What authoring software is available for making a DVD-9 ?

[Marius III]

What authoring software is available that will make a DVD-9 ? I know Scenarist will do it, but it seems too diificult to learn and it's WAY too expensive.

I don't care about fancy menus or encoding feature, I just want to be able to put 140 minutes of video and my AC-3 surround files on one DVD.

And, by the way, the client wants to replicate 1000 discs. I am planning on buying a DLT tape drive for submitting the files to the replicating house...

Will Sonic DVD Producer or ReelDVD do it?

I went to Sonic's site and it said this about DVD Producer:

DVD Producer can make Dual layer projects with a DVD-5 Video zone.

However, it’s not currently possible to make a Dual Layer DVD-Video. It is possible to premaster a DVD-5 Video zone with up to 4GB of ROM data making a Dual Layer DVD Hybrid title (DVD-Video and DVD-ROM on the same DVD). This is done using a combination of DVD Producer and Sonic ROM Formatter (which is included with every purchase of DVD Producer)

What does this mean ? What is a "layer break" and what is a "DVD-5 video zone"

[Dragonsf]

Why do you need a DVD-9 in the first place?You can make a decent DVD-5 which contains 140 Min of Video+AC3 sound!

[Marius III]

Hey there Draggonsf -

You know, you may be right. And I hope you are right - that I can use a DVD-5.

Here is the situation. The source video material was shot by a local Catholic TV station. A live concert that they used three cameras and editted it with "Video Tooaster". They have given me the MPEG2 files that are encoded at an average bitrate of about 7. (I checked with Bitrate viewer.) They give me individual segments of the video on CD-ROMs.

I am thinking that they could go back and re-encode at about "3" and we would be able to fit everything on the DVD-5.

By the way , my job is to mix the 5.1 surround audio, author the DVD, and prepare it for the replication house.

[Dragonsf]

I see your problem.You have to join all those mpegs and mux them with your AC3 audio.
And your problem is, all standard DVD Authoring programs can handle only file < 4.7 GB.Maybe DVDShrink is an option fro reducing the size (don't know if it's possible)

[Marius III]

I have TMPEGenc to do the de-multiplexing and joining. No problem there.

[Dragonsf]

Yes, that I was thinking of.But your problem will be the size of the demuxed mpeg.If it's greater than 4.3GB, most common DVD Authoring (incl. IfoEdit) are bound to crash.
Maybe you can DVDShrink persuade to shrink your mpeg.

[BJ_M]

one thread is enough.. Marius III