A family legacy
Although I appreciate Apple’s march to the future, and generally applaud it moving into 64-bit software only, this has caused a few issues. I was able to use iDVD as an excellent, simple DVD authoring system, as there are a number of home movies that I want to turn into semi-professional looking DVDs with menus. However, this app is incompatible with High Sierra.
Is there a DVD authoring tool that’s simple but offers enough features to be able to do this? ‘Free’ options I’ve tried were woefully inadequate. Researching the issue brings up either glowing, badly spelled reviews for what appears to be bloatware that I’m finding difficult to trust, or costly pro solutions like Roxio Toast, which also may not work as it is 32-bit.
I know that videos are mostly streamed these days, but not everyone wants to watch exclusively via tablet or computer, especially older people, and a USB stick can’t be packaged in a case and printed on at home to make it look like a half-decent gift. I’d be grateful of suggestions. BY GARY DE PLANQUE
ALAN SAYS… I once paid handsomely to transfer old cine-camera footage to a format I could turn into a DVD, in order to give my parents a personal gift, precisely because they were more likely to pick a disc off a shelf and pop it in a player than navigate apps and menus on their iPod touch and send it to their TV. While video files are easy to back up and likely, in H.264 format, to be playable for years to come, a physical artefact of one’s life has special appeal – at least if you grew up with physical media.
Something you might try in order to keep iDVD and other old apps running is to install Sierra in a virtual machine. Note that I haven’t tried this for iDVD, but this ought to give you some degree of futureproofing; I use Snow Leopard Server in a virtual machine for those rare occasions I need to use very old apps.
Since OS X Lion, you’ve been able to install the regular version of the system in a virtual machine. If you don’t own Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion, try running iDVD in a virtual machine within VirtualBox (virtualbox.org) initially, as that’s free.
High Sierra doesn’t kill off 32-bit apps; Apple has said it’s the last version of macOS that will run them ‘without compromise’, so the problem with iDVD must originate with some other change. Existing apps in the Mac App Store must be 64-bit from July.
As for Toast, a Roxio spokesperson told us: “While we don’t typically pre-announce our product plans, we want to confirm that we’re working to update the Toast product family for 64-bit. We can’t provide specific details yet, but as soon as we have more information, we’ll be sure to let our community know.”