Make DVD quickly with simple menus

Toast can burn video DVDs and has very simple menus. There are a number of video DVD authoriing application available from the App Store. Just search there for "dvd-creator".

However I find that with very simple themes, those with no annimation or music, render very fast.

Follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:

Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.

To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.

Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.

OT

(From fellow poster Mishmumken: )

How to create a DVD in iDVD without menu (there are several options):

1. Easy: Drop your iMovie in the autoplay box in iDVD's Map View, then set your autoplay item (your movie) to loop continously. Disadvantage: The DVD plays until you hit stop on the remote

2. Still easy: If you don't want your (autoplay) movie to loop, you can create a black theme by replacing the background of a static theme with a black background and no content in the dropzone (text needs to be black as well). Disadvantage: The menu is still there and will play after the movie. You don't see it, but your disc keeps spinning in the player.

3. Still quite easy but takes more time: Export the iMovie to DV tape, and then re-import using One-Step DVD.

Disadvantage: One-Step DVD creation has been known to be not 100% reliable.

4. (My preferred method) Easy enough but needs 3rd party software: Roxio Toast lets you burn your iMovie to DVD without menu - just drag the iMovie project to the Toast Window and click burn. Disadvantage: you'll need to spend some extra $$ for the software. In Toast, you just drop the iMovie project on the Window and click Burn.

5. The "hard way": Postproduction with myDVDedit (freeware)

Tools necessary: myDVDedit ( http://www.mydvdedit.com )

• create a disc image of your iDVD project, then double-click to mount it.

• Extract the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders to a location of your choice. select the VIDEO_TS folder and hit Cmd + I to open the Inspector window

• Set permissions to "read & write" and include all enclosed items; Ignore the warning.

• Open the VIDEO_TS folder with myDVDedit. You'll find all items enclosed in your DVD in the left hand panel.

• Select the menu (usually named VTS Menu) and delete it

• Choose from the menu File > Test with DVD Player to see if your DVD behaves as planned.If it works save and close myDVDedit.

• Before burning the folders to Video DVD, set permissions back to "read only", then create a disc image burnable with Disc Utility from a VIDEO_TS folder using Laine D. Lee's DVD Imager:

http://lonestar.utsa.edu/llee/applescript/dvdimager.html

Our resident expert, Old Toad, also recommends this: there is a 3rd export/share option that give better results. That's to use the Share ➙ Media Browser menu option. Then in iDVD go to the Media Browser and drag the movie into iDVD where you want it.

Hope this helps!

I'll pitch in a couple more ideas to the good ones you already have:

- pick a theme without any motion or moving elements, no drop zones, no buttons which show video previews.

- delete any background menu music.

- keep your menu structure as simple as possible (presumably you don't have a bunch of chapter marker sub-menus, and just have a main menu).

If you have just a main menu without moving elements and no sound, the encoding time for menus should be five minutes or less.

In terms of the bigger picture, do you have an option to upload the videos to the web and skip the compression/DVD creation process?

John

Roxio Toast lets you burn your iMovie to DVD without menu

To my knowledge, (other than iDVD), there is NO DVD authoring program for a Mac that will create a main menu and a sub-menus.

Toast has this option:

It produces a video DVD that immediately begins playing (like when dragging the movie into the auto play bin in the Map mode) and continually repeats itself.

Toast has this option:

I am after a menu system that works something like this.

Put in DVD > you get, "Play Movie" "Scene Selection"

If you Select "Scene Selection" you are taken to a NEW screen that will list your various chapters plus the ability to go back to the “Main menu”.

Can Toast do this ?

Partly yes. Here's a quick test I ran with a movie that had 6 chapters with the first chapter marker at the beginning of the movie.

The first menu has a link that just takes you to the selection menu with 6 chapter selections.

The first chapter link will play the movie thru from the start.

The second chapter link plays the movie from that marker to the end.

The third chapter link plays the movie from that marker to the end, and so on.

It's rather clumsy to setup compared with iDVD. Had to search every menu and drop down menu and experiment to figure it out.

Can't get a screenshot of the finished DVD's menu due to the protection restrictions.

Can't get a screenshot of the finished DVD's menu due to the protection restrictions.

I understand completely. You know, if you make a DVD from something on television, for your personal use only, it is perfectly legal. No different than in the old days when people used their VCR to record a show for “time-shifting".

I purchased the latest version of Toast on disk the other day. I have not had time to install it, or try it out yet. My friends tell me it works pretty good, but that iDVD is vastly superior. So I continue to use iDVD. I'm just trying to gather information for the day when iDVD doesn't work anymore because of a new Macintosh OS.

Of course, I want to try making Blu-rays which iDVD cannot do.

I wish someone would make a program as good as iDVD and upgraded for Blu-rays. 😍