iDVD 5: Create DVDs from a DV camera with OneStep DVD

iDVD 5 has a new feature called OneStep DVD that allows you to create DVDs directly from your DV camera in one step without having to use iMovie. The resulting DVD will play your movie automatically when you insert it in a DVD player.

Although OneStep DVD makes DVD creation quick and easy, it does have the following caveats:

• You will not be able to edit your movie in any respect.
• The DVD cannot be customized. No menus or slideshows can be added.
• The DVD will not have chapter markers.

If you're OK with all the above, then here's how to create a DVD using OneStep DVD:

1. Connect your DV camera to your computer.
2. Turn on the camera (no need to rewind the tape).
3. Set the camera to VTR mode.
4. Open iDVD and click the OneStep DVD button in the welcome screen (or from the File menu, choose OneStep DVD if another project is already open).
5. Insert a recordable DVD disc into your computer.

That's it! iDVD takes over from there. If you're interested in finding out more about the creation process, read on.

Capturing video
In OneStep DVD mode, iDVD automatically rewinds the tape in your DV camera and then captures video to your computer's hard drive. If you press the Play button on your camera while it's being rewound, iDVD will begin to capture at that point. While capturing, iDVD displays a thumbnail image that shows the current point in the video.

iDVD also displays two time indicators. The first indicates the amount of video that iDVD has captured so far. The second indicates the amount of video that could potentially be captured, based on the available space that remains on your hard drive. You may notice that the second indicator decreases a little faster than the amount that the first one increases. This is because iDVD needs to make sure that there will be extra hard drive space left available to encode your video and audio and then structure that material into the DVD-Video format.

Stopping the capture
You can press the Stop button on screen at any point while your video is being captured. If you do this, a dialog appears, giving you options to cancel the current project or continue creating the DVD using the video that was captured up to that point. If you don't manually stop the capture, iDVD will stop capturing video automatically when the tape ends or after 10 seconds of sensing that no video is coming from the camera.

Creating the DVD
After capturing, iDVD prepares the DVD structure and begins to process the video that was captured. During this stage, iDVD encodes the captured DV video into MPEG-2 format, which is used in standard DVDs (you'll see a thumbnail image, representing the frames being encoded). When it's done, iDVD transcodes the audio into uncompressed PCM audio. You can cancel the OneStep project at any time up to this point, and your DVD will be left blank.

The last stage in the process is burning the content to a recordable DVD disc. After iDVD completes the burn, it will eject the disc.

Note: OneStep DVD will only capture from recorded tape on a DV camcorder or deck. OneStep DVD will not work with analog-to-DV converters. It will also not work if you are using your camcorder or deck as a pass-through device to digitize from an analog source (such as VHS or Hi-8). In order to function, OneStep DVD reads the timecode from your DV tape and it relies on DV device control to communicate with the camera or deck.