Please can you make a recommendation

[zworg2]

Before you jump on me, i know that this is (at least in part) going to be quite subjective......but here goes 8)

I have been burning / backing up for a while.

I am now progressing and trying to start building menus and re-authoring.

I have looked through the guides here, and the tools, and have tried a couple of trial versions.

What i am after is being able to create a (relatively) simple menu and use a variety of different sources. AVI, MPEG, VOB etc.

I have tried the trial version of DVD LAB Pro, and liked it on the whole. It came across as a program that would be as complicated as i wanted to make it. However i had problems with vobs and avi input. And nowhere could i find a sensible guide that would help.

I have tried TMPGEnd Dvd Author (or whatever it is called) but it appears to be very picky on the source material.

Can anyone PLEASE suggest an app that can use a variety of source material, create a (relatively) simple menu structure and output this menu and the main dvd in a format i can manage (preferably VOB, IFO and BUPS) but an ISO if it has to.

Thanks muchly in advance

[rkr1958]

What i am after is being able to create a (relatively) simple menu and use a variety of different sources. AVI, MPEG, VOB etc.

I have tried TMPGEnd Dvd Author (or whatever it is called) but it appears to be very picky on the source material.

Can anyone PLEASE suggest an app that can use a variety of source material, create a (relatively) simple menu structure and output this menu and the main dvd in a format i can manage (preferably VOB, IFO and BUPS) but an ISO if it has to.

Thanks muchly in advance

TMPGEnc DVDAuthor is want I'd recommend to you ... except that you are having trouble with it. I've tried several authoring packages, Sonic MyDVD, Dazzle (now Pinnacle) DVD Complete, Ulead DVD Moviefactory and TMPGEnc DVDAuthor w/ac plug-in. Out of all these I've found TMPGEnc DVDAuthor to be the best and to be the most compatible with my source material. One thing, TMPGEnc DVDAuthor with the ac3 plugin is very picky about .wav audio input ... it has to be 48-KHz. Also, as long as you video follows DVD standard you shouldn't be having problems. Your input source can be DVD compliant encode files or a DVD (i.e., VIDEO_TS). What are the characteristics of the source material that are giving you problems?

[mats.hogberg]

Neither VOBs nor AVIs are source material för a DVD authoring app. Only m2v (for video) and AC3, mp2 and/or LPCM (for audio) is. NeroVision Express seems like your kind of application.

/Mats

[rkr1958]

Neither VOBs nor AVIs are source material för a DVD authoring app. Only m2v (for video) and AC3, mp2 and/or LPCM (for audio) is. NeroVision Express seems like your kind of application.

/Mats

I'm confused here ... how am I able to import a "video" from a ripped DVD, or one in my DVD-ROM drive, into TMPGEnc DVDAuthor by selecting the VIDEO_TS folder? The only thing this folder contains is *.vob, *.ifo & *.bup files ... and it's the *.vob files that contain the video and audio.

[mats.hogberg]

I said "suitable". VOBs IFOs and BUPs are the output of authoring, not the input. That some applications (like TDA) knows how to take a VOB apart and pick what it needs to create a new DVD out of it, doesn't alter that.

/Mats

[rkr1958]

I said "suitable". VOBs IFOs and BUPs are the output of authoring, not the input. That some applications (like TDA) knows how to take a VOB apart and pick what it needs to create a new DVD out of it, doesn't alter that.

/Mats

O.K. I guess you were talking in general about Authoring Apps and I was talking specifically about TDA. I use TDA A LOT to cut commericals out and reauthor DVDs that were made by my PVR (Humax TIVO unit with DVD-RW writer).