Which DVD authoring program should I get?

[Bullworth]

Seems like there are alot of options, but since consumer DVD authoring is still in it's infancy it seems like all there are are programs that are better than others. To try to narrow it down I only want the ability to create customizable menus (motion if possible) multiple audio tracks, but not necessarily. Would definitely want a program with the ability to encode Dolby Digital or MP2 (forgive my ignorance, I mostly know VCDs), to save space. Mostly I want the ability to customize my DVDs my way instead of a template. I've narrowed it down to DVD Workshop, Pinnacle Studio 8 or DVDit. I have some doubts about the last one since it seems a few people have some very strong negative opinions about this program. In any case please let me know your thoughts. I have the Pioneer 104

[imac]

Pinnacle studio 8.

It does all you could want.
Edits, authors, you can now use menus in your video,however, if you want to install it to a partition other than C:, then see my post on this, but it's easy to fix.

[rsuave5]

i dont know about everyone else but i use many different , some free some i bought i like certain things about them all, i use ulead dvd movie factory most often, i edit with premiere 6.0,spruceup is easy to use and does things i like. basically i doubt id ever be happy with just one but moviefactory is tight. i havent tried pinnacle to be fair

[Bullworth]

Sounds good to me. I was pretty inclined to Studio 8 but wasn't too sure. I'm going to check out a few others and see what else I can come up with. I really liked the trial of Sonic DVD Producer but when I heard the price I knew I'd have to stick with truly consumer software

[falco533]

Bullworth DVDMaestro will do everything you want.

[Bullworth]

Question: Where do I get DVD Maestro? I've searched high and low for it and can't find it. I know that they were bought up by Apple. Even checked Ebay and can't find anything. Any suggestions?

[wkc]

Try p2p programs like Kazza and eDonkey to find it.

[BJ_M]

DVDMaestro doesnt do any encoding but does do conjoining .. not that i see that as a problem --

we own it and like it ..

[Bullworth]

Pardon my ignorance, by conjoining do you mean that it just arranges all the materials you have as is rather than rearranging or re-encoding them or am I completely off track?
Just finished previewing Studio 8 and while I do like the easy of use for certain projects it doesn't look like something I will be working with too much. I already have some encoded MPEG movies I did using VBR and I hate the idea of re-encoding them AGAIN, especially since there really is no need to. Don't like how it sticks to VCD white book standards. There is no way I can fit some of these movies on 1 CD after I created them to be XVCDs. It only allows for CBR and does not give you the option to skip the rendering phase if you don't want it. Looks like DVD Workshop or DVD Maestro for me if I can get ahold of it

[BJ_M]

all the video tracks in Maestro can be seperate clips but the audio track (i use ac3) has to be one track ... but you can assign seperate ac3 clips to each video clip in a seperate window/app and it will create the long track .. the nice part of this is that you can effect delay in the audio - nessessary sometimes.. the bad part of it is its a pain to have to do ...
Impression pro i really like also as it has a lot of powerful features but its got its own weird things -- like you have to be in 16 bit color when you are running it or it becomes unstable . but its real easy to use with good menu capibility..