Better DVD Authouring Software

[ironwood321]

Hi,
I got MyDVD with my DVD burner and was wondering if there was any better DVD authoring software which allows greater control over making menus etc and is relatively easy to use.

I would like to make something fancy type animated menus like you find on commercial DVD's, animated intro sequences to menus and better buttons.

Any suggestions.

Preferably affordable.

[Craig Tucker]

I use Ulead DVD workshop, very good IMHO

[EricB]

Gotta agree with Craig. Having tried several, DVD Workshop does an excellent job of being easy to use but powerful. You can pretty much make the buttons any size or shape, put them anywhere, have them run video previews...etc.

[HaZee]

Hmmmmm, I'd like to use DVD Workshop also, but both DVD WorkShop and the DVD-plug-in freeze when I'm trying to "Make Disc".

Ulead doesn't mention anything in their support-pages so anyone here has some tips???

[Craig Tucker]

How long have you waited, I have had another poster saying that it froze up and stuck on 1%. Turned out he just wasn't waiting long enough.

[HaZee]

about 1:30 hour

Taskmanager says: "Not responding"

btw neoDVD -which was supplied with my burner- does the job in a few minutes, but isn't capable of importing my quality mpeg-2 movies (made with CCE without reencoding it to bad quality DVD.

btw2 same problem with VideoStudio 6 + DVD-plugin (also supplied with my burner)

[sammie]

Generally agree with Craig. I just wish DVDWS would allow AC3 audio! It would probably be all I used if it did.

[donpedro]

As far as easy to use and very nice menu... I like Pinnacle Studio 8, but (it depends what is source of your video) I was reading that there is a lot of issues with re-encodimg mpeg, size of project that you can burn and burner compatibility.... But I still like it ... I just don't use it

My conclusion .... If your source is DV camcorder, you don't care that TMPGEnc is still little bit better and you can't fill up your DVD ? It's very nice program.

[Craig Tucker]

I use DVD workshop to author. I still use TMPGEnc to encode and Nero to burn.

[Nolonemo]

DVD WS will allow AC3 audio, but you have to create it and mux it with your video into a .mpg before opening in DVD WS. I render an .mpv (?) elementary video stream from Vegas Video 3, render my audio as wavs, encode the wavs into AC3 using SoftEncode, mux in TMPGenc, author in DVD WS. Works fine. I usually do 3/0 or 3/2 AC3.

[sammie]

Hmmm, I'll have to try again Nolonemo. Was pretty sure I'd tried that thinking it might work, but no luck I'll look and see what else it might be.

[snarfo]

I'll throw in my 2 cents and agree with Craig--- DVD Workshop to author, TMPGENC to encode, and Nero to burn (DVDWS has integrated burning, but it's not the most stable system to burn with). You can get absolutely professional-quality results with those programs.

BTW, HaZee, if you patch DVDWS to 1.3 you won't need the plugin separately. It works well foir me, though again, DVDWS isn't particularly stable. Save often.

[Greg12]

I use DVDIT PE.

[medievil]

I have no use for menus, so I use IFOedit..it's sleak, slimple , supports ac3 and subtittles and efficiant.

[ejai]

I've created over 50 DVD discs with ac3 audio using DVD Workshop, I capture using the Panasonic e30 on a DVD-ram disc, and copy the file to my computer using the Panasonic LF-311 DVD-ram burner.

After the file is transfered to the computer I change the extension from .vro to .mpg. This enables DVDWS to open the file and create menus and burn to a DVD-r disc with no other software needed.

It's just that easy, no converting audio or video. I'm also using the latest patch for DVDWS version 1.3. The video files maintains the ac3 capablilities.

It's Great!
Ernest

[mikerios]

Generally agree with Craig. I just wish DVDWS would allow AC3 audio! It would probably be all I used if it did.

DVD Workshop does allow AC3 audio, it will complain that it is not standard for NTSC mpeg2 but it will allow it ( Mine is patched up to v 1.3 ), it does not like 23.97 fps will pull down, though it will handle it chapter stops will be off and it sometimes crashes on me, so I render at 29.97 Fps with AC3 ( having merged the m2v file and the ac3 file in TMPEGEnc to get my mpeg2 file for DVd Worskshop.

