Problems burning a DVD in Roxio Toast

I don't know what to say about the Roxio problem; however, if you have iDVD still installed, I have been running it in both Mountain lion and Mavericks. It is no longer being offered by Apple, but if you still have it, just try using it. One word of caution: the new imovie version is cloud-centric and only offers one way to export a file to the desktop. I found that the default format did not work with iDVD, so I simply put the file into the older version of iMovie and exported it from there to iDVD which worked well.

I've used Toast, but I'm still on the older version (10) which isn't supposed to be compatible with Mavericks, but works; maybe your problem with Toast also has to do with the format used in the new iMovie version - I do not know.

I tried the new version of iMovie a couple of times and have decided to ignore it for now. I do not appreciate the lack of functionality and especially the lack of options for exporting the video.

I just finished a little test: used a short test movie and put three versions into Toast 10:

a) one exported as file from iMovie 11 (mp4)

b) one converted to .mov in MPEG Streamclip

c) one exported from iMovie 06 (which I still use)

Burned all three with Toast and all three versions are playing on my DVD player/TV.

Did not test iDVD as you were using Toast, so I wanted to replicate that, but could not.

With Mavericks it appears that it makes the movies/slideshows in the wrong format for burning to DVD. I found this out using the new iMovie for Mavericks. I had to use the previous version which I then burned using Toast.. You need a .mov format to work. I beleive the same issue with iTunes, et. al. I use Toast10 and have no issues burning and playing as long as the import into Toast has the correct format. Not sure exactly how to fix your issue but to use another program for editing your photos.

The tests I did last night were done on my Mavericks machine (10.9.3) and it all worked - even the movie exported from iMovie 11 which wound up as an .mp4. I just dragged that directly from my desktop into Toast.

I can do this as well but when burned will not play on DVD player in that format..

Mine did last night.... (all three short test videos)

iDVD 7 does work with Mavericks. Export the slideshow out of iPhoto as a QT movie file via the Export button in the lower toolbar. For iPhoto 9.4.3 and earlier select Size = Medium or Large. For iPhoto 9.5 and later selct 480p.

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 quality 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

Okay, so you're the second person suggesting to select 480p - out of curiosity: why?

(I shoot in either 720p or 1080p and have always been able to select that when I export from iMovie and would not want to have it smaller than its' original size). To export, I always choose QT movie > Expert/Options.

iDVD reduces/encodes the media to 720 x 540 or 1:1.333 for standard DVDs and having the original media as close to that size as possible to start with let's iDVD do the job more efficiently and more cleanly. The 720p size is 1280 x 720 or 1:1.777. Enconding the 720p image to 1:1.333 size ratio isn't as clean as from 480p or 1:1.333.

Hmm, interesting, I did not know that. However, it appears to work for me, even with 1080p settings - I process/edit and encode in iMovie HD (06), export with my settings as a finished, already encoded movie to my desktop, drag that into iDVD (I never share directly as I did not care for the quality or lack thereof) and the result is an as-close-to-perfection-as-possible quality 720p on my 720p TV.

I'm just regurtating what I learned from the real iDVD gurus, Bengt Wärleby and Klaus1. I usually use stills for all my iDVD slideshows.

Ahh, Klaus1 is the other one recommending 480p - I don't use iDVD for anything but to design themes/menus; I use Photo to Movie for my slideshows and they're exported as a finished/encoded 720p movie as well.