want to spend $$$ on GOOD software, please advise

[hex carrier]

hi all, i would like to bite the bullit and spend some money on professional conversion/backing up software.

to be honest im tired of trying to use dinky unprofessional freeware that only does one thing, and i have to fill up my machine with 20+ pieces of software which slows down my OS (nevermind wastes so much time, gives me headaches, and produces semiprofessional results)

im not trying to diss any freeware, just asking for advice as to what is the best professional tool for the following:

i would like to be able to:
-convert anything to anything with PROFESSIONAL results
-backup any format to dvd5
-i would like this to include everything i need (im trying to avoid having to get codecs, and addons, and whatever just to do a simple task)

i spent over $1000 on my audio editing software (cubase sx2) and although im not willing to spend THAT much on burning software, i would like to know whats out there that is a professional tool that would do it all (or a couple of pieces of software that would do it all)

i guess if i had a $ limit, it would be around $300 that im willing to spend on this.

thanx (ive tried searching around this site for this info, but everyone seems to only want to use free or very cheap stuff)

[jimmalenko]

-convert anything to anything with PROFESSIONAL results

The software you use is only a small part of this. Most is gained by the knowledge and skills of the end user. You can get professional results using just AVISynth and Quenc if you know what you're doing and your source is decent enough to begin with.

-backup any format to dvd5

DVDShrink & one of DVDDecrypter, Smartripper or DVDFab Decrypter. Most transcoders have had the ripping part "ripped" out of them due to lawsuits regarding circumventing copy protection measures such as CSS. For the transcoders that still have ripping functionality, it's probably just a matter of time.

-i would like this to include everything i need (im trying to avoid having to get codecs, and addons, and whatever just to do a simple task)

Unfortunately the way the video world works is that you need to get the codecs. No sidestepping around that.

i spent over $1000 on my audio editing software (cubase sx2) and although im not willing to spend THAT much on burning software, i would like to know whats out there that is a professional tool that would do it all (or a couple of pieces of software that would do it all)

The video world is not like the audio world. Often tools that can do a number of things tend to skimp on their abilities to do these things, so you can use three tools to do three jobs and they all do their own individual job well, or you can use one tool to do the three tasks but it does all three tasks half-assed.

Most software is only as good as the user using it, and $$$ doesn't buy knowledge or experience. I'd suggest you invest time in reading as many articles, guides and threads here and at Doom9, afterdawn & cdfreaks and building up your knowledge base.

[lordsmurf]

There is no such thing as "professional backup". Professionals make new content, they have zero need to "backup" discs.

Price has nothing to do with quality of software. Some of the best software can be free (DVD Decrypter), and some of the worst junk can cost tons of money (Adobe Encore, Sonic DVDit! 5/6).

What you ask for has no "professional" software. You're asking for beginner software.

A good encoder would be Canopus Procoder (professional MPEG/video encoder software), but that's more than double your budget, and you can only input video if the proper codecs are available in the system.

[hex carrier]

ok.

jim, can you please do me a favour.

basicly i would like to have a list of ALL the tools (including codecs/encoders/etc) i could possibly ever need to do ANYTHING related to rip/convert/encode/transcode/author....etc...

im asking because the machine that i use to work (with dvdr) is not the same machine that i surf with.
so everytime i read another guide, or someone sais: "oh you need this codec, or that software"
i have to download, burn to cd, and transfer over to the main machine.
and after doing that over and over....well, id like to do it all in one shot.


please and thank you.

ps, forgot to mention, obviously there are a lot of similar software that will both do same things as the other, in this case please state the best one in your opinion (money is no issue) this way any stuff that i need to buy i can get all at once (ask my friend with a credit card, so i dont have to ask him more than once as well?

