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iMovie to iDVD re:Chapter Markers

I have been working on a video for the past few weeks and using iMovie '09 I assembled the clips, added audio and added in chapter markers as well. I have tried to Share>iDVD and Share>Media Browser and both options do not show my chapter markers. The video I am working on is 1:42:21 so yes... fairly long but not TOO long for one DVD or anything like that.

When I drag random clips into a new project (all of 41 seconds) and add chapter markers I can Share>iDVD and the markers come up fine in iDVD but when I try to do the same with my 1hr+ movie it takes about 2:30 hours to render and then I still get no chapter markers. I feel like I am spinning my wheels and there is definitely a way to make this happen.

Is there an iDVD or iMovie master out there who can help me out? I am getting very frustrated and have probably tried about 10-15 times (rendering at 2-4 hours each!) I don't understand WHY the chapter markers will show up for the short video and I do everything the same for the long video and get nothing. PLEASE HELP!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6), iLife '09

Posted on Sep 9, 2009 6:30 PM

Best reply

SDMacuser

Level 6

13,585 points

Posted on Sep 9, 2009 9:09 PM

Hi appleNewbie34

And welcome to apple discussions. All of my own iDvd'09 projects to date have been well under 60 mins. so I don't know how much help I can offer you on this particular issue of a dvd that approaches nearly 2 hrs. You claim that your shorter projects have no chapter marker issues. Exactly how long /short were those initial projects and did they incorporate the same type of video? Or did the source video also change on these longer projects?

Here's what I was able to find and hopefully some of this will help but if not just come on back.

First, I'd recommend you delete all encoded assets. Let's start again (even though you may have already done this many times before).

Second I'd like you to quit iDvd.

Third, drag and drop the plist for iDvd to the trash. Looks like this:

com.apple.iDvd.plist

Fourth, Restart your mac.

Fifth, repair permissions from apple's disc utility.

Sixth, fire up iDvd Also please make sure all of your titles fall within the TV Safe area like this:

Click Here:

Then follow these steps to create a disc image to the desktop:

Click Here

Seventh, now I'd like you to test the disc image for proper playback with apple's dvd player application as follows:

Lastly, let's assume it plays exactly as expected (chapters and all) .... Now it's time to burn the image to Dvd-r. I recommend using Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, or Maxell. Please avoid using Memorex while we troubleshoot.

Feel free to post back with the results.

Message was edited by: SDMacuser

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44 replies

Sep 16, 2009 12:31 PM in response to appleNewbie34

Unbelievable! All that just because of a stupid '&'... Got it working fine now. Thanks to everyone for helping out

SDMacuser

Level 6

13,585 points

Sep 16, 2009 2:04 PM in response to appleNewbie34

Good work.

🙂

Sep 16, 2009 5:03 PM in response to SDMacuser

Generally, iDVD does not like any nonalphanumeric characters.

Sep 17, 2009 12:31 AM in response to Cal Palmore

Thank you Thank you Thank you! removed "&" from markers and all is well, goofy stuff

SDMacuser

Level 6

13,585 points

Sep 17, 2009 11:24 AM in response to dwight adams

It is "goofy" but until apple comes up with an update or fix to address this issue we'll simply have to remember to avoid all special characters.

In the meantime you can certainly let apple know how you feel about this through the following link (also available through the menu bar within iDvd itself once the app is launched):

http://www.apple.com/feedback/idvd.html

Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Sep 20, 2009 3:11 PM in response to appleNewbie34

Don't use special characters in chapters!

CPngN

Level 1

4 points

Sep 20, 2009 11:26 PM in response to appleNewbie34

Oh for chr..... really, the & character?! I wasted half my Sunday wondering what's wrong before for once I thought I'd use the & character, and it just happens to be what silently causes all chapter mark imports to fail? It better export this time.... grrrr
🙂 Thanks to all who confirmed!

Sep 29, 2009 9:41 PM in response to CPngN

I have the same problem, and iDVD isn't recognizing any of the chapters at all. In my case, I have the ":" symbol in my chapters, with 7 chapters in total. I have read the forum thread, and am currently in the process of removing the iDVD plist file, and editing my iMovie chapters one by one. I will let you all know what the result is after removing the ":" symbol and sharing the re-processed large size movie.

My movie is 40 minutes long, and I'm eager to send the DVD to my entire family in four different parts of the world, with the chapters working. I'd hate to have this feature missing on such a long movie, also because I put so much effort, spending the last 5 months in my rarely available spare time on this project 🙂

Oct 2, 2009 2:47 AM in response to Mixmaster1

I reported above that iDVD does not like nonletter and nonnumber characters.
I want to correct that statement.

I have created hundreds of iDVD projects and burned over 900 DVD disks from disk image files.
I make the chapter markers in my iMovies, not in iDVD. I am using iMovie 6.
I have used the '&' and the ':' symbols frequently, and all of my disk image files have been successfully created and all of my DVD disks have burned perfectly. I have made DVDs with as many as 80 chapters in a project.

Perhaps it makes a difference if you create the markers within iDVD, but I have renamed many of my chapters in iDVD and added those symbols without problem.

Oct 5, 2009 7:00 PM in response to Beverly Maneatis

So, I changed the chapter markers in iMovie and removed the ":" character. Guess what? The chapters showed up in iDVD correctly after I exported to Media Browser. I'm using iMovie 8.0.4 and iDVD 7.0.4.

Now, the issue is this. For some of my chapters that sit side by side (horizontally), I have to use the "up" and "down" menus to select them instead of the "left" or "right" selection arrows when testing them in DVD player.

How do I ensure that the chapters are encoded so that they are selected in the direction as displayed on screen?

Oct 6, 2009 1:45 AM in response to Mixmaster1

Maybe it has to do with iMovie 08...

The exact order that the cursor moves remains a mystery to me. Every DVD player's remote seems to move it differently--left can go up, up can go right, etc. I decided not to spend time and effort trying to make it go in the correct order all the time; something I could spent days on and not fix.
My solution is to number the chapters(scenes) in iDVD's submenus. That lets one select them in order if desired, and each viewer will just have to figure out his own remotes idiosyncracies.

Oct 6, 2009 7:58 PM in response to Beverly Maneatis

Thank you so much for your help Beverly! Much appreciate your support and prompt reply 🙂

Oct 10, 2009 6:56 AM in response to Mixmaster1

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! I spent two days trying to make this work before I found this discussion. I removed an ampersand in a title and it worked! I wonder if this might also apply to other text such as in titles, etc. Does Apple get notified about a bug like this? Who and how does that happen? Do we need to let Apple know?

SDMacuser

Level 6

13,585 points

Oct 10, 2009 9:39 AM in response to Blue_eyes

Q: Do we need to let Apple know?

A: Apple isn't in the habit of reading or keeping tabs on these forums or discussions. So, it can't hurt to let them know directly through iDvd's Feedback (where your suggestions or opinions might draw a bit more attention to their staff). Here's the link:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/idvd.html

Oct 12, 2009 10:40 AM in response to SDMacuser

Thanks. I filled in the info they requested and sent them a link to this discussion. Maybe that will help get this fixed.

iMovie to iDVD re:Chapter Markers