Continuing my series of first-looks at iLife ’05, MacCentral.com has posted First Look: iDVD 5. Not only does it feature info on iDVD’s new burning capabilities, you can see the espresso machine at Diva Espresso where I pay homage nearly every day, as well as (gasp!) watch me make a sports analogy!
Jeff Carlson | Never Enough Coffee Creations 
HI Jeff,
I’ve used your book to learn IDVD. I’m using it for my doctoral dissertation in educational psychology. Anyway, I have two questions I can’t find answers to. the iDVD support/discussion link for Mac is not working, so I’m hoping you can help me and also help me find an online discussion/resource group for future questions like this.
Here are my questions:
1) Is there a way to reuse/reburn a DVD that you don’t need anymore. I am in a position where I would like to burn a DVD and then reuse it so I don’t have to keep buying new ones, but everytime I put the DVD in my computer, it just pops up and wants to play and I can’t figure out how I might reformat it or burn over the old dvd. Any tips?
2) I would like to make a DVD and send it to South Korea and was wondering if you know if it would be compatible with those DVD players over there.
Thanks for your help.
Laura Lofy in Minnesota!
Hi Laura,
1. DVD-R discs, which are probably what you’re using, can only be burned once. Using iDVD 5, and provided your SuperDrive is a fairly recent model (within the past year or so), you can burn to rewriteable DVD-RW or DVD+RW discs. That way, you’re not creating a bunch of drink coasters.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300665
2. Yes, the discs should work. South Korean DVD players use Region 3 encoding; US discs use Region 1. However, according to Apple, discs created with iDVD can be played in all regions. Also, it appears that South Korean players and televisions use the NTSC format, the same as the US, so the discs also don’t need to be saved in PAL format.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60788#faq11
http://www.hkcinema.co.uk/dvdregioncodes.html
i cannot make a idvd 5 movie longer than 45 minutes. when i attempt it, the program quits after running as many as 12 hours and i get a completely blank disk. any suggestions other than to cut the movies
Paul, have you tried performing some system maintenance? That does sound strange. First thing to try is use Disk Utility to repair permissions.
How long is your movie? And what type of encoding are you using (Best Performance or Best Quality)? If the movie is less than 60 minutes total, try using Best Performance and wait until background encoding (make sure that option is enabled in iDVD’s preferences) has completed before you start burning.
Lastly, see if you can Save As to a Disk Image (from the File menu) instead of burning to a DVD. It’s possible that something might be wrong with your SuperDrive.