Too big to fit DVD -what to do now?

2hr 20 min of content will require a double-layer disc when using iDVD.



'Best Performance' puts up to 60 minutes on a single-layer disc; 'Best Quality' puts up to 120 minutes on a single-layer disc.

how do I go about splitting my video into several parts so that it will fit on several DVDs?

You can't. You need to create two separate iDVD projects

The maximum capacity of a standard single layer 4.7GB DVD is 120 minutes, including titles, transitions etc.

You could consider purchasing Roxio Toast for burning the DVD. Toast has a setting 'Compress to Fit' which means that you could get your entire movie on one single layer DVD.

The fall-off in quality is actually quite minor.

You can get Toast here:

http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html

I never use anything else!

Try and get a copy of Toast 7 from eBay. I am not sure about Toast 6.

Capacity? Depends on what format the movie is in.

It sounds like you have iDVD set to 'Best Performance' encoding (or had it set there when you started the project. Go into the iDVD Preferences and select 'Best Quality' encoding and then go into Advanced and select 'Delete Encoded Assets'.



You will still need a double-layer disc, but your content should fit (unlesss there is something else about your content you haven't told us).




F Shippey

a blank DVD is supposed to take up to 4.7GB

That's the decimal size (useful in advertising) - the actual 'computer' binary size is 4.37 GB. The iDVD project size estimation is given in binary.

How do I use Toast with iDVD anyway? Is it a matter of saving the complete iDVD project as a disc-image file (File-Save as disc image) which I open in Toast and burn there?

Yes

If I could only edit the existing themes I would be much better off, but alas iDVD doesn't seem to allow for this.

If you are creative, you can make MANY changes - background, audio, etc..

Are there other DVD authoring apps around? I was hoping Toast would do this, to justify for its high price tag, but according to its specs it doesn't.

Toast is the 'Swiss Army' knife of writable media. There are free apps that do parts of what Toast does, but Toast has everything in one place. In addition Toast does things no other applications do: you've mentioned 'shrink-to-fit - I use its ability to accept file from my EyeTV software without the need for any additional conversion.




F Shippey

You can read here:

http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html

what Toast 8 can do for you. It's a lot for the money.

My iMovie file is 2hr 21min long and takes up 28.5GB of hard drive space

As the standard DV format most people use in iMovie runs at 13GB per hour, that would be about 30GB.

What format is the movie in?

I decided to make a disc image instead of burning directly to a DVD. This took several hours to do (is this normal?

Yes. It still has to go through the same rendering process as for making the DVD, stopping short of the burning. It is usually the rendering, particularly of audio, that takes most of the time. The actual burning will probably not take more than 30 minutes.

iDVD is not concerned about file size, only the length of the project. In its standard format it will accept a maximum of 2 hours including titles, effects, transitions etc. Allow 15 minutes for those. It has two settings in Preferences: Best Performance, which will only give you one hour's worth, and Best Quality which, by using a different compression method, allows you up to two hours, but takes longer to render and burn.

Which is why Toast, with its 'compress to fit' setting, is the only way you will get that movie on to one single-sided DVD.

Hi

Just to add into all good answers:

I use Toast™ 7.

a. in iDVD save as a DiskImage
b. in Toast™ - Video from Viseo_TS
c. select "fit on one DVD"

BUT - To do this - Toast has to unpack the DiskImage = NEEDS LOT'S OF Space
and Space to do the re-calculations.

*So my bit of info. Start with securing lot's of free space on Your hard disk.*

Yours Bengt W

Just a suggestion for splitting your project ... (will require major memory 'til you split it)
I would think your project is saved and named? Copy and put it in another folder, then chop the other, delete first half, SAVE AS a different name BEFORE you Empty the Trash. I hit Save again and close.

Open the original again and chop the last half .... I used to overlap the second half 2-3 minutes ... a sort of reminder of the "last episode". Save as the different name ... Part 2 or something!! Then empty trash .... Save BEFORE emptying cuz my iDVD anyways, just Dumps and Saves, I have No choice!! You don't want to destroy the COMPLETE Project just yet. So SAVE,SAVE,SAVE Before you empty the trash!!!!

So now you should have 3 projects .... 1 complete, 1 first half & 1 second half (see major memory temporarily used) Then I test burning the first half to a ReWritable DVD ... (I wasted sooo many discs with this bloody program.) If it says it's Successful .... TEST that disc in a DVD player, 2 different ones if you have them ... Do this BEFORE you touch the computer, It should be asking to burn more or are you Done! If it works in the player then I go on, I put a Write only dvd in the disc tray and close it ... it should take over and burn another and 2,3 4 more whatever.

I then Erase the DVD-RW and repeat this circus with Part 2 onto the RW, test in dvd player then burn permanent discs.

ONLY after I know Part1 & Part 2 (in iMovie or iDVD) can stand alone, do I trash the Complete Mega Gb project to free up some space.

(I have to look for another DVD Burning program, this iMovie & iDVD I find too clumsy, restrictive and tooooo hungry for memory ... for what you get!)