iDVD
When iDVD 1 first came out, Apple lent me a computer with a DVD burner and I got to have a bit of a play. I digitised a documentary I have on VHS and burnt it to a DVD. I was impressed at how easy it was to do, but a bit disappointed with the limitations iDVD 1 had.
Fast forward a few years to iDVD 5 (part of Apple’s iLife ‘05). I mucked around with this today, and I’m hooked. The easy of use that impressed me in iDVD 1 is still there, but there are now a whole bunch of really cool features. The first DVD I did was just 4 slideshows of photos my parents took on their last holiday. I just dragged the photos in, added some holiday music, set a transition, and left my computer. For about 5 hours (I really want a faster computer). My mum loved it. So much so that she’s signed me up to put her boss’s three CDs worth of holiday photos onto DVD.
The next DVD I did was for a friend. The season finale of Lost is 2 hours long, which is too big to put onto VCD. So I needed to burn it to DVD. There was still heaps of room left on the disc, so I put in another few slideshows of various pictures related to my friend. This DVD had a few submenus, each with a motion background, sound tracks… The lot. I was trying to use every feature I could find. And the DVD still looks really professional. I don’t think there are too many features that I find iDVD lacking.