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Creating a disc image of a project

Saving a disc image of your project creates a file that is formatted just like a finished DVD, except that it’s not actually burned on a disc. All the media is compressed into the format used on a DVD, and you can play it on your computer by double-clicking the disc image icon and then opening DVD Player.

Creating a disc image is great for the following:

Previewing your DVD before burning it to disc. If everything works on the disc image, it’s a good indication that the DVD you burn from that disc image will work in most newer consumer DVD players and computers with DVD drives.

Burning multiple DVDs of your project without going through the time-consuming encoding process each time. A disc image is already encoded.

To create a disc image:

Step 1

Choose File > “Save as Disc Image.”

Step 2

Type a name for the disc image.

Step 3

Choose where you want to store the disc image.

Step 4

Click Save.

The name of your disc image has the file extension .img.

Creating a disc image can be time-consuming, almost as time-consuming as burning a DVD. So be sure you have carefully reviewed your project before taking this step.

You can use Disk Utility in Mac OS X to burn the disc image to a DVD when you are ready.

If you burn your project to a double-layer disc, you should burn directly from iDVD rather than from a disc image. A disc-burning utility doesn’t set the layer break according to iDVD specifications and may cause playback issues.

You can’t alter the files in a disc image. If you want to back up your project or move it to another computer and still be able to work on it, create a project archive instead. For more information, see Related Topics below.

Related Topics

Checking a project for errors

Archiving an iDVD project to back it up or transfer it to another computer

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