Apple is famous for killing technology that still has a use. For media creators, nothing exemplifies this more than the untimely death of support for creating and burning professional DVDs. DVD Studio Pro was an incredibly flexible and powerful tool for creating DVDs that rivaled the best of Hollywood. But, it died, along with Final Cut Pro 7, eleven years ago. Final Cut Pro X supports DVDs, but only half-heartedly, with numerous bugs and very limited features.
Since that time, I’ve received countless complaints from producers and editors who make their living creating custom DVDs for clients; especially in the wedding and event markets.
None have been more determined to find a solution than Richard Osso. The death of DVD support dramatically affected his wedding videography business. The problem is that no other technology available on a Mac equalled the power, flexibility and ease of use of DVD Studio Pro. Dick spent years asking Apple and other vendors to provide the features available in DVD Studio Pro. No luck.
With his livelihood at stake, Dick went on a mission to find, if not a solution, then a work-around that would allow him to continue creating DVDs for clients. Earlier this month, he finally had one.
Here is his story, told in his words, but edited for clarity.
NOTE: DVD Studio Pro 4 is 32-bit software. It can not run on any version of macOS or Mac hardware currently shipping.
Image courtesy of Matt Mango (Pexels.com)
Hi Larry:
As a videographer, about 40% of my clients still prefer DVDs. About 4 weeks ago, my Mac G5 computer would not open. I prayed that it had not died. Sadly, it had. The following is my experience in recovering a working version of DVD Studio Pro 4.
The biggest issue was that none of the current DVD creation software had the ability to convert the chapter markers created inside FCP X into DVD chapters. Also, the variety of DVD Main Page templates were cartoonish and in my view, terrible.
So this pushed me to find a fix to run DVDSP4, the best Mac DVD authoring program then and now. It was the start of a journey to get an older computer running the right operating system and the right version of DVD Studio Pro with the right installation serial numbers.
This proved to be a long and winding road.
Image courtesy of Photoscom (Pexels.com)
After talking with various support experts, I purchased an older Mac mini for $60. However, its version of macOS was two versions beyond Snow Leopard.
So, I went on eBay and bought 2 copies of Snow leopard. Once they arrived, Apple Support helped me to wipe clean the Mac Mini so I could load Snow Leopard on it. The installed version was 10.6.3.
I tried to load my old copy of DVDSP4, but it asked me for my serial number. I discovered, that after 12-15 years, I had all the discs, but not the serial number to unlock SP4.
I now went back to eBay and, based on the seller telling me those disks worked for him, I purchased his set of FCP disks for $40. Once these arrived, I loaded DVDSP 4 into the Mac Mini.
When completed, I opened DVDSP4 – which CRASHED immediately. Several times. I then reached out to the seller of those disks for guidance and he said that DVDSP4 required a G3, G4, or G5 machine.
Sigh… time to start over. I needed to replace my dead G5.
I Googled for refurbished computers. My first discovery was a company in California. Being from Boston, I now had to battle the 3-hour time difference. I wrote and spoke with them, and agreed to purchase a G5 machine with enough memory and RAM.
NOTE: Here are the tech requirements for DVD Studio Pro 4
I paid about $350 for this machine, plus $40 in shipping. It arrived about 6 days later with wonderful packing. I opened and installed the G5. Loaded DVDSP4 and launched it.
Once again, it crashed; over and over. I spoke with Larry and he gave me some things to check. I went back into my collection of FCP disks and realized what I purchased was the Academic version of FCP 5.
Larry was helpful in knowing what version of macOS and hardware releases came in sequence. This helped me understand that what I needed were the installation disks for FCP7.
I went back on eBay, and found a full set of FCP 7 disks for $60. When they arrived yesterday, I installed the DVDSP4 Upgrade disk. And I started again to have SERIAL NUMBER issues.
Inside the set of disks, I saw 3 different set of numbers. One set was hand written, and slightly smudged. Tried and tried…..until, I used the last set.
Guess what…..DVDSP4 came back! I took my FCP X DVD project over to the G5 and began the familiar process of authoring a client project.
IT ALL WORKED!
It took me over 4 weeks to figure it out. So, here are the steps you need to take to get a working copy of DVD Studio Pro 4 running.
1. You need a G5 Mac computer. The company I used was DV Warehouse, Inc., 747 Seward St, Los Angelos, CA 90038. Speak with Carol Ravaghi (800) 463-1322 Ext. 21. They have multiple G5 computers.
