authoring without the extras?

[newfane18]

In the last ten years or so I have accumulated a lot of live concert DVDs and would like to make a compilation DVD with a few songs from each artist on it. (I should have posted in Newbie area but it told me this topic could not go there).
I have access to DVDIt PE, DVD Lab, SpruceUP and Ulead DVD Workshop and would like to know if I can just make a various artists DVD without all the menu and buttons and stuff that is just confusing me.
On DVD Lab's site, for example, I printed off 56 pages of readme that was useless to me. It was not as easy-to-understand as dvdrhelp.com's userguides. I tried to get just a few chapters from each movie but I got lost. Is there an easier way?
Thanks for not having the arrogant holier-than-thou attitude of some of these other sites!!!
newfane18

[David K]

This project could be quite complicated, and you may have to learn a lot of the basics before you could do it.

If you're lucky, each song on your disc might be a separate title. Get DVDShrink (free) and open up the disc with the song you want on it. It will show you all the separate titles on the disc (you can click on the title and see in a video preview window). If each song is a separate title then you can open the "re-author" window and drag the title to that new window. (Check the DVD Shrink guides for more details). You can take titles off of other discs the same way to create a new compilation DVD. Be sure to check "no compression" since you do not want to compress

However, probably all the songs on the disc will be part of one title and so this will not work. In that case you will have to rip the disc by chapter (assuming that each song is a chapter) using SmartRipper. And then reauthor with a DVD authoring program. You will have to consult many guides to learn this whole process. It can be done, but you'll have to spend many houring learning the various steps. If you have the commitment, it can be fun!

[ddlooping]

Welcome to the forums, newfane18.

I would also suggest you try DVD Shrink v3.0 beta 5.
Contrary to what David said, you can make your compilation even if several songs are part of the same title.
Simply use the "Start/End" feature in "Re-author" mode.

Instead of getting into a lengthy explanation of the processes involved, have a look at the user-friendly guides at:
http://www.dvdshrink.info/guides.php

If you're not familar with DVD Shrink, please take the time to view all of them, even the v2.3 ones.
They are in Flash format, and extremely easy to follow.

[David K]

I didn't know you could use start/end in re-author. Thanks for the tip!

With this feature, DVDShrink is also a powerful re-editing tool.

I notice that one can set start/end by chapter as well. If the Song Discs are set by chapter, this will speed the process of isolating the song sections.

[ddlooping]

I didn't know you could use start/end in re-author. Thanks for the tip!

With this feature, DVDShrink is also a powerful re-editing tool.

I notice that one can set start/end by chapter as well. If the Song Discs are set by chapter, this will speed the process of isolating the song sections.

David, DVD Shrink is much more powerful than most of its users know.

Some of its less used capabilities are:
- splitting to two DVD-Rs, using "Start/End":
http://www.dvdshrink.info/splitting-v2-3.php
- combining "flippers" or making compilations:
http://www.dvdshrink.info/re-author-v3beta5-advanced.php
- it enables you to apply different levels of compression to any part of any title(s) (for applying "Still Pictures" to end-credits, or less compression to a demanding scene, for example).
http://www.dvdshrink.info/mixed-compressions.php