Q: idvd replacement?

Apple doesn't recommend an alternative.  One thing you will learn about Apple is it does not dwell on the past, and if they think DVDs are out, well, that's the only thing they think about DVD production.

1a) Buy an old iLife from a place such as e-bay or Amazon.  Make sure it is a version that has iDVD.  Do not buy it from Apple since their version no longer has iDVD.

1b) Depending upon which computers and discs you have you may be able to do a custom installation of the software using old system installer discs that had iLife bundled.

2) Try a third party application (none really have the features of iDVD though).

Burn (free) - http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html - includes basic DVD authoring but you will definitely have to read the documentation.

Easily Burn Movies to a DVD without Apple's iDVD. - http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/easily_burn_movies_to_a_dvd_without_apples_idvd. html - directions for using Burn to make a TV DVD.  Note, Burn also has a separate application which lets you do more fancy menus.

Toast

Others.

Commentary on DVDs by Klaus1 - https://discussions.apple.com/message/18338996

Do as Limos suggersts is 1a and get a copy of the lLife 11 disc from Amazon.com: iLife 11. That will give you iDVD to install any time you require it.  Then use the updaters here, Apple - Support - iDVD Updaters, to bring it up to the last version, 7.1.2. 

You won't find any DVD authoring alternative that can hold a candle to iDVD. 

Getting the iLife 11 disc will also provide you with iWeb in case you ever want to create a website.

OT

Bingo:  I just wasted 37 bucks tying another app that claimed to be even better than IDVD. My answer there is nothing even close to IDVD. This is my story: I had to replace the HD in my Imac 08, once i did it, needed to start over with the original discs that came with te computer when I bought it in 2008, then  i upgraded to Yosemite; surprisingly when I tried Idvd it didn't work any more, then i started trying and trying free samples of softwares, but nothing made me happy, after get tired I bought iSkysoft  from apple store. Totally disappointed. Waited money. If some one knows what can I do to get my money back please tell me. Well after waiting 37 dollars I remembered that years ago I bought  iLife 11, problem solved. I installed it  and in about 15 minutes I have My wonderful iDVD back. Now I just need to upgrade my iPhoto and will be all set. If you don't have ilife 11, you can get it at amazon,com  for 35 dollars.   http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_5?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords =ilife+11&sprefix=ilife%2Caps%2C174   

Bingo:  I just wasted 37 bucks tying another app that claimed to be even better than IDVD. My answer there is nothing even close to IDVD. This is my story: I had to replace the HD in my Imac 08, once i did it, needed to start over with the original discs that came with te computer when I bought it in 2008, then  i upgraded to Yosemite; surprisingly when I tried Idvd it didn't work any more, then i started trying and trying free samples of softwares, but nothing made me happy, after get tired I bought iSkysoft  from apple store. Totally disappointed. Waited money. If some one knows what can I do to get my money back please tell me. Well after waiting 37 dollars I remembered that years ago I bought  iLife 11, problem solved. I installed it  and in about 15 minutes I have My wonderful iDVD back. Now I just need to upgrade my iPhoto and will be all set. If you don't have ilife 11, you can get it at amazon,com  for 35 dollars.   http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_5?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords =ilife+11&sprefix=ilife%2Caps%2C174   

So you were able to install iDVD (from iLife 11) on Yosemite? I'm coming to the same conclusion and am willing to pay for iLife 11...but I'm a little nervous about installing it on El Capitan. If you were successful installing it to Yosemite, I'm thinking it might work just as well on El Cap.

If iDVD was not preinstalled on your Mac you'll have to obtain it by purchasing a copy of the iLife 09 disk from a 3rd party retailier like Amazon.com: ilife 09: Softwareor eBay.com.  Why, because iDVD (and iWeb) was discontinued by Apple over a year ago.

Why iLife 09 instead of 11?

If you have to purchase an iLife disc in order to obtain the iDVD application remember that the iLife 11 disc only provides  themes from iDVD 5-7.  The Software Update no longer installs the earlier themes when starting from the iLIfe 11 disk nor do any of the iDVD 7 updaters available from the Apple Downloads website contain them.

Currently the only sure fire way to get all themes is to start with the iLife 09 disc:

This shows the iDVD contents in the iLife 09 disc via Pacifist:

You then can upgrade from iDVD 7.0.3 to iDVD 7.1.2 via the updaters at the Apple Downloads webpage.

Export the slideshow out of iPhoto as a QT movie file via the Export button in the lower toolbar.  Select Size = Medium or Large.

Open iDVD, select a theme and drag the exported QT movie file into the open iDVD window being careful to avoid any drop zones.

Follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:

Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image  menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.

 

To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it.  If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.

 

Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality.  Always use top quality media:  Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.

Thanks! I would not have known that I need to buy iLife 09. Two followup questions:

1. Does this mean I do not need to buy iLife 11? Just iLife 09?
2. Any idea if this will work on El Capitan?

Yes, only iLife 09 disk.

iDVD 7 works with El Capitan but it does have some issues.  There are a couple of animated themes in the V7 group whose drop zone doesn't work.  It will just be a matter of time until iDVD 7 will fail to work at all.  But right now it works for the most part.

Be sure to follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:

Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image  menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.

 

To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it.  If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.

