Digital Video Editing Test
I was unable to find a program that was written for both Windows XP and Mac OS X for this test. As a result, I chose two applications that had very similar functions that could convert a AVI file from a DV camcorder into an autoplay DVD. For Windows, I selected the Nero 7 application while the iDVD 6 program was used for Mac OS X. iDVD is a Universal Application written by Apple and does not use the Rosetta emulation.
Test Steps
iDVD 6 Steps
- Open iDVD 6
- Open "One Step from Movie File"
- Select File
- Time until DVD burn is completed
Nero 7 Steps
- Open Nero StartSmart
- Select DVD Video | Photo and Video | Make Your Own DVD-Video
- Add File to Project
- Select Next
- Select "Do not create a menu"
- Select Next
- Select Next
- Select Burn
- Time until DVD burn is completed
Results
- Mac OS X – 23m 32s
- Windows XP – 15m 30s
In this case, the conversion of the video from the DV file to the DVD is 34% faster under Nero 7 on Windows XP than iDVD 6 on Mac OS X. Now they admittedly are different programs that use different code so the results were expected to be different. The major difference in performance is likely the result of the file system performance though. Still, with all the steps to do this conversion in Nero compared to iDVD, the Apple process is much easier for the consumer.
