Trial version is out of date. When will 10.0.7 be available for trial?

Hi Russ, thanks for responding.

Here you go: I'm not an expert, so this may be more info than necessary, but I'm trying to answer all questions in advance.

I'm using video files from two different HD cameras, both shot in 1080i (1920X1080, 29.97i), stereo sound @ 48Khz. Each contains their own audio-track from the on-camera audio.

I imported all the clips with the "create optimized media" box checked to create pro-res 422 files for editing.

I synched them manually into multi-cam clips using a slate (which was fortunate because the difference in sound levels meant that FCPX's attempt to auto-synch failed), and cut & edited them into a completed project.

I know that DVD resolution is not HD, but I wanted the best original source material so I shot and edited in HD anyway. I know FCPX will compress the final result down to DVD resolution, and that's cool.

The completed project is 1 hour 50 minutes long. I added 68 chapter markers. (the project is for a school talent show which had 68 acts) Editing went fine and I'm happy with the finished project. My fellow parents are anxious to see the finished DVD.

So, after a week's work, I'm now trying to create the DVD image on my hard drive, for later burning to disks.

From FCPX, I'm selecting File>Share>DVD.

In the DVD window, the "info" tab is giving me an estimated size of 3.84GB.

This should fit on a standard single-layer DVD-R (capacity 4.7G (4.38gig), or 2+ hours of video)

There is no option to change any of the "info" settings, it's just standard DVD resolution (720X480, Stereo 48Khz, time 1:50:17:06, 2 files)

I click "settings" tab and choose these settings including "single layer":

Output Device: Hard Drive

Layers: Single-layer

Disk Template: Black

When Disk Loads: Show menu

Markers: checked "Use Chapter Markers as subtitles"

Background: [a 970kb JPG still image]

Clicking next and specifying an external hard drive with 1+TB of free space, FCPX goes to work, and, after about 50 minutes, creates a finished DVD image file that is.... 6.7G's.

Whoops! too big to fit on a single layer DVD.

So, what am I doing wrong?

I sure hope the problem is me rather than the software, but I doubt it, since the same problem has been reported on these forums here, here, here, and here.

All previous posters reported the problem arising in 10.0.6, the same version Apple offers as a trial. The 10.0.7 version release notes state "Fixes an issue that could occur when creating a single layer DVD." But I can't get a trial of the 10.0.7 to test this.

The work-arounds which were posted in response to those earlier forum posts were either to use a dual-layer disc (non-starter, as most parents will want to watch these DVDs on their stand-alone DVD players hooked up to their TV, most of which won't play dual-layer media) or export a master file then use Compressor X. (which supposedly works but there's no trial version to verify this and I'm not up for spending 50 bucks to find out.)

So, can you help me? I sure hope I'm doing something wrong because I really want this to work.

Thanks so much.

It's a common misconception that "home burnt" DVD media is the same as commercially produced Hollywood DVD's. They're not.

Commercially-produced DVD's are "stamped" from a gold-plated master disk, not "burnt" on recordable DVD+R DL media in an optical drive.

Most stand-alone DVD players WILL play the stamped media, but WON'T play DVD+R DL dual-layer media recorded on a super-drive.

I looked into getting universally-playable dual-layer disks made here in Seattle, but local duplication shops charge several hundred dollars to create a gold master and stamp a batch of disks. Not realistic for me.

All I want is for the software to do what it says it can do, make regular DVD's for regular folks.

Seems like a pretty core feature, to burn a finished project onto what is still, by far, the most common media format on the planet.

Sigh.

Thanks Russ, those are good tips.

I did last year's project on my wife's 2006-era macbook using iMovie and iDVD, and it was a NIGHTMARE to edit, but at least the finished product worked. (rendering took about 16 hours though LOL)

You're right about keeping a "master" copy when done. I've had several requests for last year's show.

How would I go about sharing my edited file with iDVD, preserving the chapter markers? I didn't know it could do that. Would I first make a "master file" (quick-time .mov) and import that?

Cool! Ok I already had a master file ready, so now I've got the file into iDVD and it looks pretty good. However, I don't see the text of the chapter markers, only the thumbnails.

(this is the opposite of what happened when I let FCPX create the DVD menus, by the way)

I know we're well off the original topic now, but you seem to be a real expert. I saw some talk on another forum about how to do this, but it wasn't clear. Can you tell me how to get the text of the chapter markers into iDVD?

Thanks so much

OK, thanks Russ. Just finished the rendering and this'll work. The quality looks very good, certainly good enough for the purposes of this project. I appreciate your help.

E