DVD Creation tools: A comparison of features

See part 1 of this article for a more detailed look at the process of creating a DVD and the tools described in the chart below.

Chart 1: DVD Authoring Software Feature Comparison

A few of the terms noted above require some explanation. "Background encoding" is a unique feature of Apple's iDVD2 that allows the video content to be rendered into the required MPEG-2 format in the background, while you work on building the interface. However, all of the PC programs we tested can render in the background, if you are working in a different program. For example, as we are writing this, the Ulead program is rendering a movie in a minimized window.

A commonly reported problem with iDVD is an unexpected hang during the encoding process with one minute to go. This issue can usually be resolved by turning off the "Hard drive sleep" option in the Energy Saver panel.

The Encoded video quality is arguably the most important consideration of all. After all, it defines how all your effort will pay off. In this regard, Apple's programs fare very well, here. Note, however, that you can use a separate MPEG-2 encoder (such as the free TMPGEnc, from http://www.tmpgenc.com) to produce source files of the highest possible quality for any of these programs.

Although iDVD only supports 60 or 90 minutes of video per single-sided disc, double-sided media is available with double the 4,700,000-byte (roughly 4.4GB) capacity of the single-sided media.

Apple's iDVD doesn't support MPEG files, offering the weak excuse in its Help file: "You can't add MPEG files to an iDVD project because they don't contain standard video tracks." Yeah, well come almost everybody else's program can do it?

On the bright side, Apple in July 2002 announced what it calls the first scriptable layout application for video content, iDVD 2.1. Utilizing iDVD's advanced AppleScript support, professionals and developers alike can now automate the creation if DVDs by linking iDVD to media asset systems and other scriptable applications such as iTunes, Adobe Photoshop, and Media 100i. The AppleScript Collection for iDVD 2.1 is available now. Read more....

An even more important advance came in July 2003, with the release of iDVD 3.0.1. This release marked the first version of iDVD to work on a G4-based Mac without a DVD drive. You can't actually burn data to a disc, but at least you can run the program, create and edit documents and then save them for burning on a Mac with a SuperDrive. Version 4 expands upon this capability, with a feature called "Save as archive." Unfortunately, our tests of this capability, using DVD Studio Pro 2, demonstrated that iDVD projects moved into Apple's more expensive tool lose many of their features, including the animated themes that are for many users, the most attractive feature of iDVD.

Our Editor's Choice in this category, Ulead's MovieFactory, was updated to version 2 in Jan. 2004. Among the many new features of the 2.0 release is a remarkable capability we've not seen in any competing package: the ability to "edit on disc" on DVD+R/RW media. It also includes extensive support for DVD-VR and DVD+VR discs, containing DVD-ROM data in addition to video and audio content. A trial version of the program (102MB, 30-day trial) is freely downloadable from the Ulead website.

In part 3 of this report, we'll look at other recently updated DVD authoring tools, including Formac's devideon, Ahead's Nerovision Express, and others. Check back soon!

For further reading:

• www.macintouch.com/idvdreview.html