How Do I: Audio-book On 14 Cds, Add Photos Then Burn On Dvd

[Lance Birk]

I have my book on audio CDs, 14 of them and it "reads" for nearly 18 hours altogether. I want to take the files, originally read in "GarageBand" then transferred to "iTunes" (.aiff), import them into "Photo to Movie" to add and to manipulate hundreds of slides, then compress them and burn to a single DVD, ... maybe 2 (?).

 

I have compressed some large files (a single chapter) from say 500MB down to 50MB with no noticeable loss of quality. I can reduce the size of 5-6 MB photos down but don't know to what size. It seems that audio files can "absorb" photos without an increase in file size when done in "Photo to Movie," but I do not know what size I need to use to play on DVD players, TVs or on computer screens.

 

Additionally, I cannot understand how to combine a divided chapter in "GarageBand." Three or four chapters have beed split to fit on the CDs, ... how do I join them into a single chapter, and then add the photos, etc. and work from there?

 

I keep trying different approaches but can't quite seem to get it!

 

I would like to know the process or workflow, if anyone can point me in the right direction. I use a Mac-Mini, 1.83GHz, 2GB ram, OS 10.4.11 "Tiger," and have iTunes, GarageBand, Photo to Movie, Toast 9, iDVD, Audacity, QuickTime (not QT Pro, but I'll get it) and iMovie.

 

Thanks.

[tsantee]

Such ambition!

 

I'm not sure what is the maximum amount of content that Toast can encode to fit a DVD, but I think you'll need at least three dual-layer DVDs for 18 hours of content using Toast as the encoder. If it must fit two discs then I suggest going to the Mac Forum at videohelp.com and asking what encoder and what settings someone recommends. Toast encodes the video at 720x480 but other encoders can be set to lesser resolutions so the video takes up less space. You won't get it on two single-layer DVDs no matter what you do.

 

If you do use Toast for the encoding then go to the custom encoder settings window and lower the bit rate settings and the audio setting to the smallest size. Run a test of a chapter to see how it looks to you. It's best to burn the test to a DVD so you can see it on a TV rather than on a computer display.

 

The MPEG encoder (Toast or others) takes care of rescaling the photos and compressing the audio so you don't need to do anything in advance about those.

 

You can assemble the split audio tracks using Toast's Audio CD setting in the Audio window. Add the two tracks. Set the Pause to zero seconds. You can audition the transition of the audio from one track to the next by clicking the icon for the crossfade and choose custom. Here you can make some adjustments if to remove any silence between the tracks that shouldn't be there. Now choose Save as Disc Image. In the Finder change the file's .sd2f extension to .aiff and you have a single audio track.

 

It also is easy to join audio files using QuickTime Pro, if you think the Toast method is too complicated. Audacity might be able to do it too but I don't have any experience with that application.

[Lance Birk]

Thanks Tsantee, that is a BIG help. It'll take me a day or so to get this done the way you suggest, but I believe it is the way to go.

 

Would you reccommend a different encoder than Toast............(I just got it)? Is the 720 x 480 size suitable for DVD players on computer screens, stand alone DVD players and on TV screens, or should it be different. My priority is on a suitable presentation rather than on anything else.

 

Using three DVD discs is no problem.

 

Thanks.

[tsantee]

Thanks Tsantee, that is a BIG help. It'll take me a day or so to get this done the way you suggest, but I believe it is the way to go.

 

Would you reccommend a different encoder than Toast............(I just got it)? Is the 720 x 480 size suitable for DVD players on computer screens, stand alone DVD players and on TV screens, or should it be different. My priority is on a suitable presentation rather than on anything else.

 

Using three DVD discs is no problem.

 

Thanks.

Probably the easiest thing is to do it with Toast. It will give you a good-quality picture and has some options to maximize how much gets on the disc.

 

The process is to create three, six-DVDs burned to Dual-Layer discs (use Verbatim DVD+R DL media). After you've created your videos in Photo-to-Movie I suggest saving them as Full Quality QuickTime movies as long as you have ample hard drive space available. The full-quality movie takes about one gigabyte of hard drive space for every five minutes of video (or 12 GB per hour of video). If hard drive space is a problem then you can save it as MPEG 4.

 

Drag six hours of video exported from Photo-to-Movie to the Toast Video window with DVD video selected as the format. If they are several files then each one will be a new title on the DVD. You can have up to 99 titles on a DVD. Follow Toast's guide about setting up the menu the way you want.

 

Click the More... button at the lower left of the Video window and click the Encoder button and then Custom. You now are in the custom encoder settings window. Drag the average bit rate to the left at 2.5. Drag the maximum bit rate to the left at 3. You want the Audio Format to be Dolby Digital and the Data Rate to be 128 (the lowest setting). Click OK to close the window with those settings.

 

Next to the big red button you'll see a button that probably reads "DVD". Click on it and select "DVD DL". Now you're ready to choose Save as Disc Image. When you do that Toast should ask if you want this to be on a single layer or dual layer disc. Choose dual layer.

 

When Toast finishes creating the disc image you can mount it and preview how the disc will look using DVD Player. To do this you can either control-click on the .toast disc image file in the Finder and choose Mount It or you can select the disc image file using the Image File setting in the Toast Copy window. In DVD Player choose Normal view or else the image will be zoomed several times in size to fit the screen. Zooming to enlarge the picture will make it look very bad so you need to view it at the actual 720x480 size.

 

Assuming the disc image file is small enough to fit at dual-layer disc, you burn it to disc by using the Image File setting in the Copy window and clicking the red button.

 

The DVD will play on anything built in the past five or so years that plays DVDs. Older players and older computers may not be able to play a burned dual-layer DVD.

 

If you don't want to use dual-layer discs then do everything as above except drag no more than 210 minutes of video into the Toast window and tell it to encode to a single-layer disc. That will fit 17-1/2 hours on five DVDs. If you need a little more space than that lower the maximum bit rate to 2.5 so it is the same as the average bit rate.