iMovie help before I purchase Mac.

[Warped1]

I am a Windows user getting ready to purchase my first Mac. My budget is really tight and I need to save every penny where possible.

So I want to get the Mac Mini and have a question before I place my order. I already have an awesome 16x Pioneer DVD burner in my Windows machine. Does anyone know a way I could author home movies in iMovie and somehow burn them on my Windows machine without loosing quality? I briefly read something from googling it about converting the movie to AVI on the PC using Quicktime but it wasn't clear if there was video degradation. Is there a way to simply save it as an ISO so I can copy it over the network to my Windows box to burn? It seems simple enough that there must be a way.

I know I should get the Superdrive built into the Mini, but money really is that tight. Please help me if you know this can or can't be done as I'm eager to place my order.

Bob

[jsw]

I can't answer your question directly, but I do see that iMovie '05 will export back to digital camera or to QuickTime - perhaps both would be routes to getting your movie to your PC.

[Nermal]

iDVD 5 can apparently export to an image file. However, I don't know whether this image will be readable on a Windows computer (it might be a .idvd file or something).

Having said that, I suspect that the image will be a .dmg file. It is possible to use Disk Utility (included with your Mac) to convert .dmg to .iso, but that's an extra step.

So, you should be able to write your iDVDs using your Windows PC, but I'm not guaranteeing anything.

[Mechcozmo]

iDVD 05 will burn to a disk image. Transfer that to your PC. Burn it from there.

iDVD does come with your Mac. It came with my PowerBook, and I only had the combo drive.

Welcome to the light side of computing! :)

[Warped1]

Nermal,

I believe you are correct with the image file being .dmg. I was not aware of the Disk Utility that can convert dmg to iso. Awesome!

[deuceswilde]

As stated before the disk image would probably be the best route. If you use it a lot and it doesn't do much good in your PC, then you can buy a drive bay enclosure for it and connect it to the mini as an external drive. Hardly necesarry but if you're only going to be using it with your mac then it might be a useful thing to have. Good Luck and I think you'll really enjoy the new computer.

[slipper]

Are you purchasing from the Apple Store(retail store front)? From my understanding, most Apple Stores provide free classes for Mac software. Apple.com>click retail on the bottom>select your store.

[sigamy]

Will the new iDVD5 support external drives? If it does, you could pop your burner into a firewire enclosure and then use it on both your Mac and your Windows box.

But you'll soon find out that you no longer need your Windows box...

[jsw]

Will the new iDVD5 support external drives?
That brings up a good point - if it doesn't, I wonder if the old hack will still work....

[solvs]

That brings up a good point - if it doesn't, I wonder if the old hack will still work....
It doesn't natively, but you'd be able to save it as a disk image and burn it from there to an external disk using Disk Utility.

[Warped1]

I purchased my Mini. With the $100 I saved by not getting the Superdrive, I also ordered a Shuffle 1GB.

Now if it was only Feb 15th. I hate waiting.

[Mechcozmo]

I purchased my Mini. With the $100 I saved by not getting the Superdrive, I also ordered a Shuffle 1GB.

Now if it was only Feb 15th. I hate waiting.

Welcome to the light side of computing.