An open community 
of Macintosh users,
for Macintosh users.

FineTunedMac Dashboard widget now available! Download Here

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Grandson wants to "Make DVDs"
#62054 07/14/22 09:39 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
ryck Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
On a recent visit my seven year old grandson asked if he could 'make a DVD' and I had to tell him I didn't have software for what he wanted to do but that I'd have a look around. His idea of 'making a DVD' would be to take some of the many videos we have taken with the iPhone and put them on a DVD. I'm guessing he'd be really buzzed if he could create some titles and do some simple edits. Two questions:

1. What software would you recommend to accomplish the above in a reasonably simple manner by a child who will want to be hands-on?

2. Is there any software available that I could use to make portrait-shot videos adapted to 16:9 without everyone looking fat and wide?

All ideas will be appreciated.


ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Grandson wants to "Make DVDs"
ryck #62056 07/14/22 06:12 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 8
Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 8
Originally Posted by ryck
On a recent visit my seven year old grandson asked if he could 'make a DVD' and I had to tell him I didn't have software for what he wanted to do but that I'd have a look around. His idea of 'making a DVD' would be to take some of the many videos we have taken with the iPhone and put them on a DVD. I'm guessing he'd be really buzzed if he could create some titles and do some simple edits. Two questions:

1. What software would you recommend to accomplish the above in a reasonably simple manner by a child who will want to be hands-on?

2. Is there any software available that I could use to make portrait-shot videos adapted to 16:9 without everyone looking fat and wide?

All ideas will be appreciated.

iMovie, either on the iPhone or a Mac should do what your grandson wants to do. And best of all, it's free and you probably already have it. There might be more user friendly apps, but not for free (?).

Burning to a DVD is actually the harder part of your queries. Do you have a CD/DVD drive for your Mac and do you also have software to burn? I would have to check, but I think iMovie's export options do not include burning to a disk. It seems everyone is putting their videos on some Internet platform.

iMovie might also accomplish what you want in your #2, I just don't know.


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
Re: Grandson wants to "Make DVDs"
Ira L #62059 07/14/22 09:44 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Moderator
Online
Moderator

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
iMovie can create a reasonably sophisticated video with titles, chapters, even audio and narration and render it to a file but, you will still need something like DVD Burner to burn the DVD. But there are apps on the App Store like DVD Creator that may be somewhat less complex, and less powerful, than iMovie, but will both create a video and burn the DVD. (NOTE: iMovie has a n app store rating of 3 stars and DVD Creator has 4.)

If you don't have a SuperDrive, OWC has these at less than $40 or Apple offers this one for $80. (I have had one of the Apple USB Superdrives for years and it has been very reliable and functional.)

Last edited by joemikeb; 07/14/22 09:48 PM.

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Grandson wants to "Make DVDs"
Ira L #62076 07/16/22 04:55 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
ryck Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
Originally Posted by Ira L
iMovie, either on the iPhone or a Mac should do what your grandson wants to do. And best of all, it's free and you probably already have it.
I have an older version of iMovie (V7.1.4) but it requires iDVD to burn a disk, which was part of the now discontinued iLife. There is a downloadable newer version (V9.0.9) which will work with my OS but, as joemike points out, it won't burn to DVD - and that is a showstopper.

Originally Posted by Ira L
Do you have a CD/DVD drive for your Mac…
Yes. I have an Apple Superdrive that I use to make CDs for playing in the car.

Originally Posted by Ira L
Originally Posted by ryck
2. Is there any software available that I could use to make portrait-shot videos adapted to 16:9 without everyone looking fat and wide?
iMovie might also accomplish what you want in your #2, I just don't know.
I don’t know either but I somehow doubt it.

Last edited by ryck; 07/16/22 04:57 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Grandson wants to "Make DVDs"
joemikeb #62077 07/16/22 05:04 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
ryck Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
Originally Posted by joemikeb
iMovie can create a reasonably sophisticated video with titles, chapters, even audio and narration and render it to a file but, you will still need something like DVD Burner to burn the DVD. But there are apps on the App Store like DVD Creator that may be somewhat less complex, and less powerful, than iMovie, but will both create a video and burn the DVD.
I checked out DVD Burner and it allows only three burns before you must sign up for a subscription. I'll take a closer look at DVD Creator as it appears to have sufficient functionality to make the little guy happy. And, it's cost (about 20 beans to buy) is significantly better than the DVD Creator subscription.


ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C

Moderated by  cyn, dianne 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.4
(Release build 20200307)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 7.4.33 Page Time: 0.018s Queries: 24 (0.012s) Memory: 0.5932 MB (Peak: 0.6624 MB) Data Comp: Zlib Server Time: 2024-03-29 15:21:11 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS