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October 3, 2010 6:32 PM

Any iFilm experts that can help me with this? Basically...how do you add data to a movie dvd so it 1. Plays in a DVD player and 2. Has the data accessible on a computer....data consists of gps - gpx files, pdf, and .mov files. I again bow to the hive mind with great thanks, and a six pack of warm Blatz.
posted by timsteil to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Well, if you mount a DVD, you will see it has a file system, with folders and such that contain the movie. You can put whatever other files on it you want. Just master your DVD and before burning it, add the files you want. If your burning software doesn't have separate mastering and burning steps, maybe it will make a disk image -- you could do the same thing with that, then burn it using a DVD burning utility. I am not familiar with iFilm except as a now-defunct Web site that featured independent films.
posted by kindall at 6:47 PM on October 3, 2010

Response by poster: kindall thanks, and for anyone else, replace the iFilms with whatever the dang Apple movie editing program is, thanks again.
posted by timsteil at 7:07 PM on October 3, 2010

"…whatever the dang Apple movie editing program is…"

The movie editor is iMovie, which then passes things off to iDVD for authoring.

Yup, kindall's right with the general idea. I'd suggest making a disc image with your movie (i.e. "Save as disc image") in iDVD, then opening that image in Finder and adding your extras before burning the image. If you just "Save as VIDEO_TS folder", you run the risk of not laying out the disc properly when burning - certain files have to be in certain sector locations on the disc for it to be a completely valid DVD.

Remember to leave enough space for your files - since you'll be adding them afterwards, iDVD won't calculate this for you.

Also note that for the DVD to be properly valid, any extras must

1. be in a separate subfolder off the root (e.g. /Data/your_files_live_here), and
2. conform to the UDF 1.02 naming standards (i.e. UTF-8 character set, max 128 chars in filename, etc).

In theory, Windows-style autorun (i.e. an autorun.bat file in the root directory) is invalid under the DVD specs; in practice, you can usually get away with it.

(You can keep your nasty American beer for yourself, or shout me a six-pack of Tooheys Old ;-)
posted by Pinback at 9:13 PM on October 3, 2010

But you shouldn't get away with it, because autorun is a broken, ill-considered design decision and should not be encouraged.
posted by flabdablet at 11:59 PM on October 3, 2010

Response by poster: Hello Green, I would be the idiot coming back to the well here.

While I don't know if it makes any difference, I guess the software involved is Final Cut Pro.

Rest assured, editor already handed me my ass, but I'm fine with getting it kicked around some more if there is an answer involved.
posted by timsteil at 6:44 PM on October 4, 2010

Well, to make things clear, I'll explain that the general steps involved in the workflow from unedited movie to DVD:

1. Editing: that's the movie cutting / re-arranging / joining bit that Final Cut Pro is used for. For DVD purposes, the output of this is one (or more) movie files in MPEG-2 in an MPEG container.
2. Authoring: This is the bit that creates the DVD structure. Movies get repackaged as MPEG-2 in a VOB container (along with other stuff like subtitles, chapters, and a cell structure to facilitate jumping around), additional assets (like menus, buttons, transitions, etc) are imported/added/connected, control-related (i.e. IFO and BUP) files are built, and the end result is the typical bunch of files you see in a DVD directory. If you're using FCP as your editor, the usual companion program used for this step is DVD Studio Pro.
3. Burning: This is the bit where you get to commit your mistakes to a physical DVD ;-)

So, assuming you're using FCP for editing and DSP for authoring, the additional process for authoring a DVD-Video with DVD-ROM content (which many, including DSP, slightly mistakenly just call "DVD-ROM") goes something like:

• Edit movies in FCP; export to DSP.
• Build menus etc in DSP; test.
• New step! Under the "Disc Inspector" -> "General" tab, go down to "DVD-ROM" & check "Content". You'll then be able to choose the directory containing your extra content. Check "Joliet Extension Support" for maximum compatibility.
• Carry on as would would for any other disc - either burning from inside DSP, or building & formatting before burning with an external burning app.

If you're not using DSP, it gets a little more complex as you need to know some particulars about your authoring & burning programs e.g. does the authoring program export to a disc image (.ISO file) or just build the directory structure, does the burning app verify and correct the locations of a couple of important files, etc. They're the sort of things kindall and I were referring to above - but if you burn straight from DSP, it handles all that for you.
posted by Pinback at 12:48 AM on October 5, 2010

If you're using iMovie/iDVD workflow, you want Advanced>Edit DVD-Rom Contents. This will allow you to add anything you like.
posted by filmgeek at 6:55 PM on October 6, 2010