Hi,
when I want to save/render an iDVD project as a DL project, iDVD tells me, That one should not burn from / save as disc image, if you want to use DL media.
Here it also says that most standalone players won't play DL media http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1355450&seqNum=13
So, what is the situation? Any recommendations? Better avoid doing DL projects?
Thanks in advance.
That article from Peachpit is very old.
I have never seen that comment from iDVD: at what stage do you see this? Can you take a screenshot and post it here?
I rarely use dual layer DVDs as projects in excess of 2 hours are really too long.
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.
Thank you Klaus1
I already read the documentation pdf that came with iDVD and found what all the settings are for (it is basically the same text as you have linked to). So this is not the problem.
The message appears, when I am finished and hit "save as image" from the menue. (iDVD 7.1.2 updated via 7.0 to 7.04)
This will pop up https://www.dropbox.com/s/ec9nm055aps6wq2/apple%20discussion.png?dl=0
Translation:
"Compatibility of Images for Dual Layer media
DVDs that have been burned from Images for Dual Layer media, may potentially not play on some DVD-Standalone-Players.
[abort] [save]
If you use a burning tool (or application) to burn an Image for Dual Layer media onto DVD, the DVD may possibly displayed badly. Therefore better use iDVD to burn projects for dual layer media directly onto a DVD."
Thanks, that's interesting.
So, to revert to your original question, make the projects shorter (no more than 2 hours) or on two DVDs.
The problem is at the transition point where it switches from layer 1 to layer 2. Often there's a pause or, if burned at a too fast a speed, it just locks up. I've only had to burn one two layer DVD and did it from a disk image. Burned at 2X from a disk image and it did burn and play OK. I could detect the layer switch point as a brief pause but not distracting.
Klaus1 wrote:
Thanks, that's interesting.
So, to revert to your original question, make the projects shorter (no more than 2 hours) or on two DVDs.
I could easily do more small projects, since the clips are all just 10min., but the thing is, if one follows this thought, then there would be no sense to use DL anyway. So it would mean that never can there be a DL project, which you could probably even reach, when you have 1h of content, but the bitrate used is very high or the clips contain a lot action scenes.
This brings us to Old Tods answer, it must have something to do with the transition point. I guess the warning message means, that Toast for example may not be able to read the transition marker, that iDVD had set.
That's possible. The iDVD transition marker may be unique to iDVD.
It is quite interesting though, since a lot of online tutorials recommend to save the iDVD project and burn it with Toast. I read things like "iDVDs strenght lies in compression, leave the bruning to Toast" or something like that.
I am wondering, if I should gamble on burning a DL iDVD project with Toast and let the person who will get it, test it.
lime-iMacG3 wrote:
It is quite interesting though, since a lot of online tutorials recommend to save the iDVD project and burn it with Toast. I read things like "iDVDs strenght lies in compression, leave the bruning to Toast" or something like that.
I am wondering, if I should gamble on burning a DL iDVD project with Toast and let the person who will get it, test it.
Worth trying. I always use Toast for the actual burning.
You could also test it before giving it to the final recipient. Remember, DVD+R disks won't be compatible with DVD players manufactured earlier than 2004 or so. That's why I use DVD-R disks to assure earlier manufactured DVD players can read them.
Klaus1 wrote:
lime-iMacG3 wrote:
It is quite interesting though, since a lot of online tutorials recommend to save the iDVD project and burn it with Toast. I read things like "iDVDs strenght lies in compression, leave the bruning to Toast" or something like that.
I am wondering, if I should gamble on burning a DL iDVD project with Toast and let the person who will get it, test it.
Worth trying. I always use Toast for the actual burning.
This is, what I would like to do anyway, rather than doing the DL project directly in Toast, which would be the solution, fi it doesn't work that way. I have the feeling that Toast with roughly the same bitrate (5700kbps Toast vs 5900kbps iDVD, for video alone) delivers less nice image quality (if I can trust my eyes looking at a 19" 1280x1024 TN panel).
Old Toad wrote:
You could also test it before giving it to the final recipient. Remember, DVD+R disks won't be compatible with DVD players manufactured earlier than 2004 or so. That's why I use DVD-R disks to assure earlier manufactured DVD players can read them.
Strange as it sounds, our family waied so long for the VHS to DVD transition that in the end, we directly went from VHS to USB-mediaplayers, which is why we have no DVD-standalone-player (and only a 26" HD ready Flatscreen and old big Tubes).
Or do you mean I would see that there is something wrong even on my Mac with the DVD-Player-App?
PS: iDVD seems to suggest that 3000kbps (2h video) still look like professional quality and at the other end of the scale that no more than 5900kbps is needed. Hm, I can't really tell... though I think the 3000kbps look slightly worse... or maybe I am thinking just so, because I know the bitrate.
Is it not recommended to burn DL iDVD projects?
