imovie error -2125

Another thing to try is bypass Share to iDVD and choose Share to Media Browser. Choose the Large Size, then let it run. It should complete without any further problems. Then quit iMovie and open iDVD. Create a new project, then click on the Media button down in the lower right corner then above the Browser Window click on Movies. In the Browser window there will be a iMovie star icon, click on the triangle beside iMovie to see all the videos, and choose the one you just shared to the Media Browser. Drag that iMovie project into the iDVD project and burn your DVD-R.

I totally agree. I've seen countless folks on the Discussion Board suffer the same thing. Some have used Share to iDVD at least once maybe even multiple times. Then it stops working. I haven't seen one person write back to the board saying they had fixed Share to iDVD on their computer. Now one up shot of the extra steps apparently is the quality of doing the Share to Media Browser using the Large size is the quality of the final DVD is noticeably higher quality than Share to DVD. Which makes me wonder two things, 1. Why are there 2 ways to do this 2. Are there different engineers working on the two different DVD export modules. I have a feeling it's different folks working on each one and that Share to iDVD was put in as a convenience to people who are first time users wanting results quickly. But that export module seems really shaky and fragile. So all the long-time members of this Discussion Board try to steer people towards Share to Media Browser (with the higher quality DVD being the biggest plus).

Share to iDVD produces a file formatted as Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) - at least when working with clips already converted to AIC (such as transcoded AVCHD clips).

However, Share to Media Browser generates a file formatted as H.264 codec. For some reason, this file when used in iDVD seems to produce a better quality DVD than when using the AIC file from the Share>iDVD route. This seems incongruous, given the highly compressed nature of the H.264 file in comparison to the AIC file. Perhaps iDVD doesn't handle the AIC format efficiently - we can only guess (unless we are engineers). 😕

John

Point taken, thanks for that detailed information.🙂 It may not be useful to anyone else but it's a tremendous insight as to why 2 different paths to export have such widely varying results. The fact that the codecs are diffent to me is a telltale sign of different goals/architecture decisions that occur when you have two different groups working on parts of a larger product. Another possibility is chronology. One may have been worked on, created earlier or later and been organized by the same group, but under different group leadership, etc. It is all wild guessing, shots in the dark based on working in an IT support department for a number of years.

You may be right. If I recall correctly, when the new style iMovie '08 was released (with a completely new interface etc), Share to iDVD was not a feature. I think that was re-introduced with iMovie '09 - it was always a feature in earlier versions, up to iMovie HD 6. But in those earlier versions it didn't work well in some circumstances, so the general advice was to bypass rendering by iMovie.

I think the issue related to the unacceptable rendering by iMovie of still images when using Share to iDVD. Overall better quality was achieved by simply dragging the iMovie project file to an iDVD theme, then allowing iDVD to do the rendering. All very simple and effective in versions up to iMovie HD 6, where we were mainly dealing with DV and HDV clips. Oddly, later versions of iMovie ('08 to '11) still seem to introduce quality issues in DVDs when using Share>iDVD, hence the preference to use Share>Media Browser.

John

John, thanks for that version history for DVD export. I feel a little foolish now in retrospect for ignoring the versions between HD 6 and '11. Now I'm trying to keep up and stick with it even if I don't always agree with the changes being made to the product (same applies to OS X 10.7). After I got the Apple Technical Series book for iMovie, I full understand the Project/Events layout and can see where my editing can speed up a whole lot. And being able to move projects around and not have them break is a big win too. So now I want to make sure others get a good experience first time out (in spite of some of the pitfalls).

When iMovie '08 was introduced I really didn't like it and stayed with iMovie HD 6 until '09 was released. I found the '08 version to be very buggy and lacking features, particularly with audio editing. But '09 was a pleasure to use, once I became familiar with the new interface and workflow. iMovie '11 is now a very polished and powerful product, with many improvements and great new features. I rarely use iMovie HD 6 now, but may continue to use it for older DV projects, given the reported quality issues prevailing in iMovie '11 when processing interlaced DV clips. Nowadays, I primarily shoot AVCHD footage.

Keep up the good work with your posts - we all learn from one another!

John

If you are getting OSStatus error -2125, I've seen this caused by the computer display sleep settings.

Try changing the sleep settings to never and see if you are able to export.

Thats stupid because who wants to keep his display 8h active while rendering an HD 720 movie.

Also why is iMovie not enabling the screensaver. I used a trick with hot corners to activate the

monitor sleep while exporting but I get this stupid -2125 error.

I've seen even the latest 27" i7 Core5 Mac in the store needs 4 times the encoding time as a movie is long.

So 2h movie = 8h encoding do I need to buy a PowerMac?

Hi

Error -2125

OK Error code - 2125 usually indicates that the movie is to large.

It use to pop up when going to iDVD !

iDVD - DO NOT CARE ABOUT Gbs at all. I got movies on 500Mb that do not fit and 50Gb that fits nicely.

iDVD - ONLY CARES ABOUT - Duration. Duration is Movie time + MENU TIME. Choice of

menu and animation of this can take lost of "DURATION" 15 minutes or even more.

Choice of encoding method and use of SL or DL DVDs determine the DVD limit.

iDVD 08 & 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities.

iDVD 6 has the two last ones

• Professional Quality (movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST

• Best Performances (movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD

• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6) (movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above

DL DVDs can store about double of these times.

ALTERNATIVE - The Error Code can indicate that free space on Start-up (BOOT) hard disk is

less than 25Gb (my minimum)

calbe - wrote

If you are getting OSStatus error -2125, I've seen this caused by the computer display sleep settings.
Try changing the sleep settings to never and see if you are able to export.

Yours Bengt W

elikness, thanks for the info. Didn't work for me initially because I was very low on available space. iMovie>>iDVD kept bombing on me, but iMovie>>Media Browser worked the second time around. After saving the project, ran out of necessary space again; so moved the saved file to the external drive and executed iDVD from there.

I'm trying to export movie to a thumb drive; I'm still getting this -2125 error message! I have retried different things, about three times (that's like 6hr.s each time!); the movie is just a little over 3hr.s. I am very annoyed!! Please help!!