[smearbrick1]

Once again, you have several options. You have to know what your source is and what you want your results to be before you can say "what do I need?". For example, if you have uncompressed DV from a DV cam or the like and you want to make a DVD from it, you could use a licensed (not trial) edition of TMPGENC (trial edition only allows use of the MPEG2 plugin for a restricted amount of time). Also, you would need a decent authoring program. For the beginner, you could use, once again, TMPGENC DVD Author. It's very simple to use, a little short on options, but the results are excellent.

You will find that the more you get into video editing/converting/authoring/etc that you can't always have everything you need at your fingertips. Sometimes you may need filters, or maybe the new version of Vegas you bought doesn't have native AC-3 support and you need to purchase a plugin. No matter how much you try to plan, you cannot be prepared for everything. I do very little video production, but can tell you (with a hard drive full of editing/authoring/encoding/transcoding tools) that experience means alot. Like LordSmurf said, you could have the greatest conversion tools available but without the proper knowledge, you will never have professional results. Professional results are only produced by professionals. That's why they are called "professional results".

[rkr1958]

-backup any format to dvd5

DVDShrink & one of DVDDecrypter, Smartripper or DVDFab Decrypter.

I'd have to go with DVD-RB and for $10+ donation you could get DVD-RB Pro to go along with DVD-Shrink here.

[Mister Flonk-Flonk]

(im trying to avoid having to get codecs, and addons, and whatever just to do a simple task)

Simple task, eh?

Sounds like what you need is:



You shouldn't be wasting your money on professional software.
You're not ready for it yet.

[hex carrier]

im not afraid of learning and dedicating time to do so, i just want to have all the right tools first (i hate how so far i keep going back (seperate computer) and having to keep downloading software/codecs/etc just to do one thing.

and i think im asking for a pretty simple request...
a list of tools to get me started and going

mister flonk, please help me by not helping me anymore.
although when i need some righteous egotisitcal remark, youll be the first i find

[lenti_75]

Ulead products for editing and burning -cheap and decent
Canopus Prodocoder foe encoding.

If you can to go more pro, Canopus Edius. Adobe is way to expensive and really hard to learn.


but sometime, you still need the encoders if you encode from a certain format.

there is Dvd lab for menus, once the video si dvd ready.

[Stormin Norman]

Call Hollywood?

[pijetro]

There's no such software solution to do all of your needs.

At best, you'll end up running with All Season tires on a Formula 1 car and a tractor...
It's a good analogy, since you're final tasks are just as different..

It took me a few months before final enlightenment dawned upon me..
Unless you have a personal tutor teaching you all the different aspects for all your needs, you'll be chasing your tail around as i did..

[b1tchm4gn3t]

mister flonk, please help me by not helping me anymore.
although when i need some righteous egotisitcal remark, youll be the first i find

You told me I would be the first you would call for those kinds of remarks.

[Hodag]

hex carrier,
Being a newbie myself, I can't give you much advice on video processing, but I can give you advice on another issue you seem to be having; network both of your pc's together so that you can download from both machines. That way you won't have to "download, burn to cd, and transfer over to the main machine". It would be much faster than transferring files via CD/DVD, and can be done for $10-$75 depending on how you do it.

[jdizzy40]

"Simple Request" I am not touching that one!

[jtoolman2000]

Ok, here is where I am VERY hardcore. I would only consider only using sources from DV or possibly an uncompressed Avi generated with some animation program like After effects for any of my DVD projects. No downloaded Divx / Xvid crap movie
( legal or otherwise ) conversions to DVD in my book, they WILL suck. Sort of like going from DVD to Vhs and back tro DVD. No point!!!! So my needs then are pretty much narrowed down to a good NLE like Vegas and even Premiere and authoring will be done again with any good program of my choice. I happen to use DVD Archited, DVDlab and Encore. Each program has advantages and disadvantages.
No one prog with ever satisfy every need no matter what they promess, that's why I use one or several tools as needed by the projects specific equirements.

So there is not magic list of tools you will need. You aquire the tools as the situation dictates.

