Apr 27 2009
Create a Quick and Simple DVD
Brought to you by: James Huff
Stuck without a Superdrive? Tired of dealing with iMovie/iDVD and its mandatory .dv file format? Need to get your DVD done quickly? Then you’ve come to the right place. Today, I’ll show you how to make a quick and simple DVD using ANY DVD burner and ANY Quicktime-supported file format.
Not too long ago, I stumbled across the incredible short film, Batman: Dead End. Unfortunately, the full-screen version is a muxed MPEG-2 file. I was so amazed by the film that I wanted to share it with my friends. It was off to my favorite combination of iMovie/iDVD. Yes, since I have the MPEG-2 Playback Component, I could view the file in Quicktime Player, but Quicktime can’t change MPEG-2 tracks to DV without losing the soundtrack. I succeeded in demuxing the file using Gumby, but ran into the same export troubles.
That’s when I decided to use my newly acquired copy of Toast 6 Titanium. I was a amazed at how simple it was, but so versatile. I hit the Video tab, selected DVD, my preferred video quality, and dragged the muxed MPEG-2 file into the window (I added the making of video (normal .mov, Sorenson 3) just for fun). See Image 1.
By clicking the Edit button, I was able to scroll through the video and choose what I wanted for a button picture and change the title of the file. After that, I hit the big red button. Encoding took about 30 minutes, and burning took about 5. The menu that Toast created was simple, but effective. See Image 2. The menu functions as a simple way to select between the movie files that you chose to burn. Toast automatically sets your scenes at every 2 minutes, but there is no graphical scene selection.
All in all, the DVD performed to expectations. A further look shows that you can change the time interval between scenes and “Add Original Photos” (I’m not sure what that does quite yet, since the whole point was to create a quick and simple DVD).
Thank you for reading, and I wish you luck in creating your quick and simple DVDs.
Note: If you are planning to burn onto a 4x DVD-R, make sure that you have the most current firmware release for your burner. Failing to do so will damage your drive and media.
Bonus Tip: The DVD screen shot ( Image 2 ) was taken by playing the DVD through VLC Media Player.