How to finalize a DVD-R to play in a DVD player?

I came across this thread as I am struggling to burn a DVD from an iMovie project. I followed all the directions but when I try to save as a disk image I get an error message that there was an error during disc encoding. The only thing on the project in iMovie is a photo slideshow - there is no audio or video. The only options I see in iMovie all render an mp4 file. I can and have shared through YouTube and Vimeo with no problem, but for whatever reason I am struggling to get it to burn to disc.

I also have a problem resizing photos to fit in the drop zone. I took a photo and resized it in Photoshop to 480x569 which should work but it still renders it much larger, as if it were the original file which was 1493x1771. But the original was a png and the resized is jpg so that it can't possibly be somehow pulling the original file.

Burn CDs and DVDs - macOS Sierra

CDs/DVDs burn - Yosemite

CDs/DVDs burn troubles - Yosemite

Burn created the DVD as a data disk rather than a movie disk. So that DVD is the same as your hard drive - a disk with files on it.

iDVD should do what you need since that's what it's for. Is something about an encoding error all that you get? DVDs created as a movie disk only work with the MPEG-2 format. So iDVD's message is saying something is going wrong with that encoding process or your original clips to the final encoded video.

Do you have enough space on the drive for the software to complete the work? Have you tried removing iDVD and reinstalling it?

Export the slideshow out of iMovie as a QT movie file via the File ➙ Share ➙ File menu option. Select 540p.

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.

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.