View Full Version : controlling idvd and burn speed


Michael Donne
December 16th, 2006, 05:54 AM
Hi

Ok, if ive got the homework right the reasons for stuttering inconsistent playback on disks burned out of idvd could be disk quality, bit rate, burn speed or dvd player quality.

My disks are good quality, idvd apparently works automatically at a bit rate of 6 or 6.5 which is way under the 7.3 i've seen reccomended for reliable burning, and ive purchased a new dvd player that is playing disks my previous one would only give me 'disk error' on.....so that leaves burn speed.

This may turn out to be dumb but i dont see where in my chain i can control the burn speed?

I export my sequence from fcehd3.5 as a self contained quicktime movie, bring that into idvd6 (with 'best quality' set in prefs) and burn.....where can i get control of burn speed?

Thanks.

Nathaniel McInnes
December 27th, 2006, 04:59 AM
The best thing to do is to export it as a disk image. Then once this has been done, open it in disk utility and the click burn. This this will then give you aload of options, including burn speed. I do this all the time.

Thanks,
Nathaniel

Michael Donne
December 27th, 2006, 11:13 AM
Thanks but Ive tried burning a disk image but control of burn speed on my imac and its built in burner wasnt apparent. I went and asked at an apple shop and they reckoned i couldnt control burn speed. if anyone with a 2gb intel dual core 20" imac knows otherwise that would be helpful..

Nathaniel McInnes
December 27th, 2006, 11:48 AM
I work at a film production company and they only use mac. i use about 15 different macs a day and i no it can be done because all the dvds produced at this company are done on IDVD or DVD Studio Pro. on 1 of 5 imacs. All these are either done on the old PPC or the intel Core 2 Duo macs. All editing is done on mac pro's or power macs.

Ervin Farkas
December 28th, 2006, 01:41 PM
Burn speed is only adjustable using your burner's driver software (whether directly, or, if the driver soft allows it, via other applications). If the driver don't have it, then you don't have it. I'm in PC land, but I don't see why it would be different on the MAC.

As one who had all of the problems you describe, I would give you one advice: DVD+R with bit setting and all of your compatibility issues will be history! I am not sure they make bit setting enabled burners for the Mac though... Good luck,

Nathaniel McInnes
December 28th, 2006, 02:27 PM
I have used macs for over 5 years now. I have used every make of mac that has come off the assembly line. i have burnt dvds with them all the time. Every mac has given me the option to change burn speed. There has only been one mac that failed when changing the burn speed and that was a Emac. It had a faulty DVD Drive.

IDVD does not give you the option to change burn speed. Disk Utility does. I always use disk utilty because it is more reliable and also you dont have to recompile your projects every time you want to burn them.

Where i work is a big film production company in wales and i am pritty much the techniqition on macs there. We never bother with windows in writing dvds because they always throw up errors one way or another.

Remember mac make everything. The computer (not parts), software and the Operating system. There disk managermant tool does allow you to do this

Have you tried disk utility?

Thanks,
Nathaniel

Michael Donne
December 29th, 2006, 08:15 AM
Yes, i've tried burning a disk image with disk utility but i cant find a means of controlling burn speed/write speed in disk utility...i hit burn and off it goes no questions asked, no options given. I've searched the help file but cant find any ideas.
.......AAH..GOT IT........
i hit burn, it comes up "ready to burn" and theres a dropdown arrow which i failed to click previously...thats where the controls are!!

Many thanks, sorry to be a slow learner!

Nathaniel McInnes
December 29th, 2006, 08:17 AM
Dont worry. Everything working now. I think there should be a option in IDVD to change the dvd speed but once you learn how to get around disk utility you will always make disk images.

Thanks,
Nathaniel