looking for new authoring program

[tommcd64]

I have been using tmpgenc dvdauthor to author my dvd's. Before that I used spruce up. Both are easy to use and will do auto chaptering for you by time and both take ac3 sound. I preferred the tmpgenc dvdauthor because it does motion menus. However, lately I have been having problems with movies that I authored using the tmpgenc program. I have gotten no help from pegasys nor from the tmpgenc forum. I am looking for a new authoring program to use and I was hoping that someone could recommend one that is similar in ease of use to the 2 mentioned above. Other than being easy to use I would like the authorware to do the following:
1. auto chapter by time periods(like every x number of minutes).
2. will take ac3 sound files.
3. can capture background image from mpg or m2v movie file(i don't want to capture the frame with the image and convert it to an mpeg still with a different program).
4. preferrably motion menus but not required.
Both the tmpgenc and spruce up authoring programs do the first 3 and the tmpgenc does the 4th as well. Freeware is preferred but I am willing to purchase the software if it is easy to use and does the things I listed. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[rcb]

you might just browse thru https://www.videohelp.com/tools?section=2#2 and get trialware copies of apps that may fit your wants.

[tommcd64]

I tried a few of them that were in there but they weren't quite what the description said. I guess I will probably end up starting with the first author program listed and going through them one at a time.

[guns1inger]

DVD Lab will do everything in your list of requirements.

You can set it create chapters based edits (bit hit and miss), or simply create X number of chapters evenly spaced.

It will quite happily accept AC3 audio tracks.

Simply drag the frame you want from the preview window to the menu and viola, you have a still as a background or button.

It can do motion menus and menu transitions (caveat : DVD Lab does not have a built-in encoder, so it produces the motion as an avi which you need to encode to spec yourself)

Give it a look see if you haven't already

[johns0]

Dvd-lab also sets the vobs without regard to separate clips so its hard to extract the separate clips after.