Playing Your Movies on TV

You’ve finished your movie and now you want to watch it on your TV. The best way to do this is to create a DVD disc that you can play in a DVD player. iMovie also makes it easy to send your movie back to your camcorder so you can create a videotape that can be played in a VCR.

If your goal is creating a DVD, iMovie makes it easy to send your movie to iDVD, an application that helps design and burn DVD discs. iDVD lets you add themes, photos, and additional movies, you can give your DVD a professional, Hollywood quality look. Then, with the click of a button, you can create a DVD disc.

Tips

Send your movie to your camcorder

If you want to share your movie with friends or family members who don’t have a DVD player, iMovie makes it easy to send your movie back to your camcorder. With your movie on a digital video tape, you can hook your camcorder up to your VCR and create a VHS tape, or hook your camcorder to your TV to watch your movie. Connect your camcorder to your Mac, in iMovie HD choose Video Camera from the Share menu, and then click Share.

Adding your movie to an existing iDVD project

If you have an iDVD project already open, you can easily add an additional iMovie project to it. Because iMovie projects in your movies folder appear as movies in the iLife Media Browser, just select one and drag it to an iDVD menu to add it. You can also drag the project directly from the Finder into an iDVD menu.

Use new videotape when exporting your movie

It is a good idea to export your movie to a new digital videotape so that you don’t copy over your original video footage. You never know when you might want to use footage you didn’t use earlier. If you find yourself making short movies, consider creating a master tape that contains all of your finished movies.

Lock your tape when finished

You can lock your videotape to prevent accidentally writing over important material. Just flip the switch to the "save" position on the edge of your videotape and your material is safe.

Add black to before or after your movie

Rather than showing your audience static before and after your movie, you can set iMovie to record a few seconds of black at the beginning and end of your movie. This will give your presentation a polished look. You’ll find this option in the Videocamera pane of the Share window. For High Definition movies, a minimum of 6 seconds of black is recommended.

Save your movie on VHS tape

If you want to share your movie with friends or family members who don’t have a DVD player, you can copy it to VHS tape. After sharing your movie back to your camcorder, connect your camcorder up to your VCR’s video and audio in connectors. Then, press Record on your VCR and Play on your camcorder. Viola, you have your video saved to a VHS tape.

Steps

Send your movie to iDVD and choose a theme

In iMovie , choose iDVD from the Share menu.
Click the Share button to send your movie to iDVD. If you receive a warning that your movie needs to be rendered first, click Render and Proceed.
After iDVD opens, notice your movie appears in the iDVD window.
Click the Themes button and select a theme for your DVD.
Select Autofill Drop Zones from the Project menu. This will apply your movie to any drop zones in the menu theme.
Click the Preview button to see how your DVD will look.
Click the Burn button, and then insert a blank DVD into your Mac.
When the disc is finished, eject it from your Mac and watch it in your DVD player.