Absolute best authoring program *for me*?

[waylman]

I dont mind paying alot for the software. I'm going to be making several DVD's and I just want the best of the best! Please advise.

edit: little more info.......THe DVD's I'm making are just some footage I've shot with my cam.....I'm willing to invest some time learning the program.

[yoda313]

Hello,

Adobe premier I think must be pretty good - VERY EXPENSIVE though.

Tmpgenc DVD Author is nice - moderate price.

Check the tools link on the left of the page for more.

Kevin

[BSR]

Do believe Adobe Encore authoring program only does 720x480 video. It does not support 352x480. Or at least it didn't when I researched it earlier this year.
Because of this I would recommend Vegas DVD architect authoring program over it.

Don't know what's best...They mostly do pretty much what they are suppose to. For me Tmpgenc is best becuase of price and very easy and fast to use.

EDIT -
Sonic Scenarist says it's "the de-facto standard for commercial DVD title production in Hollywood." So maybe in your view that makes it the best.

[babyboo]

I am partial to DVDLAB

[lgh529]

Adobe Premier is not an authoring program, its a video editor.

I have Ulead DVD Workshop, DVD-Lab, and DVD Architect. Of the three, I never use DVD Workshop, and only rarely use DVD Architect. I use DVD-Lab for 95% of my authoring. The only time I use DVD Architect is if I need a real time preview of subtitles or something like that.

You need a little work on how to ask questions. The absolute best means different things to different people. Sonic Scenearist is the only authoriing program that does everything, but your gonna have to drop $20,000 for it. Is it the best? I guess if you need to to everything, and money is no problem for you, then go for it. Your probably going to need another $3,000 in training to learn how to use it.

If all your doing is making DVD's of home movies, then there are plenty of applications that will do it depending on how involved you want to be. Some people think that MyDVD is the best because all they have to do is start a wizard and viola, it does everything else for them. I personally think its crap, but I like to have more creative DVD's that the canned templates that it provides.

Don't ask what the absolute best authoring program is, you need to ask what is the best for the kind of DVD work that your doing.

[waylman]

thanks lgh529....I dont want a program with canned templates either. I would like to learn a more advanced program that gives me more options. These will be home movies, so I dont need to get 30k crazy (Sonic Scenearist).

EDIT: Need a little clarification here as well. I will need to edit some scenes out of the footage I have shot, add music etc. Is DVD LAB the program that does this kind of thing? Or do I need an editor like Premiere for this?
Im thinking the process goes like.......
Transfer - WinDV
Convert - TMPGEnc
Edit - Premiere
Author - DVDLab

Does that make sense?

[lordsmurf]

Best for me has been Ulead DVD Workshop 2
- motion menus
- templates for quick work
- multi audio tracks
- multi VTS (different res, same disc)
- accepts program streams
- quick to add chapter
- easy drag-dop interface
- track arrangement
- does not re-encode compliant MPEG
- high quality font control, aliasing
- image resizing is excellent, no skewing
- motion and audio menu controls are simple

It does take a little time to learn, but it's nowhere near as bad as software like DVD-Lab or ReelDVD, and is almost problem-free.

DVDit! PE has also been an excellent choice, though no motion or multi VTS.

TMPGENC DVD Author (TDA) is fairly crappy in terms of quality, but great for no-menu discs and quickie work. Very accepting of bad sources too.

[housepig]

EDIT: Need a little clarification here as well. I will need to edit some scenes out of the footage I have shot, add music etc. Is DVD LAB the program that does this kind of thing? Or do I need an editor like Premiere for this?

Premiere is good, I like Vegas myself... if it's simple cuts, Virtualdub is easy and free.

[waylman]

thanks housepig...lot of apps required for this process!

[BJ_M]

dvd maestro
scenarist
dvd studio pro (mac)
sonic producer
dvd-lab pro
adobe encore
dvd architect

[anzimike]

TMPGEnc for basic, quick, easy, movie-only authoring.
DVD-lab good but a bit buggy, and as far as I can tell, has no menu templates, so you must build from scratch, very time consuming.
Ulead dvd WS-2 very versatile, can build from scratch or more variety of templates, also has built in encoder, so you won't need to purchase a seperate encoder. If you select WS-2 you can enable advanced encoding options for better encodes. Search or post back if you need detailed instructions to enable this option. I have found WS-2 to be a bit buggy, too. Likes a faster, more powerful computer. (It didn't like my old P-3 850mhz laptop, but does better with my current system.)
As housepig says, you can edit with virtualdub for basic stuff. If you want advanced editing ulead mediastudiopro is quite good but steep learning curve and pricey.

[waylman]

im just checking out a trial of vegas movie studio 4 now, it seems to do capturing as well..........does it do a good job of that?

