Q1: "I have just bought an iMac and have done a short video in iMovie. How do I burn it onto a DVD?"

Q2: "I've just upgraded to iMovie 10 and cannot figure out how to burn my movie to a DVD. What should I do?"

There are so many users that are unclear about how to burn iMovie to DVD that they have to ask for help on some forums or Apple Community. The two typical questions quoted here are the most common problems that hundreds of people have claimed the same confusion. Obviously, such problems always happen no matter for new comers or old hands when burning iMovie to DVD. And you might be one of them who are pursuing the easiest and most efficient way to burn iMovie to DVD so that you could play the movie freely on TV. Actually, it’s not a problem any more with Apple DVD burning software iDVD and top five validated iDVD alternatives offered in this post.

Part 1: How to Export iMovie Project for DVD Burning

iMovie is a video editing software application introduced by Apple Inc. working for Mac and portable iOS devices. It is an amazing application for personalizing your video clips and photos. Usually, it allows you to make your own project by importing photos and video clips. And it also enables you to customize the project. However, when you are intended to burn iMovie project to DVD on Mac, you should export iMovie project at first since iMovie cannot work out DVD burning directly.

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Detailed Steps on How to Export iMovie Project:

  • Step 1. In iMovie Library, select the video clip you want to export.
  • Step 2. To select it, drag the cursor across the portion of video that will be burned onto DVD, or hold the "Command" key and press "A" on Mac keyboard to select an entire video.
  • Step 3. Go to "File" > "Share" > "File", review the information in pop-up window and click "Next" button, then name and save the file.
  • Step 4. Your iMovie project would be exported to your computer for burning to DVD.

After exporting iMovie project to your personal Mac PC, you could then make use of DVD burner software to burn iMovie project to DVD content on Mac. Apple once developed a DVD burning software application and there are also some third-party fantastic DVD burning software programs in hand for you to burn iMovie videos to DVD.

Part 2: How to Burn iMovie Project to DVD using iDVD

iDVD is a software application from Apple that enables you to burn QuickTime or desktop movies, MP3 music, and digital photos to a recordable DVD disc by using an Apple DVD-R drive. It makes DVD-Video discs on your Mac PC for sharing your movies with anyone who has a DVD player, or playing the movie on TV.

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Follow the below steps to learn how to burn iMovie videos to DVD with iDVD in detail:

  1. To burn iMovie to DVD using iDVD, you need to export the video from iMovie to iDVD, then burn it. Please note that the iDVD free DVD Maker is only available for an older Mac system like Mac OS X 10.6 or earlier.
  2. Inserting a blank DVD in the disc drive.
  3. Open the movie you want to burn with iMovie and click on the Share menu. Select iDVD and wait for it to process.
  4. The movie will open in iDVD and a new project will be created automatically with the default theme. You can select a theme, change the title, etc. if you want.
  5. Click the “Burn” button next to the “play” button to start burning iMovie to DVD. If you encounter any problem, try a different theme.

You then only need to wait for the burning process to complete. However, iDVD is now discontinued on its Lion and Mountain Lion OS, which means you will never find iDVD on your new Mac. Thus, you can only burn iMovie to DVD on condition that you have iDVD pre-installed. Otherwise, you should find another powerful DVD burning application to burn iMovie to DVD to play on TV.

Part 3: Best iMovie Project to DVD Burner - Leawo DVD Creator

Since iDVD is only available for Mac 10.6 and earlier, you may have to get an iDVD alternative to help you burn iMovie videos to DVD on Mac after you have exported iMovie videos. Leawo DVD Creator is a powerful and easy-to-use iMovie to DVD burner that performs even better than iDVD. It is specially designed to burn iMovie to DVD at high burning speed and the best output quality. In addition to the iMovie files, the program could also burn videos in almost all regular formats to DVD like AVI to DVD, WMV to DVD, MP4 to DVD, FLV to DVD, VOB to DVD, etc. Moreover, the built-in video editor and dozens of stylish DVD menu templates allow you to personalize your DVD as you like. Because Leawo DVD Creator supports Windows 7/8//8.1/10/Vista and Mac OS X, anyone using different kinds of operating systems can takes advantage of this burning program to burn iMovie to DVD to play on TV.

Leawo DVD Creator has a user-friendly interface that any of you can master it simply without any technical background. After you download, install and run this iMovie to DVD burner for Mac, then you can burn and convert iMovie to DVD on Mac OS easily. Here come the detailed steps on how to burn iMovie to DVD Mac.

dvd-creator

DVD Creator  

☉ Convert videos like MP4, AVI, MKV to DVD format fast.

☉ Create DVD-5, DVD-9 disc, folder or ISO image without quality loss.

☉ 1-click operation to create photo slideshows and burn to DVD.

☉ Easily editable effects, 2D to 3D conversion support.

