I just want to copy a file from my desktop to disc and I must be an idiot because I can't figure out how! The file is my resume reel thats a dvd that I need to make copies of and I was under the impression that after copying to the desktop I could then insert a disk, click on the file and just copy it to the disk but I don't have the burner on the desktop so there's no drag and drop ! help!
You can burn to an optical disc on several ways. One way it to create a +Burn Folder+
in Finder, menu bar -> File -> New Burn Folder
Drag whatever you want to burn to the Burn Folder, and aliases to those files and folders will appear in the burn folder. Once it is set up, click the
Burn button at the upper right corner of the Burn Folder window. You will prompted to insert the media.
HOWEVER, if you are trying to create a movie DVD that is playable in standard DVD players that connect to TVs, you can't just burn a video file onto a DVD. You need to use software, such as iDVD (part of the iLife suite that comes with Macs) to create a movie DVD project. This will provide the DVD menu and supporting files used by standard DVD players, and iDVD will burn the movie DVD for you.
I'm hoping this will play in a dvd player as the file I'm copying is a dvd that i created with windows dvd creation software. It should shouldn't it? I mean as long as the files are encoded for dvd playback this should be just like copying a data disc correct?
I don't think it will work that way. The DVD-creating software that you used with Windows is like Apple's iDVD, probably. If you tell it to burn a movie DVD (a disc playable in DVD players), it does so in a specific way that is different from just burning a file to a DVD (as a data disc). It formats the disc in a certain way. It adds supporting files so that the DVD players knows what to do with the disc. For example, when you insert the disc into the DVD player, does it present a screen menu or does it just start playing. If it presents a menu, that portion is not part of the video file; the disc needs to have additional files to define the screen menu. Those are the type of things you can define using iDVD (create a cool on-screen menu with background music and graphics) and then iDVD burns the disc as a movie DVD, not a data DVD.
Does that disc you created with the Windows program work in a DVD player now? If so, the better way to create that second disc is to duplicate and burn the entire disc exactly as is. You should be able to do so using Disk Utility. Note: If your current "original" disc does not play in a DVD player, doing the following procedure will not help.
Insert the original disc. Run Disk Utility. You should see the disc in the sidebar. Select it in the sidebar. You should select the disc name that is indented under the drive (and not the drive), although it may not matter either way. From the menu bar
File -> New -> Disk Image from "<name of the disc>"
Select a place to save the disk image file, and name the disk image file. Note: This may not work for commercial DVD movie discs, but it should work for your disc (since it is not protected).
When the disc image file is created, it should appear in the bottom half of the Disk Utility sidebar (below the line). Select it in the sidebar. In the window's tool bar, click the
Burn button. You will be prompted to insert the DVD media.
