The Macintosh iLife 06

iDVD's job is to integrate and present assets from other programs. The assets you're most likely to add to your DVDs are movies you've created in iMovie HD or another video-editing program, such as Apple's Final Cut Express HD or Final Cut Pro.

You can add movies to your DVDs using a couple of techniques. iDVD can accept movies in just about any QuickTime-compatible format (for some examples of movies you can't use, see page 312). You can also use 16:9 movies in either HDV or DV Widescreen format. If you use high-definition movies, however, note that iDVD will convert them to standard-definition for displaynot because it wants to, but because it has to. Today, the high-definition DVD landscape is still in flux, with a couple of standards vying for acceptance.

In the meantime, your high-definition movies will still play in all their widescreen glory if you play your DVD on a widescreen TV set. On a conventional TV, they'll play in letterboxed format.

To learn more about high-definition DVD standards and working with 16:9 movies in iDVD, see www.macilife.com/iDVD.

Video on a DVD is compressed, or encoded, into a format called MPEG-2. As the sidebar on the opposite page describes, iDVD performs this encoding either as you work or after you click the Burn button.

Adding a Movie Using the Movie Browser

Step 1.

Click the Media button, then click the Movies button.

Step 2.

Drag the desired movie into your DVD's menu area.

Tip

If you don't want iDVD to create a chapter submenu or if you'd like iDVD to ask if you want oneuse the options in the Movies portion of the Preferences dialog box.

Other Ways to Add a Movie

You can also add a movie by dragging its icon from the Finder into the iDVD window, or by choosing the Video command from the File menu's Import submenu. These techniques are convenient if you store your movies on an external hard drive and you don't feel like adding the drive to the movie browser using the Preferences command.

You can also use the media browser to add video clips from your iTunes or iPhoto libraries (although you can't burn your video purchases from the iTunes store). For more details on using digital camera movies in iDVD projects, see page 312.

And finally, you can add a movie by choosing the Video command from the File menu's Import submenu.

Tips for DVD Movies

Encoder Settings

You can have up to two hours of video on a discfour hours, if you have a dual-layer DVD burner (see page 310). By adjusting iDVD's encoder settings, you can control how much video will fit as well as the quality of the video itself. Choose Preferences from the iDVD menu, click the Projects button, and cast your eyes on the Encoding options. (You can also change encoding settings for an individual project as described on page 313.)

The Very Best

If you have more than one hour of videoor you want the best quality iDVD is capable ofchoose Best Quality. In this mode, iDVD puts on its thinking cap and analyzes your video, with the goal of compressing it as little as possible.

You get great quality and two (or four) hours on a disc, but be patient. Encoding upwards of two hours of video may take several hours on slower, single-processor G4 Macs.

The Very Fastest

If you have under an hour of video, consider the Best Performance option. The video still looks great and encoding is much faster. When you choose Best Performance, you have the option of allowing iDVD to encode while you work: click the Enable Background Encoding check box. If iDVD runs sluggishly, uncheck the box, and encoding will take place after you click Burn.

For more encoding insights, see page 311.

Using Movies from Final Cut

iDVD can also encode Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express movies. Export the movie by choosing QuickTime Movie from the File menu's Export submenu. (In older Final Cut versions, this command is Final Cut Movie or Final Cut Pro Movie.) If the movie has chapter markers, be sure to choose the Chapter Markers option in the Markers pop-up menu of the Save dialog box.

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