Why does nothing happen after I press OK after selecting OneStep DVD in iDVD (with my Canon HV20 connected)?

Question

I launch iDVD (7.0.4), connect my Canon HV20 camcorder (with a FireWire cable), and press the OneStep DVD button. I see the following dialog box:

When I press OK, iDVD goes back to the startup dialog (with no indication of what's wrong):

I've tried inserting the blank disc in advance, but that makes no difference.

I've confirmed (using System Profiler) that the camcorder is connected:

I've tried this on my MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.6.4, and a PowerBook running 10.5.8 with the same problem on each.

Answer 1

As you found, iDVD doesn't support OneStep DVD from video record in HDV. However, the help page "Burning a OneStep DVD directly form a DV camcorder" does suggest a workaround:

If your camera records video in the high definition HDV format, you can’t use the iDVD OneStep feature to transfer the footage to a disc. Instead, you must use iMovie HD to capture all the footage from your camera. Then, within iDVD, you can add the movie to a project, just as you do with all standard iDVD projects (projects that are not OneStep DVDs or Magic DVDs).

Answer 2

It's possible that iDVD senses that I have a camcorder that uses "HDV format". "iDVD: OneStep DVD not available for HDV format" tells me OneStep DVD in iDVD 5 doesn't work with HDV, and "iDVD 7.0 Help (iLife '08)" (in the first sentence of the second paragraph) confirms that iDVD 7 doesn't either.

Apple software doesn't usually just fail silently though. I suppose by raising the user experience bar, they've set me up for more disappointment when they don't clear it.