DVD authoring collaboration with PC&MAC

[zoranb]

I use Adobe Premiere for my DV editing stuff.
I have no DVDR drive on the Pc but i do have a Mac as well. Now i want to tranfer the avi files from the c to the mac to write them on the superdrive. What is the best as far as it concerns quality dvd authoring app for the mac so i can burn my dvds. All videos are 720x576 resolution all avi. What next? Can anyone help me step by step? If i recall correctly galactica offeres to help me adequatelly on this so ill be waiting for his detailed help as well!!!! Im all ears!

[galactica]

If i recall correctly galactica offeres to help me adequatelly on this so ill be waiting for his detailed help as well!!!! Im all ears!

detailed huh
can you tell me what kind of authoring apps you do have on your mac?
quicktime pro? with mpeg2 export?
dvd studio pro?
ffmpegx?

also, what sort of dvd are you looking to make?
One with just these .avi movies playing directly?
One with menu's that link to the .avi movies (that have to be converted 1st)

also, just a question, but why do DV to .avi Im not too familiar with Adobe Premiere but does it only save edited DV as .avi and not mpeg2?

[zoranb]

Well my mac is a G4 933mhz that has MACOS 9.2 on it. Unfortunatelly it hasnt got the apps u ask me, it only has the built in apps that come with mac os 9.2 imovie idvd etc. I cannot install any other apps cause the system admin will kick my ass. So all i can do is with those apps.
Premiere can export to mpeg2 yes.
Pal i though all this stuff would be easier, but now all seems to me like a big mountain! i hope u can help me!!!

[WiseWeasel]

If you have to use iDVD to burn, then you'll have to work with DV format video. Export from Premiere in DV stream format (will make huge files), transfer to the Mac somehow, and then import that into iDVD and make your DVD.

[galactica]

I agree with WiseWeasel. Since its got OS 9.2 on it youre sort of limited in the ways you can go about this. But thats apparently the only optoin you have now. Sorry.

[zoranb]

In what ways am i limited with iDVD? plz let me know!!! Like what am i missing here by using the apps that mac os 9.2 has built in?

[galactica]

NO, im not saying your limited with iDVD im just saying that your limited with your ways of doing what you want to do. Since the machine doesnt have OSX you are limited in your abilities to do what you could do if the machine did have OSX.

for example
mplayer, mencoder, ffmpegx, sizzle, terminal commands.....


personally, if it were me, i would do all the authoring/editing on your PC and then just transfer the final VIDEO_TS folder or image to your mac for burning. Since you have to get the .avi's over to your mac anyway, there has got to be some form of transfer between the two (network, external HD etc) so why not just do all the work on the PC and then transfer your final product to your mac for burning.

[WiseWeasel]

That's if you have Toast on the Mac. Otherwise, you may have to use iDVD to author. Actually, Disc Copy should let you make a new 'DVD Master' image on the Mac, to which you can transfer the VIDEO_TS folder you create on a PC, and then use Disc Copy to burn the image. Do you have Toast on it? I would say your best bet, though, is to export from premiere in DV Stream format, transfer the DV files to the Mac, import them into iDVD, edit your DVD to whatever you want it to look like, and burn it.

[galactica]

you are right, i never though about not having toast. I guess i take some things for granted.

[zoranb]

I totally forgot, i do have Toast but it never occured to me that i could use it to burn a VIDEO_TS folder! Actually i dont even know what that is, but let me ask u something.
Lets suppose that i have this good DVD authoring app on the PC. After i edit the video on premiere export it ...say as avi etc etc can i put all that to the DVD authoring app and then make say...hmm... an export file (can that be the VIDEO_TS folder u say?) that can be burned on Toast? Make on my PC exactly how my dvd will look like and just take that "export" file/folder (whatever) and burn that on the mac???? Is that the whole picture?
If this stands i think its the best thing to do, only problem i can think right now is that i have rather low disk space. Heres the picture, i have 2 HDs 80GB and 30GB (7200 by the way) but they are bothe divided into 3 partitions each. 80GB (system disk) is divided in 18.5 - 28 - 28GB partitions and the other 30gb is divided in 12.5 - 3 - 14.5GB partitions, so as u can see im not sure this division into these partitions is very helpfull for collecting the huge files that are made by capture. Plz continue this valuable help u provide me so far, "u really are making a blind man see"

Regards to the most helpfull Mac users yet on dvdrhelp forums!!!!
Thanx u guys u really helpin me out here!!!

[galactica]

I totally forgot, i do have Toast but it never occured to me that i could use it to burn a VIDEO_TS folder!

its actually one of the MAIN reaosons I use toast. Toast 5, just choose DVD from the OTHER option, click NEW DISK name it as your dvd is to be named, then ADD a folder named AUDIO_TS then drag your VIDEO_TS folder to toast. burn.
Toast 6 its just DATA then click the DVD-ROM (UDF) button and repeat process
thats a dvd!