I paid about $350 plus about $40 shipping from California to Boston
2. Get a copy of Snow Leopard, 10.6 will work, then upgrade if you can to 10.6.6 or 10.6.7.
3. If you have to buy a set of disks because you do not have the serial number, look to eBay for a copy of FCP 7
4. Be sure they come with serial numbers, otherwise, you are locked out.
That’s the formula to success. It took me over 4 weeks, many hours of good Apple Tech Support, many emails from sellers, and the guidance, knowledge and patience of Larry Jordan, that I found my way out of the forest and into the clearing.
I hope this helps anyone in my shoes with clients still wanting to create DVDs. While I expect this computer to only last a couple more years, for now, I’m back in business.
Larry adds: Richard, I was happy to help and DELIGHTED that you have a working system again.
40 Responses to The Incredible Saga to Get DVD Studio Pro Running… Again
Newer Comments →-
Christian Wittmer says:
January 15, 2023 at 1:21 pm
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Larry says:
January 15, 2023 at 2:05 pm
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Rick says:
January 16, 2023 at 3:32 am
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Larry Jordan says:
January 16, 2023 at 5:17 am
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Peter Snowdon says:
January 16, 2023 at 4:49 am
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Larry Jordan says:
January 16, 2023 at 5:16 am
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John says:
January 16, 2023 at 5:59 am
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Larry says:
January 16, 2023 at 6:23 am
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Patrick DonEgan says:
January 16, 2023 at 12:57 pm
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Ed Grogan says:
January 16, 2023 at 6:10 am
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Larry says:
January 16, 2023 at 6:24 am
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Robert White says:
January 16, 2023 at 6:12 am
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Larry Jordan says:
January 16, 2023 at 6:48 am
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Eric Dean Freese says:
January 16, 2023 at 6:57 am
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Larry Jordan says:
January 16, 2023 at 7:05 am
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Ron Matchett says:
January 16, 2023 at 11:33 am
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Rick Foxx says:
January 16, 2023 at 8:07 am
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Larry Jordan says:
January 16, 2023 at 8:12 am
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Clayton Moore says:
January 16, 2023 at 9:10 am
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Tony Palacio says:
January 16, 2023 at 10:35 am
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Larry Jordan says:
January 16, 2023 at 12:01 pm
Newer Comments →Great Story. I absolutely loved DVD studio and for some years made a lot of money with it. Sadly it’s gone and never got a successor. Today I don’t need it anymore, but I liked reading your story. I still have my box of FINAL CUT STUDIO 3 in my wardrobe but don’t need it anymore. Anyone interested?
Christian:
I suspect there will be interest in your discs and serial number. Don’t trash them.
Larry
I too loved DVDSP. Things like Stories were very powerful. However, I’m pretty sure I used to run it on Intel Macs. Also, I thought that Leopard was the last OSX to support Power PC?
I wonder if one could actually get it to run in a virtual machine under VMWare or something similar?
As I no longer have the disks I can’t check this out unfortunately
Rick:
Your idea of using VMware to run DVD Studio Pro virtually is a good one. I use VMware very rarely and I never think of using it in a real-world scenario.
That might be work experimenting with, I think. Thanks for your comments.
Larry
I now have to use three computers to make and sell DVDs where one would do. One to edit in FPCX another to write a dvd (not as good as DVD Studio Pro) and another to use the dvd printing programme that has never been bettered but no longer works on upgraded machines. And that’s called progress. We still sell about a third of our output of Army pass out parades on DVD despite trying to get people on to download. Memory sticks are becoming popular simply because people like a product in their hand that’s physical. Outdated idea maybe but I guess that in 20 years time those with physical media will at least know where their product is whilst others will have lost it on the cloud or updated their computers/phones and forgotten to transfer the media in the process. Of course they may well be not able to find a machine to play it on! I have recorded now in 7 different formats over the years and can’t play some of them.
Peter:
Sigh… sometimes the “advances” of technology manage to leave out those of us who still use it to pay the bills.
Something you hold in your hand has ALWAYS been more valuable than the same thing stored digitally. And more permanent. That’s why DVDs refuse to completely die.
Larry
It never changes with Apple products and operating system updates, mostly a half step forward and 3 steps backwards.
In my opinion, it’s difficult to find any useful or practical improvements but several examples of Apple removing facilities which their customers still use and want or introducing technology which the market doesn’t want or adopt.
