Creating DVDs from Video Clips - Help Please!

[~Shard~]

I have some basic questions regarding creating and burning DVDs which I am hoping to get some assistance on.

Essentially, I have a lot of AVIs, MPGs, etc. on my machine which I would like to burn as actual DVDs. Not burn as VCDs, not as data files on a DVD (or can the proper DVD players still read that?), but so that I can actually stick the burned DVD into a player (which would support DVD-RW of course) or just my Mac's SuperDrive, and it will play it, navigation menu and all.

Can I simply do this in iDVD? How do I import these files, into what format, and do I have to do a bunch of compression or something? These are mostly video clips I have downloaded from the Net (SNL skits, Duckman epsidoes, amusing commercials, etc.) or copied in from old VHS tapes which I want to preserve, so it's not like I'll have to worry about cramming 2-hour movies onto the disc. Or, maybe I'm mistaken, even with half-hour clips will I still need to do some sort of compression to maximize disc space, etc.? What file formats do I need, do I need to convert things into VOB files, those _TS things, something else, what? Sorry, I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to this.

Also, I'll obviously need a main menu and all that, and I know that I can at least use iDVD to do that, however I'm not sure if I can use iDVD for this entire process or if other tool(s) will be involved. I've heard of an ffmpegx tool, but I have no idea what it does or if I need it.

As a final note, I do have Toast 6 Titanium, so if I can also use that to burn DVDs (not just DVD data discs), that would be good, but I don't know if I can simply drag the movie files into Toast and burn them properly. The other problem with this, is how would I create a menu for navigating?

Any help would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Shard

 

[davegoody]

It is possible, you may well need multiple tools to do this

I have some basic questions regarding creating and burning DVDs which I am hoping to get some assistance on.

I do a lot of video production, one of the most useful products is already on your Mac in the form of Quicktime - upgrade it with a key to Quicktime Pro and you can convert AVIs, QT, DV, etc into QT which can then be imported into iMovie, edited, output to iDVD and written to DVD with all the menus you want to put into place.

This works fine for most files, you may well find that some files are incompatible, DIVX etc may cause some hiccups, though do a search on google and it will give you plenty of hints (and applications) that will convert one format to another.

Hope this helps, any problems just ask !

 

[jcords@mac.com]

using a mini-DV camcorder

I just imported a video into iMovie by connecting the Hi8 camera that it was recorded on to a mini-DV camera. This was basically the way to convert from analog to digital.

You may look at what formats either iMovie and Quicktime or Quicktime Pro can import.

I think iMovie is the means by which to move whatever you find to iDVD.

 

[40167]

Well I used to just open Premiere, import the video file, drag to the timeline, and export to dvd directly... that would do it automatically unless it was divx; then I had to decompress the audio and do it seperately... Now the thing is, that never got me a menu to work with, only prev/next for skipping clips assuming they were in video 1/2/3/etc on the timeline... So in your case you might just use that to convert, then burn it with a menu on another program.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I've heard of an ffmpegx tool, but I have no idea what it does or if I need it.

Hi Shard-

The ffmpegX homepage is a GREAT resource for learning all about ffmpegX. It's one of those video+audio format converters, and it's extremely powerful; it also has an interface that seems intimidating at first, until you read the guides and FAQs on the site, that is. Once you've determined what it is you want to do, just look up the appropriate section on the ffmpegX homepage, then follow the directions given there. I helped another member with ffmpegX using that resource, too - even though I've never used ffmpegX myself.