DVD Studio Pro: Making a looping DVD
This guide will give you step-by-step instructions to making a looping DVD using DVD Studio Pro.
Guide
- Make sure you have your film saved as a Quicktime movie (.mov). Or you can export from Final Cut Pro using Compressor to create separate MPEG-2 video (.m2v) and AC3 audio (.ac3) files which are already encoded for DVD.
- Open DVD Studio Pro. Select PAL and SD DVD (Standard Definition DVD) and click OK on the welcome page to accept the default settings. HD DVD setting will create a HD DVD which are only compatible with Apple Mac computers
- Choose File > Save to save the project.
- Choose File > Import > Asset, select your video file and click Import.
- Your video appears in the Assets tab. QuickTime movies are automatically split into separate video and audio assets, so unless there is no audio, you will see 1 video asset and 1 audio asset for each QuickTime file you import. QuickTime movies have a yellow Status light to indicate that they need encoding. MPEG-2 video and AC3 audio have a green Status light because they are already encoded.
- Select both the video and audio assets and drag them to Track 1 in the Graphical tab:
- Right-click Menu 1 in the Graphical tab and choose Delete:
- Right-click the track (now renamed) and choose First Play to set it to play automatically:
- With the track still selected, use the Inspector window to create a loop by clicking the End Jump option and setting it to this track, like this:
- Optional: If your video is widescreen, set the Display Mode to 16:9 Letterbox:
- Optional: If your video is less than 1 hour long, you can improve quality and speed up encoding time by changing the encoding settings. Choose DVD Studio Pro > Preferences. Click on Encoding and then the MPEG-2 SD tab and set the following options. Set Mode to Two Pass VBR and set Method to Background Encoding, this will speed up the process. Click OK when done:
- If you want to test your DVD before burning it to disc, click Simulate. Close the Simulate window when finished testing. To burn to disc, click Burn and insert a blank DVD when prompted. (If you have already inserted a disc and Finder prompts you with what to do - click Ignore):
FAQ's
Q: What type of disc do I need?
A: For single use: DVD+R or DVD-R. To re-use the disc: DVD+RW or DVD-RW. DVD Studio Pro will automatically erase the disc before re-using it.
Q: What is encoding?
A: Encoding is the process of converting video and audio assets to a format that is compatible with a DVD player. For a standard definition (SD) DVD, video is encoded to MPEG-2 (.m2v) and audio is encoded to AC3 (.ac3).
Q I have some HD footage, will I lose quality if I burn it to a SD DVD?
A You will see a noticeable difference on a computer screen and on HD flat screens. This is due your footage frame size being smaller. Your HD footage frame size may have been 1280x720 or 1920x1080, your frame size for SD DVD will measure 720x576 maximum.
Tips
Troubleshooting
Links
Resources for Final Cut Studio applications including links for video tutorials
Apple's Help Library for all the pro applications - check this out for quick answers
Apple's support page for DVD Studio Pro
DVD Studio Pro Forum - get answers from other users