A friend asked to put together a list of basic tools
he would need to set up a home machine shop
( which is what I do for $$$ ) and I gave him a partial list that ran like $15k - It wasn't even half way done. I considered all the tools and accessories I suggested as essential as I could come up with situations for each and every tool. What I told him in the end was to buy whatever he would need as he needed it.

So going back to your request. Is you are backing up commercial purchased DVDs, get DVD Decrypter and DVDsrhink. Both free and will back up just about every DVD out there. Get DVD Fab Decrypter, also free and use that for any DVD with Arccos protection as well as the normal forms of protection. If you really feel like you need to re-edit DVDs you will need a tool to rip the VOBs to MPG2 which you can then sort of edit ( to I frames only ) make new menus and output to DVD files. TDA will do most of these DVD re-dos very well
but you need to rip ( Decrypter ) the files to the DH before loading the DVD in TDA.

If you are going to work with DV transfered from DV Cam then you just need a good NLE and Authoring program.

Capturing ALnalog from a VCR to PC requires a capture card. Most material will end up looking worse than the original. Tons of adjustments of codecs are required to sqeeze that last drop of quality and keep the file to a reasonable size.

So you see, it's not that unsurmountable an issue. It comes down to just a few tools if you restrict yourself to proper video sources and not crap from God now where. Any attempt to convert this stuff to DVD will simply look like hell. If its a Hollywood movie, buy it if you must have it or copy it. Anything else will be below standards as far as quality.

[danzeb]

I can understand the frustration. I've been following the forums for a year always wondering what was the best software. I haven't figured it out. One thing I did figure out is that converting and authoring video is much more complicated that doing audio.

Even expensive software doesn't do it all. I once tried Encore, which is beyond your budget limit. When I tried to convert and edit my first file it told me it could not handle that format! I used a freeware program with success.

I don't expect to see anyone provide a satisfactory answer to "how do I convert anything to anything with PROFESSIONAL results?"

A few of the basics that most users like are:

DVDdecryper for copying and dvd writing.
DVDshrink for fitting a movie on a DVD.
TMPGENC Author for basic authoring.
Gspot to find out what codec is needed for a file.

The best mpg encoder? I have no idea.

The best avi to dvd converter? I have no idea but to put 2 to 4 hrs on a DVD I use DIKO.
















[/quote]

[rkr1958]

My recommendations ... for entry level +

1) Encoder (TMPGEnc Plus) and / or CCE-Basic (~$60)
2) Authoring (TMPGEnc DVDAuthor w/ac3 plugin) (~$100)
3) Audio Editor (Goldwave) (~$50)
4) DVD Decryptor (free) and / or AnyDVD ($50)
5) DVDShrink (free) and / or DVD-RB (free) or DVD-RB Pro ($10+ donation)
6) Nero (check ebay) ($20 to $60)
7) AVISynth (free) (frameserver ... very useful ... moderate learning curve required)
8. Virtualdub (free) (capture & AVI editing) ... had to load the Panasonic codec in order to get audio from DV type 1 (or 2?) (one or the other)
9) Vobblanker (free)
10) Ulead Videostudio 6+ (got my copy off of ebay for ~$20 ... used for capture & some editing of AVI files)
11) Good photo editor (I use Adobe Photodeluxe Home Edition 4.1 ... not longer produced ... ebay for $20)


These are the tools that I use ... Total cost around $400 ... For me this is a hobby ... one that I enjoy ... My recommendation is if you want to become a "professional" start with some entry level tools (and save some money) and begin learning ... Then after you spend some time learning, doing and advancing you'll be better equipped and informed on what advance and more expensive tools suit your needs.

Welcome aboard and good luck ...

[DereX888]

to be honest im tired of trying to use dinky unprofessional freeware that only does one thing, and i have to fill up my machine with 20+ pieces of software which slows down my OS (nevermind wastes so much time, gives me headaches, and produces semiprofessional results)

The best software does the thing it is written for (the "one thing").
The "professionals" DO use 20+ different pieces of software, all depending on what task are they doing. The amount of software on anybody's system does NOT cause it to slow down, never, unless someone is an idiot running them all at once (but that is different story).

