ideal authoring program

[AbsolutCitro]

Hi,

Ive tryied many DVD authoring programs, well DVD workshop trail. full version DVDit, and Spruce Up.

I disliked DVD Workshop because it had small features i didnt like. BUT IT WORKED ON ALL THE DVD PLAYERS I TRYIED!

DVDit i like, but no motion menus or buttons, cant play on most DVD players? WTF!?

Spruce up i hated 100%.

Mainly i want a DVD authoring program which is easy to use, has motion menus and buttons, and can play on most if not all DVD players. i like programs which enable me to do alot of creative things, like has lots of features! can anyone help?

Has anyone heard anything about these programs...

1. Pinnacle Impression DVD-pro?
2. Sonic DVD producer?
3. NeoDVDplus?

[willy_annand]

Mainly i want a DVD authoring program which is easy to use, has motion menus and buttons, and can play on most if not all DVD players. i like programs which enable me to do alot of creative things, like has lots of features! can anyone help?

Have you looked at DVD-Lab, that is my authoring program of choice right now. A quick read of the "Tutorial" in the help files and away you go. It has everything you ask for as well as "Switched" menus.

You can find the link in the "Tools" section at left.

[AbsolutCitro]

Dude, your the man

[ImaWeTodd]

I've been giving DVD-Lab a try. It doesn't really have motion button menus. But you can make them quite easily. I like the transitions. Something new to play with.

[willy_annand]

I've been giving DVD-Lab a try. It doesn't really have motion button menus. But you can make them quite easily. I like the transitions. Something new to play with.

For the DVDs with more than one title (cartoon collections or Stooge shorts) I have been playing with the "Switched Menu" feature, interesting results can be had there.

[housepig]

I'm liking DVD Lab as well.

I would say that if you are anything but a novice user, NeoDVD is not for you - it is seriously aimed at the home-movie, give me templates and wizards crowd, very difficult to customize, very limited in how you put your disc together.

like a 6 chapter limit per movie... I guess I could cut my movie every 12 minutes and drop it in.. d'oh...

[ImaWeTodd]

For the DVDs with more than one title (cartoon collections or Stooge shorts) I have been playing with the "Switched Menu" feature, interesting results can be had there.

I like the look of switched menus. However, I've found nothing beats a disk with 1 menu of 5 or 6 thumbnails, so my kids can quickly choose what they want to watch. They can't work the dvd remote yet.

[scottvf]

I use DVD Architect from sonic foundry until Adobe encore dvd comes out it looks like it will be good.

[ktnwin]

neoDVD Plus is a good DVD authoring program, it does more than just authoring.
The good:
1) can capture to AVI or MPEG-2 (in real time)
2) can encode AVI to MPEG-2 (in real time), very good quality
3) very fast authoring
4) can encode audio to AC3 too
5) support motion menus and still pictures
6) create VIDEO_TS or burn directly to DVD disc
7) multiple videos on one disk (each is a title)
8) support chapters for each video
9) cheap (around 50 US$)
The bad:
1) very limited editing capability (trim start and end, that's it)
2) always 2 level menus, the first one to select title even there is only one single title !!!
3) limited to 8 chapters per title
4) limited to 3 encoding levels (best, good, better)
5) do not support half D1, half D1 is extremely useful in transferring VHS tapes to DVD (up to 3 hours of good quality on a blank disc). If you transfer a 2 hours VHS on DVD using neoDVD Plus, it will select the "good" quality which is not good at all to my eyes. Forget about the better quality, it's just better than no video.

[willy_annand]

Well, ktnwin. the bad seems to far outweigh the good in NeoDVD.

I for one will sacrifice time, but I refuse to sacrifice quality.

I guess I stick with AVI_IO (Huffy) --> TMPGEnc (D1 or Half-D1) --> DVD-Lab

It takes awhile but is top quality. Sometimes better than the orignal VHS thanks to the filters in TMPGEnc.

[deadeyedickx]

I like TMPGenc DVD author you can make menu's and motion menu
alot of titles on one disk
as many chapters as you want where you want,
it will also multiplex your .m2v and your .ac3 files for you.
plus it has a 30 day free trial.
very easy to use

[willy_annand]

I like TMPGenc DVD author you can make menu's and motion menu
alot of titles on one disk
as many chapters as you want where you want,
it will also multiplex your .m2v and your .ac3 files for you.
plus it has a 30 day free trial.
very easy to use

That sounds like a write up for DVD-Lab, except you would have to add:

Add audio to your menus
Menu transitions
Switched or paged chapter menus
Make scene selection menus from chapter points automatically
Automatically transcode your audio to 48KHz
Trim the end of video clips
With Gen-EFX tool, thousands of effects are at your fingertips
Full Adobe Photoshop support, import layered PSD files for menus.

