Is a G4 400MHz too slow for iDVD?

[Brazilian Jiu Jitsu]

First, Hi to the forum. Have lurked for about a week and have learned a great deal. However considering I'm a total newbie to this (Mac's as well as DVD burning), that isn't saying much.

Anyway, I have G4 400MHz. It has OS 9.0.4. Last night I installed OS X.3 and did my first firewire capture from a DV digital-8 camcorder.

I am about to open the box of a Pioneer DVR-106au as well as some additional RAM (currently 128, bot 256 chip). Plan to buy iLife this week.

1. My first question is, am i pissing money down the toilet? Will I end up having to buy a new computer anyway?

2. If the answer to the first question is no, then it is worth it to spend an additional $50 on a faster burner? I can get a Pioneer 8x for about $170 whereas I paid about $130 for the 4x. Would the added speed be wasted because the processor is so slow?

I don't mind if the 400MHz just goes slow, so long as it eventually gets there. But the system requirement for iDVD is 733MHz and when I called Apple to see if it would even work, all they tried to do was sell me a new one!

Thanks in advance.

[galactica]

First, Hi to the forum. Have lurked for about a week and have learned a great deal. However considering I'm a total newbie to this (Mac's as well as DVD burning), that isn't saying much.

Anyway, I have G4 400MHz. It has OS 9.0.4. Last night I installed OS X.3 and did my first firewire capture from a DV digital-8 camcorder.

I am about to open the box of a Pioneer DVR-106au as well as some additional RAM (currently 128, bot 256 chip). Plan to buy iLife this week.

1. My first question is, am i pissing money down the toilet? Will I end up having to buy a new computer anyway?

depends. whats yoru $$ so far

2. If the answer to the first question is no, then it is worth it to spend an additional $50 on a faster burner? I can get a Pioneer 8x for about $170 whereas I paid about $130 for the 4x. Would the added speed be wasted because the processor is so slow?

again what is the $$ you have invested so far. I would say it doesnt matter because if you get a new comptuer you could just pop that drive in there and either way you still have to spend the $$.

I don't mind if the 400MHz just goes slow, so long as it eventually gets there. But the system requirement for iDVD is 733MHz and when I called Apple to see if it would even work, all they tried to do was sell me a new one!
Thanks in advance.

Requirements for IDVD4 are as you stated.
I dont think the lower versions are as hefty
none of the iLife 04 things will work very well on a 400 (though they may work!)

you should think about perhaps
1. updating the processor if possible
2. selling it, accumulating $'s of these various thing you want to put in
and get a faster mac

yet there are some people I know happy as clams on 400mhz macs. thing is they cant use all the apps that are out now, but that doesnt bother them

[jbcandkc]

You might consider getting iLife 1.0 (iMovie 3, iDVD 3). I just looked on eBay and saw it for 20.00 + 7.99 s/h.

From Apple.com

Requirements for iDVD 3.0.1

* iDVD 3.0 required
* Mac OS X v.10.1.5 or later
* Any Macintosh G4 system with a factory-installed SuperDrive
* Quicktime 6.3 recommended (required for improvements to audio sync and audio integrity).
* 256 MB of RAM
* 2GB of free hard disk space

jbcandkc

[Brazilian Jiu Jitsu]

Here's what I've spent so far:

$130 OS X
$130 Pioneer DVR-106
$30 Firewire Cable
$100 RAM

Not big bucks really but when I start getting into comparing it against buying a new G4 for around a grand, or a G5 for $1,700, the gears begin to grind. I just don't want to be sitting with an expensive paperweight.

[AntnyMD]

Exactly what kind of Mac did you get? I think we're all assuming you have a Power Mac desktop.

[Brazilian Jiu Jitsu]

Yes, it's a Power Mac G4 blue/silver tower. It has a 10g hard drive and a second 60g hard drive I just threw in. I'll have 384 RAM after I install the 256 chip that's still sitting in the box.

[galactica]

was that a gift? or did you buy that also
if you look what you have spent total (including the cost of the g4) you could get something close

but the 400 is still a decent machine, you just cant run iLife 04
but like it was mentioned the earlier iLife should run no problems.

[Brazilian Jiu Jitsu]

Yeah, the computer itself was free, so dollars in right now is just the $400.

Thanks for the advice galactica, AntnyMD, and jbcandkc.

As a final question, do any of you know how difficult and feasible it is to upgrade the processor?

[rjm]

With the exclusion of garage band (which I did not even attempt), iLife '04 runs fine on a 400mhz G4 Sawtooth. I don't use iDVD because my burner is not an Apple Super drive. But since i purchased it the other day I have used it for editing and such. I tried to see if I could fool it into thinking I had an Apple Drive but no sale . But the process up until burning went pretty smooth.

