Whats the best program for authoring dvds?

[fazeshot]

I wanna know what the best program in peoples opinion is to author dvds. preferably one where u can make dvds with really cool / customizable menus... i tried tmpegenc dvd author but it wasnt really customizable. i want to be able to make the thumbnails of chapters play short clips and stuff.. and make just awesome dvd menus like u see on retail dvds..

THANKS :P just want suggestions :P

[guns1inger]

You want to make "really cool" menus just like the ones on commercial DVDs - buy a Mac and DVD Studio Pro. Take a graphic design course. Learn Photoshop inside out. Learn Final Cut Pro inside out. That is how the pros work.

There is no piece of software that makes really cool menus just like commercial discs. I have seen some pretty clever stuff done with simple freeware tools because the person doing it was talented and had taken the time to learn the tools properly. Are you prepared to do this ?

On the PC side, within the realms of general affordability, you will find DVD Workshop 2 by Ulead, and DVD Lab Pro by Mediachance. Both have strengths and weaknesses, and both take different approaches.

But don't waste your time and money buying them if you are going to use something like WinAVI to convert downloaded crappy movies, or you will be disappointed.

Not trying to be an arse, but you question is the sort of question usually asked by someone looking for a magic "make cool menu" button in their software. There is no such thing.

In fact, it takes many pieces of software to make complex menus. You need

Something for stills preparation - photoshop/paintshop pro etc
Something for video - Vegas/Premiere Pro etc
Something for motion graphics/effects - After Effects etc
Something for video encoding - CCE/ProCoder/Tmpgenc etc
Something for audio preparation/encoding - sound Forge/Audition/Audacity/ffmpeggui etc

And finally, something to pull it all together (author).

[fazeshot]

Graphics design experience with photoshop *Check*
Mac *not checked*

Im not expecting the exact menus.. but i just wanna get the best quality i can out of my dvds

so far i've been using..


TMpegenc to encode my dvds to mpeg2 format..
tmpegenc dvd author to make menus and chapters and whatnot
dvd shrink to make an iso of the dvd
dvdsanta to burn..


can you give me a list of the top of the line programs for PC then? cuz i know i could be getting a lot better end results from my burned dvds

i am gonna give dvd workshop 2 a try and see what i can do with that.. I just wanna make sure i can get the best possible out of some japanese television shows i have which are pretty good quality. just wanna be able to make them not look AS homebrew as my first experience was

[guns1inger]

Ditch DVD Santa for starters.

I don't see the point to making menus for movies coming out of Shrink. When I backup a movie, I want to squeeze as much out of the disc as possible. I never create menus for back ups etc.

[fazeshot]

i just used dvd santa because i was having problems with nero and burning iso's that i made of dvds i authored myself.. it gave me some error saying to use dvd image (udf) burning option or something..

i would actually like to just be able to burn the authored vob files without a menu.. thats fine to but i dont know how to burn vobs i've just learned (first week of burning dvds) to make the authored dvd vobs into an iso using dvd shrink then burning with dvd santa

[guns1inger]

You can use DVD Decrypter if you are pulling things together with Shrink. Much better burning engine that Nero or Santa.

If you don't need menus, use Re-author mode in shrink. Drag just the main movie across to the lefthand pane, set the audio and subtitle options, and process. Personally, I always use Deep Analysis and AEC if doing any reducing.

Set it to create an ISO and burn with DVD Decrypter and oyu are set.

[manono]

So, you've gone from:

I wanna know what the best program in peoples opinion is to author dvds. preferably one where u can make dvds with really cool / customizable menus.

to:

i would actually like to just be able to burn the authored vob files without a menu.

At least guns1inger has brought you down to earth a little bit.

[fazeshot]

Well a menu would be nice too... for certain things tho.. like a disc with multiple anime episodes or tv episodes or something. stuff like that.. but for just a movie.. i dont need any chapters or menu

also is it true that the authoring program effects the final dvds video quality?

[manono]

For simple menus, like to point to the different anime episodes in text, I use DVDAuthorGUI. Free and not much of a learning curve. And once you teach yourself some of the fancier stuff you mentioned earlier, like the thumbnails with clips of each chapter or episode. you can import them as well. I've made a few like that, and I was pretty proud of them afterwards, but they are a lot of work. Once you master the basics and want to go on, then the really powerful programs, such as the ones guns1inger mentioned earlier, might come in handy. I'd recommend taking it slowly and building your skills. You may find out that you don't really want to put in the work to get really professional results. After all, the guys that do it for the studio DVDs get paid real money, and you're just doing it as a hobby.

But that's just one way. Plenty of people are satisfied with TDA or DVDLab Pro among the easier to use authoring apps.

[guns1inger]

A good authoring tool does not re-encode (which is why I don't consider anything starting with Nero as a good authoring tool) and should not affect the quality of the video or audio you have created.

I have found the best results always come from using the best tools for each particular task, creating video and audio seperately, and only bringing all the pieces together at the end during authoring. This way I know I am producing the best quality that I can for each asset. This takes time, even if you consider yourself pretty savvy with many of the tools. There are always things to learn that make things better, or that fix things you didn't realise you had broken because of the method or tool you used.

I would also add to the list of (often expensive) tools above indispensible freeware tools such as

FitCD
AVSEdit
Avisynth
Virtualdub (or a variation thereof - mpeg2 or mod are both good)
DGPulldown
G-spot 2.52beta
IFOEdit
Paranoia
mpeg4modifier
subtitle workshop
restream
rejig

All of these are free, small, and make life so much easier when little problems arise (as they will). I have all of these in a single folder called Video Tools, and rarely does a job happen without using at least one of them.

[lordsmurf]

Apple DVD Studio Pro - Mac
Ulead DVD Workshop 2 - PC

[ntscuser]

I've seen some awsome DVDs made with DVD-lab PRO, in some cases better than retail. It takes a lot of practise though and more time than I have to spare.

(kim)

[GeorgeW]

I would also add to the list of (often expensive) tools above indispensible freeware tools such as

FitCD
AVSEdit
Avisynth
Virtualdub (or a variation thereof - mpeg2 or mod are both good)
DGPulldown
G-spot 2.52beta
IFOEdit
Paranoia
mpeg4modifier
subtitle workshop
restream
rejig

All of these are free, small, and make life so much easier when little problems arise (as they will). I have all of these in a single folder called Video Tools, and rarely does a job happen without using at least one of them.

I like that list -- I have most of those myself...

I also like PGCedit

Regards,
George

[Tooth DeKay]

I know I'm going to get flamed for this but I use Pinnacle Studio 10.
I find it makes great custimised DVD menus.
I've even made short films to be used as the backgrounds for the menu including motion thumbnails.
It was reasonably cheap, and I don't seem to be having problems like some people seem to be reporting.
One thing though....you do need a video card with hardware DirectX9 or some of the special effects dont render corectly.

[terjeber]

Apple DVD Studio Pro - Mac
Ulead DVD Workshop 2 - PC

Don't forget Sony DVD Architect 3 for PC. I have been using DVD Workshop from Ulead for a while, but have changed to DVD Architect due to the fact that I can use Photoshop (with layers) to create interactive menus for DVD Architect. Also, quite frankly, Ulead hasn't been doing much with DVD Architect for a very, very long time, so I am worried about their ability to keep up going forward. It seems Ulead wants to focus on their low-end products, not their higher end (for Ulead) software. If they are not selling a lot of the higher end, that is a sensible strategy for them.

Oh, and no, the fact that Ulead hasn't released a real update to DVD Workshop in several years is not because the product is perfect. DVD Workshop can't even do 16:9 menus yet.