From what youve wrote above it seems to me you don't want the best, you just want one or two 'multi-purpose' crappy behemoths like i.e. Adobe Encore.
Furthermore: I assure you that there is no such thing as "professional backup", unless you buy second (or another) copy of original DVD and keep it as a backup...


Your whole notion about freeware is wrong. Without freeware you would never decrypt any commercial dvd, therefore *any* commercial backup software is useless without it.
There are great and excellent free programs (ie DVDDecrypter) and there is freeware junk - as well as there are great payware and expensive junk not worth a dime. In a software world (and in a computer world in general) the most expensive almost never equals the best.

You already stated negative opinion on "freewares" in general, yet you ask here for help and admit you have no clue what youre talking about. It does not make any sense.

Are you "smart differently" or something?

[thecoalman]

Considering everthing that's been posted above......... give this a try. It's a suite of program from Ulead, the one listed in this link has the older version.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=285495&...ughType=search

If you go to Ulead's site you'll see it's priced considerably less than than the MSRP. For the most part that's because there's a newer version of DVD Workshop.

This suite will take care of just about anything you could possibly want to do on a semi-professional, or even professional level as far as editing, authoring and original content creation. It's not some magic bullet but unless your in need of software on a truly professional level it should be more than adequate.

Includes:

Media Studio Pro: For video editing. This would be the equivalent of Adobe Premier or Vegas, note that this version is 2-3 years old. There's a newer version coming out shortly.

DVD Workshop: Probably by far the easiest DVD authoring application to use and it's packed with features. It is a older version but most of the major features available in the newer version are also available in this version, even if they are not listed. Don't follow the comparison chart on Ulead's site because in some cases it's incorrect.

Ulead cool 3-d: For 3-d text and object animation for video or other formats.

Photoimpact: A full feature image editor. This is also a older version but from my understanding not much of the core features have changed since.

Keep in mind it's a suite of program so they integrate nicely. For examp0le you can use the propietary files in different applications where applicable.

[jimmalenko]

Here's what I have on my PC and use fairly regularly:


(popular alternatives that others use to do a similar job are listed in brackets)


ScenalyzerLive (WinDV, DVIO, Windows Movie Maker)
VirtualdubMod, Virtualdub 1.3c (VirtualDub-MPEG2, VirtualDub)
DVDDecrypter, Smartripper (DVDFab Decrypter)
DVDShrink (DVD2One)
IFOEdit, VOBEdit (PGCEdit)
PowerDVD (WinDVD, VLC, Media Player Classic)
GSpot (AVICodec)
Nero Burning ROM (CopyToDVD, RecordNow)
VOBBlanker, TitlesetBlanker
TMPGEnc DVD Author (DVD-lab Pro)
TMPGEnc Plus (CCE, Mainconcept, Procoder)
VCDGear, ISOBuster
DVDPatcher
ffmpeggui, Belight (BeSweet)
MPEG-VCR
DGIndex, DVD2AVI (DGMPGDec)
AutoGK (Gordian Knot, FairUse)
DVDRemake Pro
DivxToDVD (WinAVI, DVDSanta, NeroVision Express)
Rejig
ASFTools
AC3Filter
Lame MP3
XviD Codec
DivX 3.11 Alpha, 4, 5 Codecs
GoldWave
AVISynth
Windows Media Encoder
WinRAR
Winzip


Of course I have other software on my PC, but this is what I use regularly. Registered versions of all of these would probably be somewhere in the $500-$600 range I would imagine - obviously I didn't buy them all at once

I'm pretty sure that all of these tools can be found in the Tools section to your left. If not, I'm sure a google will track down their official websites.

[jtoolman2000]

You just scared the hell out of this guy!

