iDVD 4 crashing when attempting to burn DVDs

We are beginning to investigate an issue with iDVD 4 where the application crashes when attempting to burn a DVD - usually with discs that are over an hour long.

MacFixIt reader Rich Lefko writes:

"I have been trying to burn a 1:39 movie created in iMovie 4. When I start and run iDVD 4 all seems well until I attempt to burn the DVD. The process runs until 'Stage 3' then iDVD 4 just quits. I've attempted numerous 'fixes' from pulling non-Apple memory to shortening the movie and trying a different theme. None of these have worked. I did install iDVD 3 on an external FireWire drive and was able to burn a shortened (90 Minute DVD) without any of iDVD 4s bells and whistles due to it's limitation.

So far the only sure workaround for some users seems to be re-installing iDVD 3.0.1. Unfortunately, iDVD 3.0.x carries a 90 minute duration limitation on burned DVDs.

Based on some other reader reports, it seems this problem is not exclusively affecting G5s; several single and dual-processor G4s are also affected.

Apple Knowledge Base article #150483 provides only the following suggestions for successfully burning a DVD, none of which seem to have worked for users experiencing this problem:

• Burning DVDs uses a lot of processing power. To ensure successful burning with iDVD, do not use other applications that place heavy demands on the system while you are burning a disc.
• If you're burning a disc on a laptop, be sure the computer is plugged in to a power outlet.
• Do not press the Media Eject key while burning is in progress. Doing so may eject the disc and result in an incomplete disc.

A separate Knowledge Base article (#93665) notes that iDVD 4 may not successfully burn a disc on dual processor Power Mac G5 computers if Best Performance is selected in iDVD preferences. Apple suggests selecting "Best Quality" or "Best Performance" in the "General" section of iDVD's preferences. The article implies that only dual processor G5s are included in this workaround.

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