Basically yes to all your questions.

You can make a DVD in two ways. 1. Do all the editing and when finished burn the disk and PD will produce everything followed by burning. 2. Produce separate video files first to make the project more manageable and then insert the produced file back into the timeline and burn the disk.

From my experience the second option is the best for a couple of reasons. First, I find that PD somehow gets more unstable as the project gets larger. Second, editing and producing smaller pieces keeps things more organized and you can quickly produce the smaller files and preview them before finishing the project. Finally, if the program were to crash you will lose less work and time.

If you produce each section individually in the proper video format and bit rate, you can use SVRT when compiling the final version and PD will not rerender all the video. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Hi Charles -

You're onto it! As far as my limited knowledge extends, that is the purpose of it... well - that's how I use it anyway. Once one section is prepared, I produce it. Later, I combine all the produced bits to make the final video.

One of the more experienced users will be able to give you a better answer, I'm sure.

Cheers -

Tony
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Hi Charles,

If I may chime here, there are also other reasons that one would use “Produce” instead of burning to DVD.

You may have a short little project that you’ve created that you intend to only share with others via Youtube, Vimeo, SeeMyWorldOnVideo, or any of the other video sharing sites. For such a purpose, you just want a video file of the final production without having to go through the steps of burning it to DVD just to get that file. So you just “Produce” it to create a video file.
Later, one can always load a series of these short “Produced” files into PD7’s timeline to create a compilation DVD of several of these short subjects.

Also for business (or personal) reasons, possibly in response to a question, you may want to shoot some quick footage (3 minutes worth?) and include some text explaining a feature of a product or item that you wish to sell. Instead of burning a DVD and having a potential customer have to wait for days to receive the DVD, you can just “Produce” your footage, and immediately send it to the customer over the internet as a "Produced" streaming video file.
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Hi Charles,

At the risk of being controversial there is a school of thought that disc based production is 'old technology'. Of course it is widely accepted and at present the 'standard'. But so was VHS tape, until dvd. So was dvd until blu-ray.

There is a growing trend to 'streaming' video using media players and usb/solid state drive storage direct to HDTV thus reducing the need for dvd type of media.

However, dvd media is common, readily distributable and semi-universal.

The ever increasing compression available, such as h.264, means smaller file sizes, easier streaming and higher quality.

So the ability to produce to file is useful both for 'sub-projects' as the others have said and for final production. For example I take my laptop to my mother and couple up to the HDTV. If necessary, I can then leave her with a dvd but it is a lower quality than I shoot and produce.

Neither of us can afford the blu-ray route so that's my preferred route.

In summary, not everyone burns to disc.

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Thanks everyone. That is very helpful.

If I can't get the create disk module to work properly in PowerDirector, I produce a single file, then create a DVD using this file PowerProducer.