No iDVD in my new macbook air. Is it normal?

I too used the method described by doitn, which certainly achieved my goal of installing iDVD on my Mac Mini. However, I have to agree with juulonline and others that this was so extraordinarily un-Apple-like! I could live with the fact that I had to buy an external SuperDrive to burn a DVD, but then was amazed to discover that I did not have a 'full' version of iLife! I understand Apple's vision that media will soon be stored in The Cloud, as opposed to optical disks, but to not even allow users the option to still use DVDs is unbelievable. And, to suggest, as Apple representatives did to me on the phone and in a store, that the best solution is to buy a third-party DVD creator application, when Apple has just such an application in their full version of iLife, is just too much.

I understand Apple's vision that media will soon be stored in The Cloud, as opposed to optical disks

That is not a “vision” that would be a nightmare.

Over the years I have purchased many DVDs primarily an older classic movies. Most of these movies are not available on iTunes, Netflix and other legitimate sources.

Data is lost, destroyed, and hacked into on remote servers. There's no way I would trust my movie collection on a hard drive, especially someone else's hard drive in another state.

I've had friends that have put their movies on hard drives and lost everything. Backups failed too. If my DVD player were to burst into flames one day I would lose just one movie.

Every day many people come to this site and other places on the Internet with their difficulties in watching movies due to incompatibility, buggy software, authentication, authorization, payment problems, and or other reasons.

DVDs are virtually hasslefree. I am NOT opposed to any of the alternate methods of storing and watching movies. I am opposed to the removal of choice.

Despite my best efforts to convince them otherwise, I've had friends switch from Macintosh to Windows over the entire DVD issue.

And, to suggest, as Apple representatives did to me on the phone and in a store, that the best solution is to buy a third-party DVD creator application

I have tried them all. Some either don't work or are a very poor implementation.

IDVD is a terrific piece of software that works perfectly with iMovie. I normally use iMovie 06 and iDVD 11 for the best quality.

Fortunately, iDVD is still readily available I recommend purchasing it while you still can. There are NO alternatives.

yes, my iMac didn't come with it. if you want it, download iDVD from somewhere (Your friend can e-mail it to you compressed), then on a friends mac with iDVD, go to "Macintosh HD (On Lion, get to it by shift+command+C)>Library>Application Support than copy the folder called "iDVD" than send it to yourself and put it in that same place.

Just bought a new Macbook air 11" running on Os X 10.7.2 and a superdrive so i could burn DVD's.... but no iDVD!

I have it now and it works perfectly....after a little research.

This is where i started, very helpful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my12sf_2TFI

You will need to find a mac (yours/family/friends) that do have iDVD. Enable "file sharing" in system preferences on your mac and the mac with iDVD....this will help if you've got problems doing that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUThAcIBWfQ

So i did everything as per the first youtube clip however i encountered some problems:

1) couldnt find Library and thus application support. Found it was a hidden folder (press shift/command/g to get "go to folder" and type ~/Library and its all in there)

2) still could not transfer themes

So what i did was download some free themes from www.dvdthemepak.com/

After doing this iDVD worked!

Click on the grey themes below those that are available and iDVD autamatically updates them.

To get the themes that were in the original files of iDVD, i went to application support (directions above) and found that an iDVD had autimatically been added. I simply transfered the contents of the folder iDVD 6 (as per the first youtube clip) into this autimatically created folder.

Very long winded i know, but saves buying iLife and handing over more unnecessary $$$ to the very same people that removed iDVD in the first place.

Stickin it to the man!!!

Hi, I recently bought a Mac (in NZ) for the first time mainly to use for music and photos. The salesman showed me iDVD in the store cause that's what I wanted to use the iMac for, as it is so much better than my PC.

But like everyone else iDVD wasn't there when I got home. I was so relieved when I found this forum so I understood what was happening and decided to see what the store would do. The guy in the shop was certain iDVD should be there, and after several trips back and forth he went online and was surprised to find out that iDVD doesn't get shipped any more. He lent me a start up disc so I could get iDVD.

It seems the demonstration models in the store have everything on them but as we know now, that's not what you are really buying. The salesman even said the "apple guy" had just been in to update all the demonstration models and never mentioned anything about iDVD being removed.

It's a bit slack that Apple are not telling their distributors of this major change. Are the retail stores or Apple breaking any consumer laws by not providing iDVD when you are expecting it is there - especially if you are shown a demo in a store with it!

Hi, I had the same problem! I bought an IMac a few weeks ago with no IWeb or IDVD bundles. Call Apple support & request a callback (they pay the call charges) & insist on speaking with a senior advisor.Within a week I received a free copy of ILife 11. It worked for me so it should for you (as long as you don't swear at them!)

ok so you guys ramble on and on and complain..buutttt... WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?! WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE?! You guys use this ineffectively

as a personal diary.

The solution is simple. Faced with such poor service, and at best politely put ineffective customer service systems, I personally will never, ever again buy an Apple product. Of any kind.

To mcCoolert & PhotoKris....

The bottom line is that IDVD is not bundled with the rest of ILife 11 on the latest Macs. This is something I had to learn. The solution is, either pay for ILife 11, something I wasn't willing to do having spent a lot of money already, or call Apple support & reasonably voice your dissatisfaction, insist on speaking with a senior advisor who can authorise a free copy of the full ILife 11 suite, (the standard advisor cannot do this so ask to speak with a senior), which worked for me.

However much frustration I may feel at times with Apple, ultimately, whenever I have had a problem, Apple support & the good people who take the time to suggest solutions on these forums have resolved them.

The real question is, are you going to continue to look for obstacles & excuses as to why you are not getting the results you want or are you going to do something about it other than criticise the people on here who are trying to help you or make futile gestures concerning 'never, ever again buying an Apple product'?

Perhaps you should both learn to articulate your frustrations in a manner which will serve you a little better & elicit a little more compassion from the people who can solve your 'issues'.

The solution is simple. Faced with such poor service, and at best politely put ineffective customer service systems, I personally will never, ever again buy an Apple product. Of any kind.

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

Nicely explain why you feel that iDVD should be included.

Apple does read the feedback, and responds.

Agreed, I just asked two weeks after I got my MBA, and they sent me iLife 11' in the mail for nothing.

Just be nice, explain your situation.

Ask to speak to a higher up.

Now that the online Apple store no longer has the iLIfe 11 disk available I doubt if free copies will be provided by Customer Service anymore. 😟

Apple apparently want to know why I think iDVD should be included :-

It was part of iLife.

At time of purchase - September 2011 I was told by the Apple store it still was part of iLife

The overall software package contains apps to allow you to create stuff that you could burn onto DVD

There is no longer anything included in the package to allow you to do that.

Given the huge cost of the iMac, there are some apps included which are frivolous at best and ARE included but iDVD, which supports some of the useful applications is not.

In additional reference to the above, a customer service that cuts me off when I'm trying to get a complete system failure on a 6 month old iMac is not worth the name. I bought what I was lead to believe was a premium product, at what was certainly a premium price. Thus far my expectations have not been met.

Apple apparently want to know why I think iDVD should be included :-

Nicley tell Apple below.

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