probably aren't "entitled" to have and use iDVD. There is probably some fine print somewhere that specifies that it is bundled with "Superdrive-equipped Macs only." I can pretty much guarantee you that that's the party line they'll give you if you call.

Not true with iLife 04, Apple started shipping non-superdrive systems with iDVD. You can now create a project on any system and then share that project with a superdrive-equipped system for burning. We just got a new eMac combo drive and it has iDVD already installed.

Its even mentioned in the new iBook's specs: http://www.apple.com/ibook/specs.html.

Put the second Restore DVD in, and open up Apple Software Restore. Check to make sure it is listed there. You cannot just drag applications off the Apple Restore DVDs, they are hidden away.

Otherwise, I would contact Apple and see what they say.

[mrgreen4242]

You're probably out of luck. iDVD might even be left off the discs that came with your iBook. And even if you purchased an iLife disc separately, it probably won't install on any Mac without a superdrive. Furthermore, even if you could get iDVD to run on your iBook (there may be a hack out there, somewhere, that fools your iBook when it checks for a Superdrive, but I kind of doubt it), I don't know how you would get your PC to read the file that iDVD creates. It is in a .dvdproj format. I could be wrong—I'm not an expert on this—but that sounds like a proprietary format to me. iDVD has to read that .dvdproj format and turn it into a standards-compliant DVD, and I bet that only iDVD can do this. The only possible workaround would be to get iDVD to "burn" the project to a virtual disk, creating a set of files you could copy to your PC and burn to a real DVD, but I don't think it's possible to fool iDVD into thinking a virtual disk is a DVD-R.

All is not lost however. You can create great-looking movies using iMovie and then export them to a number of different formats, including some lossless ones ("Export to Quicktime" is, I think, how it's done—I'm not an expert on this either, so you'll want to ask around for more details). It will create a .mov file (other formats are available too, I think) that you can transfer to your PC and burn. The chapter markers you create in iMovie probably transfer too. The drawback to this method, of course, is that you won't be able to use iDVD's themes. But that's the only loss, and although the themes are really nice, it's not the end of the world. It's the movie itself that matters most, right?


I wish you a safe deployment. Thank you for protecting us.

Thanks for you help. I remember seeing on the iBook specs website when I bought this computer that they came with iDVD, and no iBook at that point had a superdrive. Also, they go out of their way to mention that iDVD can now make disc images so you can burn your projects on another superdrive equipped mac, etc.

I have been considering getting an IDE enclosure for an external harddrive and my DVD-RW, so w/ the hack I could use it. I haven't looked yet, but if the file generated by iDVD is propriety disc image, it is still just a disk image, so there is bound to be something that will read and burn it for the PC (windows or linux).

Thanks so much for your help tho, I absolutely LOVE this computer, and can't wait to get my next Mac, to completely replace all my PCs!

[mrgreen4242]

Not true with iLife 04, Apple started shipping non-superdrive systems with iDVD. You can now create a project on any system and then share that project with a superdrive-equipped system for burning. We just got a new eMac combo drive and it has iDVD already installed.

Its even mentioned in the new iBook's specs: http://www.apple.com/ibook/specs.html.

Put the second Restore DVD in, and open up Apple Software Restore. Check to make sure it is listed there. You cannot just drag applications off the Apple Restore DVDs, they are hidden away.

Otherwise, I would contact Apple and see what they say.

I'll give it a try... when I put the first disc in, it said that to reinstall iLife apps to use the OSX discs, but now that I am thinking about it, it may have listed all the iLife apps expect iDVD rather than saying iLife...

[Horrortaxi]

Check what's on the disks that came with your computer, you may have iDVD on there. You're supposed to be able to install iDVD on a computer without a Superdrive--it's an advertised feature of iLife 04. There's a hitch though--iDVD is a pretty huge app and is on a DVD (retail version has 2 disks--a CD w/o iDVD and a DVD with it). While you can run it on a computer without a Superdrive, you can't read the DVD with a CD-ROM so you have to find another way to install it--and that would involve use of a Mac with a Superdrive.

Then again, the system restore disks that come with your computer are model-specific so you may not have iDVD at all. If you don't have a Superdrive you don't need iDVD. If you have another Mac with a Superdrive you have iDVD for it. Make sense?

There's no above board way to burn .dvdproj files on a PC. I hear there is a hack that allows you to create a disk image instead of burning. Get creative with that information and you may have your answer.

EDIT: I just caught a logical error in my post. If you have a Mac with Superdrive and iLife 04, you'd still need another copy for the iBook. I was thinking about it on a practical (family pack/multiple installation) level rather than a legal one, which says 1 license per computer. I'll bet that if your computer meets the system requirements that you have iDVD somewhere.

[mrgreen4242]

Check what's on the disks that came with your computer, you may have iDVD on there. You're supposed to be able to install iDVD on a computer without a Superdrive--it's an advertised feature of iLife 04. There's a hitch though--iDVD is a pretty huge app and is on a DVD (retail version has 2 disks--a CD w/o iDVD and a DVD with it). While you can run it on a computer without a Superdrive, you can't read the DVD with a CD-ROM so you have to find another way to install it--and that would involve use of a Mac with a Superdrive.

Then again, the system restore disks that come with your computer are model-specific so you may not have iDVD at all. If you don't have a Superdrive you don't need iDVD. If you have another Mac with a Superdrive you have iDVD for it. Make sense?

There's no above board way to burn .dvdproj files on a PC. I hear there is a hack that allows you to create a disk image instead of burning. Get creative with that information and you may have your answer.

EDIT: I just caught a logical error in my post. If you have a Mac with Superdrive and iLife 04, you'd still need another copy for the iBook. I was thinking about it on a practical (family pack/multiple installation) level rather than a legal one, which says 1 license per computer. I'll bet that if your computer meets the system requirements that you have iDVD somewhere.

Just checked my restore discs... nothing. Kind of makes me angry. I am definately going to call Apple and see what they say. I know that iDVD was specifically advertised with the iBook... an author on the go, burn when you get home type pitch.

I trid to use iMovie, but it only lets you import 9.5min clips? What's the deal with that?? If I wanted to use software with inane restrictions and all kinds of silly work-arounds, I'd author the whole thing on my PC and just be done with it! (It says that a 9.5m clip would be 2gb in DV format and to use Quicktime Pro to split it - sneaky way for Apple to make some extra cash, if you ask me). Is there an option that I can set that will make it use another format, say MPEG2, during import, so that I can get about an hour per gig??

Thanks everyone,
Rob