IFO Editor Audio settings- you can now easily change the audio settings in DVD-lab generated IFO's which for example enables using vobs with multiple audio streams

Plus many others.

[Fozzee]

Yes but I get coasters with DVD-Lab everytime!!!!

I would sacrifice fancy menus and stuff for a multi-compatible disk.

TMPGenc DVD Author is my choice.

Fozzee

[radkid]

I like to have control over almost everything/setting when making dvds

i capture with AvI_IO encode with TMPGEnc Plus audio with besweet and author with dvd maestro.... works really well so far, really pleased with the results.

those do everything jobs dont do it for me , but it depends how much time you wanna spend making the dvd in the first place!

[willy_annand]

Yes but I get coasters with DVD-Lab everytime!!!!

I would sacrifice fancy menus and stuff for a multi-compatible disk.

TMPGenc DVD Author is my choice.

Fozzee

Getting coasters from DVD-Lab means one of two things...

1. you are not giving it DVD compliant elemnetal streams.

2. user error.

If you are using true DVD compliant mpg files, let DVD-Lab demux them.
Remember, DVD-Lab does not reencode your MPG files like most programs do. Also do to this fact you need to have your audio ALL the same format.

I use these new things called DVD-RWs, ensures I don't get coasters. Once it is correct, I burn to DVD-R.

Of course once you find out how to encode proper DVD compliant elemnetal streams, you don't need DVD-RW.

[racer-x]

I vote for DVD-Lab. It's hard to beat an app that has 100% success and 100% compatability (for me anyway). It also lets me do what I want, when I want and the way I want.

[Fozzee]

Yes but I get coasters with DVD-Lab everytime!!!!

I would sacrifice fancy menus and stuff for a multi-compatible disk.

TMPGenc DVD Author is my choice.

Fozzee

Getting coasters from DVD-Lab means one of two things...

1. you are not giving it DVD compliant elemnetal streams.

2. user error.

I am giving it perfectly compliant elemental streams.
I am using Procoder and TMPGEnc.
I don't believe I was doing anything wrong "user error" I only did a basic menu and it wouldn't play correctly.

I use these new things called DVD-RWs, ensures I don't get coasters. Once it is correct, I burn to DVD-R.

Of course once you find out how to encode proper DVD compliant elemnetal streams, you don't need DVD-RW.

As for your sarcasm it doesn't become you. There's no point writing to DVD-RW if my finished article is going to be on DVD-R.
I'm sure your more experienced than me in producing DVDs but it is possible my media did not like the way DVD-Lab authored the disk.
After all as I'm creating perfect disks with another authoring program I can't be all that dumb!!
And maybe once you learn to spell you may be able to offer me sound advice!!!!!

Fozzee

[Fozzee]

Let's just make one thing clear.
I am not saying DVD-Lab is a poor piece of software.
All I was doing was suggesting an alternative that had worked for me.

Fozzee

[housepig]

There's no point writing to DVD-RW if my finished article is going to be on DVD-R.

there is if you don't want to make coasters at $1 each.

I use rw discs to test a burn if I have any doubt it may not work the first time (like yesterday, I tested whether my player would read a disc with mixed 1/2 D1 and Full D1 resolutions).

If you are having burn problems, it would seem that it would be financially beneficial to use a rewriteable media to work out the problems, before wasting a write-once media...

[Fozzee]

OK fair enough. But I don't have RWs at the moment.

And I'm happy with TMPGEnc and my resulting DVDs.

The main point was his questioning of my competence without any foundation............

I've made my point

Fozzee

[derodeo]

Do any of the programs mentioned here support DVD-RAM writing? I have a Panasonic stand-alone DVD player and an LG-4040B writer and find DVD-RAM to be almost ideal media (except for the cost...). Note that most of what I author is for temporary use.

[kaulike]

The ideal authoring solution depends greatly on what is being authored. Not everyone needs motion menus and such, and I bet our video comes from very different sources.

I am archiving my hi-8 home movies onto DVD using a Sony camcorder as the converter. Not being content to just burn what is on the tape, I am authoring along the way---removing some fluff, adding scene selections and a nice main menu, etc. No motion menus, but I did add a soundtrack to the main menu. I think it looks nice.

