Best DVD author program

[thecoalman]

I will try to download

BTW, you can import your AVI clips directly into DVDWS. It uses the mainconcept encoder so the resutant video is good quality. It also has AC3 encoding.

if the price of DVDWS is too much Movie Factory should work just as well, just won't have as many options such as fully customizable menus.

[thief_]

Although DVDLabPro is one of the best I have used, it is far from what I have dreamed of. I use Sony Vegas 5 for Video editing and it is amazingly packed with fantastic features and easy to use.

DLP however has a lot of shortcomings which I was hoping would be fixed in V1.52, but I now slump in my chair looking for my holy grail again. This is what I *need* for DVD authoring:

• Import AVIs directly, not having to encode them to import them into DLP.
  View each of my movies in DVL via the preview window and hearing the audio!!!
  Not have to de-mux the audio and video of the imported MPEG stream before adding it to the project.<G> There are so many steps involved just to get the friggin video clip in the project!
  Being able to simulate the menu automation without having to comile the DVD first (I know you can skip the compiling of the video clips, but there's another damn step which shouldn't be there- other apps can do it on the fly!)

And that's off the top of my head.

Maybe one day I will find my dreams....

[guns1inger]

Don't expect the ability to import AVIs to come soon. Oscar has stated (and I agree with him) that this is better done by a standalone application. I prep all my assets well before getting into DVD Lab Pro. It is an authoring app, not an editing, encoding, authoring mastering, burning app. (OK, yes it does have a burning engine, and it's flakey as hell).

I would like to see better menu simulation and audio on the preview. A dummy compile works most of the time for menu testing though.

You don't have to demux to import assets, although DVD Lab works best with elementary streams.

It is slightly less intuative than something like DVDA to get into (although even that is more cumbersome that it needs to be), but ultimately more flexible.

[thecoalman]

And that's off the top of my head.

Maybe one day I will find my dreams....

Have you read the post right above the one you made? DVDWS will do most of what you want and you don't need to be rocket scientist to figure it out. I have version 1.3 and of the things you listed the only thing don't see is that the motion menuse have to be encoded. Most tasks can be accomplhed via drag and drop or right click.

Although DVDLabPro is one of the best I have used, it is far from what I have dreamed of.

From my understanding strictly speaking about the features of menu creation DVD lab Pro and DVDWS are fairly equal. I've never personally compared them but I thinks DVD lab pro has a few features that DVDWS can't do. Having said that there's a lot of other features in DVDWS such as directly importing AVI, MPEG, or even .MOV & WMV. It has it's own encoder for video and AC3............. If I had the choice of one single tool for video DVDWS would be it.

[guns1inger]

Wish list for DVDWS - a fully featured trial version so I can see what it can actually do. The current demo is too knobbled to be worth the effort.

[jjulio1]

I am trying the Sony DVD Architect 3.0 now .

[thecoalman]

Wish list for DVDWS - a fully featured trial version so I can see what it can actually do. The current demo is too knobbled to be worth the effort.

I've heard that complaint before, I don't think they can provide some of the features such as AC3. I'm pretty sure most of the menu features are available but as you stated "knobbled". Your limited to short motion menus etc.

I prep all my assets well before getting into DVD Lab Pro. It is an authoring app, not an editing, encoding, authoring mastering, burning app. (OK, yes it does have a burning engine, and it's flakey as hell).

I do this as well, I only use it for menu creation. It does come in handy though if you just want to create a disc real quick for testing or something similar. The editing features of DVDWS are pretty slim but good enough for the basics.

[jjulio1]

If you're looking for something free, may I suggest Liquid217's DVDAuthorGUI. Runs on my Windows 98 box, and should also run on newer versions of windows. It has a "First Play" option and is adequate for my needs.

CogoSWSDS

But it didn't show my subtitles and I could not jump to the next title, just pressing a chapter key.

[8t88]

I've heard that complaint before, I don't think they can provide some of the features such as AC3. I'm pretty sure most of the menu features are available but as you stated "knobbled". Your limited to short motion menus etc.

If you mux your AC3 into MPG before feeding it to DVDWS it doesn't have a problem with AC3

[thecoalman]

I've heard that complaint before, I don't think they can provide some of the features such as AC3. I'm pretty sure most of the menu features are available but as you stated "knobbled". Your limited to short motion menus etc.

If you mux your AC3 into MPG before feeding it to DVDWS it doesn't have a problem with AC3

My comment was regarding the trial version. It doesn't have AC3 support as far I know. Full version will convert to AC3, import a file with AC3, substitute a AC3 file or even burn/create iso for a 5.1 file it is already 5.1. That's one of the great features of DVDWS it has an incredible amount of different file formats it supports, you can even import a .gif animation into the menu.