[sadatx]

If you really wanna use a program that gives the most control, use reeldvd. Its a little pricy but its awesome. You can do almost anything you want.
Sonic Reeldvd

[Lamont Cranston]

If you want DVDWS to play ac3 search for DVDWS.ini and change playac3=0 to playac3=1 and make sure you have an ac3 codec installed on your system (ie powerdvd...). Besweet will also encode wave to ac3 (2 channel Dolby Digital). I have never had a stability problem with DVDWS and have burned many DVDs.

[HaZee]

BTW, HaZee, if you patch DVDWS to 1.3 you won't need the plugin separately. It works well foir me, though again, DVDWS isn't particularly stable. Save often.

I've already patched to 1.3 but that wasn't helping.....

Deleted my "trial version" and tried with Ulead VideoStudio 6 SE DVD including the DVD-patch etc. (legal and official license because I got it bundled with my DVD-burner). That's why I have the plugin.... Unfortunately this path is also not working: when I press next to finish the DVD-plugin, the computer freeze

[snarfo]

Interesting. I've used MediaStudio Pro 6.5 without any problems for very simple menus. I still prefer DVDWS, though. For the record, i should note that I've never used DVDWS to re-encode my videos--- I always do my encoding in TMPGENC since it has better quality than anything I've seen.

[sammie]

Thanks guys, I'll try updating. Didn't see the v.1.3 part until this a.m. But trying again lastnight, it definitely wouldn't allow ac3 even if muxed in TMPEGenc. Gave an illegal audio stream error and wouldn't even load the file. Other than that I've always found DVDWS to be very stable, easy to use, etc. For a lot of movies I don't want menu's and there I do use Ifoedit and that's fine. But for saved TV shows (old Rocky and Bullwinkles are great!) and home movies I usually want menus. (Yeah I know, these don't have ac3. Rare that I need both a menu and ac3, but it happens once in a while.)

[HaZee]

Yes!!! I found the reason why DVD WorkShop froze

My MultiMemoryCardReader is the bad boy: when I shut it down (standard function, so I can remove the #$%@) DVD Workshop and the DVD-plugin in VideoStudio are both working perfect!

I'm very happy

[cellmaniac]

I've been using DVD Maestro pretty successfully. It handles .AC3 files pretty well. I've tried DVDIt and it only supports 2 channel dolby not 5.1. I use Smartripper to rip the movie and have it write a separate audio file (.Ac3) and a separate video file (m2v) . I then use TMPGenc to downsize the video to fit onto the DVD-R, plus the audio file. Import the the two files into DVDMaestro, add chapter points, insert a starting point and compile the file. The output is an AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. I just place the contents of the VIDEO_TS folder and burn it using Nero. It works great without any voice sync problems.

I've tried NeoDVD before and the sound was out of sync.

[Nolonemo]

Hey Lamont, I don't know if I thanked you before, but that enabling AC3 playback tip in DVD WS was great!!!

BTW, for people wanting to do this, it won't work if you don't have an AC3 codec installed on your box. If you have DVD player software, the codec's probabably installed.

[HaZee]

If you want DVDWS to play ac3 search for DVDWS.ini and change playac3=0 to playac3=1 and make sure you have an ac3 codec installed on your system (ie powerdvd...). Besweet will also encode wave to ac3 (2 channel Dolby Digital). I have never had a stability problem with DVDWS and have burned many DVDs.

Hmm, I installed version 1.3 but I'm not able to find the .ini-file....

[leebo]

Hmm..

When I tried using TMPGEnc to remux an m2v and AC3 file, the result had no audio.
Is this due to the version or operator error?

I'm using ver. 2.56.39.143.

[Lamont Cranston]

Hmm, I installed version 1.3 but I'm not able to find the .ini-file....

It is normally hidden unless you choose to show system files.

[HaZee]

It is normally hidden unless you choose to show system files.

You're right, but I also looked in the wrong place: it's located in a "\Documents and settings\All Users\......" sub-folder

[DVDFan99]

for for those that are looking for DVDWS.ini to change playAC3=1 to playAC3=1:

If you use a trial version (and crack) there will be no such line (playAC3=0) in DVDWS.ini, whose location was mentioned by HaZee

[Robert Simandl]

Hmm..

When I tried using TMPGEnc to remux an m2v and AC3 file, the result had no audio.
Is this due to the version or operator error?

I'm using ver. 2.56.39.143.

I had the same problem for a while, found the problem was I was using a 44.1kbps bitrate when making the ac3 file. The DVD spec is 48kbps.

See the new guide about Besweet in the Howto section for more details.