Re: Burning DVDs in El Capitan

Hi Ken,

Since upgrading their OS to El Capitan, has anyone tried to burn DVDs or Blu-rays from Disk Images? I always used Disk Utility to do this but now that feature has been removed from the new version. I know that disks can be burned thru Finder. I tried that and all I got is a copy of the Disk Image, not a playable DVD. I do have Toast which will do this but I've always found Disk Utility
to be the most efficient method. I do have a Super Drive in my iMac as well as an external Pioneer Blu-ray burner drive.
Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Phil

Hi Phil,

I'm still running Yosemite so I don't know. Boy, when Apple said that they wanted to kill off 'plastic disks', they wasn't kidding. Too bad, DVDs are still an excellent delivery system.

--ken

Ken,

After thorough testing and even booting up from my external backup Yosemite drive, I discovered that the old Disk Utility with the Disk Burning feature will NOT run on my iMac. So I will use Toast to make duplicates of my DVD shows.

Yes, I agree with you, Ken, about DVDs. Many of my clients and film festivals as well want DVDs or Blu-rays. Libraries store DVD copies of movies, new and old, on their shelves. They are requested by their patrons everyday.

A couple of days ago, I discussed this DVD burning problem with an Apple "Genius" at an Apple store. At the risk of sounding "age-ist", I will say he was a 20-something "millennial". He looked at me blankly and asked, "Why would you ever want to burn a DVD anymore?"
That tells you a lot about the current Apple company man.

-Phil

I think Apple must be unaware of the need for DVDs of people who want to see their family memories stored old 8mm films, slides, negatives, Beta tapes, VHS tapes and all of the other "old" formats. DVDs are so easy to make and use and quickly
going to the modern "cloud" way of viewing video just doesn't work for my clients as it pertains to family memories.

Tom

As far as I'm concerned, a DVD is a "hard copy" of a film or video. Much like a book, you can pull it off a shelf, put it in your DVD player and watch it. DVDs of movies are programmed with many additional related features such as "making of" documentaries, deleted scenes, cast and crew interviews. Unlike downloading files, DVDs do not take up space on your hard drive. The quality and clarity of the image and sound of DVDs far surpasses VHS which is why they continue to be popular.
I really can't comprehend where Apple is coming from in their thinking.

Aside from all of that, DVDs are still heavily used by the medical industry for X-rays, Cat scans, MRIs and storage and transportation of medical information.This is not going to go away.

But more to the point, I have a rather large collection of movies on DVDs that I'm never giving up. (g)

--ken

Ken,

I just came back from my local library with a DVD of the film, "Short Term-12" starring this year's Oscar winner, Brie Larson. Most libraries have great collections of classic films from "Citizen Kane" right up to current releases. They also have the entire collection of great TV series on DVD such as "Twilight Zone", "The Honeymooners", etc. and more recently, "Breaking Bad", "Mad Men", and "House of Cards". Why should I pay Netflix to download them when I can get them for free on DVD from the local library? Plus, as I mentioned above, the DVDs and Blu-rays have many additional related features such as "making of" documentaries, deleted scenes, cast and crew interviews.

-Phil

Just to restate and add to Christoph's list:

A lot of video service companies who convert old 8mm film, tapes, slides, etc. will probably go out of business
because most of their clients want DVDs.

Tom

Tom,
These 8mm film, etc. conversion businesses transfer the stuff to DVDs as per clients' request.

Christoph,
I could not agree with you more. But as I said above, what I found distressing was the Apple store Genius's comment to me,
"Why would you ever want to burn a DVD anymore?" That seemed to reflect the Apple corporate thinking.

Philsfilm,

That's my whole point. Most of these clients and mine (I do these transfer services) do not understand the "Cloud"
or any other Internet or non-DVD ways of viewing their family memories. Not too many of them care to sit around
a computer screen and view their family growing up from 40-60 years ago. Almost all of my clients do not even own
a Blu-Ray player and some still don't have a DVD player until I transfer their memories to one. Try to show a slide montage to
an elderly person sitting in an assisted living center. No DVD player, no viewing by them. I don't know where the "Cloud" is
but some day some hacker will disrupt it and then where will we be? Having a DVD movie or movies of your family
memories at hand is much safer than having them "out there" someplace. All you need is a DVD player hooked up to
your TV and no other outside help is needed except for electricity. I'll keep up with the latest news on when DVD blanks
will go away so I can stock up on them so I can keep my clients happy.

Tom

Tom,

Of course, you can carry the analogy over to books. I see people reading them on their iPads. No old-fashioned bound
books anymore. The advocates of Kindles say it saves them shelf space.

BTW, the other day, my niece's 5 year old asked to see a certain kiddie movie. She told him no. I asked, "Why not?"
She said, "Because it's logged somewhere on one of our several computer hard drives and I don't have time to look for it."
Wouldn't it have been easier to pull a DVD off the shelf and pop it in the DVD player?
Just sayin'.

-Phil

Phil,

I understand the analogy but there is a big difference. I don't think two or more people would be looking at
the same Kindle reading the same book. Even if they did, everyone reads at a different pace. With a DVD
movie everyone starts and finishes the movie at the same time. As I said earlier I'll be loading up on blank
DVDs if their demise is around the corner.

Tom

Tom,

I just meant that there seems to be a general movement to replace hard copy/hold-in-your-hand media with digital, stored-in-the-cloud files.
As for the demise of blank DVDs, I've noticed that some local outlets such as Loblaws grocery store in Toronto where I used to purchase them in 75-100 bulk packages have stopped selling them altogether. I can still get them along with the cases at video supply stores such as B&H and Microcenter but it's a bit more out of the way for me. I noticed the same gradual phasing out of the mini-DV tapes a few years ago.

-Phil

Phil,

I buy Verbatim DVDs from Supermediastore.com in Calif or B&H. So far they have as much as I need. Although I'm now
using an SD camcorder I still have a few mini-DV tapes just in case.

Tom

We still sell DVDs for performances, and deliver DVDs for our weddings as well. Haven't had anyone request BluRays yet, yeah, even in 2016!

I did start going through my wedding master DVDs from 12-14 years ago and making new copies. I do get a bit concerned that they will eventually degrade and the material could be lost. I've started keeping disk images as well as backups.

Anything I pull from the DVDs however is standard def, so I am actually starting to export an HD version (h264) of my long timelines and saving those instead of the disk image. That way there's an HD file available that can be used for many future delivery methods.

I recently started transferring my Beta SP tapes from the 90s. Those are all being converted to digital ProRes 422 (LT) so I will have options down the line.

Great discussion though!

-another fine day at
GreenPeas Productions
www.greenpeas.us
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