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What input file formats does iDVD support?

I am considering buying a mac mainly for iDVD and the advertised ease of use while editing and putting together home movies, including making chapters and setting to music. My question is this: What file format does my home movie have to be in to be able to edit in iDVD? i.e. what input file formats does iDVD support?

PS. If you know specifically about iDVD '09 that would help most...

Posted on Nov 10, 2008 4:10 AM

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7 replies

Nov 10, 2008 7:08 AM in response to bchesnut

bchesnut wrote:
.. editing and putting together home movies, including making chapters and setting to music. ..


iDVD is part of the iLife suite of apps..
editing is done in iMovie
chapter markers and elaborated audio editing is done in Garageband
iDVD is 'just' the disk maker..

http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#idvd

using the apps as itended, makes it obsolete to know what formats/codecs are in use internally..

Nov 10, 2008 11:54 AM in response to bchesnut

PS. If you know specifically about iDVD '09 that would help most...



Unless I missed an upgrade somewhere along the line, I don't think anyone on this forum knows anything about the forthcoming iDvd'09 nor can we venture to guess (per apple's TOU). We only know what we have in front of us today and that would be iDvd'08.



iDvd'08 works best with file formats recognized by Apple's QuickTime. A list of those formats follow.



Video and image formats that work with iDVD
You can use these movie and graphic formats in iDVD:

Most video or image files supported by QuickTime (see the list of unsupported QuickTime formats below)

16:9 widescreen formats

AAC, MP3, and AIFF audio files

Any format from iMovie: DV, high-definition video (HDV), MPEG-2 SD, MPEG-2 SD, MPEG-4 SD, MPEG-4 HD, and AVCHD
High definition video is converted to work with the format of your project. iDVD supports using 16:9 widescreen video; therefore, when your DVD plays on a DVD player that supports widescreen format, the footage appears in its original aspect ratio.
The following video and image formats are not supported in iDVD:

Copyrighted or protected videos.

Movies saved in thousands of colors using the “none” compression setting in iMovie.

48-bit color images (16 bits per color). To use source files in one of these formats in iDVD, save them in a supported format.

Aurora uncompressed files. For best results, export Aurora clips as DV-format video before importing them into iDVD.

QuickTime VR, MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, Flash, streaming or encrypted movies, or QuickTime spanned movies. You can’t add MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 files to an iDVD project because they don’t contain standard video tracks.

QuickTime Fast Start movies. (Fast Start movies are intended for Internet playback.) When saving a QuickTime movie for use with iDVD, click the Options button in the QuickTime Export dialog and make sure that the “Prepare for Internet Streaming” checkbox is not selected.
NOTE: You can add any type of file to the DVD-ROM portion of your DVD so that viewers can copy the file to a computer. Viewers can access these files only when viewing the DVD in a computer, not a DVD player connected to a TV.




Hope this helps but if not just come on back.



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Nov 12, 2008 7:02 AM in response to bchesnut

Not my favorite Canon Camera and here's why:


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1014


After talking with Canon, I found out that they chose not to inform their users, or even their retailers, that the output video format in VR mode is “VRO” — a new, largely unsupported format.



http://www.digitalcamcordernews.com/2007/01/canon-dc210-dc220-and-dc230-minidvd- camcorders



Seems to work well with Windows Movie Maker though ....



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Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Nov 13, 2008 4:02 AM in response to bchesnut

You are right SDMacuser... I found this out the hard way myself by recording the birthday of my first born son, only to figure out that I mistakenly chose "VR" mode!!! Nonetheless, I have *since then* recorded in "video" mode which at least allows me to play the mini-DVD in most DVD players and PC's. My question is this: Can I put this mini-DVD (*recorded in "video" mode*) into a Mac and supported by iMovie? Or would I need to convert the mini-DVD to some other type of file format to do this??

Nov 15, 2008 12:00 AM in response to bchesnut

Does your Canon camcorder have a usb or FW port (yes/no)?



http://products.howstuffworks.com/canon-dc210-review.htm


From what I have read, Canon failed to provide any conversion software as well as a usb port or FW port ...... Is this correct? If so, then this will severely limit your choices.

Mpegstreamclip might be of some help in converting these files. It's a free download. Try it if you haven't already (nothing to loose and much to gain).


http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html





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What input file formats does iDVD support?

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