DVD-Lab works gangbusters for what it does, but there are several things it does NOT do that I need to factor into my workflow:

- capture (using Adobe Premier)
- edit (also using Premier)
- encode (using either the free TMPGenc or Adobe's encoder)
- author and create disk image (using DVD-Lab)
- burn RW test disk (using Veritas RecordNow)

finally an image, now:
- test disk in my Pioneer home player
- go back and fix all the *()&$ menus I did wrong
- repeat last 3 steps until perfect, burn one DVD-R to use and 2 backups
- lather, rinse, and repeat until home movies are done

I understand Adobe Encore will do all this from start to finish, but I do not have $800 to spend on this project. I found both the Sonic and Ulead products lacking. TMPGENc's DVD Author was promising, but it crashed on my system and I like DVD-Lab's interface better anyway.

On the other hand, I couldn't get DVD-Lab to write to my Sony DRU-500AX writer. And it bugs me that it doesn't incorporate some kind of MPEG encoder. However, for $79 I'm willing to encode and burn elsewhere---sounds like many others here are as well.

Jeff

[willy_annand]

However, for $79 I'm willing to encode and burn elsewhere---sounds like many others here are as well.

That's right, DVD-Lab does only one thing and it does it well.

You have to be sure to give it 100% compliant DVD elemental streams or it will give you coasters.

MainConcept says it writes DVD compliant streams, but the audio is not compliant.

Also, in NTSC land, you need the audio to be either PCM or AC3. MPA will sometimes not work on NTSC standalones.

Also, ALL your audio has to be the same format AND bitrate or the DVD won't play properly.

The problem is that Sonic and Ulead will reencode anything they find not 100% compliant. I have found this sometimes lessens the quality of the output.

I would rather spend a little more time before hand and have a DVD that looks as good, or sometimes better than the original.

Personal preference, I will sacrifice time for quality, and I don't want my authoring software reencoding my work.

Adobe's Encore DVD looked promising, but it only supports Full-D1 format. I could find no provisions for Half-D1 or CIF formats.

[Specialist]

[quote="willy_annand"]

Sonic and Ulead will reencode anything they find not 100% compliant.

Actually, ULEAD DVD MovieFactory 2...

http://www.ulead.com/dmf/runme.htm

...and ULEAD DVD Workshop...

http://www.ulead.com/dmf/runme.htm

...do not re-encode if the user properly prepares the SOURCE material to match the project settings.

For example, I purchased a DVD camcorder.

It's the Panasonic VDR-M30, which records high quality MPEG-2 directly to a mini-DVD-R or mini-DVD-RAM disc.

When set to "Xtra" (highest) quality mode, the properties of the video produced by the Panasonic VDR-M30 DVD disc camcorder are as follows:

NTSC drop frame (29.97 fps)
MPEG files
24 Bits, 704 x 480, 29.97 fps
Field Order B
(DVD-NTSC), 4 : 3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8800 kbps)
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
MPEG audio layer 2, 48 KHz, Stereo

So I use these properties to adjust the project settings in Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 and in Ulead DVD Workshop and no re-encoding takes place.

Yes - the user must use DVD compliant source files.

I can't imagine why anybody would not wish to use DVD compliant source files.

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Skynet107]

We just got Adobe Encore DVD at work, and after playing with it for an hour it showed great promise. The interface is typical Adobe so it can be cluttered and frustrating, but I really like the integration with Photoshop. The object attributes are built on layers so you can author buttons etc. in Photoshop then use the different layers in Encore to do what you want, very powerful. Encore is not cheap though, probably not for the home user.

The winner so far by a landslide is DVD-Lab. For the price it has no competition at all.

[overloaded_ide]

I still plan to try other stuff too, but so far I like tmpgenc DVD Author the best. I haven't tried alot lattely though I must admit.

SInce the first version they have made alot of improvemnts to DVD Author! And it looks like they may still be adding to it. They added burning and other stuff and supposedly improved some things since my last download. Now if it just captured! oh well.

I tried some ULEAD stuff, did not like it. Though I plan to try it again. Could have been my files or system, but I got crap last time! I have made changes and do some things differently so I'll see if it works any better.

Nero I like for CDs and Vcd, but nothing that has to do with DVDs really.

Tried some other ones, wasn't happy either.
Still looking though.