Description:
DVDs (digital video discs) store high-quality MPEG-2 video, pristine Dolby Digital audio, and computer data, all integrated and playable from a single DVD-video player or DVD-equipped computer. DVD authoring is the process of combining all these elements into an interactive program. With multiple video and audio tracks, camera angles, multilingual capabilities, linked menus and buttons, Internet integration, and other features, an authoring project can involve complex procedures and scripting. Apple's new DVD Studio Pro includes a great tutorial, along with associated media files, that demonstrate and explain the basics of the application. We ran through the tutorial in just over an hour, gaining a working knowledge of DVD Studio Pro's interface and functions, authoring language, and an inspiring taste of its power. Installation is simple and painless. Three separate applications are installed on your hard disk within the host folder: DVD Studio Pro, Subtitle Editor, and A-Pack, for encoding AC-3 (Dolby) audio. QuickTime Pro must be installed and registered separately (you'll need it to encode QuickTime MPEG video). The elegant interface will be recognizable to Final Cut Pro users. In fact, DVD Studio Pro is designed with Final Cut integration in mind for creating source material. You can also use other video and audio applications with a compatible MPEG encoder. Navigation within DVD Studio Pro is easy enough--there are four main windows with clickable tabs and drop-down menus. Video, audio, and graphic items can be imported or drag-and-dropped into the Project window. These items, known as assets, are detailed in the Property Inspector window. The Inspector lists all the attributes of every element, and contains text fields and drop-down menus for setting and changing their properties. The Graphical View window lets you navigate visually through your project's assets via folders that include a thumbnail image of the asset, and buttons that launch audio tracks, subtitles, markers, stories, and camera angles. Building interactivity among the assets is, generally speaking, as simple as highlighting an element and specifying actions and attributes in the Property Inspector. In this way, you link program elements together in an interactive chain. Furthermore, DVD Studio Pro supports Adobe Photoshop layers for elaborate still menus and buttons that change state when activated. The indispensable Preview window allows you to immediately verify your event chain and make changes without burning a test disc. Likewise, a debugging feature lets you test all the links before multiplexing; during multiplexing, you can monitor the progress and respond to and fix any errors that might occur before copying to finished disc. For extremely complex projects with multiple program chains and real-time encoding, DVD Studio Pro might not be the best answer. Expect to pay at least three times as much or more for higher-level authoring, though. With DVD Studio Pro, Apple has superbly reduced the potentially overwhelming nature of authoring in an easy-to-learn, powerful application that can't be surpassed at this price. Remember that this program is only version 1.1. Stick with and master it over time, as it's sure to get even better. --John Bosch
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