iDVD and making home movies...

Hi everyone,

I've got a Samsung digital video recorder and until today I have never attempted to get the video off of the recorder and onto the computer. I have it hooked up via firewire and i've launched iDVD and choose the "One Step DVD" option.

I see it is taking just as long to capture the video on the computer as it does to watch it. Is this normal for the most part?

Once i get it on the computer, what are my options here on a Mac? Can I somehow edit the video and create something thats easier to watch? For example - I have a lot of video of my little girls, plus vacation video, and other family video. Ideally I would like to make a dvd or two for each year. I'd like to be able to store up all of the 2006 video (on the mac?) and at the end of the year create a DVD. This dvd would have a menu that allows you to quickly navigate to to the highlights of that year. (ie birthdays, christmas, vacation, etc). I'd prefer to be able to edit this video and only include what I want.

What's the easiest way to accomplish this? Do I have the tools I need already or is there something else I should buy?

Please keep in mind this video thing is completely new to me so when replying please act as though you're replying to a small child.

Thanks in advance!

Whew.......after watching this bring my video onto the Mac, I see that it's actually much slower than watchig it in real time. Is this to be expected?

Thanks!

All video importing is in real time, plus the time it takes to process it once the video is done

A One-Step DVD is not what you want since that removes all of the steps except import, menus burn

Import it in to iMovie and do the editing there, then send it to idvd for menus and burning

A one-step DVD is just that, a one step DVD. The point of this option is for you to be able to quickly move video from your camcorder to a DVD.

If you want to edit video, you would want to use iMovie.

In order to create a full-fledged DVD, you'll want to go into iDVD and chose "New Project". This will allow you to create menus and whatnot.

As for the slowdown, unfortunatley, that's an issue, it takes enormous amounts of time to create a DVD.

You can use iMovie to create your feature. You can add sound, edit out boring parts, add titles, voice-overs, etc. When this process is finished, and your video isnt too long, you can import it to iDVD and get a playable DVD video. If your movie is too large, you have to compress it, most likely using mpeg4 h.264, which although the best codec for compression, is significantly less than the quality youd see using DV.

iMovie to iDvd is the way to go. However, I have run into alot of frustrating sitiations. Getting it on iMovie and editing there has been the fun part. iDVD has been the bigger challenge. Yes, it takes a long time. I have also gone throught the process only to have various error messages pop up just as it has finished rendering. I have created a few dvd (my daughter's dance competitions) but it hasnt been as easy as I thought.

brkpsu said:

iMovie to iDvd is the way to go. However, I have run into alot of frustrating sitiations. Getting it on iMovie and editing there has been the fun part. iDVD has been the bigger challenge. Yes, it takes a long time. I have also gone throught the process only to have various error messages pop up just as it has finished rendering. I have created a few dvd (my daughter's dance competitions) but it hasnt been as easy as I thought.

Click to expand...

Ya, I agree. I LOVE iLife, but iDVD (or at least actually rendering and burning the DVD) is the thing that seems like it needs the most work.

I haven't had any issues with iDVD since version 4 came out. I usually save my project as a disc image first before burning. Burn a copy and test it out and then I have a Tracer DVD-RW/CD-RW pro that I can burn 3 copies at a time whenever I need them

trpnmonkey41 said:

All video importing is in real time, plus the time it takes to process it once the video is done

A One-Step DVD is not what you want since that removes all of the steps except import, menus burn

Import it in to iMovie and do the editing there, then send it to idvd for menus and burning

Click to expand...

I have a MiniDV camcorder. If i have a full tape (around 60 minutes), when i want to import that tape into imove it will take 60 minutes plus whatever time to save it?