CREATE SIMPLE DVDs with DVD Studio Pro.

This handout will walk you through the process of creating a simple DVD from DVD Studio Pro. A simple DVD means that the disk you create will play your movie, and only your movie.

It is assumed that you will be done editing your project, as you will not be able to change it without restarting this process.

First, we start with a question: Is your movie Standard Definition (SD) or High Definition (HD)?

Here is how you can tell: With your project open in Final Cut Pro, scroll right in the Browser window. You are looking for the Frame size information.

IF the Frame size of your Sequence is 720 x 480, your video is a Standard Definition video, proceed to step 1.

If either of these numbers is larger, your video is High Definition (HD), and you need to convert it to Standard Definition to read properly in most DVD players. Find information (like a handout) on this technique or ask for assistance.

1) Begin by Exporting your movie from Final Cut Pro.

Save it to your personal Hard Drive or to the Tempstorage drive. Where you save your file is not as important as you knowing where your file is. Do not save to a server such as the Transfer or Classes server.

2) Check the media file you just exported.

Find the file, right click on it, and open it as a Quicktime movie. Watch it to make sure this is the exact movie you want on your DVD.

Great! You’re done with Final Cut Pro. Quit the program (Command Q) to make DVD Studio Pro run faster.

3) In the ‘Applications’ folder, open ‘DVD Studio Pro.’

4) Set up your DVD encoding. This must be done BEFORE you create your DVD.

Open DVD Studio Pro ‘Preferences’ by clicking on the ‘DVD Studio Pro’ menu in the upper left corner and selecting ‘Preferences…’ (Command ,).

Click the ‘Encoding’ button on the far right hand side of the Preferences window.

Make sure you are in the ‘MPEG-2 SD’ tab, so it looks like the picture below.

Choose the correct Aspect Ratio for your project. If you have a 16:9 movie, this is the place to make your entire DVD 16:9.

Under ‘Mode’ select ‘Two Pass VBR.’

Set your Bit rate to ‘6.0 Mbps’ and your Max Bit Rate to ‘7.5 Mbps.’

Set your ‘Motion Estimation’ to ‘Best’ and click ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’ to exit.

6) Create a New DVD project for your changes to take effect by going to ‘File > New’ (Command N).

Save a copy of your project (Command S).

Name it whatever you would like your DVD to be named, and do not leave it as ‘Untitled DVD.’

7) Find your movie output from Final Cut Pro. Assign it to a video track by dragging it onto the green ‘Track 1.’

You will see your movie appear in the ‘Assets’ window in the bottom left hand portion of the screen, your video and audio will be on a track on the timeline in the center of the screen, and what was previously ‘Track 1’ will now be the title of your movie.

Now you have a Video on a Track!

8) In the upper left hand corner, select your blue ‘Menu 1’ and press ‘delete’ on your keyboard. We are not making a Menu with our Simple DVD.

9) Right click on your green Video Track. Select ‘First Play.’ A new icon will appear on the track.

Now, whenever you place your DVD in a player, the first thing it will play is your track. All DVDs need a ‘First Play’ so they know where to start.

10) Save your movie (Command S).

11) Now it’s time to check your DVD to make sure it works. Click on the ‘Simulate’ button at the top of the screen.

This is exactly how your DVD will behave when loaded into a DVD player. Make sure it works like you want it to. If it does not, backtrack and figure out where you’re having problems.

DVD burning is a 2 step process.

In the first step, called ‘Building,’ the computer makes a mental image of what it is going to burn to that DVD.

In the second step, called ‘Formatting,’ the information from that mental image is recorded to the disk.

12) Let’s Build and Format your disk. Click on the ‘Build/Format’ button at the top of the screen.

Make sure your DVD has a name other than ‘Untitled Disc.’

Click the ‘Choose’ button to choose where to place the mental image from the disc Building process. You should put the DVD build in it’s own folder on the ‘Tempstorage’ drive or your personal Hard Drive. This is useful if you want multiple copies of your DVD, or you come back to change it later.

12) Click ‘Build & Burn’. DVD Studio Pro will prompt you to insert a disc.

The slot is on the right side. Insert the disc with the label side facing you.

Acceptable media includes: CD & DVD + and – Rs.

Now you wait until the computer is finished Building and Burning. Congratulations on creating your Super-Simple DVD.

Make sure you test your finished disc on a DVD player to be sure it works!