Apple iDVD 08 User Manual

iDVD

Getting Started

Get to know the iDVD window and controls, and learn how to create your own DVD.

Chapter 1 3 Welcome to iDVD

What You’ll Learn

Before You Begin

What You Need

The iDVD Interface

Chapter 2 6 Learn iDVD

Step 1: Locate the Movies, Photos, and Audio Files to Use in This Tutorial

Step 2: Create a New Project

Setting the Encoding Quality

Step 3: Choose a Theme for Your DVD

Step 4: Add a Movie

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18 20 22 22 23 25 26 27 28 28 30 30

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Editing the Menu Title

Step 5: Add a Slideshow

Adding a Transition Between Images

Adding a Soundtrack Step 6: Add Media to Drop Zones Step 7: Add Menu Text and Change Its Appearance Step 8: Change the Appearance of Buttons

Editing Button Text

Changing Button Shapes

Changing the Button Image Step 9: Add Transitions to Buttons Step 10: Organize Your Project in Map View

Changing Map View Layout

Adding an Autoplay Movie Step 11: Burn Your DVD

Checking the Project Info Window

Checking Project Files

Checking Your Project for Errors

Burning Your Project to DVD Continue to Explore iDVD Getting More Help

Welcome to iDVD

iDVD gives you the tools to create Hollywood-style DVDs that incorporate your own movies, photos, and music. Sharing your memories has never been easier.

You can play the discs you burn using iDVD in most DVD players, including computers with DVD drives.

To learn how to use iDVD and make your first basic DVD using your own movie and photos, follow this easy tutorial.

What You’ll Learn

If you follow all the steps in this tutorial, you’ll build an iDVD project that includes a movie, a main menu, a submenu to let viewers go directly to specific scenes, and a slideshow created from your digital photos. You’ll become familiar with how iMovie and iDVD work together, and you’ll also learn to do the following:

Bring media from your other iLife applications into an iDVD project

Customize the iDVD menus

Make and customize slideshows

Use map view for efficient editing

Burn a DVD

Play a DVD

Before You Begin

To make it easier to complete this tutorial, print this document before you start.

In many tasks shown in this tutorial and in iDVD Help, you need to choose menu commands, which look like this:

Choose Edit > Copy.

The first term after (or terms) are the items you choose from that menu.

You don’t have to complete the tutorial in one sitting. You can save your work at any point and return to it later. To save your work, choose File > Save.

Choose

is the name of a menu in the iDVD menu bar. The next term

What You Need

To complete all the parts of this tutorial, you need the following:

A movie from iMovie that you have shared (in iMovie, choose Share > Media Browser) so that it is accessible in iDVD.

You can use any format from iMovie, including HDV, MPEG-4, iSight, and even 16:9 widescreen movies.

Images for a slideshow in your iPhoto library.

Audio files in your iTunes library.

A computer with a SuperDrive, or a computer with a connected third-party DVD burner. (This is not required if you don’t plan to burn your project to a DVD.)

If you have video but no photos, or photos but no video, you can still do this tutorial. Your final results will be different, but you’ll still have a project that you can burn to a disc. Experiment a little and have fun.

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Welcome to iDVD

Drop zone

Drag video clips,

slideshows, or still photos

to each drop zone to

customize your menu.

Add button

Click to add buttons for

navigating to content—a

movie, submenu, or

slideshow—you want to

link to from the iDVD

menu.

The iDVD Interface

As you go through the tutorial, you’ll learn about the various controls and menus in iDVD. The main window, shown below, is your console for creating your DVD. From here, you can access almost every feature for creating and editing menus, and adding movies, photos, and music to create a dazzling DVD.

Map view, Motion, and

Drop Zone buttons

Use these buttons to

switch to map view, view

menu motion, and access

the drop zone editor.

Volume slider and Preview button

Control the computer volume as you work in iDVD. Click the Preview button to preview your project.

Burn button

Click this button to burn your DVD when your project is done.

Chapter 1

Welcome to iDVD

Learn iDVD

Get started now creating a dazzling DVD project using your own movies, photos, and music.

When you’ve finished this tutorial, you’ll have a complete project, which you can continue to edit on your own or burn to a DVD. And you’ll have a taste for all the creative things you can do in iDVD to make sharing your movies and photos better than ever.

Step 1: Locate the Movies, Photos, and Audio Files to Use in This Tutorial

Before you start your project, make sure you know which movies, photos, and audio files you want to use in your project and check that they’re in the right format for iDVD. For this tutorial, ideally you should have access to one movie, several photos, and a few audio files.

These items are automatically in the proper format for use in iDVD:

Movies created in iMovie

To use an iMovie movie in iDVD, you must first choose Share > Media Browser in iMovie. Specify which size of movie to share, and then click Publish. Large is the suggested size for use in iDVD. If your camcorder does not shoot high-definition video, however, the large size option may not be available.

The shared movie is then automatically available in the Movies pane of iDVD.

Important:

correctly to a disc using iDVD. Check your camera’s manual for instructions about setting the audio bit rate and depth.

Music files in your iTunes library

Photos in your iPhoto library

If you have other files whose formats you are unsure about, search for “file formats” in iDVD Help for more information.

