DVD Studio Pro 3 In The Studio (O'Reilly Digital Studio) [Paperback]

Marc Loy (Author)

Book Description

Series: O'Reilly Digital Studio | Publication Date: February 1, 2004

Apple's DVD Studio Pro, released in 2001, provided a low-cost, professional solution for home and small business DVD authoring. Today, the highly sophisticated yet easy-to-use DVD Studio Pro 3 allows independent filmmakers, video producers, trainers, event videographers, and enthusiasts to create professional-grade DVDs on the Macintosh platform. Pair the program with DVD Studio Pro 3: In the Studio, and you've got everything you need to embrace the digital video revolution.

This indispensable book gives you the tools and know-how to master DVD Studio Pro 3. Oversized and in full color, the highly visual DVD Studio Pro 3: In the Studio is ideal for Macintosh ProApps developers--those who use Final Cut Pro 4 and Shake 3--as well as for prosumer and professional filmmakers who wish to transfer their projects to DVDs. The book goes well beyond the program's features list to demystify the entire process of DVD design and authoring.

Author Marc Loy, who has been using DVD Studio Pro since its inception, goes beyond a simple discussion about the DVD Studio Pro 3 interface and entices readers to experience the program's powerful capabilities as they create eye-catching, innovative DVD designs. He covers the actual protocols involved with the DVD files and filesystems, pixel aspect ratio issues, and common "gotchas" using both still and motion media. He also delivers plenty of tips and tricks for using dynamic buttons. DVD Studio Pro 3: In the Studio explores most everything you need and want to know, including importing from Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, making motion video menus available, effective looping of video and audio, adding multilingual menus and subtitles, encoding rules for DVDs, scripting, and mass duplication hunts.

DVD Studio Pro 3: In the Studio is a professional-level book for anyone who's serious about creating high-impact, professional-level DVDs to make your unique vision a digital video reality.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marc Loy is a senior programmer at Galileo Systems, LLC, but his day job seems to be teaching Java and Perl to various companies -- including Sun Microsystems. He has played with Java since the alpha days and can't find his way back to C. He is developing an interactive learning application at Galileo written entirely in Java. He received his master's degree in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and still lives in Madison with his partner, Ron Becker. He does find time to relax by playing the piano and/or throwing darts, depending on how successful the day of teaching or programming was.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media (February 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596005881
• ISBN-13: 978-0596005887
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,540,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You have to see this to believe it, November 6, 2004

By 

James J. Elliott (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: DVD Studio Pro 3 In The Studio (O'Reilly Digital Studio) (Paperback)

This book breaks new ground for O'Reilly. I'm used to finding great technical content in their books--that's what they're famous for--but media tools like DVD Studio Pro require a more visual approach for explanation, and Marc delivers this extremely effectively.

The examples are numerous, on target, and very thorough. They walk you through the process of learning and achieving anything you might need to produce a compelling, professional DVD experience. And what really struck me is how unbelievably good the book looks. Every page is beautiful, glossy color with a clean, easy-to-follow layout, and huge numbers of screen shots and visuals.

If you have a chance to flip through this book in person you'll realize how much you need it when you're starting to create DVDs. Or you can order it sight unseen and be pleasantly surprised.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Check out the hyperlinking ability, November 10, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: DVD Studio Pro 3 In The Studio (O'Reilly Digital Studio) (Paperback)

The Apple DVD Studio Pro is a popular but very complex tool for authoring DVDs. This book shows why it is popular, and also offers an improvement on the Apple documentation. The program has immense ability to record audio and video and to merge these in as intricate a fashion as you desire. There is a panoply of editing functions. For such things as adding subtitles to video tracks. Or supporting several languages using the audio tracks. Or to have a multistory project.

Where ever possible, the book shows how Studio Pro has automated the steps in each of these tasks. There are many colour screen captures revealing the menus you invoke, and the results they generate.

Plus, in today's Web oriented world, Studio Pro lets you insert hyperlinks using DVD@ccess. These links can go into menus, markers and slides. So that the user can reach out into the Web (or local files). In this way, you can use the DVD and Web to complement each other. Imagine producing a game DVD with links to your website. So that a gamer can easily engage in a multiplayer scenario, or download the latest 3 dimensional world. In this way, you can offer more fresh material to the gamer. Increases the value of your website, and helps you get paid.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to a tricky application, November 10, 2004

By 

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: DVD Studio Pro 3 In The Studio (O'Reilly Digital Studio) (Paperback)

If ever Apple made an application that could use some usability work it's DVD Studio Pro. It's a comprehensive and powerful application that has a user interface that only a mother could love. That's why I found this book so critical. It's an end-to-end guide from the very basics of DVD construction through to using templates and building custom transitions. There are also pitstops along the way into building DVD games and creating easter eggs.

As with O'Reilly's other book on DVD construction, Adobe Encore DVD, one of the other benefits of the book is the content ideas that it gives you. Though I found the examples in this book slightly less appealing than those in the Encore book.

Very well written with appropriate, not overwhelming, use of screenshots and illustrations. This is a must have for DVD Studio Pro users.