EXCLUSIVES

DVD Studio Pro® 2
Words by Trey Yancy
April 2004

With the arrival of such applications as Final Cut Pro® and DVD Studio Pro, desktop video has since progressed to the point that projects ranging from television series to feature films are now being produced entirely on the Mac®. Introduced three years ago with a price tag of $999 (one fifth of its former price as an Astarté product), DVD Studio Pro 2 (DVDSP2) is now available for only $500 and has consumer-friendly features that go much further than Final Cut Express in blurring the line between pro and consumer applications; yet it provides virtually every feature short of cell commands that any professional DVD author could want.

DVDSP2, with its ability to import iMovie® projects, its drag-and-drop features, its optional simplified interface, and its aggressive price point is largely targeted at prosumer users; this does not diminish its standing as a serious high-end application. It supports up to 99 tracks, stories, and slideshows per project; and it can handle multiple video, audio, and subtitle streams with up to 9 video streams, 32 subtitle streams, 99 chapter markers, and 99 story segments per track.

It also supports scripting (up to 128 command lines per script and up to 10,000 scripts per project), DVD@ccess web interactivity, copy protection, GPRM access, two-pass variable bit rate encoding, complete asset management, and support for multiple languages (171 in all); and it includes a built-in menu editor with support for up to 10,000 menus with 36 buttons per menu. And this is just for starters.

New Features

While Version 1.5 added such features as OS X compatibility, the importation of markers from Final Cut Pro, and the ability to create hybrid data and video DVDs, Version 2 goes much further. The first thing you notice is a customizable user interface with a variety of presets, a tabbed palette, a customizable toolbar, and the ability to pull the interface apart and arrange things as you wish (multiple monitor users rejoice!). You also find a timeline-based track editor that allows the merging of multiple assets, zooming, markers with thumbnails, and more. There are also a variety of menu creation tools, a wealth of canned menu templates with drop zones, support for custom templates, alignment grids, the ability to create custom hot spots with irregular shapes, three sets of button highlights, the ability to type directly on the background, buttons with text, text-only buttons, a context sensitive drop palette, support for both 4:3 and 16:9 menu assets within the same project, and more.

Version 2 also features integrated automatic QuickTime® MPEG and audio encoding that can take place in the background simultaneously with your authoring activities. It also supports mixed angle tracks that can be shorter than the main stream thereby conserving disc space while allowing more than one section of angles in the same stream. Slideshows can now be converted to tracks, making it possible to add subtitles, additional audio streams, and the like.

Thanks to a connections tab you can now create and view connections between all projects elements via drag-and-drop. Improvements can also be seen in the creation, import and use of subtitles, a more powerful and more intuitive script editor, and improved asset management with nested folders, including asset info in associated columns. The simulator now supports clickable menu buttons, and it can simulate various viewing environments, including region codes, aspect ratios, and languages. You can also view and enter SPRM and GPRM values making it easier to test and verify scripts.

Version 2 also supports DVD-R CMF, enabling DVD-Rs to contain data that can be used to add copy protection and other high-end features during replication. There is also support for single- and dual-layer 8 cm disks. Dual-layer support includes parallel and opposite track paths and the ability to select the dual-layer break point.

In addition to writing to DLT drives during output, you can now read from DLTs as well, enabling you to create disk images that can later be used for creating a DVD-R or for copying to another tape. You can also copy various builds, including VIDEO_TS folders, for example, to DVD-Rs and to DLT.

Observations

Coming from a background saturated in palette-laden image editing and illustration applications, as well as various track-heavy multimedia applications, I found DVDSP2Õs open, customizable interface to be more than welcome. It made good use of a second monitor and provided a good reason for me to finally plug in that third video card and monitor. The interface can still be as compact as you wish, making it easy for iDVDª jockeys to ease into the big leagues and to move up the food chain as the complexity of their projects increases.

There are a number of things to be aware of, however. A few examples follow. Segmented files from some encoders may need to be combined before importing. There is also a limitation of only one template per menu (making it impossible to vary the menu layout by language). Button assignments applied via drag-and-drop require manual updating. And, although the resulting trimming is not reflected in the simulator, subtitles can not span chapter markers. In addition, some DVD players may not correctly process the parental controls, allowing the display of otherwise restricted content. There is also a minor peccadilloÑclicking on the desktop hides some interface elements but not others.

There are also some font issues, including the clipping of the last character in italicized fonts (cured by adding a trailing space), the unannounced substitution of missing fonts (avoided by simple housekeeping), and the inability to display fonts that exceed the height of the text box.

Conclusions

DVDSP2 is an excellent application. There are a few items that will have you looking forward to a .5 upgrade, but most have workarounds and few of the more serious snags are likely to impact the average user. In addition, it has a price tag and an interface that is very tempting to those who strain at the limitations of iDVDª, puts serious power into the hands of prosumers and corporate AV departments, and has virtually all of the features that a pro user could want.

DVD Studio Pro 2 > Pros: Improved interface, strong feature set, good price > Cons: Minor peccadilloes > Price: $400.00, upgrade $199.00: From > Apple Computer, www.apple.com