Open Source / Freeware DVD Authorizing Software

[PowerFalcon]

What do you recommend as the best open source / freeware tool for creating authorizing DVD ? I won't be using the program very often so a open source / freeware option suits me best. I've tried Burn Aware and CD Burner XP and both programs have done a horrible Job at burning a authorizing DVD for a DVD player.

[Ai Haibara]

How much work are you willing to do to author a DVD-Video disc? If you're looking for something that'll just take a bunch of videos as input and create a DVD-Video disc from it with a simple menu, you might look at programs like AVS2DVD, DVD Flick and FAVC. AVS2DVD's author, MrC, is available to answer questions/support here on VideoHelp (especially in the dedicated Support topic).

Note that if you do try AVS2DVD, be sure to take a moment to go into the options/settings and make sure everything is set the way you'd want it - AVS2DVD defaults to creating PAL-format discs, for example, as I recall, so if you need NTSC discs...

[jman98]

GUI for dvdauthor is really good but you will absolutely have to read documents to use it. It's not particularly easy to figure out on your own how to use it - in my opinion.

[manono]

The best pure authoring program is Muxman. No menus (except in the paid version), but it muxes very well. However, when the OP says:

I've tried Burn Aware and CD Burner XP and both programs have done a horrible Job at burning a authorizing DVD for a DVD player.

then I'm not sure he understands the difference between authoring and burning to disc. They are very different procedures and, of course, the best burning software is ImgBurn, hands down.

And if you want to, for example, turn some AVI into a DVD you can play in your DVD player, try AVS2DVD, for a very good all-in-one program, as Ai Haibara mentioned.

[Nelson37]

The programs you have described are meant to burn DATA to a disk, they have NOTHING repeat NOTHING to do with preparing compatible video to be AUTHORED to a DVD. GUIforDVDAuthor does that.

The programs you have used are only for Burning, and not very well. IMGBURN is the ONLY choice here.

You may, or may not, have noticed the "compatible video" phrase used. If your video is not already DVD-compatible, you will need a conversion or encoding program. Many, many possibilities here, this will depend on the type of video you are starting with. Your current knowledge level will require one of the "one-click wonders", unless you do a LOT of reading first.

[PowerFalcon]

The video I want to burn is already in DVD-compatible format. I know how to convert video to various formats, and I understand the differences, I'm not a novice. One of the videos I had bought, mentioned to download CD Burner XP to burn DVD formatted videos, not good advice for a program to use, as I have learned.

[jman98]

Your original post seems to be something like "I just want to burn my videos to DVD discs and watch them on a DVD player" but your post right mentioning Vegas seems to indicate that your needs go well beyond this. We are not too great at reading minds and your inability to describe correctly what you REALLY want leads me to conclude that first of all you have basically already made up your mind on the issue and you're really just looking for someone to validate what you've already decided and second you are not going to provide more details or really pay attention to what you get told. Good luck to you.

[vkmast]

Vegas Movie Studio HD (or its Platinum versions) is not freeware. VMStudio is a consumer-oriented version of the Sony Vegas Pro non-linear video editing software. Its Platinum versions include DVD Architect Studio, which is a disc authoring software that has burning options. Many of the VMStudio Plat/DVD Arch Studio users prefer ImgBurn to burn the discs though.
Maybe some confusion with the terminology here. Like jman says, good luck.

[hech54]

The video I want to burn is already in DVD-compatible format. I know how to convert video to various formats, and I understand the differences, I'm not a novice. One of the videos I had bought, mentioned to download CD Burner XP to burn DVD formatted videos, not good advice for a program to use, as I have learned.

Maybe if you explain to us what a DVD-compatible format is....or what you mean by DVD formatted videos ..... then we will all be on the same page here. Right now you are batting 1000 on incoherent posts in this thread.

[Nelson37]

Added to the other post about OC, I can confidently state the following : He don't know that he don't know.

[PowerFalcon]

The video I want to burn is already in DVD-compatible format. I know how to convert video to various formats, and I understand the differences, I'm not a novice. One of the videos I had bought, mentioned to download CD Burner XP to burn DVD formatted videos, not good advice for a program to use, as I have learned.

Maybe if you explain to us what a DVD-compatible format is....or what you mean by DVD formatted videos ..... then we will all be on the same page here. Right now you are batting 1000 on incoherent posts in this thread.

DVD-compatible format is a format that has VOB etc files, that a DVD player with understand and play with chapters etc.

[PowerFalcon]

Added to the other post about OC, I can confidently state the following : He don't know that he don't know.

There can be situations where you write a message on a forum, and you get no replies. I don't typically start a thread with a full detailed explanation, I start a thread and begin to see if someone can help, it may not be ideal, sometimes I do give a full explanation, other times I don't. I will reply to that thread very soon.

[hech54]

You know.....I had this big, long reply typed up with links and definitions and that other good stuff then I realized something.
PowerFalcon.....in my opinion there is NOTHING worse that a person who tries to act more intelligent than he or she really is.
YOU are one of those people.
Goodbye.

[chowmein]

PowerFalcon, what exactly is it you want to do? If you just want to burn already-authored DVD-ready files to a DVD-R, just use ImgBurn, as has been suggested already.

[PowerFalcon]

I'll try ImgBurn.
heck54 - I was never asking more intelligent, you were taking it that way.

[lordsmurf]

DVD-compatible format is a format that has VOB etc files, that a DVD player with understand and play with chapters etc.

No.

