Can I burn DVDs on a Mac?

BlackEdelweiss

I am trying to decide whether to buy a Mac or get a new desktop, the Mac is looking very good so far but I am trying to justify the price. Somebody told me you cant burn dvd's on a mac, is this true?

Should I get a Mac, are they that good? Probably the wrong place to ask this question!

maringo

I'd go Mac over pc every time. Of course you can burn a dvd on macs - don't know where you heart that tbh.

Having used pcs and macs over many years in the course of work nothing beats the Mac every time. :):)

BlackEdelweiss

Thanks, I thought it would be strange if they left something so basic out. I have a few other questions but I dont want to start another thread for them. Is there a MS Word compatible software installed on the MAC or that can be downloaded free, if I buy a mac it will blow my budget out of the water so I cant afford to buy anything else, probably not even the electricity to run it.
Which is better, the magic mouse or magic trackpad? I am used to using a mouse but like the idea of the trackpad, I would be using CAD on the mac so I dont know if that would be hard.

maringo

Some people use Openoffice on mac - its free open source similar to ms office as far as I know but have a check on the web - lots of help out there. Another good point with macs is that they don't seem to be targeted as much by viruses as windows systems are.

You can just plug in any mac compatible mouse or use the trackpad. So its not an either or. You'd get used to trackpad very quickly. Apple sell refurbished on their site so that might be worth checking out as they are guaranteed. Have a look around an Apple shop and get them to give you a detailed demonstration as you are maybe a possible customer?

BlackEdelweiss

I checked out the refurbished ones available but they are all higher spec than I can afford. I will have to enter the market at the most basic level, 21.5" iMac. I can get the student price which is €60 off which is better than nothing. I was in PC world today but the guy who I was talking to knew nothing about them so he wasent really convincing me to buy it when what I really wanted was somebody to tell me my life would never be the same once I got a Mac. I might try again tomorrow and hopefully get someone else.

redman85

If you can wait then do. Its only a few months till the next iMac is released.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iMac

maringo

Might be worth visiting some of these as a prospective customer - if they still exist - if they are interested in selling they should be prepared to demonstrate and maybe give you a bit of a hands as a potential customer. But advice to wait from previous poster sounds good.

http://apple-store.in/dublin/

taylorconor95

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

I was in PC world today but the guy who I was talking to knew nothing about them so he wasent really convincing me to buy it when what I really wanted was somebody to tell me my life would never be the same once I got a Mac.

From my experience looking for mac-related items in PC world, I usually do a bit of research on the net and go in and quiz them before i buy, I always know more than they do. That a why if i'm ever getting a mac or apple product again it will be on apple.com or in Victoria Square

mathepac

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

... what I really wanted was somebody to tell me my life would never be the same once I got a Mac. ....

Your life will never be the same once you get a Mac.

I find less time is spent figuring out how to do things and more time just doing them. I don't need to be "Apple certified" to string a server and a few workstations together and get them working. Similarly printers, scanners, hard-drives and other peripherals - they just work, with zero time spent "under-the-hood" in fact the less time spent "under-the-hood" the more reliable the entire set-up will be.

You might even find time for a chorus or two from Guy Clark ...

Freddie59

mathepac wrote: »

Your life will never be the same once you get a Mac.

Agreed. I got one in June 2010. Never looked back. Of course you can burn DVDs I use Final Cut Express for editing and iDVD to create the Video TS file.

Then use Toast to burn it. Simples!:D

You can use Open Office as pointed out. I prefer the Magic Mouse to the trackpad myself. But that's down to personal preference more than anything.

One caveat; it takes a while to get used to OSx if you haven't used it before.;)

BlackEdelweiss

Can I use my existing external hard drive on the imac or is it rendered useless if I dont have a pc?

Sad Professor

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

Can I use my existing external hard drive on the imac or is it rendered useless if I dont have a pc?

Yes, any external hard drive will work with a Mac. But to use it properly you will need to re-format it as HFS+ which is the filesystem used by OS X.

