Anxiously awaiting iDVD 2

The much-anticipated release iDVD 2 isn’t that far off, scheduled to arrive in October.

iDVD 2 is needed for Mac OS X users to take advantage of the SuperDrive that ships on Apple’s midrange and high-end G4 mini-towers. iDVD 1.x won’t run under Mac OS X even in the Classic environment (at least under Mac OS X 10.0.4; Yours Truly doesn’t have 10.1). This means restarting your Mac if you want to make a homegrown DVD.

When it arrives, however, iDVD 2 will offer motion menus, new themes, the ability to add a soundtrack in slideshows, and background encoding. It will let you make DVDs that can hold up to 90 minutes of material, compared to 60 minutes in the original version. To add motion video to the DVD’s menu buttons or background, users simply drag and drop iMovies or QuickTime files into the iDVD 2 interface.

iDVD 2 will allow users to:

Create DVDs based on Apple’s themes, featuring motion backgrounds and menus, that assist in the layout and organization of the DVD project;

Take advantage of Mac OS X’s multitasking power to simultaneously encode the DVD, even as the project is being built;

Create slide shows from digital photos, accompanied by music.

“In less than one hour, iDVD 2 users can now create a custom DVD with super-cool menus that rival anything coming out of Hollywood,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during his July keynote at Macworld New York. “iDVD 2, with Mac OS X and the new super-fast Power Mac G4s, gives users the ultimate DVD creation studio — right on their desk.”

Apple’s SuperDrive writes to standard 4.7GB DVD-R discs, available from The Apple Store in packs of five for a suggested retail price of US$49.95. There’s an online list of compatible DVD players.