Actually i dont even know what that is, but let me ask u something.

you mean what a VIDEO_TS folder is?
If so, its essentially the dvd. DVD's are packaged as .vob's which house the video and audio portions of the movie. they are broken up based on if its the movie itself, extras, menu's ..... the movie only .vob's are the ones that are 1023 megs, usually 3-5 of them. the rest are extras, and the sort. but all of this is made by a dvd authoring app - and has to be done before a dvd can be burned. Simply dropping .avi files onto a dvdr and putting them in yoru player wont result in anything (unless perhaps you have a dvd player that has divx playback - but thats a different story because most people do not)

Lets suppose that i have this good DVD authoring app on the PC. After i edit the video on premiere export it ...say as avi etc etc can i put all that to the DVD authoring app and then make say...hmm... an export file (can that be the VIDEO_TS folder u say?)

in a nutshell, yes. but its requiring a bunch of steps. Im not too familar with Premiere. is .avi the only export option?? If there are others, what are there? mpeg2 perhaps? that would be a better export for a dvd (since you can easily to mpeg2 to VIDEO_TS - well easier than .avi)

that can be burned on Toast?

toast will burn a dvd if you have the VIDEO_TS folder with the proper structure. ie
VIDEO_TS FOLDER CONTENTS
VTS_02_0.BUP
VTS_01_6.VOB
VTS_01_5.VOB
VTS_01_4.VOB
VTS_01_3.VOB
VTS_01_2.VOB
VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_01_0.VOB
VTS_01_0.IFO
VIDEO_TS.BUP
VTS_01_0.BUP
VIDEO_TS.VOB
VIDEO_TS.IFO
VTS_03_0.IFO
VTS_03_0.BUP
VTS_02_2.VOB
VTS_02_1.VOB
VTS_02_0.IFO
VTS_04_0.IFO
VTS_04_0.BUP
VTS_03_1.VOB
VTS_04_1.VOB (a bit out of order, but my paste for some reason is putting them in this order. this is a example of a complete VIDEO_TS folder ready for toast burning.)

Make on my PC exactly how my dvd will look like and just take that "export" file/folder (whatever) and burn that on the mac???? Is that the whole picture?

thats the idea... depends on what you have on the PC that can convert your source file to VIDEO_TS.

If this stands i think its the best thing to do, only problem i can think right now is that i have rather low disk space. Heres the picture, i have 2 HDs 80GB and 30GB (7200 by the way) but they are bothe divided into 3 partitions each. 80GB (system disk) is divided in 18.5 - 28 - 28GB partitions and the other 30gb is divided in 12.5 - 3 - 14.5GB partitions, so as u can see im not sure this division into these partitions is very helpfull for collecting the huge files that are made by capture. Plz continue this valuable help u provide me so far, "u really are making a blind man see"

Regards to the most helpfull Mac users yet on dvdrhelp forums!!!!
Thanx u guys u really helpin me out here!!!

if you do all the editing, authoring and get down to a VIDEO_TS folder on your PC it has to be 4.4 gigs or les (to be burnt do a dvd-r). Now that means you only need that much free on the mac and you need a method of transferring it to the mac. Now the 7200 has a 75MHz PPC 601 and I dont think any sort of USB or FIREWIRE unless its got a PCI card for that. have you thought how you are going to transfer the data from the PC to the MAC for burning. There is (if memory serves) a SCSI port and ethernet port on the back.

[WiseWeasel]

I think he meant his hard drives are 7200 RPM. Just out of curiosity, what is the runtime of the footage you want to burn to DVD-R? Also, what is the largest block of free HD space on the PC and on the Mac?

[galactica]

probably right. I guess i was just thinking OS9 must be old comptuer.... 7200 was an old mac.....

[zoranb]

Ok well the footage in the whole is about 15hrs of VHS video, o course all that wil not fit in to one DVD so ill have to make a montage in Premiere to sort things. As far as if Premiere exports to mpeg2 yes it does! The mac has about 30GB free space out of 60GB and the pc has two partitions on both HDs with 15GB free, other partitions have less free space but all have more than 4GB.
As for how will i make the tranfer well thats the easierst part, ill WinRAR the final VIDEO_TS folder to rars of 650MB and with a CDRW disk ill move them patiently to a pc at work and from there via network to the MAC so ill burn them on toast. But will toast burn the pc formated VIDEO_TS files? Is there a compatibility on that there???
I guess i have too mutch work to do, add to that finding a DVD authoring tool (but i think that Premiere has an app included that can do that) to do the DVD stuff!! Guess we'll see!!

[ZeroSix]

you can use a compliant VIDEO_TS folder on any platform. Coming from premiere, i would imagine that you will have NO problems doing this.