I'm am avid videographer ("home movies") who only recently converted from standard definition to HD (i.e., I bought a high def Canon camcorder + a HD t.v. + a Blu-Ray player). I purchased a La Cie Blu-Ray burner with Toast 9, which I've connected to my iMac of course.
To create a "movie" (edited, with titles, music, etc.) from my original camcorder work, I of course upload the clips from my camcorder, import them into a "Project" within iMovie, and then using iMovie i edit, add music where desired, add titles, etc. Finally, when I have a movie that's just right and ready to get onto a Blu-Ray, HERE IS WHERE I HAVE QUESTIONS:
1. First of all, is this a reasonable way to create a movie for future application to a Blu-Ray disc? (I like iMovie, so even if you think there's a better application, I'm happy with iMovie if there's no real reason I need to change).
2. Second, once I create a movie (actually, a completed "Project" within iMovie), I am exporting it to a "QuickTime" file. I've noticed this conversion takes about 5:1 time (converting a 15 minute Project takes about 1:15 or even 1 and 1/2 hours). I'm not sure if there is much degradation in converting from a Project in iMovie to a QuickTime.mov file... haven't really noticed any, and hope it's not happening (would hate to go to all this high-def effort and then lose some definition or fidelity / quality).
3. Once I have converted my clips to QuickTime.mov files, it's a straightforward process to "drag" them into a new Roxio Toast 9 Movie project. But a few questions here...
a) I don't like the menu's... you're forced to have a thumbnail (photo) with each title/chapter. And the font used is so large that you can't use a very long title or the excess letters simply do not appear. Is this normal? (I had a Panasonic DVD burner of circa 1996 vintage that provided much better menus).
Apparently Roxio Toast 9 only allows a max of 6 chapters per screen... why does Roxio insist on consuming so much space/area with so little info/data? Is there no way to list chapters minus the thumbnails?
c) And because the thumbnails pretty much fill the screen, there's little point in inserting a background photo because it would be covered up by all the thumbnail boxes.
d) Finally, I'm amazed the software doesn't let you set the chapter markers. It seems to only offer the option of "randomly" setting chapter markers every "X" # of minutes. Of course I'd much prefer to set a chapter marker at the beginning of a new scene.
4. FYI, the Blu-Ray burning is the best / easiest part of the process... regardless of my comments / complaints about the Roxio Toast 9 application, when it comes time actually burn the Blu-Ray, both Toast 9 and my La Cie Blu-Ray burner work easily with no confusing settings to have to think about.
My apologies for all these "rookie" questions, but I plan to be making dozens of Blu-Ray discs from my Canon HD camcorder using my iMac and the iMovie application and want to make sure I'm doing it in the best / smartest way. Many thanks in advance for your expertise. - Apple-3.14159.
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Apple-3.14159
I have a 1 year old iMac operating OS X.
I'm am avid videographer ("home movies") who only recently converted from standard definition to HD (i.e., I bought a high def Canon camcorder + a HD t.v. + a Blu-Ray player). I purchased a La Cie Blu-Ray burner with Toast 9, which I've connected to my iMac of course.
To create a "movie" (edited, with titles, music, etc.) from my original camcorder work, I of course upload the clips from my camcorder, import them into a "Project" within iMovie, and then using iMovie i edit, add music where desired, add titles, etc. Finally, when I have a movie that's just right and ready to get onto a Blu-Ray, HERE IS WHERE I HAVE QUESTIONS:
1. First of all, is this a reasonable way to create a movie for future application to a Blu-Ray disc? (I like iMovie, so even if you think there's a better application, I'm happy with iMovie if there's no real reason I need to change).
2. Second, once I create a movie (actually, a completed "Project" within iMovie), I am exporting it to a "QuickTime" file. I've noticed this conversion takes about 5:1 time (converting a 15 minute Project takes about 1:15 or even 1 and 1/2 hours). I'm not sure if there is much degradation in converting from a Project in iMovie to a QuickTime.mov file... haven't really noticed any, and hope it's not happening (would hate to go to all this high-def effort and then lose some definition or fidelity / quality).
3. Once I have converted my clips to QuickTime.mov files, it's a straightforward process to "drag" them into a new Roxio Toast 9 Movie project. But a few questions here...
a) I don't like the menu's... you're forced to have a thumbnail (photo) with each title/chapter. And the font used is so large that you can't use a very long title or the excess letters simply do not appear. Is this normal? (I had a Panasonic DVD burner of circa 1996 vintage that provided much better menus).
c) And because the thumbnails pretty much fill the screen, there's little point in inserting a background photo because it would be covered up by all the thumbnail boxes.
d) Finally, I'm amazed the software doesn't let you set the chapter markers. It seems to only offer the option of "randomly" setting chapter markers every "X" # of minutes. Of course I'd much prefer to set a chapter marker at the beginning of a new scene.
4. FYI, the Blu-Ray burning is the best / easiest part of the process... regardless of my comments / complaints about the Roxio Toast 9 application, when it comes time actually burn the Blu-Ray, both Toast 9 and my La Cie Blu-Ray burner work easily with no confusing settings to have to think about.
My apologies for all these "rookie" questions, but I plan to be making dozens of Blu-Ray discs from my Canon HD camcorder using my iMac and the iMovie application and want to make sure I'm doing it in the best / smartest way. Many thanks in advance for your expertise. - Apple-3.14159.
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