5. iDVD your videos

Once all the video capture was done, I now approached the step of designing and creating a DVD. The tool to use for newbies on the iMac is iDVD which is another free application from Apple for the OS X platform. iDVD represents a wonderful intuitive application that makes DVD authoring a snap. As an aside, I will say this much: There is no equivalent on the Windows side to iDVD I'm sorry but Sonic's MyDVD Authoring program just doesn't cut it when compared to iDVD's ease of use and functionality.Now for you serious DVD authors, you may want to check out DVD Studio Pro but it sure is expensive!

As with iMovie, you create projects within iDVD via it's simple Project Menu which launches when the application itself launches. Once you've chosen your project, you can go ahead and import your video footage that was captured via iMovie. You can either import it via the menu or drag and drop it into the DVD menu shown. Every movie dragged into the interface is automatically shown as a new button on the DVD menu. It is important to note that I did not attempt to make chapter points in iDVD though I did make a cool motion menu (Are chapter points even possible with iDVD?). To find out more about iDVD, check out Apple's website for iDVD

Once videos are imported into, iDVD immediately forks off background threads to start the encoding process of converting the video format into MPEG2. So depending upon how long it takes for you to design your DVD, your MPEG2 encoding could be all finished by the time you're ready to burn. However, be prepared to wait awhile with the MPEG2 encoding process. Despite what Apple may say about encoding speeds on the G4, MPEG2 encoding is no laughing matter when you're doing this in software. This will take some time! So if you have an hour clip that needs to be encoded - go make some food, sit down with a book and relax for an hour or two. This is an area where my dual proc Windows systems wins hands down in mpeg2 encoding - but that's for another story I suspect.

Background MPEG2 encoding

The other aspect of creating a DVD is designing the backdrop and menu'ing system of the DVD itself. I decided to do something very simple for my Band of Brothers DVD's and used a prebuilt Apple backdrop. I then recorded a 20 second audio clip of the Band of Brothers theme track and imported that into the button that plays the movie. Thus when you insert the DVD into your player, you will see a nice 20 second motion video (the entire length as it turns out of my video capture) as well as a background music playing.

Selecting a theme in idvd	Importing a video clip into idvd

Before you actually sit down and start the burn process of the DVD-R, you should probably spend some time previewing the DVD using the included preview feature of iDVD. You can test out what it will probably look like when you finish burning the DVD and make sure all the buttons work according to plan. Now remember, just because you clicked on the burn menu item, does not mean that the burn will actually take place. The MPEG2 encoding process of the video must be done first before any DVD burning takes place.

Button created from imported video	Preview the DVD

The iMac G4 800 uses the Pioneer DVR-104 DVD-R burner which Apple labels as the SuperDrive. I also have this drive for the PC platform and I absolutely love it. I won't go into details comparing DVD-R and DVD+R. They both have their merits but currently the DVD-R format is in wider circulation (mostly because it had a head start) though DVD+R is catching up fast. I personally also own a DVD+R drive (HP DVD200i) for my PC but I can't provide in depth details on the drive yet since I haven't done any DVD authoring with this new drive as of yet.

Prepare to burn that DVD-R

It should be noted that the iDVD application will tell you that you should only burn up to 90 minutes on a DVD-R. That is of course a load of bull since you can fit 120 minutes onto one DVD-R. However, Apple does dumb down idvd for the average consumer and thus they play it safe with the 90 minute warning. Another reason for not going to 120 minute support is the fact that the audio is not encoded into AC3 format by idvd Without AC3, the audio portion of your video footage can take up more room than needed and seriously make 120 minute burns a harder task to accomplish.

You can of course do other things with iDVD - such as a slide show but I won't go into details here. The following screen shots are based off of the sample 20 second capture from episode 2 of Band of Brothers.

6. And Out Popped a DVD

Though the pictures here were of a small 20 second clip of episode 2, I really did capture and burn all 10 episodes of Band of Brothers. The quality of the output was pretty good though you're not going to get anything better than what you originally recorded in. Since VHS resolutions are already fairly low, capturing and archiving to DVD is really only useful for things where you know you will never be able to get the original media or you really don't care to spend extra money to get the DVD version. Remember that you'll never make a picture better than the original source material. Going to DVD doesn't mean your picture becomes sharper magically! However, this process is pretty much the same method you would go should you have original home movies made on your DV camcorder. If you have even older movies shot with an analog camcorder then a device such as the Canopus ADVC-100 is perfect for doing the Analog to Digital conversions.

So at the end of every one hour episode capture and dvd creation effort, out popped a nice DVD disc:

7. Summary

The iMac proved to be a very easy platform by which I can capture video(s) and turn them into DVDs. As the Apple commercials show, it is indeed intuitive and easy though not necessarily as fast as they make it seem on TV. The slowest part is of course the mpeg2 encoding. However, the DVD burning isn't exactly the fastest thing on the planet either. This is an area where the DVD+R drives have a slight advantage currently but who knows what may come down the pipe for these DVD-R drives. The Canopus ADVC-100 is not for everyone but if you have a lot of analog video that you want archived, then it's a pretty damn good ADC or DAC converter (yes it does the other way too). A few comments about the software applications that Apple provides in the form of iMovie and idvd As a whole, they are great applications and Microsoft should learn a thing or two about the feature sets provided. However, in dealing with idvd, I did have a couple of issues crop up here and there. They usually revolved around the background MPEG2 encoding where it sometimes appeared to stall. I'm sure these will be fixed over time but the overall program is still light years better than anything introductory on the Windows side. Thus if you're in the market for a cheap and easy way to create DVDs, then the iMac platform is definitely a cool way to go. If you want more control over the finer details of DVD creation, then a Windows box with a high end DVD Authoring program is good for you or go ahead and purchase a high end authoring program for the Mac like DVD Studio Pro. I hope that this helps those who have similar needs as myself in terms of video archiving. If you have any questions or comments, please do share them in our forums. You could also reach me via email at flung@whiningdog.net but the forums is probably a better place to converse.

UPDATE:

I figured that some people may find the following links useful though they're not necessarily Mac oriented.

Doom9 has some nice DVD authoring guides here

Mac compatibility FAQ sheet for DVD-R

DVD+R compatibility list

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