In his 3/25/2002 column, James Coates, technology columnist for the Chicago Tribune, posted this Q & A:

Q. You recently (Dec. 24) said to wait six months or so to get into the DVD-burning game in the Windows world. I'm not that patient--if I were to get into the game today, what would be the recommended hardware and software to use?

I'm primarily interested in turning all my old VHS tapes into DVDs, so I am interested in the ability to create standard DVDs with scenes, subtitles, music, etc.

-- Marty Wolf, Hoffman Estates

A. Let me say once again, Mr. W., that as things stand, anybody who absolutely needs to get into burning home DVDs should move over to Macintosh and get one of Apple's G4s or iMacs with SuperDrive DVD burners and Apple's iDVD2 software.

Apple's system is so much better for DVDs than anything in the PC world that it's better for a Windows devotee to accept the challenges of learning the Macintosh operating system than to pop for an expensive PC setup with burners.

That said, I've had good luck lately burning DVDs with top-of-the-line machines from both Gateway and Hewlett-Packard Co. However, the process was slower than with Macs, and the authoring software lacked the powers of Apple's iDVD2. Furthermore, with Windows, one encounters compatibility issues.

The Gateway systems use the DVD-R/RAM format, while the HP systems use the somewhat more limited DVD + RW format. This means that you need to buy different types of blank discs for the two machines.

Although both machines produce DVDs filled with movies that can be played on most home DVD players, they cannot read each others' DVDs to acquire data.


As much as the wife would go through the roof if I purchased another computer, there doesn't seem to be a way (yet) to easily make DVDs out of camcorder movies on a Windows PC. So my question is: can I connect an 8mm camcorder and put the video onto DVDs on an iMac? I purchased a Sony 8mm camcorder right after my first child was born, and over the years I've filled several dozen 2 hour video tapes. Now I'd like to get them onto DVDs to share with the in-laws and other family members. Question is, can it be done? If so, how? Would it require additional hardware/software that doesn't come standard with the iMac?

Thanks for your consideration of this question.

Just running a PII 400 with 256 Meg RAM and two 20 Gig hard drives. Based upon Mr. Coates' response, I'm more than willing to consider getting an iMac for this specific situation, since I'd basically need to a whole new Windows machine to do this job; at least I'd be getting something that would do the job. Naturally, I haven't run this past the wife yet.

But considering the cost of taking these tapes to some type of conversion service, letting them have them for weeks at a time, paying who-knows-what for an hourly rate, I think it's pretty much a break-even when compared to buying an iMac and doing it myself. At least I wouldn't have to worry about tapes getting lost and having to blame someone else...!

[link|http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/tech/weekly/1321849|Dr Mac]

March 28, 2002, 10:20PM

DR. MAC
Moviemaking on iMac shows PCs need to catch up
By BOB LEVITUS
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
I have had the new top-of-the-line iMac for almost a month. Of course I loved it. I'm a Mac guy, and there's nothing about it not to love.

Even the inconvenience of the ports being on the back of the snow-globe base didn't bother me (other reviewers have complained about it, but I think it's a nonissue). It's cool to look at, blazingly fast, nearly silent in spite of its internal fan, and has a 15-inch flat-panel display that's as sharp, bright and vivid as any I've seen. And the stainless steel arm, which lets you adjust the screen's height, depth and angle with one finger, is perhaps the slickest piece of industrial design magic ever seen in a personal computer.

There is no doubt in my mind this is the best (and best-looking), fastest, most capable, iMac of all time, as well as the best iMac value ever. This computer is so fine that even Windows users lust for them.

Now allow me to reintroduce my neighbor, Dave (not his real name), whom you first met in my Sept. 22, 2000, column.

When my neighbor saw my iMovies, he immediately ordered a board and software that he said would let him do that on his PC. I told him he should get a Mac. A month ago I asked him how his moviemaking was coming. He looked properly chagrined as he said, "I haven't figured out how to make it work yet."

I lent him the new iMac for a few days and issued a challenge. Since he still, 18 months later, had not completed a single movie project on his Dell, I told him to try making a movie, an audio CD and a DVD on this iMac. And to make things interesting, I offered him no assistance or support -- I told him to look in Mac Help if he had questions.

Three days later I interviewed Dave.

On the first day, he unpacked the iMac, set it up in five minutes and burned two audio CDs with iTunes. He said he never needed to refer to Mac Help and that this whole project was "no problem whatsoever."

On the second day, he used iDVD to create a pair of slide shows using existing digital photos and burned his first DVD. I watched it later, and it didn't stink. In fact, most people would no doubt find it impressive. (I'm so jaded.)

On the third day, he borrowed my Canon ZR-25 camcorder and a tape of my son's last basketball game. I handed him the camera, manual and FireWire cable, and told him he was own his own.

By the end of the day he had imported raw footage into iMovie, edited it, added music and titles, then burned it onto a DVD with iDVD.

As I scribbled furiously, Dave's long-suffering wife added, "He swore less at the Mac than he does at his Dell."

Dave then said he had created more multimedia in three days with the iMac than he had in 18 months with his Dell. He only opened the Help file a couple of times. He concluded, "The hardest part was getting the iMac back in the box."

Before departing I asked if he'd consider a Mac next time. He replied: "Absolutely. In fact, if we hadn't wasted so much money trying to transform that Dell into a multimedia computer, I'd get one today."

It was music to my ears.


iMac G4. Price: $1,399-$1,899. Apple Computer. Cupertino, Calif. www.apple.com

Bob LeVitus is a leading authority on Mac OS and the author of 38 books, including Mac OS X For Dummies and Dr. Mac: The OS X Files, (or, How to Become a Mac OS X Power User).