☉ Built-in menu templates and edit disc menu with personal preferences.

Free Download Free Download

Note: Leawo DVD Creator is a built-in module in Leawo Prof. Media for Mac.

Step 1:Import the source iMovie video into the DVD Burner

After entering the main burning interface by selecting Burn tab on the top bar, simply click "Add Video" icon to add your iMovie projects or drag and drop iMovie project to the program. The Mac DVD burner can burn iMovie to DVD disc, folder and ISO image. To burn iMovie project to DVD disc, you are required to insert a blank DVD disc into the recordable Mac DVD-ROM.

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After importing, you can rearrange video order, add external subtitles to your iMovie projects, choose to burn to DVD-5 or DVD-9, set aspect ratio and output resolution, preview imported projects with built-in player, and check out the needed space for DVD burning at the bottom of program.

Step 2:Edit iMovie files (Optional)

You can personalize your iMovie projects by clicking edit option to open the internal video editor window where you can crop the frame size, trim video length, append effects, add picture or text watermark, rotate video angle and add 3D effect. If you have no editing needs, just skip this step.

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Step 3. Set disc menu template

Select a disc menu template from the right sidebar of the main interface and preview it by clicking its center. Via clicking the pencil icon on the disc menu preview panel, you could edit your DVD menu by adding background picture and music, choosing desired buttons and frames, etc. and save the edited disc menu template for future use.

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Step 4. More DVD burning settings

Click on the big green "Burn" button to call out the burning settings panel, where you choose proper burning settings like to burn video to DVD disc, ISO file or/and folder, input volume label, set saving destination for output files.

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Note

  1. If you only need to burn iMovie project to DVD disc on Mac, select DVD disc recorder drive as output under the "Burn to" option.
  2. Leawo DVD Creator enables you to create and burn DVD in either PAL or NTSC video mode. You could set this by clicking the “Preferences > Copy & Burn” option to do this.
  3. You could also burn iMovie to DVD disc, folder and ISO image file at the same time.
  4. Make sure your computer hard drive gets enough storage if you want to create DVD folder or ISO image file.

Step 5. Burn iMovie to DVD Mac

After all settings are down, click on the "Burn" button on the window to start burning iMovie to DVD on Mac immediately. When the burning process finishes, you could view the movies in burned DVD disc on any DVD player.

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Then, you only need to wait for the burning process to complete. With Leawo DVD Creator, you can easily be an expert in burning iMovie to DVD even if you are a total green hand on how to burn iMovie to DVD before.

Part 4: iDVD vs. Leawo DVD Creator

If you want to know more details about these 2 DVD burner software tools, the below comparison table would be helpful. Check it to know more.

 

Leawo DVD Creator

iDVD

Burn videos to DVD disc

Yes

Yes

Burn videos to DVD folder

Yes

No

Burn videos to DVD ISO file

Yes

Yes

Burn photos to DVD

Yes

No

Edit videos before burning

Yes. Trim, crop, add 3D, add watermark, adjust effect, etc.

No

Add disc menu

Yes

Yes

Design disc menu

Yes

Yes

Edit photo slideshows

Yes

No

Burn audios to DVD

No

Yes

Select subtitles and audio tracks

Yes

No

Add external subtitles

Yes

No

Play back loaded videos

Yes

No

Take screenshots

Yes

No

Set output DVD video mode

Yes

Yes

Availability

Windows, Mac

Mac only. Discontinued now

Part 5: Other Programs to Burn iMovie to DVD

Besides Leawo DVD Creator, there are also other wonderful iDVD alternatives to help you easily burn iMovie to DVD on Mac. We have listed them below.

SimplyBurns

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SimplyBurns is an open source, easy-to-use and advanced DVD burning software application with a GUI designed for Mac OS X. It can easily burn movies to DVD in five modes, including Data, Audio, 1:1 Copy, Rip Disc and Burn Image with several clicks.

DVD Styler

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DVDStyler is a cross-platform and open source DVD burning application. It can be totally free of charge when creating professional-looking DVDs for you on Mac. Besides, it can create and burn DVD video with interactive menus, add multiple subtitle and audio tracks, import images for background and so on. Moreover, because it supports many common video and audio formats, you can feel free to create a DVD for any video files.

Roxio Toast Titanium

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Roxio Toast Titanium is the leading DVD burner for Mac, which makes burning even better and more personalized. It supports video from anywhere, including your screen, the web or camcorders, etc. With a simple video editor built-in, you can also cut the unwanted segments from video clips. It has a simple-to-use and clear interface but is quite expensive.

Tipard DVD Creator

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This is a powerful DVD burning tool which enables you to burn various videos to DVD without watermark. It supports iMovie project and other common video or audio files like MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, QuickTime HD and more. Besides, it also allows you to customize DVD with its editing functions.