iDVD Themes in DVD Studio Pro

[cdcox]

New to the Mac world and was wondering, using final cut studio, is there an easy way to get the iDVD themes into DVD Studio Pro? From what I understand, You have to create a iDVD project and then import it into DVDSP. Do I need to create a full project with a movie or can I just create a project with a menu theme and import into DVDSP and add my movie? OR is there an eaiser way to do it, if it can be done at all.

[terryj]

open and create an iDVD project, with a selected theme,
no assets ( movies) imported.
Save it to the desktop.
Open the project in DVDSP.

[cdcox]

Thanks,
I will try this tonight, I couldn't last nite because I was encoding.

[willrob]

The limitation on this (according to Apple—I haven't tried it) is that the current DVDSP will only open iDVD6 themes (or projects).

[AntnyMD]

Actually its only for iDVD themes from version 4 and earlier.

[terryj]

Actually its only for iDVD themes from version 4 and earlier.

yes, this is true. I did a test from iDVD 5 of the Cinema template,
saving it in a project and opening it up in DVDSP3.
worked fine.

[AntnyMD]

I also tested opening up an iDVD6 project using a iDVD4 theme and opening in DVD Studio Pro 4. DVDSP4 will not open any project created by iDVD6, no matter how old the theme is.

[cdcox]

So if I'm using DVDSP4.0 and have ilife 06 What I am try to do will probably not work?

[AntnyMD]

It didnt work for me.

[terryj]

Must be a limitation in iDVD 6.
Since I don't have iDVD 6,
I can't test.
( I only have iDVD 5 as a fluke,
I don't use it since moving to DVDSP).

follow this thread in the Apple discussion boards, may help:
idvd6 and dvdsp

[cdcox]

So I would be better off to to go backwards to iDVD5? Can I do this or do I have to us the whole ilife 05 instead of ilife 06?

[AntnyMD]

...but all the hot widescreen themes are in iDVD6.

[cdcox]

DVDSP 4 says it will not import iDVD projects from ver 5 or 6. This may sound strange but for what I am used to doing on a PC and coming to a MAC, DVDSP seems eaiser than iDVD. Maybe I will sit down and play with iDVD to see if it is worth my time. Just like FCP is eaiser than iMovie to me.

[terryj]

once you go DVDSP, you won't go back.



at least that was how it was for me....

[cdcox]

And I will probably agree with that 100%. I am used to DVDlab on a PC and editing with Premiere Pro. So when switching to a Mac, iMovie and iDVD seemed to be a big step backwards. I just thought that iDVD had some cool themes in it and if I could use some of them I would, when I got into iDVD it just didn't seem as straight forward to me as DVDSP. I'll probably just try and play with iDVD IF I ever get time. Which will probably be awhile anyways.
For now I'll just stick with the DVDSP templates and modify them as needed for quicker projects. I'll eventually get to the point where I'll create my own in DVDSP and or Photoshop.