Whats the best program for authoring once you have an avis script

[guygardner2020]

Whats the best program for authoring once you have an avis script?

I want to make menus, add chapters, have animated menus, and add audio to those menus.

[mats.hogberg]

Once you have an avs(?) script, it's time to encode.
Then, after you have a DVD specs mpg, it's time for authoring.
DVD-Lab is very flexible and allows you all kinds of tricks, whereas TMPGEnc DVD Author is somewhat limited but really easy to use (and does animated menus).

/Mats

[guygardner2020]

ok well what programs will encode and .avs file?

[FulciLives]

I use TMPGEnc DVD Author with the AC-3 (Dolby Digital) Plug-in.

This program is very stable. It is very easy to use. You can set things up in a very short time. The one thing I really like is setting up chapters ... I've never seen another authoring program that makes it so damn easy!

However the program is limited. The menu design can only be 4:3 although you can use a video that is 16:9 and will stay 16:9 but the menu will always be 4:3

Also it only supports one audio stream per video and does not support subtitle streams at all.

Please note though that the company that makes TMPGEnc DVD Author also makes a newer DVD authoring program called TSUNAMI MPEG DVD Author PRO which is basically a more "advanced" version of TMPGEnc DVD Author.

The nice thing about TSUNAMI MPEG DVD Author PRO is that you can now have 1 or 2 audio streams per video and you can create 4:3 or 16:9 menu designs. Still though there is no subtitle stream support and both programs DO NOT support DTS audio although they do support LPCM, MP2 and AC-3 including 5.1 AC-3.

Still though for most projects this is all you need.

If you need more menu control or if you need subtitle support or DTS support etc. then you pretty much have to go with DVD-Lab Pro.

However it is my opinion that DVD-Lab in any version is a bit of a pain-in-the-ass to use and I only use it when I absolutely MUST like when I need to use selectable subtitles or when I need to use multiple audio tracks or need to use DTS. The only time I ever run into this is when I am doing some of my PAL DVD to NTSC DVD conversions.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

ok well what programs will encode and .avs file?

For MPEG-2 DVD creation the two most popular seem to be TMPGEnc Plus and CCE Basic. Each cost about the same.

If you understand how to use AviSynth and use AVS scripts then you should go with CCE Basic since TMPGEnc Plus is more of a "newbie friendly" encoder than CCE is but with CCE you get a faster encoder that to many looks (slightly) better than TMPGEnc Plus although both can produce excellent output.

Another option is the same price range would be Canopus Procoder Express which has it's fair share of admirers although I've never used it myself.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[mats.hogberg]

A free alternative if you're using AVS scripts is QuEnc. Comparable to commercial encoders both quality and speedwise (at least quality).

/Mats