Video footage must be recorded using 16-bit audio in order to be burned

In the Media pane of iDVD, shown below, you can access songs and photos in your iTunes and iPhoto libraries. If you have audio and image files in folders outside of iTunes and iPhoto, you can drag those folders to the list of photos or audio files in the Media pane after you open a project in iDVD.

Click these buttons to access specific media files.

Click the Media button to access your movies, photos, and music.

Movies stored in the Movies folder on your hard disk appear automatically in the Media pane. You can also drag movies from other folders on your hard disk to the movies list.

In iDVD preferences, you can specify other folders whose contents you want iDVD to show automatically in the Media pane. Movies stored in these folders are automatically added to the movies list in the Media pane. For instructions about how to do this, search for “add media” in iDVD Help.

Chapter 2

Learn iDVD

Step 2: Create a New Project

With your music, movies, and photos in the correct format and in locations where you can easily access them, you’re ready to get started.

To start a new iDVD project:

If iDVD isn’t open, click the iDVD application icon in the Dock. Click the “Create a New Project” button in the opening dialog, shown below.

If the opening dialog isn’t showing, choose File > New. Select a location to store your new project, and then click Create.

With Magic iDVD, you select a theme and the movies and photos you want to include, and iDVD does the rest.

With OneStep DVD, you can copy footage from your camera directly onto a DVD.

If you’ve already created a project, the iDVD window may open with an animated menu and music. Simply click the Motion button, shown below, to stop the animation and sound.

Motion button

Setting the Encoding Quality

iDVD “encodes” your project’s information before burning it to a disc. It’s a good idea to choose an encoding setting before you begin your project. There are three possible settings, and which one you choose affects the final quality of your project and how long the encoding process will take.

8 Chapter 2

Learn iDVD

To set the encoding quality:

Choose iDVD > Preferences, and then click Projects. Then choose one of the encoding settings.

By default, iDVD is set to the correct mode for your region. NTSC format is used in North America.

Choose an encoding setting before you add a movie to your project.

When you select Best Performance, iDVD encodes your video in the background as you’re working on your project instead of waiting until you burn your project. This can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to create a finished DVD. This is a good choice if your project is an hour or less in duration (for a single-layer disc). You’ll finish your project more quickly, and the encoding quality will be excellent for the amount of video you have.

High Quality is the preferred option for larger projects that are between one and two hours long (for a single-layer disc). With this setting, iDVD chooses the best bit rate possible for the amount of data you need to fit onto your disc. This option “squeezes” all your data onto a disc at a bit rate that ensures good final video quality. Because iDVD doesn’t encode in the background with this option, it takes longer to burn your disc. The encoding process begins when you burn the DVD rather than when you start working on your project.

Professional Quality encoding uses advanced technology to encode your video, resulting in video with the best quality possible on your burned DVD. As with the High Quality option, using Professional Quality encoding limits you to roughly two hours for your project on a single-layer disc. This option requires about twice as much time to encode a project as the High Quality option; use it if you’re not concerned about time.

The quality of your DVD ultimately depends on the quality of your source material. Lower-resolution movies, such as QuickTime movies downloaded from the Internet, or VHS video, will produce lower-quality results than video taken with a DV or HDV video camera and edited with video editing software such as iMovie, Final Cut Express, or Final Cut Pro.

Chapter 2

Learn iDVD

Step 3: Choose a Theme for Your DVD

The overall look of a DVD menu and its buttons is called a by the colors and graphic elements in the menu, the font style and size of text, the menu button shape, and much more. A that work together, providing a unified appearance to submenus.

You can use one of the professional-quality themes that come with iDVD. Or, working with one of the iDVD themes as a base, you can customize the theme and save it as a favorite to use for other projects. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to start with an existing iDVD theme and customize aspects of it.

Note:

Use the Soft Frame theme, specified in the steps below, for this tutorial so that you can follow along easily. After you finish the tutorial, you can use what you’ve learned to choose a different theme and make other changes before you burn your DVD.

To choose the theme for your DVD menu:

Click the Themes button at the bottom of the iDVD window.

The Themes pane opens on the right side of the iDVD window.

Scroll up and down to see the themes.

Click the pop-up menu and choose 7.0 Themes, and then scroll down until you see Soft Frame.

Click the disclosure triangle next to the theme, which reveals all menu templates in the Soft Frame theme family.

Click Main to select the theme family for your project.

After a short pause, the menu changes to the theme you selected. The title on the menu changes to the name of the theme you selected.

theme family

theme.

The theme is defined

is a collection of menu designs

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Learn iDVD

Click the disclosure

triangle to see all the

menu templates in the

theme family.

The Soft Frame theme, like many iDVD themes, defaults to the widescreen format (16:9). To switch to standard format (4:3), choose Project > “Switch to Standard (4:3).”

Choose a set of themes using this pop-up menu.

Note:

After you modify a menu, you can save it as a custom theme. A custom theme appears in the Themes pane, listed below Favorites. You can use it for future projects, just as you would any other theme.

Chapter 2

Learn iDVD

+ 24 hidden pages

Apple iDVD 08 User Manual

Contents

Welcome to iDVD

What You’ll Learn

Before You Begin

What You Need

The iDVD Interface

Learn iDVD

Setting the Encoding Quality