can i speed up idvd burn time?

[varney]

Hi,
I'm an oldie so not very computer savvy, and a newbie here, so forgive me if this is the wrong place to post, or the topic has been dealt with before......

I have a macbook with 2.4ghz intel duo processor, 2 gigs of ram and a 150gig hard drive ( 50 gigs free ).

I've been downloading some free movies for the kids and burning copies with idvd. Trouble is it take 3-4 hours to burn each disk. The original files are .avi and range around 700mb.

I use the magicidvd option in idvd, as it seems the most straight forward. I drag and drop the avi into the movie box, but usually get a message saying the project is too big and I have to change settings in project info. Not fully sure why this is but I find setting the quality to 'professional' ( I think.....disc burning at present so can't open the menu, ) allows me to continue.

My questions are - Am I causing idvd to take longer by the method I've outlined above?

Is there a way to speed up the burn time? I would prefer not to have to buy some other software but am open to suggestions. If I could reduce the burn time with idvd to a couple of hours that would be fine. Can anyone offer any help??

With much thanks,
Michael.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Yes changing the setting to Professional does indeed slow down the process rather noticeably- if the project is too long for the standard "Best Performance" setting (which only works for projects up to 1 hour), then use "High Quality" for 1-2 hour projects. It will take quite a bit less time than "Professional Quality". In this quote I just copied from iDVD's built-in help menu, you can see the recommendations:

Best Performance
When you select Best Performance, iDVD encodes your video in the background as you’re working on your project instead of waiting until you burn it. This can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to create a finished DVD. This is a good choice if your project is an hour or less in duration (for a single-layer disc). You’ll finish your project more quickly, and the encoding quality will be excellent for the amount of video you have.
Best Performance encodes your video at a preset bit rate that produces great quality for projects that can easily fit on your disc. If you have a larger project that needs to be squeezed onto a disc, you should select one of the other encoding options.

High Quality
This is the best encoding option for larger projects that are between 1 and 2 hours long (for a single-layer disc). With this setting, iDVD chooses the best bit rate possible for the amount of data you need to fit onto your disc. It’s the only option that “squeezes” all the data onto a disc at a bit rate that ensures a high video quality in your burned DVD. Because iDVD does not encode in the background with this option, it takes longer to burn your disc. The encoding process begins when you burn the DVD instead of when you start working on your project.

Professional Quality
The Professional Quality option uses advanced technology to encode your video, resulting in the best quality of video possible on your burned DVD. You can select this option regardless of your project’s duration (up to 2 hours of video for a single-layer disc and 4 hours for a double-layer disc). Because Professional Quality encoding is time-consuming (requiring about twice as much time to encode a project as the High Quality option, for example) choose it only if you are not concerned about time.

Now keep in mind that you also have the option to use a double layer disk for your burns which will reduce the time further as no compression needs to be done, but you may find that using the High Quality setting (vs. the Pro setting) will be adequate when only using standard single layers disks unless the burn is too long for High quality. Double layer disks can now be obtained for as low as about .85 each, so the thing that used to keep people away from DL disks (the price per disk) is less and less of a problem, so you might want to pick up a couple to compare your burn times to see if they are worth it to you. If you do, be sure to change the setting in Project Info that notes you are using a DL disk rather than the standard setting of SL disk though.

One other thing- I would certainly encourage you to try some of those settings changes first, but do keep in mind that Toast 9 ($80.00 at Amazon) does do .avi conversions to DVD somewhat faster in my experience, but not enough difference perhaps to make it worthwhile for you if that is the main use you would have for it.

 

[pixilated555]

use still images in drop zones and menu items

Hi all.

I'm a bit late in responding, as I am just trying iDVD for the first time today. However, I noticed right away that the menus were taking a very long time to render.

I stopped the projected 1 hr 30 minute burn and replaced the drop zone contents (which had been auto-populated with clips from my video) with stills from the video (created quick and dirty using screen capture).

I also double-clicked on the video clips over the menu items, which brought up the option to set them to still images, which I selected.

When I tried my burn again, the projected time was down to 50 minutes.

Clearly, this won't help with the burn time for the heart of the project -- mine, in this case, was just two short clips -- but it should cut 40 minutes off the overall burn for anyone who is content with still images in their opening screens.

 

[Elena Williams]

Burn speed is only adjustable using your burner's driver software (whether directly, or, if the driver soft allows it, via other applications). If the driver don't have it, then you don't have it. I'm in PC land, but I don't see why it would be different on the MAC.

As one who had all of the problems you describe, I would give you one advice: DVD+R with bit setting and all of your compatibility issues will be history! I am not sure they make bit setting enabled burners for the Mac though... Good luck,

 

[Jack06]

I found even just burning movies with a burn folder was pretty slow, so it might be problem with the dvd-burner...
I will upgrade my RAM and Hard drive so that should make a difference.