Together with rip-off prices, these are the reasons why the vast majority of people will not purchase Mac OS computers or other Apple products.
John:
I’m not THAT negative about Apple. For instance that G-5 computer that Dick bought is eleven years old and still runs great. That can’t be said for much of technology.
Still, I agree with you that Apple tends to kill successful products too soon.
Larry
yup – Apple does not seem to leave all the old baggage of the old OSs.
Can a 5 1/4 floppy mount on a Monterey system? And I am STILL looking for those KDC – Kodak codecs.
By the way, I still use Roxio Toast to burn DVD-Videos. It works fine.
And, I should also stress, this shows the importance of cloning a working drive.
As a note. I have FCP 7 Studio running on an Intel Mac Pro (2010 version). I find that it runs well on OSs up through El Capitan. And yes, I still make DVDs for clients.
Ed.
Good to know. Thanks.
Back when I was actively supporting FCP 7 I found the most reliable OS version was 10.6.7.
I simply extrapolated that to DVD SP.
Thanks,
Larry
Reading your report this week I was horrified to read that I can not make DVD’s on my Apple now.
Am I reading this correctly? I am just trying to restart my video business after a two year layoff during Covid.
How do I copy/make DVD’s or convert them to USB or disk for clients who want to protect their previous investment. Am I being unreasonable?
Robert:
Well…. the answer is more nuanced than that. You can create DVDs using Final Cut Pro/Compressor. However, these DVDs only support one movie file, have limited design capability for menus and don’t support stories, multiple video tracks, or multiple audio tracks.
NOTE: DVD creation using Roxio Toast and Wondershare DVD Creator is equally limited in terms of movies, chapter marker support, stories and multiple audio/video tracks.
You can’t run DVD Studio Pro on current hardware or the current macOS. But you can, as Dick discovered, run it on older systems. This means you could get a G-5 for DVD burning, while editing your project on your favorite NLE using today’s computers and software.
Creating USB thumb drives is trivial – simply copy the files from your computer to the thumb drive. But this won’t support menus or other DVD-related controls.
BIG NOTE: Keep in mind that DVDs are ALWAYS standard-def video. If you want to use high-def, you’ll need to create Blu-ray Discs. Which is another sad story all together,
Larry
I have DVDSP4 working on a Mid 2012 Mac Pro running Sierra 10.12.6, so if you have one of those sitting around, you don’t have to go all the way back to a G5 with Snow Leopard.
Eric:
Excellent update. Thanks!
Larry
Yes, I have a 2017 27″ iMac with FCP 7 and DVD Studio Pro running smoothly under Sierra on an external bootable SSD. I also have FCP X on that drive as well. I can burn DVDs straight from DVD SP to my external burner. Then I print the label using an Epson Ink-Jet printer and the now defunct Discus software.
I deliver DVDs for nearly all my clients. I’m running DVDSP on a 2008 Mac Pro running OSX Yosemite. Aside from a minor interface bug, everything runs very smoothly. I also produce Blu-rays for a few clients using Adobe Encore CS6 (perpetual license) running on the same machine.
It’s really a shame that Apple killed off DVDSP in its prime. It’s still the best tool on or off the market, and it would have been even better if Steve Jobs hadn’t crapped on Blu-Ray.
Rick:
Yeah, Blu-ray Discs on the Mac have been a problem forever. Which, sadly, I don’t see any hope of that changing.
Larry
DVD creation using Roxio Toast might yield more options but the documentation around HOW to use that is pretty much non-existent. I thought oh hey YouTube, but nope….the world really is moving on. I guess when DVD/BR W’s start becoming as hard to find as MiniDV Tape, the demand may lesson.
Big Sigh
When I upgraded my internal SSD drive in my Mac Pro (Late 2013), I kept the old SSD drive with the entire (old) MacOS on it, including the full Final Cut Studio install. Whenever I need to author a DVD (which our organization still needs for releasing documentary films), I boot from my old SSD drive (which I enclosed in a case from OWC) and go to work in DVDSP. It’s slightly glitchy, but I am still able to do everything I need to do. I will keep my old trusty Mac Pro (Late 2013) for the sole purpose of working in Final Cut Studio (for opening older FCP projects and/or authoring DVDs in DVDSP). It’s my time capsule from the past that still serves me good today.
Tony:
This is an excellent example of why it is important to keep an older system handy – just to solve problems like this.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Larry