[joecav]

im just checking out a trial of vegas 4 now, it seems to do capturing as well..........does it do a good job of that?

I use it to "capture" from my DV camera when I am doing VHS conversions and it does a swell job.

I use DVD Architect to author and I like it alot. I haven't checked DVDA 2, but I know for a fact that DVDA 1 will not do 352x480....one poster earlier alluded to the fact it would. Maybe DVDA 2 does....

[lenti_75]

there in NO BEST soft out there, it depends on what you like.

I stick to Ulead videostudio.

[BJ_M]

the demo of vegas is vegas 5 btw .... you can download it at the sony vegas main site


it captures dv primarly - yes it does a good job , as there is not much to capturing dv anyway .

[bazooka]

You will not like my answer, but the best is what works for you.

[waylman]

im just checking out a trial of vegas 4 now, it seems to do capturing as well..........does it do a good job of that?

I use it to "capture" from my DV camera when I am doing VHS conversions and it does a swell job.

I use DVD Architect to author and I like it alot. I haven't checked DVDA 2, but I know for a fact that DVDA 1 will not do 352x480....one poster earlier alluded to the fact it would. Maybe DVDA 2 does....

could someone please address this 352X480 issue...why is it important that the software can do this resolution?...thanks.

[BSR]

Because it's a valid DVD resolution. Many people use it for VHS captures. Will also allow you to get a lot more video on the DVD with negligable loss in quality.
This of course is true for standard TV sets. Not true for HDTV sets.

Saw in another thread that DVD architect 2 does 352x480.

EDIT added:
Here's a link to their PDF, look at page 5
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/Products/DVDArchitect2NewFeatures.pdf

[rsgars]

You want the best?

Capture with Scenalyzer

Edit with Adobe Premiere or SONY Vegas (I use Premiere myself)

Encode with CinemaCraft (You have three price levels to choose from) or Mainconcept Mpg Encoder

Author with DVDLab or Encore

Burn with Nero Burning ROM

Actually there are better products than all of the above, but if you can afford those you are obviously setting up a professional studio. If that's the case please hire me to learn how to use them. Then I can teach you and we'll make great professional DVD's together.

[jimmalenko]

I've always had the belief that you get one software to do one job. Dedicated software for each task does so much better than any All-in-one IMO.

Firstly, a summary (these are JMHO BTW ) :

"Capture" - Pretty simple really. WinDV, DVIO or scenalyzerlive are all excellent tools for this task. It doesn't really matter which one as there's not many ways to go wrong here.

Editing (It's much easier to edit AVI so that's why we edit before we convert ) - Virtualdub (free) is a very easy-to-use AVI editor. Freeware, does a great job - what more do you need ? If you want to integrate transitions, you'll need something with a bit more power.

Convert - Mainconcept, CCE, TMPGEnc .... Click here for a few more. CCE is fast, TMPGEnc is relatively easy to pick up plus there are gazillions of set-up and optimal-performance guides for it.

Author - TMPGEnc DVD Author, dvd-lab .... Click here for a few more. TMPGEnc DVD Author is pretty easy to pick up, but with that it is also limited to basic authoring features. Will probably do the job for most things you want to do though. DVD-lab gives you much more functionality, at the cost of a bit steeper learning curve.

**********

Secondly, my recommendation:

My experiences are based on TV/VHS/XBOX captures, so I really need noise removal and other filters to clean up the video. It's a little bit different with a Cam source because your footage will most likely be a lot "cleaner", but essentially the process overall is the same.

I use scenalyzerlive to transfer into Canopus-compatible DV files. It has a preview window and also supports timers, so it is very good specifically for "automation" of capture from TV/VHS in particular. As I said, transfer is a pretty simple process so it really doesn't make much difference which one you use here.

I then feed my AVIs into VirtualDubMod using an AVISynth script. Using the script enables me to make all of my edits, and document them in the script as well as perform any filtering/resizing, and then output this directly to my MPEG encoder. The encoding process is noticably faster doing it this way rather than frameserving directly from virtualdub, or by saving out to an intermediate AVI and then feeding this into your MPEG encoder. Plus you get the benefit of using Convolution3D, a great noise-removal filter (a must IMO for any TV/VHS captures, not so much for Cam work).

After I've edited and sorted out which filters I need, I then load the script into TMPGEnc. As I mentioned, this script contains all of my edits and tells the MPEG encoder which bits I want encoded. You MPEG encoder will work much faster if all it is doing is encoding. This means that if any filters/resizes are required, do them before you encode, or on-the-fly in a script like I do.

Once encoding is done, I author using TMPGEnc DVD Author. As mentioned by a few people, it's kinda limited and bare-boned to a degree but almost everything I do is within those limits, so it gets the job done and is pretty easy to learn. If you only want one titleset and no menus, IFOEdit would be my recommendation.

