I need help with iDVD...

[Mjmar]

I just got a new hard drive camcorder, so lately I've been making DVDs with home movies on them. I would love to edit them, but the files are so large that it takes forever to export them using iMovie. That's fine, but the problem I have is that for each event that I shoot video, there are several clips. When I put them in iDVD (unedited) all of the clips are listed separately on the DVD menu. Is there any way that I can group together certain clips to form one event on the menu that plays continuously? Sorry if that's hard to understand, I worded it the best that I could. All help is appreciated.

 

[GilesM]

Hello,

If your camcorder is like mine, it is making different files each time you pause or stop recording. These are then imported as individual files in to iMovie.

If you want iDVD to see these as one file then you need to edit them together using an iMovie project.
Then export the iMovie project. This will then be a single file and will remain so when you import that file in to iDVD.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mjmar]

Hello,

If your camcorder is like mine, it is making different files each time you pause or stop recording. These are then imported as individual files in to iMovie.

If you want iDVD to see these as one file then you need to edit them together using an iMovie project.
Then export the iMovie project. This will then be a single file and will remain so when you import that file in to iDVD.

Hope this helps.

I understand that I can do that, but I was wondering if I could just skip the whole exporting process, and just add the files directly to the iDVD project... I checked and the files that come straight out of the camera are compatible with iDVD.

 

[GilesM]

I see. I think iDvd will always import the files individually and they will be 'Titles' in your DVD, as opposed to 'Chapters'.
I know that Chapters will play sequentially, but I am not sure about Titles.

If this is what you want then I regret to say I have no answer, sorry.

regards

 

[Mjmar]

I see. I think iDvd will always import the files individually and they will be 'Titles' in your DVD, as opposed to 'Chapters'.
I know that Chapters will play sequentially, but I am not sure about Titles.

If this is what you want then I regret to say I have no answer, sorry.

regards

Thats okay thanks for the help anyway

 

[Dimwhit]

You don't have to "export" from iMovie to iDVD. Import the movie to iMovie, then edit as needed. Then send it to an iDVD project. There's no export time involved. Your edited iMovie projects just shows up in a new iDVD project. Make any changes to theme, etc. in iDVD you want, then burn the movie.

 

[Mjmar]

You don't have to "export" from iMovie to iDVD. Import the movie to iMovie, then edit as needed. Then send it to an iDVD project. There's no export time involved. Your edited iMovie projects just shows up in a new iDVD project. Make any changes to theme, etc. in iDVD you want, then burn the movie.

I can see that iMovie '06 has this feature, but the problem is that my HDD camcorder is not compatible with iMovie '06 and I need to use iMovie '08. Unfortunately iMovie '08 doesn't have a feature to add directly to iDVD (I think)... Therefore, I can't get around the exporting process. Some of my home movies are 45 - 50 min long and they take hours to export in the highest setting. I wish there was a way to get around this.

 

[Dimwhit]

I can see that iMovie '06 has this feature, but the problem is that my HDD camcorder is not compatible with iMovie '06 and I need to use iMovie '08. Unfortunately iMovie '08 doesn't have a feature to add directly to iDVD (I think)... Therefore, I can't get around the exporting process. Some of my home movies are 45 - 50 min long and they take hours to export in the highest setting. I wish there was a way to get around this.

Ah. That is problematic. I can offer one suggestion (which requires iMovie '06). The trick is getting the video into '08, then finding the actual video files. I don't know where '08 stores them, though. Maybe someone else knows. But what you can try is creating a project in '06, close out of it, right-click on the project file and select Show Package Contents. In that folder is a Media folder. Once you find the files that were brought into '08 (not stored the same way '06 is), drag them into the Media folder for the '06 project. Then open that project. You'll get a message about stray clips in the trash. Open it and drag them into the panes window. It bypasses importing times (which get excessive). I've done this with many different file formats, so I'm guessing (or hoping) that the files from your camcorder will work. Again, the trick is finding where iMovie '08 stores the raw video files.

Anyway, that's the only thing I can think of.

 

[Mjmar]

Ah. That is problematic. I can offer one suggestion (which requires iMovie '06). The trick is getting the video into '08, then finding the actual video files. I don't know where '08 stores them, though. Maybe someone else knows. But what you can try is creating a project in '06, close out of it, right-click on the project file and select Show Package Contents. In that folder is a Media folder. Once you find the files that were brought into '08 (not stored the same way '06 is), drag them into the Media folder for the '06 project. Then open that project. You'll get a message about stray clips in the trash. Open it and drag them into the panes window. It bypasses importing times (which get excessive). I've done this with many different file formats, so I'm guessing (or hoping) that the files from your camcorder will work. Again, the trick is finding where iMovie '08 stores the raw video files.

Anyway, that's the only thing I can think of.

I can't believe I didn't think of that. It worked like a charm. Thanks for the help.

 

[Dimwhit]

I can't believe I didn't think of that. It worked like a charm. Thanks for the help.

Cool. Glad it worked.