I'm astonished how hard it is to author a basic DVD on mac.

C

computerpro3

LightningRod
Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Messages
8,702
This is fucking ridiculous. I've been loving my Macbook air since I made the switch, but all that bullshit you hear about media editing being easy is completely made up.

All I want to do is rip six or seven DVD's of concert performances to the hard drive, cut one or two pieces from each hour-long performance, then stitch them together on a new DVD with chapter markings to each piece. Fucking windows movie maker could do this.

So I use handbrake to rip the DVD's. At least that worked. I try to import the clips into imovie and it will take over 24 hours to just IMPORT them since it insists on transcoding on the fly. No way. So I download the trial of Final Cut Pro X, which doesn't insist on being completely retarded like that. It imports fine and I'm able to cut and stitch them together properly. But lo and behold, THERE ARE NO CHAPTER MARKERS in Final Cut Pro. So now I have to waste a couple of hours exporting as a quicktime movie to import it BACK into iMovie just to add chapter markings.

After I add the chapter markings in iMovie for some reason, now I have to figure out how to actually make the DVD menu and burn the DVD. Wait, you're telling me my Mac didn't come with a DVD burning program? REALLY??? Apparently, I can't download it from the App store either - even if I'm willing to pay - since only the physical copies of iLife 11 include iDVD.

After wasting 30 minutes acquiring iDVD through "other" means, now I have to export the DVD from iMovie to iDVD. Except that the iMovie share to iDVD preset fucking blows and pixelates everything and the sound quality is complete shit. So I google the issue and everyone says, "No idiot, you have to use the share as media - large option because the iDVD one sucks." Yeah, thanks for telling me AFTER I wasted the time exporting it to figure it out.

So now I'm waiting EIGHT HOURS for iMovie to export the movie just so I can import it into iDVD and then wait god-knows how many more hours for it to transcode to DVD.

Seriously, what the fuck do you people do when you need to author a DVD?
 
Get a PC?

Sorry. Could not resist. I hope you get it worked out.
 
Simple answer? I don't anymore. That is what Facebook/YouTube is for.

Apple has been trying to move people away from DVD authoring for a while now. No surprise it is a bitch.
 
Dew said:
Apple has been trying to move people away from DVD authoring for a while now. No surprise it is a bitch.
Click to expand...

Great, I'll just tell that to the Search Committee that requested the DVD for the university job position available. I'm sure they'll understand.

In the real world, DVD's are still very much needed. FCPX would be so much better if they just offered chapter markers and a simple DVD burning interface. There's really no excuse for lacking it.
 
computerpro3 said:
This is fucking ridiculous. I've been loving my Macbook air since I made the switch, but all that bullshit you hear about media editing being easy is completely made up.

All I want to do is rip six or seven DVD's of concert performances to the hard drive, cut one or two pieces from each hour-long performance, then stitch them together on a new DVD with chapter markings to each piece. Fucking windows movie maker could do this.

So I use handbrake to rip the DVD's. At least that worked. I try to import the clips into imovie and it will take over 24 hours to just IMPORT them since it insists on transcoding on the fly. No way. So I download the trial of Final Cut Pro X, which doesn't insist on being completely retarded like that. It imports fine and I'm able to cut and stitch them together properly. But lo and behold, THERE ARE NO CHAPTER MARKERS in Final Cut Pro. So now I have to waste a couple of hours exporting as a quicktime movie to import it BACK into iMovie just to add chapter markings.

After I add the chapter markings in iMovie for some reason, now I have to figure out how to actually make the DVD menu and burn the DVD. Wait, you're telling me my Mac didn't come with a DVD burning program? REALLY??? Apparently, I can't download it from the App store either - even if I'm willing to pay - since only the physical copies of iLife 11 include iDVD.

After wasting 30 minutes acquiring iDVD through "other" means, now I have to export the DVD from iMovie to iDVD. Except that the iMovie share to iDVD preset fucking blows and pixelates everything and the sound quality is complete shit. So I google the issue and everyone says, "No idiot, you have to use the share as media - large option because the iDVD one sucks." Yeah, thanks for telling me AFTER I wasted the time exporting it to figure it out.

So now I'm waiting EIGHT HOURS for iMovie to export the movie just so I can import it into iDVD and then wait god-knows how many more hours for it to transcode to DVD.
Click to expand...


I'm at my ouija board so let me ask Steve Jobs...Hold a sec...

Err...He can't stop laughing long enough to answer...sorry.

Seriously, though...

I feel your frustration, and will probably experience something similar quite soon. I just bought a BluRay burner and Sony Vegas 11 so I am sure I will encounter many issues similar to yours but, in addition, I get to worry about whether or not Sony throws a Rootkit onto my PC :(
 
I thought the Mac was the platform of choice for electronic media artists everywhere? Is that just not true?
 
Any chance you can convert your DVD contents into a .m4v, avi, or something else? That can be posted on the web and given out various other ways. It's more flexible than a DVD (-- your search committee is a little behind). It is true the fewer and fewer people are using optical media these days. Most laptops don't even come with optical drives. They are good mostly for installing software, but even that is happening less and less.

Still, Apple ought not to be making it hard for people to author DVDs, but their attitude may be that fewer and fewer are doing it so it's not an important function to which to devote effort.
 
I would get on an Apple specific forum and ask those gurus the best way to author a dvd. I know FCPX has been catching a lot of grief and this is probably one of the reasons why. Maybe an earlier version of FCP would be better?
 
Dude I have been an Apple user for many years now and I also own a high end PC for other stuff. All this ranting from Apple about how things "just work" is a load of bullshit. There are just as many things that are really hard on a Apple as there are things that are easy. I share your pain. I use my PC for things like authoring a DVD, converting video etc.

1000
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top