Burning Idvd Project?

[teach1love]

I got toast7 mainly for the ability to compress large DVD files. I created a project in IDVD and tried to burn from there. I was told that I didn't have enough space. Is there a way to import my IDVD project into toast and compress/burn from there? any help would be appreciated!!

[tsantee]

The problem with iDVD is that it uses uncompressed PCM audio instead of compressed AC3 audio. The reason this is a problem is that an iDVD disc image that's, say, over 3 hours long has nearly enough audio to fill a single-layer DVD with little video. What this means is that Toast can't compress the video into the limited amount of space left over from the space taken by the uncompressed audio. Toast doesn't touch the audio when it does its fit-to-DVD compression.

 

If the reason you were using iDVD is for its menus then your only viable options are to burn the iDVD disc image to DL media or to split the movie into two parts and create two single-layer iDVD projects. If you are willing to forgo the iDVD menus then there are other ways you can proceed which I can explain if you are interested.

[teach1love]

The problem with iDVD is that it uses uncompressed PCM audio instead of compressed AC3 audio. The reason this is a problem is that an iDVD disc image that's, say, over 3 hours long has nearly enough audio to fill a single-layer DVD with little video. What this means is that Toast can't compress the video into the limited amount of space left over from the space taken by the uncompressed audio. Toast doesn't touch the audio when it does its fit-to-DVD compression.

 

If the reason you were using iDVD is for its menus then your only viable options are to burn the iDVD disc image to DL media or to split the movie into two parts and create two single-layer iDVD projects. If you are willing to forgo the iDVD menus then there are other ways you can proceed which I can explain if you are interested.

 

 

Thank you for your help, once again. I am willing to forgo IDVD menus. I have everything created in Imovie (transitions, music, etc.) Do I just import into toast and use their DVD features or do you have some other suggestions? Thanks again...

[tsantee]

Thank you for your help, once again. I am willing to forgo IDVD menus. I have everything created in Imovie (transitions, music, etc.) Do I just import into toast and use their DVD features or do you have some other suggestions? Thanks again...

There are two good approaches: One is to drag your iMovie Project file to the Toast Video window, set up the menu the way you like and choose Save as Disc Image. Toast will create an image file that fits a DL DVD. But since Toast uses AC3 audio Toast will use the Fit-to-DVD feature to compress that image file to a single-layer disc when you click the burn button in the Copy window.

 

Be sure to mount and play the image file on your Mac before burning your DVD. I've read some posts where Toast didn't get the multiple sound tracks right when some tracks had the audio scaled down for background. In that case they needed to "Share" the movie as a full-quality QuickTime movie and then drag that saved file to Toast.

 

Another approach is to mount your iDVD disc image, and choose DVD in the Toast Media Browser. There you'll see the video in the browser window. Use the lower button to go to the title level. Now select the video and drag it to the Toast Video window. This will extract the MPEG from the disc image and write it to the Roxio Converted Items folder. Now click the Formats button and click the More button at the bottom. Then click the Encoder tab and the Custom button. Click the button next to "Reencoding" and choose "Always." Click Okay to return to the Video window to set up your menu as you like. From here you choose Save as Disc Image. Toast will convert the audio to AC3. It may leave the video alone. You can tell if it is reencoding the video by opening the Roxio Converted Items folder and seeing if there is a .m2v file being written as well as an .ac3 file. In any case, you'll get a DL disc image file that Toast can fit to a single-layer DVD using the Copy window.