Does any of you burn movies onto a DVD with a Mac? I need som help.
I have no problem saving something smaller like a 650 meg movie as "Super Video CD" but just as soon as the movie is over what a CD can hold ( this movie is 1.6 gig), and I need to save to DVD, now it wants to convert it to a full fledged movie file that always seems to be 4.7 gigs, obviously more than what a DVD will hold. I am using Toast 6 Titanium. I do understand that I could buy a Double sided DVD DVD burner and buy double sided DVDs, but when I already know that my DVD player plays MPEGs, I don't want to go through all that expense.
Steve

4.7 gigs is precisely the capacity of a single-sided DVD (DVD6).

Double-sided DVDs (DVD9) hold twice as much - 9.4GB.

No Steve, normal store bought DVDs are ~10GB because they're dual layer. Normal DVDR media is ~4GB. Double sided DVDs are ~4BG per side and Dual Layered Double Sided DVDs are ~20GB. There are archiving software that allows you to "backup" your movies to DVDR, but they compress the video and crop out added features and resolutions from the originals.

Another solution is to skip the whole DVD burning and rip the movies to a 'Media Drive'. The media drives are external Drives with a controller built in to hook them up directly to TV, Monitor, Headphones, Computers etc.. They can playback without a computer attached...

Here's an example

http://www.slashgear.com/cinedisk-nas-is-fully-featured-media-player-265935.php

They're kinda cool IMO

imovie and idvd make it all very manageable and easy on the Mac. Slow as hell, but easy.

They have all the outputs and a controller for standalone playback , some even have little remote controls.

You are correct.

Things I am trying to avoid: Buying a double sided DVD burner and double sided DVDs.

My issue is that the original mpeg file is only 1.6 gigs. why am I not able to burn only a 1.6 gig mpeg file? It always wants to convert it to a 4.7 gig movie file, then the software will produce a dialog box saying there isn't enough space on the DVD.
BTW A.P., I am not interested in buying equipment to add to my TV and DVD player to play mpegs. It already is able to play them. I just need to get them successfully burned to a DVD.

well why don't you just burn them as data disks? most dvd players can read file systems and can playback mpeg and other formats like divx and xvid etc..

In "data" mode, it won't recognize the file.

..and No you don't need a double layer dvd burner to burn double sided dvds. Double sided dvds are the ones you flip over and burn the other side, like double sided floppies.

I think you're confusing them with dual layered dvds, which are the ones most official movies are released.

that's weird. Your burning software can't recognize an mpeg as a file?