iDVD on OS X Yosemite

Perform a custom installation of it from an iLife DVD, or if your computer shipped with it, from the original disks. You may need to use Pacifist.

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Yes, unless your computer shipped with it.

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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: Softwareor 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:

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

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.

I have iDVD 7.1.2 on my old mac and have copied the application and the themes folder to my new mac running Yosemite. I've launched iDVD and it prompts to search for themes. I copied the Themes into the same folder structure as on my previous mac Users/Name of User/Library/Application Support/iDVD/Installed Themes/iDVD 6 and all the themes are copied over. When I launch iDVD and try to search for the location of the themes folder I can't access the Library folder to drill down to find the themes folder. I tried just leaving the Themes folder on the desktop and directed iDVD to the desktop folder but that doesn't work. What is odd though is the theme files get deleted from the desktop folder.

Does anyone know how to set up the themes for iDVD on Yosemite?

I bought my new mac with the additional DVD drive but didn't realise that there would be no iDVD software so would like to try to get this to work before buying a new product to burn DVDs from iMovie.

Go to iDVD's Advanced preference pane and point iDVD to the location of the iDVD/Themes folder as shown in this screenshot:

Reboot and try iDVD again.

Thank you for your reply unfortunately my version doesn't have this pane. There is an Advanced dropdown menu but this is greyed out (as are most of the options on the other dropdown menu items.

If you have iDVD 7.1.2 then iDVD does have an Advanced preference pane as shown in my screenshot. Check the version of iDVD again. Post a screenshot of the iDVD preferences window.

I've clicked the Get Info option and it shows v7.1.2

Here is the screenshot - I can't get near the preferences as they are greyed out. If I click on Advanced the same thing - everything greyed out.

Did you try clicking on the "Look for the Themes folder" button?

can't access the Library folder to drill down to find the themes folder

NOTE: In Lion and later the Home/Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and press the Return key - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.

Or for Mavericks and Yosemite go to your Home folder and use the View ➙ Show View Options menu to bring up this window:

Now you should be able to navigate to the Themes folder and select it.

Thanks for this. I can now locate the correct library folder. However - it still doesn't work. I launch iDVD and click on the button to look for the themes and drill down to find the correct folder and click Open. iDVD then returns to the look for themes window. When I go back to the themes folder all the themes have disappeared. I've tried this several times and each time the themes get deleted. Starting to lose the will to live with this. I can't believe Apple have made things so tricky. Any other suggestions on how to get this to work?

Now repair disk permissions and see if that will jump start the process.

What you might try is put a duplicate the iDVD folder in the HD/Library/Application Support folder also. That would be an installation for all users on the Mac. iDVD might see it there.

I was so excited to see your reply having the same issue and followed it to the end of this thread...to a dead end, unsolved. I've seen Youtube videos of iDVD transferred over via USB stick - the app and the Themes folder from HD/Library/Application Support. And it appears to work. For most. A few commenters on the YouTube video, JanetF and now myself have this problem of the themes disappearing upon trying to locate them. I've tried repairing disk permissions as OT has suggested and there were a few printer folder ones repaired. My mac is literally 2 days out of the box. I'm clean installing everything.

I launch iDVD app. Create a New Project. Save as the default My Great DVD.dvdproj...Create Project screen. No Themes Installed pop up box: Quit iDVD and install iDVD again, or click "Look for Themes" and locate the themes folder. So I chose Look for Themes, navigate to where I've copied the Themes folder and in the background where I have the folder open in my finder, I watch the list of 30 iDVD 6 themes literally disappear from the folder as if they're gobbled up. And it brings me back to the same No Themes Installed box.

I only have the version of it installed that came with my 09 laptop (no install disks) which has updated via the App store to 7.1.2 over the years. Is this just not going to be possible to bring it over? Any other suggestions to get this to install? I was hoping to wipe my 09 laptop and clean install OS on it to give it to my daughter and let her start with a clean slate.

If you can get a copy of the iDVD folder that contains the Themes folder try the following:

1. copy it to the HD/Library/Applications Support folder.
2. launch iDVD, go to it's Advanced preference pane
3. point iDVD to the Themes folder's location.

Greetings. Having the identical problem the others above have had.

The problem with your solution is there is no way to access the iDVD Preferences pane without first loading a project file. The option is greyed out until an iDVD project file is loaded. But when you try to load a project file (or create a new one, or use the Magic iDVD option or OneStep DVD option), it asks you to look for the themes. It's a catch 22. You can't get to the preferences pane without a project file loaded, and you can't load a project file becasue the software can't find the themes.

Like the others, even though I point to the folder where the themes are, it simply doesn't see them and again asks you to locate the themes. It's maddening.

Thank for your patience Old Toad. Hoping that all these months later, someone has found a solution.