Your program preference on a mac

[gooberguy]

I am trying to figure out what i should use to convert/burn video files to DVD on my macbook, and figured I would start by asking you guys what you use.

so what do you use to burn dvds on your mac?

[freebird73717]

I am trying to figure out what i should use to convert/burn

I don't use a mac but ffmpegx seems to be popular.

[johns0]

Thread moved to mac forum.

[Herve]

for burning purpose only, LiquidCD is the best (i produces the same format than iDVD/DVDStudioPro/Toast).

PS: Your mac already has everything to do DVD-VIDEO : take a look to the applications folder, you will find an app called "iDVD"

bye

[terryj]

But Herve, he was asking for "our" preferences....which in itself is a loaded question,
that can have varying answers.

There is simply no "best" answer in this case...it comes down simply to what
you prefer to do: (A) get the data quickly to DVD and watch it in the living room,
which often involves less headache as the software does the converting "thinking" for you,
or (B) take some time with the data to make a fancy showpiece DVD that
is customized somewhat ( or a lot), but requires you to have the data just right, or at
the very least, know what to do to get the data right beforehand.

Apps that can do (A) include:

ffmpegx
visualhub
MpegStreamclip ( with QT Mpeg-2 addon)

Apps that can do (B) include:
iDVD
LiquidCD
DVD Studio Pro

Apps that do a bit of both :

Toast Titanium

If your new to this, My suggestion would be an app like Visualhub or ffmpegx, or iDVD
(provided the video data files were imported first into iMovie)
which you just drop the data in, tell it what you want ( A DVD Video_TS folder
ready to burn to DVD) and let it go.

Once you get an idea on different formats of video data ( .avi, .wmv, .flv, dv stream,
.mov) and their complexities, ( when and when not to re-encode, etc.)
then I would say move to something a little harder with more user input, like Toast or
DVD Studio Pro....

hope that helps ( more somewhat)....
then

[lawnman]

Where did the video files come from? That would help.

[rumplestiltskin]

Assuming the files aren't in some bizarre format, iDVD and Toast are good choices. FFmpegX can author, if you wish, but it introduces some complexity with which you may not wish to deal.

Although this may fall outside your comfort zone, why not forget about authoring anything and, if it plays on your Mac, plug it into your TV (or use a WD TV Media Player) and simply play what you have? Why bother with discs at all (except maybe to burn the files for backup, if you wish, to a Mac/PC compatible disc).

[frlane]

For conversion I use Apple's Compressor, and for burning I use DVD Studio Pro. However, depending on the format the videos are in to start with, you can drag them right into iDVD, which will do both the conversion and burning for you. If the video file is one that iDVD doesn't like, get a copy of MPEGStreamClip, which is a free program.