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Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Rick Churchill
I am trying to burn some video files to a DVD which will be compatible with most DVD players something that with the PC was remarkably easy. The mp4 files were made with Lightroom and play using QuickTime Player but connecting an external DVD drive to my Macbook Pro and burning the files there does not produce a playable disc on my DVD player connected to my TV.
I consulted the web and downloaded and installed Burn. This can recode (convert) the mp4 files as mpg and produced a disc but at only 720 resolution not full HD. Recoding to Div-X is even worse giving a sort of moire pattern or less than 8 bits per colour.
Before I dig the PC out of the loft and hopefully prove myself right can anyone put me on the road to success with the Macbook?
(Incidentally colour is underlined on this site as if it is spelt incorrectly. I'll just try grey. Yes that's OK.)

regards

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Derek Wright
Rick The spell check function is part of the browser function for me colour was not highlighted as an error - I use Firefox with a UK English Dictionary Add in

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Douglas Cheney
The best program for burning DVDs that you can play on DVD players is Toast, I have used that all the time and have had no trouble with playing on DVD machines

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Rick Churchill
Thanks. I'll sort my English dictionary.

Toast seems to be just a DVD writer from the description rather than a programme that will convert formats. It may be that the video files you are burning are already compatible with other DVD players. My problem is the mp4 file that Lightroom produces will play on both my Macbook and my PC using QuickTime Player but is not compatible with my DVD player connected to my TV and I cannot find an application programme that will convert it and keep the HD resolution.

(In the back of my mind I am wondering if I need to connect a Blu-ray writer in order to access these formats but usually formats not accessible are in grey text.)

Incidentally my PC will not convert the mp4 files also as none of my video editors recognise these as valid formats.

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Tony Still
I've always used iDVD but others have reported that this has finally stopped working with the advent of El Capitan. Toast should be a good substitute.

You can't put HD video on a standard DVD, a standard DVD player will not output HD. You need a BluRay player and disc.

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Douglas Cheney
iDVD does run in El Capitan and you should be able to write a compatible DVD using it

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Rick Churchill
Thanks Tony I thought that might be the case. I get confused because my PC and the DVD/PVR unit are Blu-ray but when I bought the Macbook, which came without a disc drive, I baulked at the price of an additional Blu-ray drive and opted for just an ordinary DVD drive.

iDVD is no longer distributed by Apple. It presumably thinks that no one makes high resolution movies to distribute to friends anymore. iDVD Alternative is a free programme but I am not sure it has the capability of re-coding video formats. For the future I would like to know whether iDVD &/or Toast has a re-coding facility or whether it will just burn whatever format of file you throw at it.

My TV DVD player plays:
Div-X 1820x1080 HD format requiring a .divx or .avi extension.
Standard Definition Video - Mpeg2
The manual says that it will "translate" by which I presume re-code mp4 from a USB and "play" mp4 from an SD card but I cannot get it to do this. I have been over and over the menu structure but it seems only interested in jpeg images.

My workaround solution is to show the video presentation using QuickTime player via my AppleTV (I could use an HDMI cable instead as I have tested this and it works) Unfortunately Lightroom does not output the audio via AppleTV, it remains stubbonly on the tiny Macbook speakers, so I cannot make a presentation directly without exporting the slideshow as a video. To distribute the video I will offer the mp4 file on a USB flash drive or DVD so that they can copy it to their machine and download QuickTime if they have a PC.

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Douglas Cheney
Toast will convert video formats and then burn to DVD. I used to export my movies from iMovie as Quick Time and Toast would convert and write them and they would play on DVD players.

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Tony Still
Rick,

May I assume that the Div-X format is 1920 (not 1820) x 1080? That would be standard HD resolution. I think that means that the DVD Player can read DVDs formatted as DVD ROM (contrast with DVD in Video Mode that is the traditional "movie" mode used by commercial DVDs). The "conversion" option may be down-coding that to SD video to export to the TV, not what you want; you'd have to read the manual with a sceptical eye to work out if that's what it really means.

