Review:
iDVD 3.0
Reviewer: Mike Dixon
Edited by: Mike Dixon (3/23/03)
Publisher:Apple ($49 via iLife CD-ROM bundle)

iDVD 3 requires Mac OS X, as did iDVD 2.0. I suggest using Mac OS X 10.2.4 or later with iDVD, rather than Mac OS X 10.1.5. Preparing, burning and playing DVDs is a very processor-intensive process for a computer, and the faster Mac you have, the better. the 17-inch iMac performed well when authoring and burning DVDs. While editing and previewing a DVD on the Mac can be somewhat sluggish, the final DVD viewed in a DVD player and on a TV will be smooth and polished. Be advised that watching video clips on a computer screen will look somewhat blurry. That's normal. The video will look fine when viewed on a TV. It has to do with pixel shape (square vs. round) between computers and TV monitors.

I have to mention something about DVD disc compatibility. Apple's SuperDrives only burn DVD-R discs (and DVD-RW if you have Toast 5 Titanium), not DVD+R (as of this review). When making a DVD video disc, you will need to buy DVD-R 4.7 "general use" discs. I have tried many brands (generic and name brands) and have found that Apple's own DVD-R discs are more compatible with standalone DVD players. Apple keeps a compatibility list current so that you can check to see if your DVD player (or someone else's) will play DVD-R discs. These discs are different than what you rent or buy in the store because those are pressed from a glass master. DVD-R discs are dye-based (like CD-Rs) and aren't always playable on DVD players. Generally, the newer the DVD player, the better, but some newer budget DVD players have trouble playing homemade DVDs. Do your homework before you waste a lot of money on discs or DVD players.

I'm a big movie buff. I buy lots of DVDs (some to watch over and over, others to analyze the music soundtrack compositions). I have always wanted to make my own DVD movies. iDVD 2.0 allowed that, and iDVD 3 brings many new enhancements that I was really itching to get.

Basically, all you really have to do is drag a QuickTime movie (full-screen video, not tiny web videos) to iDVD's main window and it creates a button. It's truly drag-and-drop. If you have a photo album in iPhoto 2 that you'd like to turn into a slide show on the DVD, select it and iDVD will do the rest. You can even add music to the slideshow and make it change slides manually or automatically. Buttons can have movie clips running on them or be still if you prefer. If you have created a iMovie with chapter markers, you can put that right into iDVD without launching iDVD. iDVD 3 will launch from iMovie 3 and automatically generate chapter buttons and everything you need in a scene selection page. However, if your QuickTime file doesn't have chapter markers, you can't add markers manually in iDVD 3.

Themes are still graphics or animations that make up your DVD interface and background. Many of the ones included with iDVD 3 are equal to professional DVD interfaces. You can customize a default theme. Let's say you don't like the music loop that plays on the main screen of your DVD. You can access your iTunes 3 library and put something else in there. You can change the shape of your buttons and arrange them however you like. Be advised that if the buttons are too close, their "highlight" will overlap onto another button. That's a minor glitch that still exists from iDVD 2. iDVD 3 now includes themes that can mask video clips. These masking areas are called "drop zones". In iDVD 2, you could have a movie running in the background with buttons on top. Now you can have a movie run in a drop zone and your buttons can go elsewhere. The result looks stunning and highly professional. If you are hungry for more themes, there are several companies that make them. iDVDThemePak.com, iDVDThemes.com, and iDrops.net all make professional-quality themes that rival commerical DVD interfaces at times. Make sure the themes you're buying work with your version of iDVD. There were some major changes to iDVD from version 2 to 3, and most of these third party theme makers had to completely revamp their themes to work in iDVD 3. iDVD 2 themes will not work with iDVD 3.

iDVD 3 also has a feature that allows you to place other files on the disc as well as the video content. The files you place in the "DVD-ROM" area are not recognized by DVD players but when the user puts the DVD into a computer with a DVD-ROM drive, they can access those items. This is great in the educational sector because you can place some video for watching on TV and supporting materials like syllabi or other files in the DVD-ROM area. This would require that the students have a computer capable of opening a DVD-R disc.

There are a few limitations to iDVD 3. First and foremost, iDVD limits video discs to 90 minutes per disc. This is actually a good thing for most amateurs. While technically you can put more than 90 minutes of video on a DVD-R using other software, the video quality starts to degrade badly after 90 minutes. iDVD's 90-minute limit ensures that your video will retain that high quality look that DVDs are famous for. Commercial DVDs are dual-layered and allow for twice the amount of video per side. DVD burners for consumers cannot burn dual layer discs. Another limitation is the number of buttons or scenes per page. When you are building your DVD, you can only put 6 buttons per page, but you can create many pages (each with 6 buttons). Again, for the amateur, this is not a big limitation. One other limitation is that iDVD will not work with external DVD-R drives. If you think you can buy an external Firewire Pioneer DVD-R/RW drive and get iDVD to work, think again. Apple programmed iDVD to work with its internal SuperDrive. There are some hacks around that sometimes defeat this, but I don't recommend them. For best results, use iDVD on an approved Mac with a factory-installed SuperDrive. Apple's DVD Studio Pro will burn to external DVD-R drives. Finally, iDVD 3 technically will not write to DVD-RW discs, but if your project is still being encoded and you choose "burn", you have to insert a DVD-R disc first, then once the process starts, you can eject the DVD-R and insert a DVD-RW. iDVD won't do a re-check on the disc. Note that most DVD-RW discs don't perform well in DVD players, but do play in computer DVD-ROM drives. I think Apple should allow DVD-RW disc burning because it would allow everyone to do a trial burn of their DVD to make sure everything works and looks proper, before burning a write-once disc. The SuperDrive does support the DVD-RW specification, but not the non-standard DVD+R or DVD+RW formats as of this review.

iDVD 3 is not nearly as buggy as its iMovie 3 cousin, but it does still have a few nasty layout bugs that hinder its regular use. The most glaring of these bugs is its inability to remember where you place your buttons or movie clips in drop zones. If you customize where your buttons are located, then go back to a previous page or quit/restart iDVD, it may not remember your settings. The same goes for drop zone movies in the themes. If your drop zone movie was adjusted to fit better in the drop zone area, iDVD 3 will not remember that when you return to that page. There is no fix for this, other than to let iDVD put the buttons where it wants and not allow you to center your video in the background. I'm hopeful that a fix is on the way soon.

iDVD 3.0 is a dream-come-true for this film director wanna-be. I can edit my video in iMovie and put chapter markers where I want them, then immediately generate a DVD complete with markers and a slick, professional interface. While both iMovie and iDVD 3 have bugs that need to be fixed ASAP to ensure a smooth process, iDVD 3 is almost ready for prime-time, whereas iMovie 3 needs serious work to match iMovie 2.0's reliability. See my iMovie 3 review for more on that product. As for iDVD 3.0, I see no problem for folks moving from version 2.0 to 3.0 as long as you don't mind the layout bugs. I only wish iDVD was free (it's too large to download, thus Apple sells it in the iLife CD bundle for $49 and it comes pre-installed with any Mac that has a SuperDrive). It's still worth $49. However, I can't give it a score of 4.0 or higher until the layout bugs are fixed.