Authoring of a DVD is where you design the layout, position of buttons, navigation menus, etc. After the design stage, the next step is to encode (compress to MPEG2) the final step is the multiplexing and then burning the disc. All the DVD authoring software has these stages built in. You only have to supply the "assets" (that's you movies, slideshows, music). It's especially easy to do in iDVD. btw, if you are purchasing a new Mac, Apple has a deal that you can purchase Final Cut Express for only $99. hth, sb On 7/6/2004 8:41 AM, "Claire Hart" <hart at arn.net> wrote: > I've been on this list because I want to understand more about digital > video. However, I've only experimented with iMovie. I do have a > miniDV camera, but I don't yet have the hardware to support iDVD, but I > have a G4 powerbook on the way. The term "editing" seems > self-explanatory, but what does "authoring" mean in comparison? Having > ONLY worked with iMovie, I don't know anything at this point beyond > that realm. > > Thanks, > Claire > > > > On Jul 6, 2004, at 9:49 AM, sb wrote: > >> Premiere is the video editing application. Encore is the DVD authoring >> application.