Q: Good dvd creator app for iMac

The very best video DVD authoring application, IMO, is iDVD. Granted it's been discontinued but there really is no substitute that can produce as professional looking, multi menu product as iDVD. iDVD offers nearly 90 different themes to choose from. As of now iDVD is compatible with Yosemite.

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've not been able to test any of the other apps as I haven't found any that have a demo version. 

When the time comes when iDVD is no longer compatible with Yosemite or its successor I have an external HD that has Mavericks on it which I'll boot into to use.

Not to the extent that iDVD does.  Toast can create video DVDs but not multi menu projects.  The available apps on the App Store have no demo version so I have no idea what they are capable of.  It's pretty much unanimous here that there's no video DVD authoring app for Macs that can hold a candle to iDVD.

Apple is moving away from optical media (note that new Macs do not have optical drives included). 

>>  It seems like this is taking a step backwards.  <<

Actually, iDVD is far more advanced than other more recent competitors.  I strongly recommend you use iDVD, easily available by purchasing iLife 09 or 11 from Amazon or eBay.

Apple is moving away from optical media (note that new Macs do not have optical drives included).

This brand-new MacBook Pro includes a 8X optical drive. They only one our organization will purchase.

http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/

Interestingly, in my travels, I have seen several people with the MacBook Pro type that do not have the built-in optical drive.  So instead, they have an external optical drive duct taped to the bottom of their computer.

Remember when you install iDVD from the iLife 09 disk to do a Custom Install.  You don't want to install the older versions of iPhoto and iMovie over what you have now.

I like the unit below.  Has a cooling fan and is built like a tank.  Lots of interfaces also.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MR3F82SD24S/

That's the one I purchased and it is great.  Although I only burn at 2x-4x for iDVD projects it reads extremely fast since I use the FW800 capability.

You can install directly from the iLife 09 disk but be sure to do a Custom Install as you don't want to install the older version of iPhoto, iMovie, etc over your current applications.

No. Open the disk and you'll see this:

Double click on the iLife '09.mpkg file to open it.  Then following the instructions until you get this window:

Click on the Customize button and then on these checkboxes in the next window:

http://www.dvdstyler.org/en/

Above is a free dvd creator, just listed on Macupdate. I will try it myself later today.

Hugh