I can't find this anywhere, but I need to burn some Anime episodes to a DVD using a Macbook.

December 30, 2006 6:53 PM

I can't find this anywhere, but I need to burn some Anime episodes to a DVD using a Macbook. More inside.

I know the Macbook comes with this fancy iDVD, with the fancy menus and that's nice and all, but, I need to make something simple.

I'm new to Mac, and I'm use to using Nero 7 Ultra, which you can use to make simple menus by setting a simple background image with each episode having it's own little animated button, and I could usually do about 4-5 episodes on one DVD.

Is there any program out there that can do this for the Mac? Or is there a way iDVD can do this?

Thanks in advance.

posted by stlboi to computers & internet (5 comments total)

I've had very good luck with Toast so far. I'm not sure about the animated buttons, but you can drag and drop your files in and choose the "Create DVD menu" option in the sidebar.

Good luck!
posted by arishaun at 7:02 PM on December 30, 2006

If you can convert the Anime movies to a file QuickTime can read and turn into a .dv file, then you ca use iDVD. The files don't have to be .dv files, basically, QuickTime just has to be able to read them. An mp4, mov, or m4v will work just as well. For other codecs you may have to get a plugin or use a third-party tool to convert the file.

Open iDVD, choose your aspect ratio, and name your project. pick a "theme" ("Portfolio Color" in "Old Themes" should suit your purposes nicely). Next, open a Finder window to the folder where your movie files are. For most themes, you can drag and drop your movie files right onto the theme preview and the movie will be added (this is true of "Portfolio Color") For others, you wn't be able to do this and you'll have to click the "Show the DVD Map" button (it's round, directly to the right of the "play" button on the bottom of iDVD's main window). From here, you can drag and drop your movie files onto the DVD.

Once you've got everything set up the way you like, you can burn the DVD right out of iDVD. iDVD does take a LONG time to burn DVDs so if you have Toast, you might like it better. But it can be done with iDVD.
posted by eustacescrubb at 7:24 PM on December 30, 2006

If your video file is not already in MPEG format (iDVD will tell you if that's the case) you might need to convert it. ffmpegx is a good, free way to do this.
posted by drmarcj at 8:21 PM on December 30, 2006

The reason iDVD takes a long time is that it has to convert whatever you put into it into MPEG2, which is what DVD videos are encoded in. Toast will take just as long because it is doing the very same thing.

If you end up needing to convert to DV to bring into Toast/iDVD etc. this AskMe thread has several options listed.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:14 PM on December 30, 2006

Also, Apple has several tutorials posted about using iDVD to make DVDs.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:18 PM on December 30, 2006