DVD-Video is the format.
Assets must be compliant to the DVD-Video format in order to be authored into a folder set.

That folder set is VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS (and a few other optional ones).
Inside the VIDEO_TS, authoring software creates VOB files for the assets and IFO/BUP files for navigation.

DVD-Video, burned to a disc, is expected on DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R or DVD+RW media. (Not DVD-RAM.)
However, some players allow DVD-Video on CD or Blu-ray. But it's not compliant, as the DVD-Video spec specifies DVD media.

I'm using the accurate technical terms here.

[tbout]

You know.....I had this big, long reply typed up with links and definitions and that other good stuff then I realized something.
PowerFalcon.....in my opinion there is NOTHING worse that a person who tries to act more intelligent than he or she really is.
YOU are one of those people.
Goodbye.

Well I'm new to this forum & I'm actually one of those guys that just found out about "DVD Authoring Software". I've been trying unsuccessfully for years to burn dvds with just ImgBurn. I've been online trying to learn everything i could all week. so far I'm using Devede & ImgBurn. I've burned about 5 DVDs so far with this setup. They came out pretty good, but each DVD took hours to burn. I can't help but think that there might be something better than Devede. I've also downloaded DVD Flick, but have not tried it yet because I read in the comments here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-dvd-authoring-software.htm that it has a audio sync problem and I wasn't sure if it was fixed yet. I see a few mentions of AVS2DVD. Must be pretty good. I'll check it out. Also, which is better for quality, DVD-R or DVD+R? I would appreciate any suggestions, responses, comments, links, or opinions from anyone that has time to help a newbie out, thanks. Not trying to be too professional, just wanna burn some very good quality dvds maybe a little faster, but without losing quality.

[DB83]

You know.....I had this big, long reply typed up with links and definitions and that other good stuff then I realized something.
PowerFalcon.....in my opinion there is NOTHING worse that a person who tries to act more intelligent than he or she really is.
YOU are one of those people.
Goodbye.

Well I'm new to this forum & I'm actually one of those guys that just found out about "DVD Authoring Software". I've been trying unsuccessfully for years to burn dvds with just ImgBurn. I've been online trying to learn everything i could all week. so far I'm using Devede & ImgBurn. I've burned about 5 DVDs so far with this setup. They came out pretty good, but each DVD took hours to burn. I can't help but think that there might be something better than Devede. I've also downloaded DVD Flick, but have not tried it yet because I read in the comments here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-dvd-authoring-software.htm that it has a audio sync problem and I wasn't sure if it was fixed yet. I see a few mentions of AVS2DVD. Must be pretty good. I'll check it out. Also, which is better for quality, DVD-R or DVD+R? I would appreciate any suggestions, responses, comments, links, or opinions from anyone that has time to help a newbie out, thanks. Not trying to be too professional, just wanna burn some very good quality dvds maybe a little faster, but without losing quality.

Well first off, NO dvd will take hours to burn. 'Burn' is the actual process of having a disk in your burner and using software to place your files on it. Even at the slowest speed - 1x - it would only take one hour to burn a 4 gb disk. So if it is really taking that long, and using the best program out there ie imgburn you are doing something very wrong.

But, equally, you could be including all the authoring in the total time. That is going to vary depending on the source files etc.

Do try out avstodvd. The beauty of this program is that the author is an active member here and if you get problems then he, inevitably, will try to assist.

[tbout]

You know.....I had this big, long reply typed up with links and definitions and that other good stuff then I realized something.
PowerFalcon.....in my opinion there is NOTHING worse that a person who tries to act more intelligent than he or she really is.
YOU are one of those people.
Goodbye.

Well I'm new to this forum & I'm actually one of those guys that just found out about "DVD Authoring Software". I've been trying unsuccessfully for years to burn dvds with just ImgBurn. I've been online trying to learn everything i could all week. so far I'm using Devede & ImgBurn. I've burned about 5 DVDs so far with this setup. They came out pretty good, but each DVD took hours to burn. I can't help but think that there might be something better than Devede. I've also downloaded DVD Flick, but have not tried it yet because I read in the comments here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-dvd-authoring-software.htm that it has a audio sync problem and I wasn't sure if it was fixed yet. I see a few mentions of AVS2DVD. Must be pretty good. I'll check it out. Also, which is better for quality, DVD-R or DVD+R? I would appreciate any suggestions, responses, comments, links, or opinions from anyone that has time to help a newbie out, thanks. Not trying to be too professional, just wanna burn some very good quality dvds maybe a little faster, but without losing quality.

Well first off, NO dvd will take hours to burn. 'Burn' is the actual process of having a disk in your burner and using software to place your files on it. Even at the slowest speed - 1x - it would only take one hour to burn a 4 gb disk. So if it is really taking that long, and using the best program out there ie imgburn you are doing something very wrong.

But, equally, you could be including all the authoring in the total time. That is going to vary depending on the source files etc.

Do try out avstodvd. The beauty of this program is that the author is an active member here and if you get problems then he, inevitably, will try to assist.

you're right, I explained it wrong, the actual burning process with ImgBurn is not long at all. It's creating the ISO with Devede that takes hours. thanks, i'll take a look at AVS2DVD

[PowerFalcon]

I should have used ImgBurn to being with, arrrghhh. Everything works now ! I am intelligent, it's fatigue that it my weakness

[chowmein]

As Lord Smurf said though, having vob files doesn't necessarily mean you have an authored & compliant DVD-Video structure. But ImgBurn should tell you that.