You may be able to shed some light on this from the DVD/TV connection. Traditionally this would be SCART. If it is SCART then that's an analogue interface that, as a rule of thumb (there are obscure exceptions), only does SD video. If the connection is HDMI then it probably does export HD (no surprise).

I haven't tried Lightroom video to Apple TV personally but the audio seems to be a known issue. Some people report that changing the audio device to Apple TV (in System Preferences->Sound->Output) before running the LR video will export the audio. I haven't tried this.

Best of luck.

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Rick Churchill
Great Tony, I thought that I had already switched the sound output to AppleTV as other programmes were sending their audio through without any problems but I “went through the motions” and suddnly my slideshow is coming through loud and clear. Thank you, this gives me a convenient solution for displaying my slideshow to friends without resorting to making a movie.

Just to clear up the blackbox situation: the PVR/Bluray writer/player is connected to the TV via an HDMI cable and the Div-X format is 1920x1080 (the 1820 was a type). In the handbook the HD video section says that the playable media is SD card or USB Device*, the codec Mpeg-4 AVC/H.264 and the file format AVCHD.
The asterisk refers to a note that says Video recording conversion and transfer is possible from USB device to HDD, BD-RE or BD-R. After video recording conversion and transfer is complete the playback becomes possible. I believe they are referring to a USB device such as a camera not a USB memory drive.

However no menu appears when you insert an SD card otheer than for showing or copying jpeg pictures.

There are 3 Toast apps: Toast audio, Toast DVD and Toast burn for making audio CDs, movie DVDs and general files respectively. I presume you have purcheased the middle one. They are all £15 but Toast DVD allows a further payment of £12 to unlock making Blu-ray DVDs. I’ll have to cinsider whether I but a Blu-ray writer at approx £60 as I cannot transfer the files to my PVR blackbox and purchase the Toast software. In the meantime I will distribute the media via a USB flash memory drive or if I can get it to work, Maildrop.

Thanks to you and Douglas for your help

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Douglas Cheney
The Toast Program I have is Toast Titanium 12 and is downloadable from the MacUpdate site, not from the App Store

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Douglas Cheney
Further to my last post Toast cn be downloaded from this site https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/6351/toast-titanium

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Rick Churchill
Tried that website. From the comments left there is looks like Toast Titanium 14 is broken. You have to go back to February 2015 (probably your version 12) to get anyone on the site to say a good word about this programme. Looks like you did well to buy it when it was in it's heyday.

Also it seems that you still have to pay more for the Blu-ray plugin. I don't think it is part of the $50. I'll wait to see if they fix it although I am concerned about Roxio's customer service and ability to fix faults quickly.

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Tony Still
Rick,

As it's a BluRay player (I missed that bit first time around) on an HDMI connection then it will presumably play 1920x1080 videos as HD. So whether burning them onto a DVD as a route to your player works is dependent upon the capabilities of your player (but it would seem perverse if it didn't play as HD).

This doesn't help with the general situation of a "universal compatible DVD" for standard DVD players as they're still stuck with DVD disks formatted in video mode, which is SD. I think that throws you straight back to the Toast discussion. I have no experience with Toast, though I sympathise with the bad vibes you're getting. There are several DVD creation programs on the Mac App Store; no idea if they're any good but they should be safe (in a security sense) to experiment with so you could try that route if you still have cold feet about Toast. We'd all love to know your experience if you do try any of them!

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Graham Whent
Hi Rick.
Sorry to join in late but I have been on 2 holidays since mid June. I have had years of problems DVD's The results from Toast were such poor quality I binned it.
I use iskysoft media converter de luxe from the app store £35. Try it free. http://www.iskysoft.com/media-converter-deluxe-mac. Converts anything to anything at any quality you want. Good luck.

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Tony Still
Ah, there was a key word missing in my last post (and I've been away on hols too). It should have read "There are several free DVD creation programs on the Mac App Store...", the key word being 'free'.

Re: Making a universal compatible DVD

Avatar Rick Churchill
Sorry I haven't replied to your helpful suggestions as I got round the problem by distributing on DropBox. (This is a method of uploading it to the cloud).
I tried Apple Mail Drop but too many people had problems with it.
 
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