A great starter guide for the method I've just described was written by FulciLives and can be found here. It'll take a little bit of reading on your part to understand exactly what you're doing, but there are good explanations in the guide and a little research will enable you to tweak his generic formula to taste for whatever settings you require.

[rsgars]

could someone please address this 352X480 issue...why is it important that the software can do this resolution?...thanks.[/quote]

I would like to hear the answer to this, too. On another forum I belong to I have been told that DVD standard is 720 x 480 NTSC (PAL is slightly different). I have been instructed that if your final destination is DVD you should capture at 720 x 480, and render your edited video at 720 x 480 because in the end your encoder or authoring software will convert it to 720 x 480 anyway.

[jimmalenko]

could someone please address this 352X480 issue...why is it important that the software can do this resolution?...thanks.

I would like to hear the answer to this, too. On another forum I belong to I have been told that DVD standard is 720 x 480 NTSC (PAL is slightly different). I have been instructed that if your final destination is DVD you should capture at 720 x 480, and render your edited video at 720 x 480 because in the end your encoder or authoring software will convert it to 720 x 480 anyway.[/quote]

352 * 480/576 (aka Half D1) gives you options. Option to fit more than 1.5 - 2 hours to a DVD at a decent quality. Option to downsize to thsi resolution when your source will suffer from using full D1, such as VHS.

It's all about options

[lordsmurf]

could someone please address this 352X480 issue...why is it important that the software can do this resolution?...thanks.

I would like to hear the answer to this, too. On another forum I belong to I have been told that DVD standard is 720 x 480 NTSC (PAL is slightly different). I have been instructed that if your final destination is DVD you should capture at 720 x 480, and render your edited video at 720 x 480 because in the end your encoder or authoring software will convert it to 720 x 480 anyway.

DVD is not 720x480, nor is NTSC. That is one setting.
Corn flakes is not the only breakfast cereal. It is one of many.

DVD can be:
352x240 MPEG1/MPEG2
352x480 MPEG2
704x480 MPEG2
720x480 MPEG2

** x288 and x576 for PAL users.

Most source is at, around or under 352x480. Nothing you have at home, except MAYBE a DV camera, is anywhere close to 720x480. You're wasting space, bitrate, discs, all for nothing. In fact, 720 resolution has it's own set of flaws with linear errors not found in some of the other resolutions.

Once you leave the world of DV centricity and from-film commercials releases, you'll discover the video world is a lot bigger.

Software that is 720 only is needlessly limited, and ones that call themselves "pro quality" are just using sham marketing speak (Adobe Encore I consider to be the most horrible example of limitware, as is Premiere Elements). If they expect only DV users to use it, it needs to be labeled as such, don't purport to be "advanced" software when it's not even close.

Why use 352x480? You cannot surpass the source resolution, within reason (some restoration methods do make higher res a sweet option, but most people don't own $300 detailer units).

[rsgars]

Thanks for the explanation, lordsmurf. As an example, if you were capturing from VHS tape and your final destination was DVD, what resolution(s) would you capture at and render at, assuming you want the highest quality picture on the DVD?

[Bodyslide]

I would use the 352x480 at 3.6 mb/sec. Check out Lord Smurfs page at
http://digitalfaq.com/

[BSR]

I would say capture at the highest resolution you possible can (720x480) and then convert to 352x480.

You should also test for yourself 720x480 vs 352x480 and see if you can tell the difference.
Both can go on the same DVD if you keep them as seperate titles. Then just switch between the 2 with your remote. Choose what you feel is best.

EDIT - excellent explanation here
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77027&highlight=signal+noise+ratio

[lordsmurf]

Thanks for the explanation, lordsmurf. As an example, if you were capturing from VHS tape and your final destination was DVD, what resolution(s) would you capture at and render at, assuming you want the highest quality picture on the DVD?

That depends entirely on your equipment (DVD recorder, capture card, software, etc).

[bazooka]

The best is what works for you.

[edDV]

From my perspective, your authoring process would depend on your goals and resources.

Resources often come down to #1 time (e.g. direct setup labor, rendering and overall project time investment) and #2 capital investment.

Pros will spend on #2 to save #1. Most here want to minimize #2 and must operate smarter to keep #1 from going infinite.

As for VHS capture to DVD, the process may differ by goals, for example.

- Maximum Quality Transfer (such as Camcorder VHS-C material)
- Medium Quality Transfer (such as collectable movies or programs where one might invest in overnight renders)
- Realtime capture to DVD standard MPeg2 (using hardware or software realtime proc-amp filters)
- Realtime to DVD write

[malisamson]

I have Ulead and it has only 2 good things...
1- fast motion menues
2- supports AVI

Otherwise the quality is far from good and the subtitles just suck
Dvd-lab and other cheaper products are much better