 

Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality.  Always use top quality media:  Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.

I've created a partition on my internal hard drive and have installed Mavericks on it so I'll be able to run iDVD and iMovie 6 HD for my future iDVD video projects. 

If you're running Yosemite you might create a small partition on your boot drive with Yosemite on it.  When you upgrade to El Capitan on the larger partition you'll be able to boot into Yosemite when iDVD no longer becomes compatible with EC or whatever system follows.

There are other video DVD authoring apps that you can use available at the App Store.  They range in price from free to about $30.  They are not as powerful as iDVD bit can create video DVDs and save the projects as disk image.

This is why I hate, that you can only edit post for a short while. The next time someone finds this thread and only reads the beginning or the recommended answer, he will think, that buying iLife11 is the way to go. If it was possible to edit posts for longer times, Old Toad could have added an Info to his first post and mention, that he later in this post recommended iDVD7 from iLife09. Hope all people read the full thread.

I'd like to add:

*iLife08: iDVD 7.0 (8/2007, App itself like the encoder was not changed after that)

*iLife09: iDVD 7.04 (2009, only minor bug fixes)

*iLie11: iDVD 7.12 (2010, only minor bug fixes, Themes before Version iDVD5 are missing, you can get them, if you get iDVD7.0 or 7.04, which has all themes and then update it for free to 7.12)

iDVD installs from grey 10.5 and 10.6 DVDs (those that come bundled with a Mac) work on other Macs/operating systems, too.

I'f also like to recommend (as far as we are talking replacements) this post How to create a video-DVD? (Macs without iDVD)

I want to add, that there is DVDStyler, too. You can first create the needed DVD compliant mpeg2 file with an App called Avidemux. You open your source and choose "auto DVD" from the menue and convert your movie to mpeg2. You can then use this file in DVDStyler which will create the structure with the TS_folders, menue etc.

Now comes the tricky part, there are people (from the windows world though) that swear that this application is very good and works on Macs. However, I tested every version from the most recent backwards and I found out that 2.4.2 and 2.5 are the only ones that work on my Mac with 10.9. It can also add buttons like iDVD, themes, etc., but I didn't want to invest more time into it and gave up. I got an image which was playable in VLC (a player app), but stopped at the main menue in the DVD-player App by Apple. (I don't have a DVD standalone player, I could test).

Why Avidemux + DVDStyler. Since Avidemus has a newer encoder it seems, though open source and it has to be tested yet, which app (Avidemux or iDVD/Toast) create the better picture.

In previous threads users also told me that BURN (the App not the menue item within OS X) is not a good alternative, because it creates bad picture quality.

I am happy now with iDVD and Toast (still am learning how to fully use iDVD).

so I'll be able to run iDVD and iMovie 6 HD for my future iDVD video projects.

I assume you prefer iMovie 6 HD over iMovie 8 because iMovie 8 touches imported material (it throws away half of the fields and interlaces everything during import.

There is one thing I noticed with version iMovie 6. If you open projects created with iMovie 3 (I didn't test 4) or readily created DV files, iMovie6 cuts off a bit of the beginning and the end of the movie. iMovie5 doesn't do this. To overcome iMovie 6 cutting off stuff. First save the material of iM3 in iM5 and then open wth iM6. If you don't have iM5, mpegstreamclip (an app) can help, you open the several files of the iM3 project and save it as new DV file.

vbel wrote:

 

Im not a pro. iDvd provides me the one and only solution for compressing, encoding and setting menus needs. I have no idea now, how to turn my 300GB imovie project into a DV that fits in a 4GB dvd-disc to play in a dvd-player. I dont want to convert it to .mov/ .mp4/ .avi, etc and then burn a dvd in toast, because it looses quality.

I find it important to mention, that you can go to Toast without loosing quality and making the file smaller.

Just use the big DV file you have and save/export/send from iMovie as "best quality" (which will create a DVc50Pro file), the file is basically untouched. FInd the DV fil on your disk and open Toast. In Toast select DVD (movie not data DVD!) now drag and drop your DV file into the Toast window. From the options panel you can set stuff like bitrate etc. to your custom needs or choose auto and Toast will do it. Anyway Toast will only let you pick settings that are within the DVD-norm for DVDs for standalone players (i.e movie discs like iDVD), so you can't go wrong. If you use custom settings, leave half PEL on.

Toast will now convert the DV file to mpeg2-DVD-video making it fit the DVD.

THis way you do not loose quality in steps you put in between like first converting to h.264 or something.

In the Toast Forum they also recommend to let iMovie apply "progressive" scan during the export as a DVc50pro file, this sounds counterintuitive, but it eliminates shimmering on chrome or barb wire etc.

Toast will take care that you don't do something wrong with the scanning mode (set it to automatic within the custom settings).

Also, if 8Mbit/s is not needed as bitrate, Toast will decide to use a bitrate that is the maximum that is needed, even if you told Toast to use 8Mbit as average and 8.5Mbit/s as max.

If I have already up dated to EC how can I get a copy of Maverick and install it on external hard drive with iDVD?

connect your external drive.

start mac into recovery partition.

download OS X (you will always get, what your mac was delivered with, if it was Mavericks, it will be Mavericks) and select your externl drive as destination for the install.

after install start from external hdd and install idvd.