Toasting

I have always preferred using Toast to burn DVDs over the free iDVD included with all Macs as part of iLife.

Most of the DVDs I burn are of EyeTV Freeview (MPEG2) recordings so was always SO much quicker than iDVD ever could be.

Also for some reason iDVD never really liked the fact I was using PAL over NTSC, not sure why.

Of course you sacrificed functionality and other stuff in the menus, but my view was, was I going to watch the menus or the film?

I use to use the video conversion functions (which were useful) however I have now switched over to VisualHub for that.

I do use the compression facility when compressing large DVDs.

Sometimes an EyeTV recording won’t fit on a standard DVD, and DL-DVDs have not been a favourite of mine, either I created coasters or they weren’t available as printable DVDs.

So I use Toast to create a DVD Disk Image using the recording and then use the compression (use to be Popcorn) to reduce the disk image in size so it fits on a standard DVD-R.

Overall Roxio Toast 9 Titanium is one of my favourite applications for the Mac.

Digital Video Tools

Here are some of the digital video tools I use.

iMovie

Part of the iLife suite which comes pre-installed on every Mac. It is a quick and easy video editing application.

I have not used the latest version (part of iLife ’08) however it should be noted that this new version has a very different workflow compared to previous versions.

iMovie ’08 makes viewing and working with video as intuitive as enjoying your photos. A built-in library automatically organises your video, so all the clips you’ve captured and movies you’ve created are just a click away. With its revolutionary interface, iMovie makes it quick and easy to browse your library and create new movies. And iMovie is built for sharing. In just a few steps, you can add movies to your website, publish them on YouTube, and create versions for iPod and Apple TV.

I also like Keynote which is the Mac presentation software, presentations can be saved as movies or can even be sent direct to YouTube.

I have used Final Cut Express, but for quick videos I prefer the simplicity of iMovie.

Windows Movie Maker

This is part of Windows XP (and Windows Vista) which allows simple video editing.

With Windows Movie Maker, you can use your computer to create and edit home movies with a few simple drag-and-drop moves. Then you can share your movies through the web, e-mail, your computer, or CD.

Generally I use this only if I don’t have access to my Mac, or the files are all in WMV format.

Exporting can be somewhat slow.

VisualHub

An excellent tool for converting video into various different formats, very useful if converting video for mobile devices and Windows PCs, note this is Mac software.

VisualHub bridges the gap between numerous complicated video formatting standards, and people that just want to get the job done.

Roxio Toast

Primarily a DVD burning application, it also have video conversion functionality.

Media-convert

Online video conversion tool that doesn’t require you to install anything. I have also been recommended zamzar.com, however due to the plethora of pop-ups and the fact you have to give an e-mail address means that I for one would not use it.

YouTube

The infamous video website that allows users to upload and share their video.