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Q: Is there ANY software I can use to make a DVD playable by PC's Macs and DVD

OK, I have been fooling around for over a year on this and still have no answers. Here's part of my original post. I have home movies that were done with film and transfered to m2p files. I want to make copies for my daughters, who have DVD players and PCs. One has a Mac. I used Toast 10 to convert to mpeg4. I burned a DVD with Toast. It plays on the PCs and on the DVD players, but NOT my Mac. I tried H264 format...same thing. I can burn the mpeg4 files to a DVD with Quicktime Pro and they play on my Mac, but not on the DVD players. Commercial movies play on anything. Is there anyway I can do this on my Mac???

Jim Frank (still perplexed)

iMac 24" model A1225, Mac OS X (10.5.8), intel based

Posted on Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM

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Q: Is there ANY software I can use to make a DVD playable by PC's Macs and DVD

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  • by Chris Clarke1,

    Chris Clarke1 Chris Clarke1 Mar 17, 2010 9:08 AM in response to userremoved
    Level 4 (1,150 points)
    Mar 17, 2010 9:08 AM in response to userremoved
    You need to convert to MPEG-2 and make a DVD-Video with toast. Toast will do the converting for you as long as you use the DVD-Video option.
  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Chris Clarke1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Chris Clarke1
    My file is an m2p, which someone told me IS mpeg2. When I burn it with toast you get an audio TS and video TS folder on the DVD. It is playable by PC and DVD, but NOT an iMac or MacBook Pro.

    Is the m2p file mpeg2?
  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to userremoved
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to userremoved
    Chris, I went into TOAST 10 and dragged one of my m2p files into the area where you add fields to convert. Toast indicates that the file is an mpeg2 file. As I indicated, when you burn this to DVD as you suggested, it will NOT play on a Mac.

    Jim
  • by Jeremy Hansen,

    Jeremy Hansen Jeremy Hansen Mar 17, 2010 2:31 PM in response to userremoved
    Level 4 (1,914 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Mar 17, 2010 2:31 PM in response to userremoved
    Then you don't have a problem with DVD creation. You have a problem with DVD playback.

    Just to be sure, you are selecting Video DVD in Toast? And the disc you are trying to play in your Mac has what on it? an AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folder? What happens when you put in a commercial DVD?

    And how are you trying to play the DVD in your Mac?

    By the way, it doesn't matter what format you are giving to Toast. It is going to convert it to mpeg2. If you give it a compliant file, then you can avoid reencoding. But if Toast says "encoding" for a long time then you could just save yourself a step and feed Toast the original file instead.

    EDIT: Looking back, I see that you have mentioned some of the things I asked. But, I am not sure that you definitely played a commercial DVD in the same manner, or tried the DVD with VIDEO_TS on it in the Mac, etc. A DVD is a DVD, as long as your computer is set up right. But I wonder if you haven't made a DVD rom by mistake.

    Message was edited by: Jeremy Hansen
  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Jeremy Hansen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Jeremy Hansen
    Thanks Jeremy, here's what I can tell you. I played a commercial DVD in my Mac and it played fine. It opens up with DVD player. I put the DVD I made in the Mac. I made several of them in different manners. On one, I converted the m2p file to mpeg 4. Then I burned in Toast , selecting DVD_video. On another, I did a convert to H264 and burned it using DVD_video. The third I just copied the m2p file into Toast and used DVD_video. When I did the burn on all 3, I went to the menu option and put in a title and used the passport style for my title page.

    When I put the DVD in the Mac, it automatically opened to the Title page, in passport style. When y ou click on the play button, nothing happens. Can't fast forward, can't open menu, etc. I closed out DVD player and went to Quicktime player. I clicked on "open file" and selected the DVD in the finder window. When I click on it, it opens to the Audio_ts and Video_TS folder. Clicking on the video folder I get 8 different folders in there. Clicking on most of them does nothing. Clicking on the one that looks like a Quicktime folder, I get the message " not a movie folder" I also tried to open it using VLC player. It opens u p the Title page, like DVD player and you can't get it to play.
    So now what do you think!
  • by Jeremy Hansen,

    Jeremy Hansen Jeremy Hansen Mar 17, 2010 7:23 PM in response to userremoved
    Level 4 (1,914 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Mar 17, 2010 7:23 PM in response to userremoved
    Two things first:

    1. Stop converting first. A DVD is mpeg2, so converting to this or that is a waste of time, and degrades your video. iDVD will take any quicktime-compatible movie and compress it to mpeg2.

    (Side note for the intellectually curious: DVDs also support half-resolution mpeg2 and mpeg1, as used in VCD and SVCD)

    2. Don't bother opening any DVD in the Finder and trying to "play" it by double-clicking.

    Does the SAME disc play normally in a DVD player? Really, the same one, not a similar one.
  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Jeremy Hansen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Jeremy Hansen
    After I have burned any of the disks I described, I take them and play them on my Sony DBD player AND my mitsubishi player and they work fine. The m2p files on my computer cannot be played by anything I have. Maybe any software Apple can support cannot burn a DVD that is playable by PC, DVD and Mac. Apple is primarily about mpeg4, iMovie and iDVD. I guess I might have to break down and go to some professional video group and get these things burned.
  • by Jeremy Hansen,

    Jeremy Hansen Jeremy Hansen Mar 18, 2010 9:58 AM in response to userremoved
    Level 4 (1,914 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Mar 18, 2010 9:58 AM in response to userremoved
    You didn't read what I said. If it played by a DVD player, then they are burned properly. You are not playing them back properly on your Mac, or your Mac has a problem with DVD playing.
  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Jeremy Hansen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Jeremy Hansen
    I don't see how that is possible. If I can play commercial DVDs on my iMac and my MacBook Pro, that means that I do not have a problem playing back DVDs that are properly formatted for playback on PCs, Macs and DVD players.
  • by Studio X,

    Studio X Studio X Mar 18, 2010 12:30 PM in response to userremoved
    Level 7 (27,074 points)
    Mar 18, 2010 12:30 PM in response to userremoved
    I burn dvds regularly on my Macs (MacPro and MacBookPro) that play on Macs, DVD players and PCs.

    The weak link is the PC as most machines come with the useless Microsoft player app. If they have proper software, the DVD will play.

    x
  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Studio X
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Studio X
    What software do you use?
  • by Karsten Schlüter,Solvedanswer

    Karsten Schlüter Karsten Schlüter Mar 19, 2010 12:58 AM in response to userremoved
    Level 7 (32,738 points)
    Video
    Mar 19, 2010 12:58 AM in response to userremoved
    • in Toast, choose 'Video'
    • choose 'DVD'
    • drag your video into Toast
    • hit burn ..

    there's no need to convert before the authoring of the DVD, because the file gets converted anyhow.
    I assume, you created a dataDVD, no videoDVD.

    just to feed my curiosity: why m2p? and how? exotic ...
  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter
    What you described in what I do. I have tried using the m2p files and the convered files (mpeg4 converted from m2p). They play on everything else but my Macs. I have an imac and new MacBook Pro.

    The m2p fiels cam from a conversion of professionally converted super movie films into files I could edit on my PC. I used Let's Edit software on the PC and made the m2p files.
  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2015 10:04 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter
    WHOA! I just found out that my iDVD player doesn't recognize the the mouse on initial start of DVD play. You have to hit enter a couple of times and it will start. Once into the video, the mouse controls on the video p[layer work. Bizarre!

    Thanks guys for all your suggestions. Never thought it would be some funky thing like this.

    Jim