DVD-R vs. DVD+RW

1. The discs are cheaper and can't accidently be erased. The DVD-R discs are also much more compatible with set top DVD players connected to a TV.

2. The same.

3. Yes.

4. No.

Note that there are also DVD+R discs as well as DVD-RW. The +-RW discs can be erased, where +-R can not.

With +-RW you can erase the disc. And I mean erase the disc: You can't remove just one file and let the rest stay.

Finally, you can't add another video to a DVD+-RW disc and have it play on a set top DVD player connected to the TV.

With DVD-R media costing as little as 20 cents lately the worry about cost vs. the risk of lesser compatibility (for DVD-RW which cost a LOT more anyway) kind of makes this argument moot.

For 1 and 2 use a disk image and no DVD at all. Then play the image and see if you like it. It mounts and behaves like a real DVD exept it is not really there.

You cannot "add" content to a DVD (from iDVD for example). When it is made, it has a specific file structure and is finished. To add more clips you'd have to reopen the DVD project and add more clips, re-render and see how it goes.

I strongly recommend Toast 7 to make DVD's from a few clips - it has nice menus and if you don't tell it to trash its rendered files it doesn't re-render them as to add more.

You can make a disk image with it (to mount and play) as well and if it turns out a little big for one DVD it will recompress that image and make one that will fit.

Hi Cornelia:

I don't know what a disk image is.

Here is an explaination:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42724

Also, you can add more than one video file to one dvd-you just have to combine them before the burn, it has always been that way for all non-rewritable media.

I quote Ken Tidwell:
How can I combine two movies from iMovie and burn one DVD disc?
The first one can be handed off directly from iMovie to iDVD, but as you may have found, if you repeat that process, it will simply mean a new (single movie) project in iDVD.

You need to use the iMovie menu: 'File/Share/QuickTime/Full Quality DV' and save the second movie from iMovie to your hard drive, and then add that asset manually to your current iDVD project, either via the 'Import/Video' menu, or thru the 'Customize/Media/Movies' panel/tab...or, of course, via drag/drop into the main theme window - locate your movie in the iMovie project folder and bring it over to your iDVD main project window. Hold down the CMD key when dropping to avoid any motion menus. Finally, to use the existing theme with any additional new menu pages, use the iDVD menu, 'Advanced/Apply Theme to Project'.

http://www.kentidwell.com/idvd4/

Sue

You could look up disk image in Apple help, then post if (unlikely) still somewhat unclear, Cornelia.


Regardless of the image thing which is a preferred method for testing (and easier on the Mac at times) - Even with an RW disk you can't make a complete DVD then add another DVD to the DVD even if there is room.

All DVDs are a complete entity with a special file structure, table of contents etc., and can have multiple titles or chapters but not multiple DVD structures on one disk. In essence, a 30 second DVD if you wanted one that short uses ALL the DVD when made.

You can, as I told you , re-open the DVD project and add more media and make a new DVD with TWO items and so on. Then yes, you could erase the RW and reburn to it again.

keep in mind that it IS possible that the blank DVD making people do not think that all DVD users will do nothing but 5 minute projects and thus the 2 hours is rather handy for 99% of all users, vs. a problem for most , as it seems to be for you in this case.

Also please note in a LOT of cases that home DVD players do not play RW very well or at all and the write once media is recommended - with +R with the best compatibility, then -R then RW + or RW - ,way down the list.

You might find Toast vs. iDVD for doing a lot of separate little projects is easier to understand and use and make images and so on that iDVD frankly. I have read your one person "Can"opus on your ADC100 problems and I think you'd find Toast more intuitive and easier to make DVD's on.

iMovie processes digitally a DV codec file that is infinitely better quality than a DVD even though they are both digital. You can squeeze a movie that is 1 hour/13GB of DV down to 250KB if you compress it enough. They are both digital, there is a HUGE loss of quality.

Every VCR has such low resoution compared to DVD (and MUCH lower than DV from the source tape) your thoughs that you will have a perfect copy from DV to DVD are wrong and DVD to VCR are worse.

You should really figure out how to use that Canopus properly, let it do the digital to analog conversion once to the VCR which apparently it will do looking at the diagrams etc. What you seem to have ignored in previous attempts to help is that Canopus does not say that iMovie works with it at all (only Final Cut).

Borrow a DV tape videocamera (or take back the useless Canopus and buy one) - use it's Analog to Digital feature to capture non digital sources, use it as a DV to make movies and use it to output the iMovie to tape then that can be "played back" into a VCR.

A digital transfer from iMovie to a DV tape is the ONLY lossless method to make a perfect digital copy of the iMovie (other than just making a copy of it on the hard drive of course). iMovie to DVD you lose a lot, to VCR more than a lot, most.

You need to read up on iMovie and things -try the Missing Manuals series of Books - there is a great one called iMovie HD/iDVD that covers all these types of subjects.

Note - Toast 7 is software from Roxio that makes CD and DVD burning easier than using the finder and also makes DVD's from various QT and other source material.

Is Toast 7 a method of making disk image(s) or
DVD(s), or are we talking about several different
things here?

YES. IT IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO IDVD.

Also, the reason I bought +RW disks and TWO of them
at that is that it seems ANYTHING I do needs to be
done about ten times to be right ONE time (hence five
days to get titles that play the way I want) and the
thought of a "write-once" disk scares me.

SO IF YOU MAKE DISK IMAGES FIRST YOU DON'T BURN ANYTHING AND CAN TEST IT OUT FIRST.

You know that song, "Mamma's Going to Buy You a
Mockingbird"? If this doesn't work, then that, if
that doesn't work, the next, and so on.

YOU WOULD BE BETTER OFF LEARNING A BIT MORE SEE THE PRECEDING POST

If the +RW disk won't play in my VCR

A DVD CANNOT PLAY IN A VCR

I will try
playing it on my combo drive in my Mac. If it plays,
I'll see if there's a way to connect the VCR to the
Mac and copy it to videotape from that so I can
finish the rest of the project!

YOU CAN'T UNLESS YOU CAN FIGURE OUT YOUR CANOPUS BOX BETTER THAN SO FAR


(The reason I don't

go direct from the Mac to the VCR, besides the
generational loss of digital to tape, is that I want
the opening titles at the beginning, the middle title
in the middle, the closing titles at the end, and the
outtakes after that, and if I have to string them all
together into ONE project I don't see HOW I can put
them where I want on the tape without a DVD I can
start and stop!)

YOU COULD MAKE ON IMOVIE PROJECT THAT WOULD DO THIS, OR SEPARATE ONES, AND USE MULTIPLE CLIPS IN IDVD, BUT HEY YOU'VE BEEN TOLD THAT AND WON'T LISTEN, SO GOOD LUCK.


If that won't work, I'll copy it

either from the +RW disk or (if I dare!) directly
from whatever format seems best to a -R disk my
friend gave me. If none of these work, then I panic.

See the iDVD tutorial at:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iDVDAtAGlance.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iDVD5GettingStarted.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iDVDTutorial.pdf

It mentions a SuperDrive; I have only a Combo Drive.

Then you can't burn a DVD at all. You can buy an external Firewire burner.