How to burn .mp4 onto a disc?
So I have this .mp4 file on my desktop that is actually a movie and I was wondering how do I burn that onto a disc to make it where when I put the disc into a DVD player, the movie automatically starts playing?
First you need a video DVD authoring application. The premier app was iDVD which was discontinued by Apple about 5 years ago. Go to the App Store and search for DVD. You'll find a number of candidates. Many have free versions with limited options that you an use to see if you like that app. If you do you can buy the paid version which has more themes and capabilities.
Create a project with the app, add your mp4 file to it and save as a disk image. Then 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 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.