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#256839 - 24/05/2005 11:43 Mac Mini DVD authoring?
robricc carpal tunnel Registered: 30/10/2000 Posts: 4931 Loc: New Jersey, USA	I am considering buying a base ($499) Mac Mini solely for DVD authoring. I recently bought a Neuros MPEG4 Recorder as an easy way to digitize my VHS collection of stuff recorded off television. I have various video input cards for PCs, but I find them all to be of poor quality. There’s almost always either a picture full of interference, volume level problem, or audio sync issue. I would like to convert about 200 VHS tapes to DVDs using the MPEG4 encoder to capture the video. My DVD authoring software must be able to convert MPEG4 to the proper DVD MPEG2 format without me having to fire-up another program. I would assume iDVD fits this requirement? If I bought the base-model Mac Mini without DVD writer, would I be able to author a DVD with iDVD and then burn it on my PC somehow? I’m not against using an all-PC solution, but they all really suck. The Ulead stuff is cheap but buggy and I don’t recall if it converts on-the-fly. DVD Lab won’t convert video formats on-the-fly either. Are their any other easy choices for the PC? _________________________ -Rob Riccardelli 80GB 16MB MK2 090000736
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#256840 - 24/05/2005 11:59 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: robricc]
mschrag pooh-bah Registered: 09/09/2000 Posts: 2303 Loc: Richmond, VA	If you want to put up a sample, I'll be happy to grab it and try it out on iDVD to make sure it does what you want ...
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#256841 - 24/05/2005 12:03 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: mschrag]
robricc carpal tunnel Registered: 30/10/2000 Posts: 4931 Loc: New Jersey, USA	Cool, I will try and make something tonight and upload it somewhere. _________________________ -Rob Riccardelli 80GB 16MB MK2 090000736
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#256842 - 24/05/2005 12:10 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: robricc]
tman carpal tunnel Registered: 24/12/2001 Posts: 5528	Quote: If I bought the base-model Mac Mini without DVD writer, would I be able to author a DVD with iDVD and then burn it on my PC somehow? Yeah. You can create the DVD image on the Mac with iDVD 5 and then transfer it over to your PC for burning.
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#256843 - 24/05/2005 12:12 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: robricc]
andym carpal tunnel Registered: 17/01/2002 Posts: 3995 Loc: Manchester UK	Quote: If I bought the base-model Mac Mini without DVD writer, would I be able to author a DVD with iDVD and then burn it on my PC somehow? You shouldn't have a problem, now that iLife 05 is out iDVD will make an ISO for you. I upgraded recently to 05 and burnt my first iDVD DVD with k3b on my linux box, worked a treat and seeing as you'd be buying now, you should get 05 anyway. _________________________ Cheers, Andy M
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#256844 - 24/05/2005 12:13 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: tman]
andym carpal tunnel Registered: 17/01/2002 Posts: 3995 Loc: Manchester UK	Dammit, beat me to it! _________________________ Cheers, Andy M
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#256845 - 24/05/2005 12:33 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: andym]
robricc carpal tunnel Registered: 30/10/2000 Posts: 4931 Loc: New Jersey, USA	Will the Mac see my Windows shares natively, or will I have to install Samba? The last time I installed Samba (4-5 years ago), it was a pain to get it working. _________________________ -Rob Riccardelli 80GB 16MB MK2 090000736
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#256846 - 24/05/2005 13:04 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: robricc]
tman carpal tunnel Registered: 24/12/2001 Posts: 5528	Quote: Will the Mac see my Windows shares natively, or will I have to install Samba? The last time I installed Samba (4-5 years ago), it was a pain to get it working. It's built in now. Just go to the Network page and you should be able to browse the network and select your Windows machine. You can do it the other way around if you want and mount the Mac HD from your Windows machine by enabling Windows Sharing.
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#256847 - 24/05/2005 13:36 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: robricc]
mlord carpal tunnel Registered: 29/08/2000 Posts: 14484 Loc: Canada	External USB2/Firewire drive enclosures could be handy for situations like this.. makes sharing the DVD burner easier, if that's of any help here. Cheers
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#256848 - 24/05/2005 13:41 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: mlord]
robricc carpal tunnel Registered: 30/10/2000 Posts: 4931 Loc: New Jersey, USA	That's a possibility. I have an empty enclosure already... Looking at some reviews, it looks like I will be upgrading the memory to 1GB myself. 256MB is universally regarded as too little. _________________________ -Rob Riccardelli 80GB 16MB MK2 090000736
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#256849 - 24/05/2005 13:58 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: tman]
eliceo enthusiast Registered: 18/02/2002 Posts: 335	Quote: It's built in now. Just go to the Network page and you should be able to browse the network and select your Windows machine. You can do it the other way around if you want and mount the Mac HD from your Windows machine by enabling Windows Sharing. I thought I read somewhere that the mac end (Tiger) changed something made windows SMB shares act funny, But Samba worked fine.
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#256850 - 24/05/2005 14:28 Re: Mac Mini DVD authoring? [Re: eliceo]
tman carpal tunnel Registered: 24/12/2001 Posts: 5528	Quote: Quote: It's built in now. Just go to the Network page and you should be able to browse the network and select your Windows machine. You can do it the other way around if you want and mount the Mac HD from your Windows machine by enabling Windows Sharing. I thought I read somewhere that the mac end (Tiger) changed something made windows SMB shares act funny, But Samba worked fine. I'm using Tiger on my mini and I've not noticed anything particularly odd about it. Mounting the SMB share works okay apart from it disconnects sometimes when it's idle it seems which is a bit annoying.
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