iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

DVD Problems

iDVD 6 has not exactly earned a reputation for rock-sold stability. (Be sure to check the note in Section B.3.2.)

If you’re having problems beyond general mysterious glitchiness, may the following hints help you along.

Exporting to iDVD Fails (Error -43)

As noted here and there throughout this book, you can extend iMovie’s effects, transitions, and title styles by installing plug-ins from other companies. If you haven’t updated your plug-ins to iMovie 6–specific versions, you’ve found the problem; they can prevent you from exporting to iDVD.

Video and Audio Aren’t In Sync

On some longer movie projects (20 minutes or more), everything plays fine in iMovie, but when you turn your project into a QuickTime movie or burn it to a DVD, the audio and video grow slowly, horrifyingly out of sync. The longer the movie plays, the farther apart they drift.

The most important thing to check is the audio recording settings of your camcorder. As described at the beginning of this chapter, most camcorders come set to record 12-bit audio, which lies at the heart of the video/audio drift problem. Change it to 16-bit audio, using the camcorder’s own menus. (If you use a video converter like the Formac Studio or Dazzle Hollywood Bridge, make sure it, too, is set to import 16-bit audio, not 12-bit.)

If it’s too late for that step, here are two possible fixes.

The back-to-camcorder solution

Set your camcorder to 16-bit audio. Once editing is complete, export the entire movie to your camcorder (see ...