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AUTHORING AND BURNING WITH DVD STUDIO PRO

STEP THREE - DVD Studio Pro

You should now have two files from Compressor on your Desktop.   One is the video (the .m2v file) and the other is the audio (the .ac3 file).  These files are already in NTSC DVD compliant form and just need to be placed into a DVD project and burned.

You should note that DVD Studio Pro is a piece of software that is as complicated as anything else you've used in this class.  The following set of instructions are not as detailed as the previous instructions and may require some work on your part.  However, I will note again that you are NOT required to actually burn a DVD for this class.   These instructions are merely here for those students who are interested in doing this for themselves.

If you are not interested in this portion of the tutorial, please jump ahead to page 4 which wraps up this tutorial, otherwise you can continue to how to use DVD Studio Pro to make a DVD

Start DVD Studio Pro
You might get a question about how you want things setup.  If you do, you are going to be making an SD, NTSC DVD and you can select "Basic" for the layout.

Whether you got that setup question or not, once you're in DVD Studio Pro you should make sure that everything is set up properly.

Go to Window > Configurations > and select Basic
You need to be able to see the "Assets" window and while the "Advanced" and "Extended" window layouts will make that possible by default, they also include a number of windows you won't be using here.   So select the "Basic" layout and then go to the "Window" menu and select "Assets" (apple+1).  The Assets window should appear.  Dock it somewhere.

Now make sure that all of your settings are correct.  You need to know if you are making a 4:3 or a 16:9 DVD.   For the projects in this class, you should be making a 16:9 DVD. 

Go to:  DVD Studio Pro > Preferences > Project
Set it for "SD DVD" and "NTSC" if it is not already
In the "General" tab, set your SD Display Mode to "16:9"
If you don't want any motion menus, go to the "Menu" tab and change Motion Duration to 0
In the "Simulator" tab, set the Playback Output > Resolution to SD and the Display Mode to 16:9
In the Encoding > MPEG-2 SD you can set your encoding options.  Since you have used Compressor to encode your files, this isn't necessary.

Click "OK" and return to the program.

Drag your .m2v and .ac3 files into the "Assets" window (you can also use File > Import > Asset...)

Select the "Menu Editor" window (the large one which probably says "Untitled" at the top) and click the "Menu" tab.

If you want a custom background, it needs to be in your "Assets" first.  You can use your actual movie for a background image if you'd like.  Go to the "Inspector" window (which can be opened and closed via the "inspector" button on the "Menu Editor" window) and click on the "Background" drop down menu.  Here you can select the asset from which the background will be pulled.  Here you can also se the "start" and "End" points for the looping, as well as the duration.

By clicking the “Graphical” tab at the top of the "Menu Editor" window (the one that’s showing you your dvd) you will see all the contents.  You should have one menu and one "track".  If you do not have a track, right-click and add one.    To add your video TO the track, grab BOTH the MPEG-2 Video and the AC3 Audio files from your assets and drop them into the green "Track 1" icon.

If you wish, you can actually drag your assets directly into the blank area of the Graphical tab and it will create a new track automatically.

Now that you've added your video and audio to a track, you have to get a way to access that track (and/or the chapters within it) from your main menu.   If you’ve set chapter markers in FCP (or elsewhere) then you can easily make separate buttons for each chapter.  If you can see the "Track Editor" timeline (apple+9), it will show your chapter marks.  For now, we'll just look at setting up a single button for the track.

In the “palette” window, you can add your buttons.  Click the “styles” tab and then the “buttons” button (instead of the text, which is where it seems to default to) then select your buttons.  I like the “mosaic square” buttons, they’re mutli-colored squares.   Drag them onto your background/menu.   You can add text directly to these buttons by entering it into the "Text" box and it will appear attached to the button, or you can type text wherever you want on the menu itself by double clicking on the background.

You can also create buttons by clicking and dragging on the Menu's background.  If you do this, go into the Inspector window's settings and select the "Style" tab.  Now select a "Shape" and add a drop shadow by checking the "Shadow" box.  

Here you can also select an "Asset" from which to make the button.   If the "Selected Highlight" color is preventing you from seeing the asset selected for your button, change the opacity to "0"
Add some text below the button and add a drop-shadow to that as well.

Also, to ensure you’re putting the buttons in a good place, you should turn on the “title safe”  and "action safe" markers.  You do this by going to the “settings” drop down menu that’s to the upper right of your DVD background.

Now, each button needs a “target", which is very simple.   You just set the target to whatever Asset you want to be triggered when the button is clicked.   Select your button and then, in the "Inspector" window, go to the Target dropdown menu > Tracks and Stories > your asset > Either a chapter or a track.

The “advanced” tab will also tell you where the remote will take the focus (to the next button, right left up down etc)

Back in the "Menu Editor", you should go to the “graphical” tab again and click on your clip in that view because a DIFFERENT set of settings will appear in the "Inspector" window (these are the settings for the tracks themselves as opposed to being just for the button).   It is here that you can set things like the "end jump" which is important so you can set what happens after each track is done playing (like go to the next clip or go to the main menu or whatever)

From there, watch your dvd using the simulator and then burn it by clicking the "Burn" button in the "Menu Editor" window.
Alternately, you can “build” it, (File > Advanced Burn > Build) which will save it as a file to burn later.

Move on to the next step, what is due for the final project

FORWARD TO PAGE 4