[DereX888]

You just scared the hell out of this guy!

hahahahaha

[hex carrier]

a big THANK YOU to jimmalenko as well as rkr1958, jtoolman and others who simply answered my request.

now that i have this list of what to get, i can assemble my arsenal and continue learning this stuff without being interrupted by having to go and download or buy this or that.

a big F you, to those that gave me some bullshit righteous 'well son when youre as good as me' nonsense instead.

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning.
/ Moderator lordsmurf

[jtoolman2000]

Thanks. Glad to be of some help. Just remember that many tools free or otherwise many times overlap in some of the functions that they perform. I like the ease of basic editing with Pinnacle Studio 9 and its companion tools like Hollywood effects and Smartsounds ( music creator ) but that's about as far as I would use that program. I will use Vegas for basic middle and advance editing. Premiere has its good and bad points, hell programs do. Nothing out there is perfect. So I have several tools in each category at my disposal but in most case I'll end up only using a few per project. So I do have a lot of tools at my dissposal just not as many as jimmalenko. He definitely kicks my ass in that arena.

Take care and good luck in this wonderful field.

[hex carrier]

ps, the link to avisynth is dead.

and DGIndex and DVD2AVI both link to DGMPGDec

cheers

[jimmalenko]

AVISynth's website is down - I was there just the other night.


... and as I said, use google to find DVD2AVI and DGIndex, or download something like EazyVCD which has an older version of DVD2AVI in it, or download AutoGK which has DGIndex in it (I think).

[DereX888]

AVISynth's website is down - I was there just the other night.


... and as I said, use google to find DVD2AVI and DGIndex, or download something like EazyVCD which has an older version of DVD2AVI in it, or download AutoGK which has DGIndex in it (I think).

...or he could have just read few guides, or even easier - just have a look at the Tools section and read comments.
But what ya expect from someone who claims not to be "dissing" freewares (what a stupid ghetto-rap-crap word lol!) yet he do so indirectly... go on, brutha hex carrier, live'n'learn (although I bet youre way older than me, please at least consider this advice - it works not only in the digital video field, but in the real life as well:
BULLSHIT IN will always give you in result BULLSHIT OUT

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning. Come on now, you know better than this.
/ Moderator lordsmurf

[hex carrier]

...or he could have just read few guides, or even easier - just have a look at the Tools section and read comments.
But what ya expect from someone who claims not to be "dissing" freewares (what a stupid ghetto-rap-crap word lol!) yet he do so indirectly... go on, brutha hex carrier, live'n'learn (although I bet youre way older than me, please at least consider this advice - it works not only in the digital video field, but in the real life as well:
BULLSHIT IN will always give you in result BULLSHIT OUT

i DID read and still am reading guides you retard.
and the tools section ALSO links DGIndex and DVD2AVI to DGMPGDec.

and if you think that "dissing" is somekind of "ghetto-rap-crap world?" word....then YOU MUST be older than I am....dad

the more you post, the more obvious it is that you are a complete idiot.

help yourself: stop making fun of yourself by posting.

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning. Drop the attitude, or your videohelp.com days will be a very short-lived membership.
/ Moderator lordsmurf

[Mister Flonk-Flonk]

Calm down, slappy. You have no idea how much thankless hard work, effort and research & development by the online community goes into that "dinky freeware that gets semiprofessional results" you so eagerly bag on. Don't be so quick to criticize it then come here expecting it to be all sunshine and lollipops.

[hex carrier]

Calm down, slappy. You have no idea how much thankless hard work, effort and research & development by the online community goes into that "dinky freeware that gets semiprofessional results" you so eagerly bag on. Don't be so quick to criticize it then come here expecting it to be all sunshine and lollipops.

ok, sir.



i guess youre under the belief that ALL freeware is quality and reliable?
i think not.
there definately ARE some good free programs out there (decrypter, shrink)
however through my experience so far, a lot of freeware if not most of them are sketchy at best.

i apologize wholeheartedly for asking about 'buyware' tools, and for using the word 'dinky'

you are da man mr. flonk