I have my old iDVD projects saved as img disk images. I am able to see the title of the disk in a finder window, and I can see the contents inside. Is there a way that I can get the files to work just as they would if they were recognized by my computer as a DVD (i.e. seeing the menu and playing the videos)?
[Edited by Moderator]
iMac (2017 – 2020)
You could burn the images to an actual DVD disc. That's assuming the image is of a DVD ready to burn to disc.
The video is encoded for DVD. If you dig into the underlying files, you can likely play them with VLC.
If you mount the images, you may be able to use Handbrake to rip them into mp4 video files (I don't have a DVD image to try).
Note that the resolution of DVD is about 720 dpi, so on an ultra high resolution monitor, you would need to watch them in a little window.
You could burn the images to an actual DVD disc. That's assuming the image is of a DVD ready to burn to disc.
The video is encoded for DVD. If you dig into the underlying files, you can likely play them with VLC.
If you mount the images, you may be able to use Handbrake to rip them into mp4 video files (I don't have a DVD image to try).
Note that the resolution of DVD is about 720 dpi, so on an ultra high resolution monitor, you would need to watch them in a little window.
Yes, open the dmg file and the launch DVD Player via Spotlight.
It will play the DVD as if it were a disk in the optical drive.
I don't remember if the projects stored the original resolution video. Perhaps. They should just be inside the folders. If it just shows a single file, it may be a package. Ctrl-click on it and Show Package Contents. Then it appears as if it is a folder and you can dig inside it.
Thanks for your help. I'll test out your suggestions. I'm hoping to be able to figure out how to get into the original iMovie files, which were made with an older version of that program. Trying to access the disc images from iDVD is something I'm hoping to do as an initial step towards the goal of being able to see the movies again, though I realize accessing the iMovie files and converting the movies to a different format would ultimately be more useful.
I'm currently in the process of using Handbrake to convert the movies on the disk images to mp4. For source, Handbrake is giving me 720x480 (640x480). Under "preset" (encoding speed?) it says fast 1080p30 by default, and I left that setting. Is this the preset I should use? What do the two resolution numbers represent? Do they mean that the original iMovie files were 720x480 but the DVD downgraded that to 640x480 since DVDs don't record in high def? Or is there some other meaning?
The original videos were recorded on a Canon Vixia HV30 (using dv tapes), which is capable of 1080p. Am I ultimately better off reimporting the original footage into a more current version of iMovie if I wish to maximize quality? Whatever you answer, having access to the lower quality videos is currently invaluable. Thank you so much for your help!
The presets are just output formats so you can choose what format you want.
High quality DVD is 720p (progressive). It could actually be 480 depending on the source and options you chose when you created the project. That number is the vertical resolution.
The two numbers together are the horizontal and vertical pixel size which gives the vertical resolution of the video.
1080p is considered HD. You could use that, but it will have to interpolate to fill in the gaps. If the source really is 480, I wouldn't try to increase it by that much. Use one of the 720 presets. The fast/very fast is just the quality. Slower will produce better quality. At that low resolution, slow (high quality) should not take very long.
Is there a way to convert iDVD projects from img disk images?
