A problem with Mac Mini that no one noticed...

[mymemory]

Ok, the Mac Mini comes with iLife and iDVD but... if I have a movie how am I going to burn it on a DVD if it has a combo drive only?

I mean, a lot of people are going to get the box but at the time they finish their movie they are going to realize they can no burn it!

 

[LaMerVipere]

You can BTO one with a Superdrive.

And I don't think you get iDVD with your computer if it ships with a Combo drive, so it's not like they'd be missing anything, because they wouldn't know.

 

[TyleRomeo]

You can BTO one with a Superdrive.

And I don't think you get iDVD with your computer if it ships with a Combo drive, so it's not like they'd be missing anything, because they wouldn't know.

only factory superdrives have iDVD preinstalled.

 

[yippy]

It might not have it preinstalled but iDVD comes on the restore disks. Both my Macs came with iDVD and a combo drive.

 

[sigamy]

I don't really think this is a "problem". I'm sure that reps at the Apple store will educate users on the difference between combo drives and SuperDrives.

That being said, iDVD 5 now allows you to create a disk image of your project so you can edit and encode on your cobmo drive Mini then just send that disk image over to a Mac with a SuperDrive for burning.

 

[wwooden]

I don't really think this is a "problem". I'm sure that reps at the Apple store will educate users on the difference between combo drives and SuperDrives.

That being said, iDVD 5 now allows you to create a disk image of your project so you can edit and encode on your cobmo drive Mini then just send that disk image over to a Mac with a SuperDrive for burning.

Exactly what I do. I only have a combo drive, but my dad has a Superdrive on his G5. I just create the project, load it on my iPod and bring it to his computer.

Also, you can buy an external DVD burner in the future, so keeping iDVD isn't a bad idea even if all you have is a combo drive at the moment.

 

[nagromme]

Ok, the Mac Mini comes with iLife and iDVD but... if I have a movie how am I going to burn it on a DVD if it has a combo drive only?

It's great that the Mac Mini has an optional DVD burner, but most people don't share movies that way. They record them on video tape!

The Mac Mini has TV-out built-in, no expensive convertor needed. Just a <$20 adapter, which gives you both composite and S-video signals.

Or more likely, they will do what I do: use their COMPUTER to share their creations. Email them, put them on the Web, or just show them on their own computer screen.

iDVD is a nice companion to iMovie, but not a vital one.

 

[mymemory]

Also, you can buy an external DVD burner in the future, so keeping iDVD isn't a bad idea even if all you have is a combo drive at the moment.

You can not burn dvds with external devices.

iDVD should be able to create video CDs. I do not know if is capable actually.

I think Apple is cleaning stock of many things with this computer, on the other hand is good because PC people would have to change their CPU while keeping the monitor and the rest of the peripherals.

 

[Rod Rod]

You can not burn dvds with external devices.

iDVD should be able to create video CDs. I do not know if is capable actually.

Who says you can't burn DVDs with external devices?

As sigamy informed you, iDVD 5 can output a disk image straight away (no workaround Hurz Pfurz trick).

You can use Disk Utility to write that disk image to an external burner.

It's best to order the combo drive anyway, so you can get much faster DVD burning for just a few more bucks. 4x is slow these days. 8x DL external burners are cheap, and 16x DL burners are reasonable. Of course to burn DL you need Toast 6.0.7.

You can make VCDs and SVCDs with Toast.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Who says you can't burn DVDs with external devices?

As sigamy informed you, iDVD 5 can output a disk image straight away (no workaround Hurz Pfurz trick).

Yay! That tricked saved my ass so many times... encode on PowerBook, burn on iMac.

And this isn't a problem. Macs have shipped like this for at least a year, haven't they?

 

[LethalWolfe]

It's great that the Mac Mini has an optional DVD burner, but most people don't share movies that way. They record them on video tape!

The Mac Mini has TV-out built-in, no expensive convertor needed. Just a <$20 adapter, which gives you both composite and S-video signals.

Or more likely, they will do what I do: use their COMPUTER to share their creations. Email them, put them on the Web, or just show them on their own computer screen.

iDVD is a nice companion to iMovie, but not a vital one.

I really have to disagree w/this. People are taking their old VHS home movies burning them onto DVDs. People are shooting on MiniDV, editing bobby's b-day, and outputing it to DVD. The trend is far, far away from outputing to VHS.

iMovie and iDVD may not be vital together but they are very close to it. There is no easier, more simple way to import, manipulate, and output video than iMovie and iDVD.


Lethal

 

[maya]

Ok, the Mac Mini comes with iLife and iDVD but... if I have a movie how am I going to burn it on a DVD if it has a combo drive only?

I mean, a lot of people are going to get the box but at the time they finish their movie they are going to realize they can no burn it!

Please note that the 12" iBook also comes with iDVD installed. And there is no BTO for a SuperDrive on the 12" iBook.

Its the same CD as used for the 14" iBook for cost reasons.

It also is not a big deal NOW since it will burn to an external DVD drive and make a disk image.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this.

 

[blueknight]

burn burn burn

just to clarify:

previous versions of iDVD only enabled you to archive your DVD project and export it - not sure what size iPod previous user had but my last DVD project was 80GB archived and so only fits on my 160GB LaCie external HD... You then had to transfer this to another Apple computer with superdrive and iDVD and burn.

The latest version of iDVD included in iLife 05 has the option to export a fully encoded disk image which can then be burnt to any DVD drive using a compatible utility. So you can now buy an external drive and use that - finally!!!

Hope this clears things up

 

[Rod Rod]

just to clarify:

previous versions of iDVD only enabled you to archive your DVD project and export it - not sure what size iPod previous user had but my last DVD project was 80GB archived and so only fits on my 160GB LaCie external HD... You then had to transfer this to another Apple computer with superdrive and iDVD and burn.

The latest version of iDVD included in iLife 05 has the option to export a fully encoded disk image which can then be burnt to any DVD drive using a compatible utility. So you can now buy an external drive and use that - finally!!!

Hope this clears things up

iDVD 4 also has the option to export a fully encoded disk image, as well as write to DLT. It's an easter egg. The easter egg is activated by parking two empty files in your home folder, one named Hurz and the other named Pfurz.

Thank you for the clarification. What you said is accurate, but I just wanted to clarify further concerning iDVD 4. I agree that it's great that iDVD 5 finally supports burning to disk image... and 16:9 support simply rocks.

 

[Jo-Kun]

hmm reading the title I thought you found a REAL problem, this is just something wich is not a problem wich makes the Mac mini unsuable or so

 

[stubeeef]

It might not have it preinstalled but iDVD comes on the restore disks. Both my Macs came with iDVD and a combo drive.

Ditto.

 

[Rod Rod]

hmm reading the title I thought you found a REAL problem, this is just something wich is not a problem wich makes the Mac mini unsuable or so

The "problem" is that mymemory missed a couple of things mentioned in the Jobs keynote.