Problems trying to create a DVD with iDVD

Hi there are several way's things can go wrong.

• Brand of DVD used - Memorex, NoName etc are known problem makers. I only use Verbatim DVD-R SL

• Video-Codec on the material feed into iDVD also matters as it tries even to use Codecs it can not use. So full process from Video Capture / Editing program used / Exported how and as what (Codec) is info needed

• Free space on Start-UP (boot / Macintosh HD) hard disk is vital - for SL-DVDs I never go less than 25Gb free space. Double for DL-DVDs and if HD-material is used then 4 x 5 times more will be enough.

Meaning that 200 - 300 Gb is safe level.

• BURN SPEED - max x4 or rather x2 - Best is not BEST

BUT To scale down where the problem resides !

• Save as a DiskImage (Just to omit the Burn Process)

• If this Works - then

• Use Disk Util tool to BURN from the image .img file to DVD (now we isolated the Burn Process)

Yours Bengt W

iDVD: Burning Double-Layer DVDs

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2937

You should also pay attention to the encoding settings:

iDVD encoding settings:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1502?viewlocale=en_US

Short version:

Best Performance is for videos of up to 60 minutes

Best Quality is for videos of up to 120 minutes

Professional Quality is also for up to 120 minutes but even higher quality (and takes much longer)

That was for single-layer DVDs. Double these numbers for dual-layer DVDs.

Professional Quality: The Professional Quality option uses advanced two-pass technology to encode your video (The first pass determines which parts of the movie can be given greater compresson without quality loss and which parts can’t. The second pass then encodes those different parts accordingly) , resulting in the best quality of video possible on your burned DVD. You can select this option regardless of your project’s duration (up to 2 hours of video for a single-layer disc and 4 hours for a double-layer disc). Because Professional Quality encoding is time-consuming (requiring about twice as much time to encode a project as the High Quality option, for example) choose it only if you are not concerned about the time taken.

In both cases the maximum length includes titles, transitions and effects etc. Allow about 15 minutes for these.

You can use the amount of video in your project as a rough determination of which method to choose. If your project has an hour or less of video (for a single-layer disc), choose Best Performance. If it has between 1 and 2 hours of video (for a single-layer disc), choose High Quality. If you want the best possible encoding quality for projects that are up to 2 hours (for a single-layer disc), choose Professional Quality. This option takes about twice as long as the High Quality option, so select it only if time is not an issue for you.

Use the Capacity meter in the Project Info window (choose Project > Project Info) to determine how many minutes of video your project contains.

NOTE: With the Best Performance setting, you can turn background encoding off by choosing Advanced > “Encode in Background.” The checkmark is removed to show it’s no longer selected. Turning off background encoding can help performance if your system seems sluggish.

And whilst checking these settings in iDVD Preferences, make sure that the settings for NTSC/PAL and DV/DV Widescreen are also what you want.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1502?viewlocale=en_US

>I did try to save it as a disc image and then burn in disc utility. It saved fine, as a .img file, but when I tried to burn it, it failed almost right away when i clicked burn.<

Probably because you were trying to use a Memorex disk.

Did You set down the BURN SPEED ?

First You are asked to insert the new DVD

Then You can set down Burn Speed to x2

Still - Memorex use to NOT WORK for VIDEO-DVD

Yours Bengt W