Blog Archives

Both the new M1 and existing T2 chips from Apple support hardware-assisted encoding and decoding of H.264 and HEVC media. Here’s how to enable it in Adobe Media Encoder.

Every editor has their own list of features that they’d like Apple to implement. I’m no different. Over the years, I’ve been struck by five imponderable missing features in Final Cut that, try as I might, I can’t get Apple to explain why they don’t exist. Here’s my list.

Why become a member of Larry Jordan’s Video Training Library? Because you can learn exactly what you need to know from our library more quickly and better than you can learn it on your own.

Stories are a very powerful technical feature in DVD Studio Pro that allows you to alter the normal flow of your movies. This article shows you how.

Here’s a step-by-step technique that shows you how to create chapter markers manually or automatically in Compressor.

Dual Layer break points are determined by where the VTS segments are located, not just which is the longest, or most logical, clip within which to place a break point.

Larry walks you through looping a DVD, along with reader feedback on how to make those loops seamless.

When importing a video into DVD Studio Pro, if you encode at the end of the project, your assets are not converted to MPEG until you start to build the project.

DVD SP contains drop zones, which you can use to add video or images to a menu. Here’s how.

There’s been some debate about authoring NTSC DVDs in DVD Studio Pro (with having all of the region codes selected) and their playback in PAL countries.

Here is an explanation of how to create a highlight overlay menu in Photoshop when creating menus for DVD Studio Pro.

When placing still images in DVD Studio Pro, a PNG will be autosized to fit, while a TIFF won’t. This article explains more.

Here is an easy trick from Loren Miller to accelerate the manual advance of slideshows in DVD Studio Pro by resetting the duration of all slides.

Judging by my email, handling still images is by far the most confusing part of editing video — especially because the computer creates images using square pixels and video uses rectangular pixels, in a variety of shapes. This article explains everything you need to know to create great looking still images for your next video project.

The article describes how to view and change subtitles in DVD Studio Pro.

Final Cut has always allowed keyboard customization. This article shows some new “almost-secret” techniques buried in OS X that allow you to create customized keyboard shortcuts in ANY application.

Where to store files is always a question. This short tip helps you determine where to store your media and project files for DVD Studio Pro.

Nothing causes more confusion for video editors than trying to figure out how to size still images for video. I’ve written extensively about this in the past — which is referenced in this article — this is an additional follow-up.

Larry diagnoses a subscriber’s problems with burning DVDs and makes recommendations (altering compression bit-rates, etc.) towards finding a solution.

Over the last four months I’ve had a long email chat about video formats and the best ways to convert between them. If you are moving files from NTSC to PAL or back, and trying to integrate HD material, this article covers what you need to know.

Here’s a quick tip on how to create still images so they can display in a PAL 16:9 sequence.

Money was tight, so “they” decided to shoot the project using both SD and HD cameras. Now, your stuck editing them. HOW??? In this article, we explains a variety of ways you can intercut between SD and HD material, and how to avoid problems with poorly converted video.

Adding subtitles is something DVD Studio Pro is very good at. But sometimes, importing a subtitle file doesn’t work. This explains why and how to fix it.

Larry fields a question related to transferring HDV footage and traces the problem back to the process of compressing the video. A walk-through of changing the output settings in the Geometry tab provides a detailed guide to preventing this problem from reoccurring.

DVDs are always standard definition video. Which means that if you shot your project in HD, you need to down-convert it to SD before you can put it onto a DVD. This short article describes what you need to know.

I’ve never seen this happen, but the workaround maybe a life-saver if you need it. Here’s how to reconnect DVD Studio Pro’s palettes with the files stored on your hard disk.

By default, DVD Studio Pro creates tracks that support 4:3 video. However, this is easy to change, but hard to find. This short article describes what you need to do to create wide-screen DVDs.

Getting DVD subtitles, especially when you have more than one language, requires a script. This short article tells you want you need to know to get your scripts to work properly, and where to look for more information.

Want to give your DVDs a more professional look? In this detailed, step-by-step article, you’ll learn how to create menus and button highlights in Photoshop, import them into DVD Studio Pro, build a menu and add buttons, all to create a professional-grade menu. (Part 1 of 2 – the second part discusses how to create a motion menu in Final Cut Pro for a DVD.)

Droplets are great for automatiing video compression. Create your settings once, then use the droplet.

Want to give your DVDs a more professional look? In this detailed, step-by-step article, you’ll learn how to create menus and button highlights in Photoshop, import them into DVD Studio Pro, build a menu and add buttons, all to create a professional-grade menu. (Part 1 of 2 – the second part discusses how to create a motion menu in Final Cut Pro for a DVD.)

Creating a single layer DVD is relatively easy. But a dual-layer DVD requires that we pay attention to where the switch occurs between the two layers — called the Dual-Layer Break Point. This article explains what it is, how to find it, and what you need to know to successfully create a dual-layer DVD.

Chapter markers are frequently used in DVD production. However, you can also put them in QuickTime movies to simplify navigation. However, compressing using H.264 makes this process a bit more difficult. But not impossible, as this article explains how to do it.

Larry fields a few questions regarding DVD problems from transcoding HD to SD, the advantages of Blu-Ray, and more.

There are four ways inside DVD Studio Pro to control how 16:9 video plays back on a 4:3 monitor. This article describes what you need to know and provides suggestions on which one is best to use.

With Blu-ray winning the DVD format war, attention has now turned to the costs of creating a Blu-ray DVD. This article explains that the cost of replicating one of these new format discs isn’t cheap.