Struggling to use iDVD

[KeNJii]

I am trying to burn some movies. The movies I burn are around 700mb each.

So, I use iDVD obviously, and use Magic iDVD.

I select my theme, select the movie, which is in .avi format, so obviously not formatted for DVD use.

Once that's done, and it starts encoding (which takes a ridiculous amount of time, why is this? Burning movies on my PC with ConvertXtoDVD takes about 30mins to an hour usually, encoding seems to take forever!), I can't burn my DVD, because the total size by far exceed the DVD limit of 4.7gb, and the total size it wants to burn is 5.3gb.

Where there hell did all that come from? All I want to do is burn a 700mb movie :|
And how can I cut down the time taken?

Is there any other application I can use instead?

 

[duncyboy]

I am trying to burn some movies. The movies I burn are around 700mb each.

So, I use iDVD obviously, and use Magic iDVD.

I select my theme, select the movie, which is in .avi format, so obviously not formatted for DVD use.

Once that's done, and it starts encoding (which takes a ridiculous amount of time, why is this? Burning movies on my PC with ConvertXtoDVD takes about 30mins to an hour usually, encoding seems to take forever!), I can't burn my DVD, because the total size by far exceed the DVD limit of 4.7gb, and the total size it wants to burn is 5.3gb.

Where there hell did all that come from? All I want to do is burn a 700mb movie :|
And how can I cut down the time taken?

Is there any other application I can use instead?

iDVD has a maximum movie length of 120 minutes. Irrespective of the original file size it's this that dictates the size of the DVD. As to why it's taking so long I don't know? Mine isn't fast but it doesn't take an age either.

One alternative to try is Toast. That may be faster.

 

[Brian33]

Try not using Magic DVD. Instead, create a new project. In the Project->Project Info... window you can select encoding for "best performance". Also, you can see how much space your movie will take, I believe before you encode it. I seem to remember getting some messages before encoding that my movie would exceed a DVD capacity.

My first few times authoring a DVD as a project I remember finding it somewhat confusing, so there is a little learning curve doing it this way compared to the Magic DVD way, but it works!

It's been awhile since I used iDVD. For something quick and not fancy where I don't care about the menus and themes, I use Toast Titanium, but that costs money.

Brian33.

 

[Dave Braine]

Try converting the avi to a more acceptable format first. Use MPEGStreamclip and export to Quicktime, using the Apple Intermediate Codec option.

If your movie is too long/big, you can reduce it's quality and size in the Project Info panel, as Brian suggested, or choose to burn it to a dual layer disc.