Is iDVD 5 the magician of the iLife ’ 05 cortege ? Like a reality - class magician , iDVD ’s 15 new themes hold your tending — by spinning and slide your photos and moving-picture show around the screen . But behind the scene , the DVD - creation program employs a few unexampled tricks that give it more magnate than I expected to see .
More Kindling for the Fire
The most notable advance in the previous rendering , iDVD 4 , was the ability to incinerate as much as two hour of movies and photos to a saucer , count on the encoding preset ( Best Quality or Best Performance ) . Version 5 has the same encryption option , but you ’re not limited to burning to DVD - gas constant media . iDVD 5 can burn directly to DVD+R , as well as the rewriteable DVD - RW and DVD+RW data format , if you have a former - model SuperDrive ( goherefor a list of compatible models ) .
But the better word is that , at long last , iDVD no longer require a built - in SuperDrive to burn discs ( but for lineal combustion from iDVD , this remains Apple ’s only officially supported method ) . Now iDVD provides a sensitive workaround for people who employ external disc burners : relieve As Disc Image . This lineament takes your labor through the normal disc - burning process but wraps it up as a disc image that can be glow successfully from the Finder , or Roxio ’s Toast 6 Titanium ( I used the latter in my exam ) .
Like iMovie HD , iDVD 5 corroborate HDV and 16:9 ( wide - cover ) DV — sort of . Until the standards eubstance finish duking it out over an HD - videodisk specification , iDVD wo n’t be able to burn HD - quality video . However , iDVD converts any HD footage you bring in from iMovie HD ( or Final Cut Pro HD ) to 16:9 DV so that it will play correctly on blanket - cover idiot box . iDVD also imports AVI video , which many digital still cameras ’ moving picture mode produce .
Instant DVD
Another key signature new feature in iDVD 5 is the program ’s ability to do all the workplace for you . If you just want to dump video from a DV tape onto a DVD ( for example , to piece the film dailies a director ask to review before the next shooting day ) , then OneStep videodisc can rewind the magnetic tape in a connected camcorder , import the footage , and burn it to a disc . The resulting disc does n’t include a bill of fare or any sailing — when you insert it into a videodisk histrion , the pic immediately begins to play .
Magician’s Assistant
In general , iDVD 5 feels a bit sprightlier , and it ’s more graceful and helpful during the DVD - foundation unconscious process . you’re able to take care at the Map view horizontally or vertically , zoom in or out , and apply the little disclosure triangles to enshroud or show offset of a project . You ca n’t reorganize a project in the map — a feature I ’d like to see — but you’re able to apply themes to menus and add unexampled menus and sliding board shows without go forth the map .
Other niceties abound . For example , the Burn Progress windowpane is much more informative , present all of the steps and indicating where you are in the physical process . And as iDVD submit your computer menu and movie footage , it displays a small preview .
Animated Themes
Macworld’s Buying Advice
You likely would n’t buy the iLife ’ 05 suite for iDVD 5 alone , but as a accompaniment to iMovie HD , the programme is a satisfying — if incremental — improvement on the last adaptation . If you burn mul - tiple versions of your task , just the ability to burn off onto rewriteable DVD media will belike earn back your investment within a short stop of prison term . And Apple has certainly set the phase for the dear future , when HD - videodisk media will grant us to watch HD movies on our tremendous HD boob tube .
