Movie formats and DVD players

[Sybilla]

This is my 1st. post in this forum.
Hardware: iBook G4
768MB ram, 30 GB hard drive
Software: OS X, v.10.38
I digitized 8mm movies,imported them to iMovie, v.4.01
exported the movie to Quick time then to MPEG4
Burnt them onto a DVD-R
Macs and the family PC can view the movies.
Snag: We would like to see them on a DVD player.
I tried a few DVD players in stores but always got the same error message;
"wrong format".
i don't really know where to start.All I just found out is that DIVX is a form of MPEG4.
Do I need to change the format of these movies.
Any help is very appreciated.
Thanx,Sybilla

[yoda313]

Hi,

DVD uses mpeg2. There are some standalone dvd players that will play divx dvds but they aren't that common yet.

You will need to use mac software that will convert the divx to mpeg2 for authoring.

Kevin

[edDV]

The DVD standard is a specific form of MPeg2
see https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

You can buy hardware DVD players that will also play other formats (e.g Divx,WMV, etc.) and you must match the specs of that specific player's decoder. Important to understand that nobody else will be able to play these files unless they also own a compatible player.

It won't be until the HD DVD formats are settled that MPeg4 will be fully supported. Blu-Ray and HD DVD standards both currently include MPeg2, VC1 (a specific form of wmv) and H.264 (a narrow form of MPeg4). It is likely that some players will support a wider list of codecs but not all players will.

[AntnyMD]

responses all over the map yet again serving only to confuse the person and creating an unnecessarily long thread.

the original poster clearly wants to make a standard dvd and got a bit sidetracked with mpeg4.

to original poster: if your computer has idvd, take your quicktime from imovie and import into idvd to make a dvd.

if you only have imovie, your simplest path will be to purchase/borrow-to-test a copy of roxio toast titanium to drop your imovie onto a toast video project for dvd and let it make a dvd for you. it gets a lot more complicated than this, but these suggestions will keep it basic and you wont get overwhelmed.

[edDV]

responses all over the map yet again serving only to confuse the person and creating an unnecessarily long thread.

We both pointed him to back to MPeg2 and a standard DVD. How he got to DivX from iMovie is beyond me.

If he wanted to get really confused he would go to the iMovie top page and be led astray into HDV and MPeg4
http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

[terryj]

Reading your particular model of iBook, I would assume
that you have iDVD 4?

If so, then in going to iDVD 4 you would not use
the quicktime output from iMovie, but instead go back into
the iMovie Project ( open--> iMovie-->Open Project)
and then under export, choose Export--> to iDVD.

this would be your simplest route. Choose then a template
in iMovie you are comfortable with, and click burn.
Insert a DVD-R blank ( TDK, Apple, or Maxell are
local store common brands we reccommend).

Wait for it to complete, it can take overnight
depending on the size (length) of the movie,
then eject and test in your home player.

Post back if you need further help!

[Sybilla]

Many,many thanks for all your replies. Yes...I am confused but I should have been more specific when I posted my question.
I did go from iMovie -> quick time -> MPEG4.
Then I used Toast v.5.2.1, the" DVD" option to burn the movies onto a DVD-R.
My burner is a Pioneer DVD-RW DVD-106D (I bought it from LaCie).
I did it this way because even if iDVD came with Panther,i only have a combo drive on my iBook,not a super drive.
My problem is that I know very little about the various formats,but I'll learn.
I appreciate your help,
Sybilla.

[edDV]

If you want a "standard" DVD that will generally play use MPeg2 as detailed here. MPeg4 is not a DVD standard.

see https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

[Sybilla]

Thank you,thank you for that last reply...Way back I listened to a friend who strongly advised MPEG4 ... for a bunch of reasons, now I know better.
Thank you for all the help.
sybilla.