Which authoring tools are good at designing 50+ DVDs

[tripecac]

My current project is to put 50-60 hours of home videos on DVDs. I'm guessing I will need to create 50+ DVDs total. I've been editing with Sony Vegas Movie Studio and authoring with Sony DVD Architect Studio 4.5.

If I were only doing a few DVDs, DVD Architect would be fine. However, I find that its template system (which it calls "themes") is limited and buggy. I find myself having to repeat manual, tedious adjustments for each DVD (such as getting scene titles to the same font size). Maybe there are workarounds, but there doesn't seem to be much literature on DVD Architect. According to the VideoHelp ratings, it's not very highly regarded. I see some freeware DVD Authoring utilities with better scores.

So, what I'd like to know is: which DVD Authoring tool(s) would you recommend for someone wanting to create dozens of DVDs based on templates?

Here's some details about my "requirements":

1) I'd like each DVD to have a main menu, with links to "play all" and "chapters" (or "scenes"). So, nothing fancy.

2) I'd like to be able to add background music to the main menu (ideally, with the ability to loop it).

3) It would be nice to have a custom background images for the menus, although I can live with presets.

4) I'm hoping the chapter names will be derived from the mpg, which is what DVD Architect does. If that's not possible, then I guess I need to find a way to get Sony Vegas Movie Studio to export chapter markers which the authoring program can read.

5) I need the chapter names to be in a consistent font size (unlike DVD Architect, which uses big fonts for short chapter names and small fonts for short names).

6) I'd like it to be really easy to create 50+ different DVDs with the same style of menus. For each DVD, I'd use a different title, background image, and background music on the main menu. Everything else could be the same (except, of course, for the chapter titles) This could be accomplished via templates (or "themes") or by copying project files and then editing the parts that change. I just want to make sure the chapter names are updated intelligently, without my having to manually mess with them like I do in DVD Architect.

So, does that all make sense? To me, it seems pretty basic. It's too bad DVD Architect doesn't make it easy (or maybe it does and I just haven't found the right theme-related documentation). Are there other authoring tools that can make things easier?

Thanks a ton!

Travis

[dadrab]

I use DVDLabPro. It'll do everything you want plus some (a bunch actually).

I'm sure there will be more recommendations, but I have no skills using them, so I can't comment.

[tripecac]

DVDLabPro is $250 - yikes! I was hoping for something free or super-cheap to use while waiting for DVD Architect 9. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

[dadrab]

If you only author 50 discs, yep, $5 per disc is pretty high. The more discs you author, though, the lower your cost goes and you probably won't reach a point to where DVDLabPro won't do what you want unless you turn pro - and maybe not even then.

[Semaphoric]

Tmpgenc TDA will do what you want.

Note that with both TDA and DVD Lab Pro, you would need some sort of image editor to fully realize their customization ability, such as designing your own buttons and such.

[whatsmyname]

Adobe Encore CS3 works with Photoshop as if they were one program. There are heaps of good templates in Encore CS3, you edit the DVD menu in Photoshop and the changes are updated in Encore on the fly.

What you've described (your requirements) is pretty basic anyway and shouldn't take long using Encore's Flowchart view and drag n' drop target features.