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Apple DVD Studio Pro 1.0

Sep 1, 2001 12:00 PM, BY JIM GRANT

With the introduction of DVD Studio Pro, Apple gives small- to medium-sized video production facilities the ability to add professional-level DVD authoring capabilities without going into serious debt. DVD Studio Pro comes a year after Apple acquired the assets of DVD software creator Astarte, and the resulting program provides sophisticated features which, until now, were available only in much more costly programs.

The system for this review was a 733MHz Macintosh G4 with 192MB RAM with the built-in DVD-R/CD-RW SuperDrive from Pioneer and a 17in. flat-panel monitor. DVD Studio Pro, which supports PAL and NTSC as well as 16:9 and 4:3, is in version 1.0.

Instead of a timeline approach, Apple has chosen to present the authoring process in a multiwindow graphical style. Opening the application reveals a default screen layout with four windows: a Graphical View, a Project View, an Assets Container, and a Property Inspector. These windows can be customized for each project. The context-sensitive Property Inspector window is at the heart of defining interaction.

Begin the authoring process by importing the files needed for the title. This assumes that you have previously worked out the program's interactions, created graphics and menus, and selected and edited video segments, audio files, and still images. Items can be imported into the Assets Container via a menu command or by dragging and dropping them from the desktop to the appropriate window. DVD Studio Pro faithfully uses the standard Macintosh interface that accommodates either a keyboard-centric or mouse-centric working style.

DVD Studio Pro uses the term track to mean a collection of video, audio, and subtitles that play as a unit. A DVD title consists of a group of tracks that are accessed, played, and interact with each other via menus or programmed commands. Each track can contain up to nine video streams (camera angles), eight audio streams (different sound tracks), 32 subtitle streams, and 99 chapter markers and stories. Markers are used to indicate starting and ending points of track segments. Stories designate a collection of markers that will play in a particular order. The program's multistream ability is what places DVD Studio Pro squarely in competition with much pricier applications.

Building a basic title consists of adding tracks, defining their contents, adding menus, and then designating interactions. Adding a track causes a file folder-shaped icon to appear in the Graphical View window. Inside this icon is a thumbnail view of the first video frame and small icons representing audio, markers, stories, video, and angles. As you drag and drop assets onto this icon, numbers below each small icon change to reflect their addition. In addition to tracks, DVD Studio provides the capability to create slide shows, which advance automatically or manually.

Static menus are created using the Photoshop (.psd) format. DVD Studio Pro recognizes Photoshop layers as menu backgrounds and buttons in activated states. You can also place buttons over tracks, which the application calls Interactive Markers. This gives the DVD onscreen navigation options that are available while video and audio are playing. DVD Studio Pro also supports menus with moving video or animations and audio. Once assets are in place, arrange interactions among the tracks by highlighting track icons and making selections from options provided in the Property Inspector window. Web links can also be added to DVD titles.

Combining navigation tools like stories and markers with menus and a powerful scripting language defined by the DVD Video specification gives the DVD Studio author total control and significant options to guide a viewer through a DVD experience. The application's Preview function tests the interactions while the title is being built.

With testing complete, DVD Studio Pro provides a simple interface to build and burn a disc. The software gives the choice of creating an image file for later use or moving directly to burning a disc. The user is prompted to load a blank disc once the material has been prepared. The Pioneer burner in the Apple G4 system was able to recognize and burn only Apple-brand discs. Because the discs are readily available from Apple and sell for only $10 each, this is not much of a problem. As prices for competing media drop, however, disc compatibility may become an issue.

I found the requirement to create and change all menu graphics outside the application to be time-consuming and cumbersome. Perhaps a simple menu-creation tool or some direct link to Photoshop to allow on-the-fly changes to menus could be added.

The only other complaint I have about DVD Studio Pro is what I consider a missed opportunity. Apple has been known as a company that creates revolutionary products. DVD Studio Pro is a thorough implementation of a software technology heavily influenced by a requirement to put Hollywood movies on disc. But it breaks little new ground on behalf of corporate and industrial producers. I had hoped to see a program that cuts through the inherent complications of the DVD standard to provide the corporate and industrial producer an elegant productive tool to meet their customer needs. Such an implementation of the DVD specification is yet to be created.

For now, getting the most out of this application will require significant learning time and creativity to adapt its movie-authoring framework for non-movie projects. If you are willing to make that investment, DVD Studio Pro will add significantly to your production portfolio.

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Jim Grant is president of Communicating Services, Inc., a full-service corporate and industrial production company in Atlanta. He can be reached at jimgrant@csivideo.com.

QUICK FACTS

Company: Apple Cupertino, Calif.; 408-966-1010

Product: DVD Studio Pro
Features: Full-featured, professional-level implementation of the DVD Video specification; multi-angle video, multi-sound tracks, subtitles, web links; produces DLT files for replication or burns directly to disc via several DVD burners.

Price: $999
Website: www.apple.com

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