On the new macs we dont get the iDVD app, unfortunately. But is there any other way to burn video DVD’s for it to work on any DVD player on macOS? I know how to burn music CD’s on iTunes and data CD’s from the finder, but if I did so for a video file thats .avi .mkv or mp4 with it burn it as a playable DVD or just save the video file to be accessed as data?
macOs 10.12.1
Apple USB Superdrive
Appreciate your time Sir.
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Nassar
Video DVDs are very different than data or music DVDs. You can't just throw some files on a disc and expect it to work in a DVD player. The DVD has to have a specific format and the video itself has to be re-encoded into a very specific format or DVD players, which still operate with standards from the early 1990s, won't be able to recognize or play the video.
That's why you need an app to do it. A video DVD-brunign app does more than just run the disc, it also formats the video and creates the necessary data for the DVD menu system. This is what iDVD did, and what current third-party apps did.
So you'll need one of those third party apps. No way around it.
The only other alternative is to ditch the idea of burning a DVD at all. Not sure what your use case is, but more and more households don't have a DVD player. Streaming video online has replaced physical media. Plus, DVDs are old "standard definition" video that is much lower resolution than HD video online or streaming. Even the cheapest smart phones now record in 1080p video, which is 6 times the resolution of DVD video(480p). Plus, you can view online video on computers, phones, tablets, smart TVs, set-top boxes like Apple TV, Roku and newer cable boxes. DVDs can only play on DVD players and older computers. Just something to think about.
OK, ok, Gary, it's clear ;-)
But, btw, what's your best choice for such a 'third party' application ?
There are many many chinese apps on the App Store but ...
And a few others at high level price (Toast Titanium...).
Thanks a lot in advance.
Filou: I don't have any recommendations as I haven't created a video DVD in many years, preferring online HD video when I need to share something. I did use Toast a few times back in the day and it worked fine, but lacked the nicer features of iDVD if I remember correctly.
Thanks Gary.
I'm trying some apps...
As of today, IMHO:
- Express Burn: not bad, old look, full demo (limited in time), too expensive for me
- DVDStyler: not so easy but many options and ... free
- MiDVD Pro: not bad but demo version does'nt burn Video. Impossible to test...
- Toast: not tested: too expensive for my limited needs
"Plus, DVDs are old “standard definition” video that is much lower resolution than HD video online or streaming"
Are you saying that even If I burn a 1080p video to a DVD it will still be converted to 480p? So all new movies currently that are on DVD are 480p? and to get an HD movie we must buy the blue ray ones?
Thanks
Nassar: Yes, that's right. If you have 1080p video, then the DVD creation software would convert it to DVD format which is 480p. Think about it. DVD players are the same as they are from the early 90s when 480p was the standard. So how would they know about 720p, 1080p or 4K?
If you buy a new movie today in the store on a "DVD" then you get 480p. Blueray is an option to get 1080p at home, but I think many more people simply do cable/satellite, iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu or the like for HD video at home.
Alright thanks Gary! I posted a comment twice earlier before that one and it doesn't seem to show for some reason. Maybe you have some kind of filter or something. I was just saying to Filou that I found a good free open source app called Burn that can do all of that.
"Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!"
so it means that its already posted but not showing, weird.
Thanks to you Nassar.
I also use Burn (soft is alas discontinued, but it works again under El Capitan).
Just a problem for me: if you add multiple VOB files, it merges all of them in one file.
With DVDStyler (also free), it's possible to implement a Menu.
It makes sense to burn video to a DVD if it is of low quality, such as from 8mm movies. In this case, HD online streaming would mean nothing.
Squafdonoboles: Actually, since 8mm film is analog, not digital, it doesn't really have a true pixel resolution. But experts online seem to place it either at around 720p or 1080p, still higher than 480p (DVD quality). So you will end up with a better digital "copy" of 8mm in HD video than SD video (DVD).
But if your aim is to archive 8mm film, then you definitely want the highest resolution analong-to-digital conversion and want to avoid putting it on optical media where it can be lost, damaged or just deteriorate. Instead, keep it as a file on your computer that gets backed up and also moved from device to device through the years so it is still around on whatever devices your great grandkids are using 100 years from now.
Gary, what I did is go to Finder > Help > Search, enter Burn DVD and a simple procedure is given, and it works for Mac, movies, data, DVD players, and Windows computers. Keep up your great Newsletters.
Don: That will burn a data DVD. These are like read-only thumb drives. You can store any data files on them as files. They will not work with DVD players. DVD players expect a very specific format with menu data, files in exact locations with exact names, and video is a specific format.
I'm in the process of saving all our old videos of our family growing up. I only have about 1/2 of the transferred to DVD. So.. how will my family ever be able to view these movies? Will they only be able to watch them online? Will the whole world be able to see them, or can they be kept private? This is really upsetting.
Barbara: Having DVDs is fine for now, provided you have a DVD player. But I would definitely also keep the full resolution original video files on your computer too. And maybe archive them to another drive as well. As long as you have this, you can create more copies in the future for whatever medium arrises. So when the last DVD player you have access to goes away, you can still see them.
If you wanted to put them online for your family members to see, you can use YouTube and set the videos to either unlisted (not found in searches, but not protected) or private (invite-only protection). Or, you could put them on other services or your own server if you know how.