What is the best DVD authorware out there?

[mikey23]

As far as reliability, features, price, etc.
I hear so many problems regarding dvdit,spruceup,maestro,etc. Just wondering what the best one is?

Any thoughts or comments will be greatly appreciated.
Mike

[aldus4]

DVD Authoring software is still relativly new and therefore you won't get a 100% foolproof and reliable one. I have used DVDit SE and PE (don't get the PE unless its free as it's not worth the extra money!) and SpruceUp and IMHO they are very similar. If problems do occure it's usually because of a faulty mpeg or avi streams.

[superdvdswanny]

I use DVDit v2.3 PE/SE, it seems to be ok, I used it to create VCD quality films and MPEG2(DVD) films, seems pretty stable, go for v2.3 though as it has support for DVD-RW on Pioneer's A03 model writer, always a bonus !!




Have Fun I always DO..........

_________________
Always try everything, sometimes the answer lies straight in front of you?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: superdvdswanny on 2001-07-23 16:53:02 ]</font>

[alkieman]

Just my opinions.. I've tried using the following trial software:

Spruce Up
DVDit SE & PE
MyDVD

Spruce up looks fine, if a little unpolished. It's fairly fast but pretty restrictive in a lot of ways, no end actions, limited menu styles etc. It also doesn't have the ability to seamlessly play mutliple mpeg files which in my view is a major flaw. It does have a saving grace and thats the ability to add chapters is pretty well handled. Adding chapters is very easy and accurate. The menus it creates though look pretty naff, especially if you use the supplied themes. When creating he DVD it doesn't seem to affect the picture quality and the output looks great

MyDVD
Simple to use but has a few major flaws. The MPEG2 files I captured look great played through Media Player, WinTV200 and VideoStudio but look crap played through MyDVD. Even worse is this reduction in quality appears to be carried over to the created DVD. MyDVD doesn't support chapters nor does it have the ability to seamlessly play meg files on after another.

DVDit SE/PE
Pretty similar to MyDVD (sharing the same interface). PE has a few extras that are definately NOT worth the money. DVDit in my view has the same quality problems as MyDVD in that it seems to lower the quality of the mpeg2 files when a DVD is created. Anyone know why?. You can however, create chapters and end actions on your mpeg files however this isn't very well handled. Setting chapter points is very tedious unless you note down the timecodes and do it that way. Double clicking on the time line usually sticks the chapter points sevral secs, and sometimes even mins away from where you want them. The movie player used when setting chapters is crap, click the pause button for example and it does the same as the stop button on every other application. It should have the ability to pause an mpeg and then allow you to step back and forward fame by frame to set accurate chapter points. A huge flaw in my opinion.

Spruce up also tells you at the start if the imported files have problems. MyDVD and DVDit wait until you actually try to create the DVD which is appalling. Spend hours creating a DVD layout, getting it all working. It plays fine in the test applications, but then you get an error when trying to create the DVD. DVDit also crashes a fair bit.

I'm still looking for the perfect DVD authoring app that doesn't cost thousands.

It should be:
Easy to use.
Not look like it was written by a team of kids.
Support chaptering in the way SpruceUp does.
Tell you if your files are incompatible when they are first imported.
Support proper end actions and have the ability to seamlessly play multiple mpegs.
Cost no more than the current budget applications, say around 150 UKP (about 210 US).
Be stable and not crash a lot like DVDit does.
Have a decent biult in mpeg player with proper start, stop, pause, frame advance, frame reverse etc. and have the ability to set chapter points using this player.
I like the look of DVD Virtuoso but it is way to expensive.


So are they have been my experiences with the current range of budget DVD authoring apps.

[mikey23]

Thanks for the help guys.
Might just have to wait a little longer until some better priced programs come around.

Mike

[AntnyMD]

I've tried SpruceUp and DVDMotion.

My first experience authoring my first miniDVD was with DVDMotion. I jumped at the chance to use it, since this is the application that has the famous Streamweaver that makes vobs. DVDMotion allowed me to multiplex an MPEG-2 file and a Dolby Digital ac3 file ... but it was very sensitive to errors in the audio stream. I ended up just downmixing everything to a wav file so Streamweaver wouldn't complain.

I liked the miniDVD it created ... it didn't decrease the quality of the video at all. I never learned how to set chapter points with that one ... It would have helped since the miniDVD it created won't even let me use the scroll function in WinDVD to scan the video. FF/RW works well. I would have loved to keep that demo around (it also made SVCDs) but I lost the app in a crash, never backed up the setup file to CD, so I'm screwed.

Since I'm screwed, this time around I decided to try SpruceUp. The version I downloaded from their site is pretty good. I made some test miniDVDs with it and was pleased to see it accepted every file format thats a part of the DVD spec (MPEG1 and MPEG2, 352x240 up to 720x480). I am disappointed it doesn't support anamorphic widescreen. Also the audio always needs to be encoded at 48kHz ... took me awhile to get that through my head!

I have yet to explore chapter points with SpruceUp ... my first try caused the program to crash. My install of it seems to crash a lot when I'm doing something I later discover is not allowed (like trying to import MPEG files with 44.1kHz audio). Menu creation is a breeze, and the quality of stills is not degraded as long as they're full resolution (720x480). DVDMotion pixelated any picture I used as a background on a menu. SpruceUp will also allow you to create a beginning play item, which you can choose to loop, just in case you want the DVD/miniDVD to play repeatedly until stopped. I can't think of a practical application for that, but its neat its in there.

[alkieman]

48Khz audio is part of the DVD specification so proper DVD authoring software wont accept audio at 44.1Khz. Some products remix 44.1 to 48 when creating the actual DVD, but most don't.

A little tip for you AntnyMD, demux the video and audio to seperate files and import into SpruceUp. This makes adding chapters much faster and easier as SpruceUp scrubs through the video file a lot quicker.

I also registered SpruceUp so I could then take advantage of their upgrade offer to DVDVirtuoso. DVDVirtuoso is superb and should cost around 1000 USD. If you're an existing SpruceUp user you can upgrade for just 350 USD and in my opinion it is well worth the money.

DVDVirtuoso supports seemless playing of multiple video files, two audio tracks, subtitles, 4x3 and 16x9 aspect ratios, full motion menus etc. etc. I've been playing with it for a few days now and am very glad I took the plunge. It has the same video/audio requirements as SpruceUp so if you have settings in your encoding programs that work with SpruceUp they will also work with DVDVirtuoso without problems.

My copy also writes directly to my Pioneer DVR-A03 writer so I assume it's been updated since others on this forum have bought it.