By default, DVD Studio Pro creates tracks that support 4:3 video. However, this is easy to change, but hard to find. This short article describes what you need to do to create wide-screen DVDs.
Getting DVD subtitles, especially when you have more than one language, requires a script. This short article tells you want you need to know to get your scripts to work properly, and where to look for more information.
A reader asked me how I organize my files when I’m creating a DVD. Well, organization best starts at the beginning of a project, so in this brief article, I outline the folders I create and where I store my files.
Want to give your DVDs a more professional look? In this detailed, step-by-step article, you’ll learn how to create menus and button highlights in Photoshop, import them into DVD Studio Pro, build a menu and add buttons, all to create a professional-grade menu. (Part 1 of 2 – the second part discusses how to create a motion menu in Final Cut Pro for a DVD.)
Nothing lasts forever, and that includes DVD media. This article discusses what you need to know to make sure your backups and precious data survive for the long-haul.
There are a variety of ways to export a project from Final Cut Pro for a DVD. This article showcases the best way to do it if you are using Final Cut Pro 6.x. (FCP 7 users may want to consider using Share or Send, which this article doesn’t cover.)
I’ve taught this technique in my classes for a long time, but recently discovered that I have not written about it. When you are compressing a QuickTime movie for a DVD, the default settings for video and audio compression may need to be tweaked.
If you’ve ever compared the quality of your DV movies in Final Cut to what they look like in QuickTime, you can very quickly become suicidal. Why does QuickTime make your images look so bad? This quick article explains.
There are lots of questions about using DSLR cameras for video. In this article, we summarize some of the benefits and limitations, as well as add lots of feedback from readers.
A common complaint about matching audio between DSLR cameras and digital audio recorders is that the audio sync drifts. This article provides three references you can use to resolve this problem.
Barring a hardware problem, dropped frames are almost always caused by a hard disk that’s too slow. But what if the problem is with your render files? In this article we provide some ideas to try as well as references to more detailed articles that can walk you through almost any problem.
Are dropped frames driving you nuts. Here’s a checklist of tips you can use to resolve your dropped frames problem — before you drop your computer out a second-story window.
Droplets are great for automatiing video compression. Create your settings once, then use the droplet.
Data Robotics is aggressively going after the audio and video market with a series of devices marketed using the Drobo brand. We’ve already reviewed the Drobo. Here we review its big brother – the DroboPro. The speed and flexibility of this device make it very attractive. This article gives you much more detail.
Have you ever wondered why a 1 TB drive never has 1 TB of free space? Or why a 500 GB drive stores much less than 500 GB? Well, it isn’t your imagination, it’s that engineers and marketers use two different numbers – but the same words – to measure the storage capacity of a hard drive.
In the past we obsessed about the rotational speed of a hard disk, how much cache it had, or even the controller chip it used. While these are important, they pale in significance when compared to the impact of how you connect your drive to your computer.
It’s possible to drag files from the Finder into the Final Cut Browser. But do you want to? In this article, I explain the process and provide reasons both pro and con about doing so.
Most of the time the default settings in Compressor are not too bad. But, sometimes, problems arise when down-converting high-def material to standard-def (HD to SD). In this case, if you are getting images that look worse than you expect, try this two-step process (called “pre-compression”) and see if your image quality improves.
This article spells out the rules I use for reviewing products — both software and hardware. It is my goal to provide objective, fair, and honest reviews you can trust. Reviews based upon life in the “real-world.” This article explains the rules I use in determining what products to review and the role that potential sponsorship plays in determining what I review.
Philip Roy writes in with a question about saving custom transitions, if only in part, which Larry answers and is later expounded on by Andy Mees.