Quick question regarding iMovie/iDVD

[mac.hoar]

Hey, with these new updates to the macbook i am trying to decide whether to get the bottom line white or the top line white. To me, the only considerable difference between the two is the option of Superdrive or Combodrive.

Whilst the Superdrive might be handy to have, it really isnt a requirement for me. I have a PC which i use for burning dvd's and backing up software (transfered over via USB).

The only time that i would ever need a Superdrive is to burn a DVD that i have made in iMovie or iDVD.

So THE QUESTION IS.....what type of file does iDVD/iMovie output in? And would it be possible for me to burn this file into a DVD on a PC. I'd transfer the file to the PC via an external hard drive.

I really cant substantiate the $300 Australian dollars difference between the two systems. I hardly ever burn DVD's as it is and i dont think that i'd use iDVD that often anways.

But yeah, thanks for the help! I've had a bit of a look around and i cnt find much....so your help is highly appreciated!

Cheers!!

 

[mac.hoar]

As of iDVD 6, Apple has finally opened the door to burning projects with third-party optical drives.

Ok well i found this on Wikipedia. Does this mean that the iLife files can be saved as some sort of dvd file, transfered to a pc then burnt?
Stupid question i know...but i just cant seem to get a concrete answer regarding this anywhere.

 

[mac.hoar]

damm.....nice little tactic apple have there to get me to pay $300 for a superdrive.

So there is absolutely no way that i can get iDVD to save the dvd image (which can then be transfered)??

 

[Queso]

iDVD does allow you to export to an .img file, which can then be converted to a "DVD master" in Disk Utility. A DVD master is basically an ISO image, which would then work with whatever burning software you've got on your PC.

Not a tidy process, but it should work.

 

[Wolfpup]

iDVD does allow you to export to an .img file, which can then be converted to a "DVD master" in Disk Utility. A DVD master is basically an ISO image, which would then work with whatever burning software you've got on your PC.

Not a tidy process, but it should work.

Thanks for that info!

In the United States at least, I don't think the low end Macbook makes sense for most people. For the price difference, it's almost as much as buying an external DVD-/+RW drive, with the faster CPU as a bonus. Personally I wouldn't want to be limited to CDs for backup.

But then if you can just transfer stuff to another computer for backup, that's sort of a different situation. Although the Windows based CD/DVD writing programs often seem to much up some files...like they have file name restrictions, etc. (Although maybe it's just as bad on the Mac, I'm not sure.)