[weirsbaski]

rjm, hate to quiz ya, but would you clear up a couple questions on how well iDVD4 worked on your 400mhz Mac. You use iDVD to create DVDs, or some other app? If some other app, did iDVD refuse to run (due to no superdrive?), or it runs but you have some other preferred software?

I also have the 400mhz G4, and want to know if iDVD 4 will run before I visit the Apple store.

[Brazilian Jiu Jitsu]

I also have the 400mhz G4, and want to know if iDVD 4 will run before I visit the Apple store.

Yesterday I installed the Pioneer DVR 106 burner and the system recognized it.

Today I'm going to get iLife 4.0 so I'll let you know next week if I'm sitting on an expensive paperweight or if it will burn with a slower machine.

Wish me luck!

and Gung He Fat Choy! (or however you spell it... Happy Chinese New Year).

[destreaga]

I have the same 400MHZ G4 running 10.3.2. I run a lot of pro apps. last month I installed a Pioneer DVR-106 and I'm using it with Toast. I have been able to burn movies at 4X (about 13min.) To speed things along I have installed 1.5GB of Ram. It helps a lot to have as much memory that you can afford. I also have 4 80GB HDDs connected to a sonnet HD controller. The next thing down the line is a processor upgrade. Another thing you might want to upgrade the video card. Unless you want a new one, you can customize your 400 as much as you want.

[Brazilian Jiu Jitsu]

destreaga

Well last night (actually this morning at 3AM), I finally had some success and burned my first DVD.

Granted it was only about 2 minutes of footage but by god, I finally did it. It "only" took about 30 minutes

The trick I found (after reading some posts on the Apple.com forums) is to not use motion themes (at least I THINK this was the problem). The other thing I did was to disconect the OME hard drive (only 10G) so I only have the 60G Western Digital hard drive connected.

I will take you up on the additional memory suggestion now that I know it possible to actually DO it on this thing.

Here are the specs on my computer. Can you suggest what would be the most important upgrade (except for memory which I will max out)?

from "about this computer":

Model: Power Mac (AGP graphics)
CPU: PowerPC G4 ( 2.8 )
# CPU's: 1
Speed: 400 MHz
Cache: 1MB
Memory: 384MB
Bus Speed: 100MHz
Boot ROM: 3.24f1
HD: wdc we600bb
capacity: 60GB
Protocal: ATA
OS9 Drivers: Yes

PCI Card: ATY Rage 128 pro
VRAM: 16MB

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[darylcraig]

I can answer this question as of today!
I have a 400MHz G4. I have 256 MB of memory and a 120GB hard drive, but otherwise the machine is as I bought it.
This week I installed a Pioneer DVR-A06U (superdrive). I installed the new iLife package except for Garage Band.
Using iDVD, I burned my first movie. It was nearly two hours long and it had chapter markers AND motion themes. It worked!
Now for the bad news-It took between 12 and 20 hours! I gave up and went to bed so I don't know exactly when it finished. However, I'm not too discouraged, because the DVD is darn near the limit (2 hours) of iDVD4.

[BernieR]

Hello,

I have also a G4450 AGP graphics MAC. I bought the Sonnet processor upgrade ( to 800 mhz) for $239. Best money spent so far !!! I found that my G4 450 was WAY underpowered for OSX 10.2.8

Bernie

[destreaga]

Hello,

I have also a G4450 AGP graphics MAC. I bought the Sonnet processor upgrade ( to 800 mhz) for $239. Best money spent so far !!! I found that my G4 450 was WAY underpowered for OSX 10.2.8

Bernie

That's good to hear I should be able to get a new processor next month. I can't wait.

[miksu]

Using 450MHz "Sawtooth" (896Mb RAM, OSX 10.3.3), it is more than adequate for iDVD3. Encoded 45min DV-source and burned (Nec ND-2500A, 8X) in about three hours, which I consider reasonable time.

Shortly, 450Mhz is fast enough, 400MHz should be too, 50MHz doesn't make that much.

However, those faster (733MHz and newer) G4 versions have two Altivec-units, which may speed up encoding significantly. And since G3 doesn't have Altivec at all, it's not optimal for MPEG2-encoding, but DV-editing works ok.

[cbkilner]

I burned my first movies on a B&W G3 with a G4/400 ZIF upgrade and a Pioneer DVR-105 with iDVD3.

I'd highly recommend more RAM and iDVD3 instead of 4. iDVD3 still has chapter support, but runs faster on the older hardware. I'd also limit my movies to less than an hour (the CBR used by iDVD3 for 60-90 minutes lowers the quality too much).

I always set mine up to burn overnight, and always had completed DVDs in the morning.

If you insist on using iDVD4, you can save on rendering time by eliminating all the menus. From "map" in iDVD4, drop your movie into the "autoplay" well. It will still have your chapters for skipping between, but save on rendering a menu.