DVDlab

[XanaXManX]

What do you guys think of DVDlab. I have seen it talked about a few times in here.

[marvel2020]

Miles ahead of Spruceup and Ulead Movie factory 2.

But still light years behind DVD Maestro and Sonic Scenarist

IMHO

[housepig]

I've been using it for a few weeks, and I love it - it's easy to get started, and will do a lot of things for you as you learn, yet as you get more accustomed to it, you can go really deep customizing and gaining more control over your project.

as for comparisons to Scenarist and Maestro, I'd agree - but it also lags far below them in price - $80 vs $5,000 - $15,000....

Plus, when was the last time you got a free update from Maestro? DVD Lab is run by a developer who is very in touch with his users, including a wish-list of future features at the DVD Lab forums... can't wait until he updates the one thing I really want - multiple audio tracks!!

Give it a try - it's free for the first 30 days...

[marvel2020]

That maybe so, but for me i will continue to use DVD Maestro, simply because i can get it to play individual movie's, and 1 after the other all on the same disc.

As far as i know, not having used DVD Lab that much. i don't think this is possible, but you can correct me if i'm wrong.

[housepig]

That maybe so, but for me i will continue to use DVD Maestro, simply because i can get it to play individual movie's, and 1 after the other all on the same disc.

okay, you lost me... you mean you can set up a disc where movie 1 ends and then instead of returning to a menu, movie 2 begins, etc?

if that's the case, I'm pretty sure you can do it in DVD Lab - I haven't tried it, but I think you can determine the "on end" action of a movie, and set it to play another movie.

Actually, I'm going to be putting together a compilation disc this weekend of some videos, I'll see how easy (or impossible) it is to do in DVD Lab.

As for me, well, I don't have a spare $5,000 lying around to pick up Maestro...

[marvel2020]

Ok here's an example of what i mean using DVD Maestro.


Say I have 5 Episode's of SG1 Label 1 to 5.

I Make a simple 1 page menu in Photoshop, with all the Episode's on it and a play all button.

I import all the mpv's and ac3's, I sync all the audio to the correct Episode's.

I then goto my Menu Page, setup my Buttons with the PLAYALL button being NO1, the rest of the episode's are then assgin to to the Next in line...

Episode 1 assigned to Button 2
Episode 2 assigned to Button 3
etc....

I then goto the connections tab make each movie play in order 1 after the other and at the end of Episode 5 i set it to return to the main Menu.

I then use DVD Maestro's Playlist option to make it play each of the 5 Episode's individualy from each other..

By pressing button 2 it plays Episode 1
By pressing Button 4 it plays Episode 3
etc.....

And at the end of each individual Episode it will also return to the main menu.

Ah,i don't have $5.000 either but i did get it using other means

[housepig]

I don't see anything that would prevent you from doing the same thing in DVD Lab. And in some cases the menu making might be easier, as you can just drag & drop links to movie files.

like I said, I'll be doing some capturing later today or tomorrow of some music videos, I'll see how hard this is to do in DVD Lab.

[Rookie2]

Hi,

I think DVDlab is a great program with an interface that looks like DVDMaestro and it is fast. I tested the trial version, but encounters some problems when i burned the files made by DVDlab. The AC3 audio sounded strange and the movie did not play smoothly...stops for a second sometimes. I tried my project with DVDMaestro and that program just played the audio and movie fine.

regards,
r.

[dvdnew]

marvel2020: you are right, there is no way to do what you want in DVDlab 1.1. You can select each episode to return to menu OR play the following episode until the end and then return to menu but not both.

housepig: there is someone that posted in mmbforums, that was able to create a VOB with 2 audio tracks, and then use DVDlab to create the final DVD. I guess there is no way for a menu selection for the audio track in DVDlab, but when the movie is played you can change the track easily with the remote.

[dvdnew]

Rookie2: there is an updated dll that fix some ac3 problems in mmbforums, maybe that will fix your problem.

I think there still bugs with ac3 audio in DVDlab.

[RCAMPBELL]

i just dl'ed dvd lab 1.1

every time i author a small clip into a dvd as a test i dont get any audio on the dvd.

does any body have any idea what i could be doing wrong.

[XanaXManX]

Thanks for all the replies, I will give DVDLab a try and let you guys know what I think.

Thanks again.

[housepig]

Marvel -

I then goto the connections tab make each movie play in order 1 after the other and at the end of Episode 5 i set it to return to the main Menu.

So when episode 1 finishes, it goes to episode 2, right? but wait...

And at the end of each individual Episode it will also return to the main menu.

so at the end of an episode, does it return to the main menu, or does it play the next episode?

If you want to chain the end of one episode to the beginning of the next, and return to the main menu after they all play, that is no problem with DVD Lab - you go to the Connections window, turn off Auto-Route and draw connections between your movie files.

Dvdnew -

housepig: there is someone that posted in mmbforums, that was able to create a VOB with 2 audio tracks, and then use DVDlab to create the final DVD. I guess there is no way for a menu selection for the audio track in DVDlab, but when the movie is played you can change the track easily with the remote.

okay, but what did he use to create a VOB with multiple streams in it? He must have used some authoring program to get the .vob, or ripped it from an existing movie.

I'm capturing and converting, so I don't get VOB files until I author the disc...

[dvdnew]

Dvdnew -
okay, but what did he use to create a VOB with multiple streams in it? He must have used some authoring program to get the .vob, or ripped it from an existing movie.

I'm capturing and converting, so I don't get VOB files until I author the disc...

You are right, he used IFOedit to create the VOBs with multiple audio streams in it. DVDlab didn't find the audio so you need to edit the resulting IFOs that DVDlab creates to "activate" the audio in the VOBs with IFOedit.

[housepig]

You are right, he used IFOedit to create the VOBs with multiple audio streams in it. DVDlab didn't find the audio so you need to edit the resulting IFOs that DVDlab creates to "activate" the audio in the VOBs with IFOedit.

Gak! I think I'll wait until it's native to DVD Lab... I'm not in a screaming hurry anyway for this feature... I just have some long-range projects where this could be cool...