Error during rendering/encoding

even though this seems rather elementary.

I wish that were true....

Try removing the iTunes music and then create a disk image (an option under FILE) to see if things work.

Also, how much free space do you have on your startup hard drive?

I just had the same problem. Click on the background, and go to VIEW - SHOW INSPECTOR. Then uncheck the intro and outro boxes. You can also find these boxes right next to the left and right sides of the motion timeline.
Now try to burn your DVD, or go to FILE - SAVE AS DISK IMAGE to see if it works. You will lose your cool looking intro and outro fade-ins, but it worked for me.
Other than that, I would just start with each piece that you put in your menus, and one by one, see if the disk image processes. Then you can isolate the culprit.
Hagen

New iMac owner here, and first time iLife user. I'm having the same problem. Just playing around, trying to get my feet wet with this stuff. The iMac has tons of space on the hard drive. It's only days old.

I tried putting a brief project together in iMovie, which consists of a 24 sec clip of a still photo with a Ken Burns effect, a title, and some music. Then I went to iDVD and chose a menu theme, and tried to burn a DVD+RW, or just tried saving a disc image. In either case I get the error rendering/encoding the menu message and it aborts the project. I tried a couple of different menu themes (Revolutions and Travel). Both bomb out at the end of trying to render the menu. It doesn't even get to my content. I eliminated the intro and outro fades, no dice.

Very discouraged that this program can't seem to deal with it's own stock themes. What am I doing wrong here?

I am having the same problem... when trying to burn an iDVD movie,I get "rendering menu video asset.... rendering menu's (2 of 3) and menu transitions (6 of 9). I have one song, chapters with titles, about an hour of play and in capacity area. I am really computer illiterate... but I am working on it. I have plenty of space (I am using external hard drive) When checking all (I think all) possible checks, I have no problems. I don't under stand how to check through each piece like you suggest at the end of your post. Can you walk me through this?

Just an update on my problem. The third theme I tried finally worked. So it doesn't seem that there is any problem with what I was trying to do. The glitch seems to lie with certain of the iDVD menu themes choking on the project during rendering. Seems to be the sort of thing that an Apple software update should address.

I had the same problem and followed the suggestions offered here - didn't work for me.
So what I did was instead of using the 'create a new project' way of making the DVD, I selected the 'magic DVD' option and built my simple dvd within that. At first it looked too limited,but I poked thru and learned how to change my bullet colors and add text boxes, etc. From there I burned the DVD and NO ERRORS!!! I hope it works for you too. PS - they look better on TV than on the preview mode....

Does anyone think that Revolution may have a programming error to cause the rendering/encoding error?

Some folks have reported problems with 'Revolution', but others use it with no problems.

I too have been having the same problem. I made a great dvd, using 6.0 theme, Reflections Black. The dvd consists of 8 submenus (places i travelled) and under each submenu was a slideshow (with music) and another submenu for movies. there are no movies placed in the drop in boxes, only still pictures. Believe it or not, i burned the first one successfully, after about 4 hrs of encoding... but then i realized that the finished dvd's text ran off the tv screen, because i had created the dvd under widescreen format. So I fix that, then realize I need to save to image (so i don't have to go through the hellacious encoding process again) but the entire mbp freezes while rendering the menu assets! i try to save as project archive and this freezes mbp (also while attempting to render menu assets)! then i go back and try to just burn directly to dvd and this freezes!!! aaarggh... anyone have any ideas??? please help!!! thanks.

How much free space do you have on your start up hard drive?

In the iDVD menu bar item ADVANCED select 'Delete Encoded Assets'

it's brand new... just got it a few days ago... so i think about 100 gigs? what does "delet encoded assets" do? thanks for your response. 🙂

It may be a problem with that theme. I haven't tested them all, but after changing from Revolution to Bands, I didn't get that error.

Too bad too. I liked the Revolution theme.

I used the "Vintage Vinyl" theme, burned a DVD, changed a few things, burned a second, wanted to change a few more things, then it started erroring all the time. I tried changing to a iDVD 6 theme (Brush Strokes) with the same result. I tried turning off the intro, same result. I rebuilt the iDVD file-same result.

I'm stumped.