BlackEdelweiss

What does that mean for the data I have stored on the hard drive though. I have quite alot of photos etc on it.

Freddie59

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

What does that mean for the data I have stored on the hard drive though. I have quite alot of photos etc on it.

The Mac will read the external Hard Drive as is. Transfer the data to the Mac, then reformat the HDD, then retransfer back to the newly formatted drive?

brav

Just a quick note regards burning DVDs, while macs can burn DVDs they no longer come with the software iDVD, which was used to create menus etc and burn movies which would be compatible for regular DVD players etc.

If you want this you would have to either source a second hand copy of iDVD or use some software by someone else, not sure if Toast can do this

ZENER

brav wrote: »

Just a quick note regards burning DVDs, while macs can burn DVDs they no longer come with the software iDVD, which was used to create menus etc and burn movies which would be compatible for regular DVD players etc.

If you want this you would have to either source a second hand copy of iDVD or use some software by someone else, not sure if Toast can do this

iDVD and iWeb are included with the iLife '11 DVD but they have not been updated since iLife '09. Apple still feature iDVD in the tutorials for iLife '11 on their site. I don't think you can get iDVD from the App Store though but open to correction on that one.

Also Microsoft Office is available in a Mac version from the store or any Apple reseller like PC World or CompuB.

Ken

Edit: It seems newer releases of iLife '11 in fact don't include iWeb or iDVD !! I have an older release of iLife '11 which does include them. Any chance Steve Jobs will be reincarnated soon . . . .

Sad Professor

iWeb and iDVD no longer come preinstalled on new Macs, so they are for all intents and purposes discontinued.

BlackEdelweiss

Well I took the plunge and ordered my 1st iMac. Blew my budget by about 95% on what I was originally going to spend on a new desktop, not sure exactly how I ended up here. I had never even considered a mac up to last week. I hope I justify the cost and make use of it.

Stainless_Steel

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

Well I took the plunge and ordered my 1st iMac. Blew my budget by about 95% on what I was originally going to spend on a new desktop, not sure exactly how I ended up here. I had never even considered a mac up to last week. I hope I justify the cost and make use of it.

You won't regret it, congrats!

Freddie59

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

Well I took the plunge and ordered my 1st iMac. Blew my budget by about 95% on what I was originally going to spend on a new desktop, not sure exactly how I ended up here. I had never even considered a mac up to last week. I hope I justify the cost and make use of it.

Enjoy! But remember what I said about OSx....;)

BlackEdelweiss

Its here!!! 1st post on a Mac.:)

mathepac

Congratulations and welcome to the iTribe.

Freddie59

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

Its here!!! 1st post on a Mac.:)

Good stuff. How are you finding OSx?

Did you buy iLife for iDVD?

BlackEdelweiss

Early days yet, pulling my hair out a few times so far. Took half an hour to find my external hard drive, turned out it wasent plugged in properly so my fault on that but I was cursing the lack of a Windows Explorer button.
I havent bought anything yet, budget is completely blown on getting this far. I went for the trackpad and I love it, it will take awhile to get the full use out of it but so far it is cool. I love the small keyboard too.
Has anybody any recommendations for someone on their 1st day on a Mac, where do I go from here.

Sad Professor

iLife comes preinstalled on all new Macs. But as said earlier, iDVD has been discontinued.

Sad Professor

OP, if you have any particular questions, fire away. But it's mostly a case of getting used to the new OS. It can take a while, but be patient and you'll be flying in no time.

BlackEdelweiss

Just a quick one here, can anybody tell me the equivalent of the refresh button that is F5 on a PC?

Sad Professor

Command-R.

BlackEdelweiss

Cheers.

BlackEdelweiss

I am trying to download codecs for the moves I have on my external hard drive. I have been directed to a page from apple support and for .avi it says to download flip4mac which I have done (trial version) but I still cannot play some of them. I can play it on the divx codec but with no sound, it says I need something from quicktime which from what I can see is the flip4mac.
I havent moved all my stuff from my external HD yet and reformatted it, should I do this first or is that a separate matter?

Sad Professor

Get VLC player.