Introduction

This document was originally posted by Woofbert on comp.sys.mac.advocacy under the title "Apple building the boat on DVD-rom authoring".

Written August 4, 2000.
Updated November 15, 2000.

Final Cut and iMovie

A couple of years ago Apple bought Macromedia's Final Cut lock, stock, and barrel. Final Cut had been having all kinds of difficulties making it work under Windows, and the product had been announced but was perpetually months away from shipping. Someone at Apple kicked some serious butt and they released v1.0 barely half a year after the transfer. Result: Apple has a kickass Mac-only medium-level digital video editing application.

Then Apple develops a much simplified version and calls it iMovie. Result: Apple has a kickass Mac-only entry-level digital video editing application.

Astarte Goodies

Astarte made some very interesting software. One product was Toast, a CD-ROM authoring application. This now belongs to Adaptec, makers of SCSI adapters and other cool stuff for the Mac. (It's easy to use and reliable. It can make CD-ROMs to all sorts of standards. I recommend it.)

They also made an Xtra for Macromedia Director called DVDirector. You know those fun menus and stuff that DVDs typically have in addition to the movie itself? Well, DVDirector allowed you to create that stuff using Director, the standard tool for CD-ROM authoring and interactive web animations. It would output the Director "Movie" in the format required by the DVD authoring software. This Xtra is, unfortunately, no longer available.

Astarte also made DVD authoring software: Everything you needed to create the software package that you then burn onto a DVD.

As of April 10, 2000 Apple owns the division of Astarte that made these last two goodies.

All The Pieces

Let's see now... We've got digital video editing software, DVD menu system authoring software, DVD mastering software. What's missing? A DVD ROM burner. Menu-creation could be handled by Director, though it wouldn't be too hard to create a simpler version in-house. (It would need Director 3 or 4 functionality; not much terribly fancy. Bits and pieces of Hypercard would even work.)

According to MacWeek's QuickLinks for Tuesday, Nov 14, 2000, Pioneer has introduced a combination CD/DVD recordable drive that reads and writes in DVD-R, CD-R, DVD-RW and CD-RW. A spokesman said the unit, expected in early 2001, is designed for video-editing and archiving, and will be compatible with standard DVD playback systems.

Prediction

Here's my prediction: Within six months[1] the hardware to burn DVD-ROMs will be available to the serious amateur or the low-budget professional. Hard drives big enough to hold all the files needed for a single-sided DVD will be reasonably priced. Macintosh G4 or G5 will pe plenty capable of handling the video editing chores at DVD-like resolutions. Apple will supply the software and the hardware for home DVD-production.

[1] Original prediction made August 2000 was by August 2002.