IDVD
Encyclopedia
iDVD is a DVD
creation software application made by Apple Inc. for Mac OS X
. iDVD allows the user to add QuickTime
Movies, MP3
music, and digital photos
to a DVD that can then be played on a commercial DVD player. It is often considered the last step of Apple's iLife
suite, bringing together all the other iLife applications' results onto a removable medium
. It is comparable to its Microsoft Windows
alternative Windows DVD Maker
.
with a SuperDrive
, until 2011 it was included at no additional charge with all new Macs; from iDVD 6 onwards, Apple supports the ability to burn projects with third-party optical drives. iDVD is no longer preinstalled on Macs shipping with OS X 10.7 Lion, or on iLife '11 downloaded from the Mac App Store, but is still available in the boxed copy of iLife '11 available from Apple stores.
The program integrates with the rest of the iLife
suite. iMovie
projects and iPhoto
slideshows can be exported directly to iDVD. In the case of iMovie projects, scene selection menus are automatically created in accordance with chapter markers that are set within iMovie. The application also has a 'Media' area that provides access to the user's iTunes
library, iPhoto library and Movies folder at any time, and there is a map view, which shows the current project's menu system in a graphical form. Another feature is the ability to hide or show an approximation of the 'TV safe area' (because old televisions often cut off some of a video's outer areas). iDVD also includes a 'OneStep DVD' function, which will automatically rewind the currently connected DV camcorder and burn a DVD of the video footage that is on the tape.
iDVD can also integrate with Final Cut Express
and Final Cut Pro
.
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
creation software application made by Apple Inc. for Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. iDVD allows the user to add QuickTime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
Movies, MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
music, and digital photos
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
to a DVD that can then be played on a commercial DVD player. It is often considered the last step of Apple's iLife
ILife
iLife is a suite of software applications developed by Apple for organizing, editing, and publishing photos, movies, and music. The suite comprises five applications: iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, and iWeb, all of which run on the Mac OS X operating system....
suite, bringing together all the other iLife applications' results onto a removable medium
Removable media
In computer storage, removable media refers to storage media which is designed to be removed from the computer without powering the computer off.Some types of removable media are designed to be read by removable readers and drives...
. It is comparable to its Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
alternative Windows DVD Maker
Windows DVD Maker
Windows DVD Maker is an application included in premium editions of Windows Vista, and Windows 7 Home Premium and above editions that is designed to enable the creation of DVD movies that can be played using DVD playback software or on a standalone consumer DVD player...
.
Availability
While originally only available for MacsMacintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
with a SuperDrive
SuperDrive
SuperDrive is a trademark used by Apple Inc. for two different storage drives: from 1988–99 to refer to a high-density floppy disk drive capable of reading all major 3.5" disk formats; and from 2001 onwards to refer to a combined CD/DVD reader/writer....
, until 2011 it was included at no additional charge with all new Macs; from iDVD 6 onwards, Apple supports the ability to burn projects with third-party optical drives. iDVD is no longer preinstalled on Macs shipping with OS X 10.7 Lion, or on iLife '11 downloaded from the Mac App Store, but is still available in the boxed copy of iLife '11 available from Apple stores.
Description
The program uses the concept of themes to allow the easy creation of DVD menu systems. The themes have 'drop zones', onto which movies or photographs can be dropped. The theme automatically animates the drop zones if necessary. iDVD has 100 different Apple-designed animated themes, many with different submenus that match the main theme for additional content such as chapters or other extras in either widescreen 16:9 or standard 4:3 formats. These themes can be applied to multiple levels of your DVD. Apple's description of iDVD states that it comes with 150 themes, and that count includes all the submenus of each theme.The program integrates with the rest of the iLife
ILife
iLife is a suite of software applications developed by Apple for organizing, editing, and publishing photos, movies, and music. The suite comprises five applications: iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, and iWeb, all of which run on the Mac OS X operating system....
suite. iMovie
IMovie
iMovie is a proprietary video editing software application which allows Mac, iPod Touch 4th generation, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPad 2 users to edit their own home movies. It was originally released by Apple in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-enabled consumer Apple...
projects and iPhoto
IPhoto
iPhoto is a digital photograph manipulation software application developed by Apple Inc. and released with every Macintosh personal computer as part of the iLife suite of digital life management applications...
slideshows can be exported directly to iDVD. In the case of iMovie projects, scene selection menus are automatically created in accordance with chapter markers that are set within iMovie. The application also has a 'Media' area that provides access to the user's iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
library, iPhoto library and Movies folder at any time, and there is a map view, which shows the current project's menu system in a graphical form. Another feature is the ability to hide or show an approximation of the 'TV safe area' (because old televisions often cut off some of a video's outer areas). iDVD also includes a 'OneStep DVD' function, which will automatically rewind the currently connected DV camcorder and burn a DVD of the video footage that is on the tape.
iDVD can also integrate with Final Cut Express
Final Cut Express
Final Cut Express is a discontinued video editing software created by Apple Inc. It is the consumer version of Final Cut Pro and is designed for advanced editing of digital video as well as high-definition video, which is used by many amateur and professional videographers...
and Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. and then Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X, runs on Mac personal computers powered by Mac OS X version 10.6.7 or later and using Intel processors...
.
Hidden Extras
The iDVD software comes with fonts that are not installed to prevent them from being available to other applications by default. The fonts are located here: /Applications/iDVD.app/Contents/Resources/Fonts/Version History
| Version | Release date | Availability | New Features | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iDVD | January 9, 2001 | |||
| iDVD 2 | July 18, 2001 | Motion menus | ||
| iDVD 3 | January 7, 2003 |
|
||
| iDVD 4 | January 6, 2004 |
|
Bundled as part of the iLife '04 package. | |
| iDVD 5 | January 11, 2005 |
|
Bundled as part of the iLife '05 package. Incompatible with later versions of Mac OS X 10.5 | |
| iDVD 6 | January 10, 2006 | Change of aspect ratio (The user can choose to create a widescreen project) | Bundled as part of the iLife '06 package. First version of iDVD to be made available as a Universal binary. Also sports a refined look based on iTunes 5 and 6. | |
| iDVD 7/iDVD '08 | August 7, 2007 | Themes from iDVD 1 and iDVD 2 restored | Bundled as part of the iLife '08 package. | |
| iDVD '09 | January 27, 2009 | None | Bundled as part of the iLife '09 package. | |
| iDVD '11 | October 20, 2010 | none | Bundled as part of the iLife '11 package. |