can imovie turn a mp4 into a standard dvd that i can play on my dvd player?

iMovie cannot burn mp4 to dvd, you have to use professonal dvd burning software. You can use iDVD which is a great one that pre-installed on Mac. But if you are using newer Mac, you should know newer Macs come without a pre-installed version of iDVD. Anyway, you can install it from an iLife Installer DVD disk, or if you have older Mac, re-install iDVD from an older re-installer disk. If you just want something more simple, you can turn to other DVD burning software. There are many on the market. Be careful to choose a proper one for yourself.

I just created a new movie using iMovie 10. To create a DVD I did the following: in iMovie 10 click on "Share" then click on "File" then select "HD 1080P." This will export the largest possible file, which will give you the best possible results. Next, open iDVD from your Applications folder (if you do not have iDVD borrow or buy an older version of iLife which include iDVD 7.1 or later). Select widescreen. Then go to "File" then "Import" then "Video" and select your recently exported mp4 file. It worked for me. Good luck, Carl.