Speaking of Nero..

[mcnallyj]

First off, I want to thank all for their expert advice I have gotten in the past!

Secondly, in terms of a commercial solution, such as Nero studio 6, versus a series of freeware tools, what is the easiest way to do the following:

Move avi files to DVD.
Create Menus.
Move DV video from my camcorder to DVD.

I'm not looking for *how* to do it, more than that I am looking to see if by purchasing Nero you save yourself major headaches, or is the cost of Nero (or some other product if there is a better one, please fill in what that product is!) not worth it since the freeware (or shareware) can do the job just as well, with not much added fuss?

Joe

[TheFamilyMan]

A decent, inexpensive, and very easy to use 'all in one' package for capturing (getting your footage on the computer), converting (making it so it can be used for a DVD), authoring (adding menus) and burning is ulead's MovieFactory. They have a demo download you can get from their website. But you may (or may not) be disappointed with the overall picture quality, due to its less than excellent MPEG2 compression engine. Some will scoff at this product for its capabilities are limited, but it gets the job done nicely if you're not concerned with too many bells and whistles.

IMHO if you're a quality freak, there is no acceptable "all in one" solution.

[mcnallyj]

So I am thinking that a combination of the different tools, like the ones posted here in the how-to guides, would be a better choice than an all in one, such as nero or ulead?

[TheFamilyMan]

The better choice is in the mind of the chooser. If you're just getting starting in this hobby, an all in one tool is worth trying just to give you experience with creating DVDs. I recommended ulead MovieFactory because it is tightly integrated and very easy to use. It's authoring is very good to a certain extent; it is what I use (mainly because I got it free with my DVD burner). What is also nice about it is that you can use it with different tools that do the capturing, converting and burning. So as you learn more and decide that parts of the tool are lacking, you use other tools to do the job. As you learn more, you may even decide that authoring with MovieFactory is too limiting and opt for a more sophisticated tool.

I've never used nero 6; I use nero 5.5 to burn. Nero six may or may not be a better overall tool than MovieFactory. But like MovieFactory, you can choose to use other tools with it. Get the trial versions of these tools and use them with re-writable DVDs to see if you like them. This hobby is not for the impatient and has an extremely high "futz" factor IMHO. If you want less fuss look into buying a DVD recorder. Finally, I am not the end-all or know-all in this stuff; but I am trying to be helpful and I've run out of help. All you need to know, to the nth level of knowledge, awaits you within this site if you are willing to dig, dig, dig. Good Luck.

[mcnallyj]

Thanks familyman! Excellent advice, I'll try downloading the trials and see where it leads. Hopefully the trials are full featured with the only limitations being 30 days or something like that rather than feature limited so I can see what they have to offer.

This definitely is a FUTZ type hobby like you said, I've been realizing that and haven't even had a need to install my burner yet!

[MysticE]

Try Nero 6, it does everything you need and more.