DVD Authoring

I'm highly, highly interested in picking up a Mac for my side business doing wedding videos. I'm unfamiliar with my options as far as editing video and authoring DVD's, though. I'm definitely on a budget and the Mac itself is nearly breaking the bank...

Final Cut Express seems like a great, inexpensive option for editing. But what about DVD authoring? I'd like to have some degree of customization on the menus (i.e. custom background images, maybe the ability to insert a video clip). And, any editing alternatives would be great too.

Thanks!

DVD Studio Pro, that's pretty much it, but it's an amazing program. Worth the $.

I run a similar business and I use Final Cut/DVD Studio Pro. Works like a charm and looks incredibly professional.

Oh and you can do all of those things you mentioned relatively easily. :mac:

DVD Studio Pro is pretty much the best you can buy. I myself use Final Cut Pro 4 which is great.

Couldnt agree more with the above 2 posts. I use Final Cut Studio Pro as well and it does wonders, Very much so worth the money.

DVD Studio Pro gives you too many options to list here, if you have ever used Adobe Encore, you will love DVD Studio

Encore is what I used on the PC.

Is it still possible to get it apart from the entire package? I'm sure they're cheaper to get 'em with the suite but I saw on Apple's website that it goes for $1200, which is a bit much right now.

I bought final cut studio for my powermac.. it truely is worth it when working in this business. I would have to say.. just do a few more weddings using final cut express and maybe idvd then pick up the studio.. it is deffinately worth the money, makes you look every profesional.

iDVD... seems priced reasonably. I notice the emphasis on themes. Is it possible to at least do a custom menu background with that? (Just a still pic.) What about audio; can you have a short audio loop on the menu? It looks like all of that is determined by the theme and not editable.

PowerBookG4 said:

I bought final cut studio for my powermac.. it truely is worth it when working in this business. I would have to say.. just do a few more weddings using final cut express and maybe idvd then pick up the studio.. it is deffinately worth the money, makes you look every profesional.

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I actually made a completely custom dvd with idvd it however took 3 months to complete before i eventually decided to scrap it and move on to dvd studio pro because it was not reasonable even though that dvd was my first project I figured that even after I was good that It would still take a while, but to answer your question if you only want to make a basic cusmized dvd (still picture and audio loop) you can.. some advice I have would be if you could work out some way to make the lower portion of your menu to be white that way you won't see the apple logo.. hope that answered all your questions.

My company has a competitor that uses iDVD, his stuff gets blown out of the water compared to our DVDs.

Bite the bullet and get DVD Studio Pro, it will be worth it, I promise you. :mac:

surfwax95 said:

My company has a competitor that uses iDVD, his stuff gets blown out of the water compared to our DVDs.

Bite the bullet and get DVD Studio Pro, it will be worth it, I promise you. :mac:

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Completely agree. what I can do with dvd studio pro looks like it came straight from a hollywood studio as opposed to somebody's home computer in their basement. I was just saying use iDVD until you can get the money to buy it, since being able to afford something is the most important factor in buying something.

Well, I've got several weddings backed up thanks to faulty PC hardware. I really can't afford right now to get the Studio package and the computer, but once the weddings are completed I'll be able to get the Studio package. So if iDVD can enable me to muddle through these 3 I've got backed up, I'll have ample fundage to get Studio. iDVD, if I go that route, would be a very temporary fix.

idvd would work for 3 of them, then you can advertise that you upgraded to better software and hardware after these 3 weddings.

I bought the iMac today and I was loving it up until I installed Final Cut Express HD. I tried to launch the software and received a configuration error; something about requiring an AGP video card being required. Then it closed down.

Anyone else ever get that? I was under the impression these things came ready to go...

EDIT - Oh... I got the iMac G5 20" with an extra 512MB of RAM to make a grand total of 1GB.

I have heard this, but i have also heard people say they have not had problems with it, I guess you will have to upgrade the video card, or return the system and get one with the appropriate card in it.

Nah, turns out it was a software update. I downloaded the update from FCE's website and presto! It works now.

I have to say, I'm really loving this thing.

PowerBookG4 said:

I have heard this, but i have also heard people say they have not had problems with it, I guess you will have to upgrade the video card, or return the system and get one with the appropriate card in it.

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Okay... so, I'm guessing there is no native support for WMV files in Final Cut Express? Are there any workarounds for that?

This isn't critical, but there's a small project I'm working on and the artist has rendered all of his files in wmv format. I'd like to work on the project here on my mac. He could re-render if need be but it'd be much easier if there's a way around it on my end...

Does Anyone know of any sites with tutorials for DVD Studio Pro? I have DVD SP 4, but im just starting out and dont know much about it.
thanks for any help

ffmpegX should be able to convert the file to Apples DV format. Search this site for other similar postings. I'm not sure of the WMV quality, so maybe you'll want to artist to render that to AVI DV format, or Apples if possible.