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Confused about DVD+RW on Mountain Lion

I have never messed with DVDs, but am finally to the point where I want to try and transfer my old VHS tapes (family stuff & church sermons - not commercial) to DVD. I have access to borrow someone's DVD recorder and was going to try and record these with DVD+RW just so I could get these into a digital format on my computer hard drive to save. But I am confused as I see the computer came with iDVD but the application doesn't launch as it says its no longer supported for Power PCs, then the next time I tried to launch it to type the message here it says I can't use this version (iDVD 6.0.4) with this version of the OS (why did it come with the computer? LOL)


I still have my older iMac running Snow Leopard which I think can run DVDs on it (it could when it ran Tiger I have never tried it with the upgrade.) I'm assuming if all else fails I can use this older computer.


I am confused though as Mac are usually known for people being able to do extensive film editing etc on them with their videos etc. How is this possible if you have no software? Or can I do this with iMovie?


As you can see I'm clueless about this...


Any help is appreciated.


Thanks!

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jul 4, 2013 5:11 PM

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2 replies

Jul 4, 2013 5:20 PM in response to lilskye

Apple sells hardware and software separately. They provide iMovie, Garageband, and iPhoto as iLife pre-installed on new computers. They were pre-installed on your computer when it was new, but based on the software you have your computer is far from new. You can buy the upgrades to the above three on the App Store. But the old versions you have may not work properly with Mountain Lion. Among other things neither iWeb nor iDVD are included with iLife. However, that software taken from the iLife '11 boxed set will work with Mountain Lion, but you will need to purchase them elsewhere because they are no longer available from Apple. Try eBay or Amazon.


You do not need any of this software to simply transfer your files to a DVD-R disc. You will have to figure out how to get material on tapes to digital form on the computer. You will need other third-party software for that.

Jul 4, 2013 7:28 PM in response to lilskye

iDVD is not longer offered by Apple. However, it's still the best video DVD authoring application for the Mac there is. If iDVD was not preinstalled on your Mac you'll have to obtain it by purchasing a copy of the iLife 09 disk from a 3rd party retailier like Amazon.com: ilife 09: Software or eBay.com. Why, because iDVD (and iWeb) was discontinued by Apple over a year ago.


Why iLife 09 instead of 11?


If you have to purchase an iLife disc in order to obtain the iDVD application remember that the iLife 11 disc only provides themes from iDVD 5-7. The Software Update no longer installs the earlier themes when starting from the iLIfe 11 disk nor do any of the iDVD 7 updaters available from the Apple Downloads website contain them.


Currently the only sure fire way to get all themes is to start with the iLife 09 disc:

User uploaded file


This shows the iDVD contents in the iLife 09 disc via Pacifist:


User uploaded file


You then can upgrade from iDVD 7.0.3 to iDVD 7.1.2 via the updaters at the Apple Downloads webpage.


Export the slideshow out of iPhoto as a QT movie file via the Export button in the lower toolbar. Select Size = Medium or Large.


Open iDVD, select a theme and drag the exported QT movie file into the open iDVD window being careful to avoid any drop zones.


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

Confused about DVD+RW on Mountain Lion

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