iMovie to VCD?

jove

jove

Member
Hello,

I have just recorded my first iMovie video (about 13 minutes). iMovie rocks! I would like to get it into a format that can be burned onto CD using VCD encoding. The answer is not jumping out at me. Toast seems to want an MPEG stream. It is not obvious how to get an MPEG out of iMovie and Quicktime Pro.

Of course any recomendations with encoding parameters would be very appreciated as well.

Thank You in advanced.
 
You can save it as any format,
then get the program called VCD gear, which converts almost any movie format into a VCD MPEG. Then just burn with toast (under VCD mode of course) and you are ready to go ;)

I converted some MP2 files and madem VCD in the past ;) really cool ;)


Admiral
 
Supposedly Toast 5 will burn a VCD using a quicktime file. This functionality isn't supported in the OSX version of Toast 5 yet, so you'll have to go back to OS 9 to do it.
 
A quicktime movie or a quicktime file ?
Because anything that can be read by quicktime (jpg, mov, mpg, gif and so on) can be considered a quicktime file.

The best thing is to save it to a mov and the convert it with VCD gear.
 
Hello,

I'll try both options. Just a few more questions. Is VCD Gear Classic only? Does the DVD or QuickTime player play VCDs? I just downloaded the various VCD specific players. What is recomended?

The instructions to FreeVCD (classic) just answered some of my questions. QT player does play VCDs. FreeVCD exists only to give a more TV-like experience. But the instructions for MacVCD X state that X is not capable of playing VCD disks. Has this changed in 10.1? MacVCD X requires special burning instructions to make the VCD playable in X.

Thank You,
 
QT player can play MPEGs which is what VCDs are made up of, but I do not know if you can use the player to play an actual CD.

I use freeVCD to play VCDs.
And I think VCD gear is just classic for the moment.


Admiral
--> I cant remember the last time I made a VCD lol... I cant wait for the mac to have an SVCD player :p <--
 
Hello,

While I have your ear :)

SVCD?

We are going to have to buy a big HD to work with the video. My 4 GBs available just doesn't cut it :-(

When I purchased the DV camera, I didn't realize how much stuff is involved! Please excuse the quantity of questions in the following paragraph.

Would you recommend replacing my internal or using an external? Does speed matter? How big? Do externals have a USB interface in addition (for use on the iMac)? Do they have an extra FW port to daisy chain? Brand? Are you happy with yours?

Once again thank you for your advice.
 
SVCD = SuperVCD --> instead of MPEG they use MPEG2 files

As for HDs, keep your internal HD and get an external. IF you replace your old HD you are essentially throwing away 4GB of good storage space.

I would suggest a Firewire HD, external. USB HDs are too slow for such jobs like video editing in my opinion.

I got my 30GB FW HD last year for about $300. Now I think you can get a 70GB on for the same price lol :p I think that FW HDs are daisy chainable :)


Admiral
 
Hello,

Since my original post I have purchased an external drive. Having 55GBs of space is really nice :)

I have burned several VCDs now. With the latest update of Toast I can export directly from iMovie to a Toast VCD friendly format. Toast adds export options to iMovie. Encoding a 14 minute video - in OS9 took 3 to 4 hours! I imagine in X it will be a little faster. Is the terrible speed a G3 vs. G4 issue?

The VCDs have had mixed results. Some Windows machines can play them, others cannot, some just act weird. Same problem with DVD players. Every Mac, running 9, can read them. X doesn't really support the VCD file system yet. Despite 8x and 16x versions playable on my laptop, they have differing reliability on other computers.

The actual MPEG is stored in a file VIDEO_CD/MPEGAV/AVSEQ01.DAT. Toast will put a small .mov file on VIDEO_CD that simply links to the .DAT file. The .DAT file is usually playable using Windows Media Player. Of course the .mov is playable from QT.

Has anybody seen the problem in X where importing more than three clips in one stream will cause iMovie and the Finder to have unrecoverable errors. I actually had to Disk Warrior my drives once to recover them! With the devices listed below, this happens every time. But not in OS9 :-(
 
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