What tools to reauthor/add menus to DVDr from standalone?

[cbkilner]

What Mac tools are the best for replacing the crappy menu on DVDs recorded using my LiteOn LVW-5006...Sizzle?...Forty-Two?

The LiteOn makes nice discs but I would like to add a better-looking menu with links to the chapters. I do not want to reencode anything - just build a better menu, but I don't have the funds for DVDSP. I have iDVD and an old version of Toast 5.2. Can the old versions of Toast do this?

[chikanakan]

You should get Toast 7. It has support for DVD-VR discs and should give you most of the features you are looking for.

[cbkilner]

As I understand it, Toast 6 can use VOB files and build menus, but Toast 5 requires a complete VIDEO_TS folder. I have also heard that Sizzle can create a VIDEO_TS folder (although most tutorials are dealing with SVCD > DVD).

Can Sizzle handle VOBs and create a TOC that would link to the chapters?

[Frobozz]

If you have OS 10.3.9 or later, QuickTime 7 and a G4 or G5 processor, then get Toast 7. It has 10 menu designs and does chapter menus, unlike Toast 6. The only downside is that Toast 7 will place chapters in time increments from a VR-mode DVD rather than let you select their location. If your LiteOn recorder lets you place specific chapter marks on a video-mode DVD then Toast 7 will use those markers.

Another option is to get CaptyDVD 2 which is available bundled with a couple LaCie products. I was told by LaCie that the lite version can also be purchased for $75 by calling LaCie. It will let you use existing MPEG files, has customizable menus and you can select chapter marker locations. Unlike Toast, it takes some work to do all this, though. It works with any version of OS X and with G3 processors and above.

Even with CaptyDVD you'll still need Toast 7 or PixeVRF Browser to copy the MPEGs from a VR-mode DVD. Otherwise you'll have to use the video mode format when recording with your LiteOn and finalize the disc before it can be read on the Mac.

[TK5005]

If you use Cinematize you can copy all of the video straight to quicktime and then import into iDVD

[chikanakan]

Converting to QT and then using iDVD really is a bad option since you loose quality and the amount of time it would take.....ugh.

You only choice if you have VR discs is to use Toast 7, or VRF Browser. Toast 7 is much better and cheaper then buying VRF and Capty DVD.

If the discs are recorded in Video mode, then Cinematize and Toast 6 or 7 would work. You should save as a program stream from Cinematize.

[cbkilner]

Perhaps I'm looking at this from the wrong direction. While Toast 7 will allow me to build a new menu, it costs more than I feel like spending (I haven't seen a lower upgrade price from 5->7 yet). The LiteOn LVW-5006 can be used to build a better menu by manually selecting "edit" with the remote at the points you want to have new thumbnails...and I haven't explored what I might be able to do with DVD+RW media on a PC.

[mephoneno]

Perhaps I'm looking at this from the wrong direction. While Toast 7 will allow me to build a new menu, it costs more than I feel like spending (I haven't seen a lower upgrade price from 5->7 yet). .

I have Toast 7 and it will let you create a new menu for VOBs.
It has 8 or 9 tacky menu themes and, unfortunately, you can 't use your own backgrounds or buttons.

Toast does allow you to auto-play the disc and to play all of the files continuously, as a single movie, so you don't even need a menu, but I wish that you could drag and drop a background image to a menu like you can do with SIZZLE...


Dave

[pants]

if you don't want to spend any money, you might be able to design your menus with whatever ap, then build a generic menu in sizzle, then open the generic menu build in pgcedit, then in that ap, import in your footage from your liteon dvd and then re-author in pgcedit.

i don't know sizzle so i dont if building a generic menu dvd is possible. and i'm new to pgcedit. but i htink you'd be able to pull this off. pgcedit, runs in x11. info below, with instructions on how to install. if you've never installed stuf under x11 before it looks like a pain, but wasn't really that hard.

https://www.videohelp.com/~r0lZ/pgcedit/


i've done the above with another ap, tfdvdedit, and it works, but i htink you could substitute pgcedit for tfdvdedit.

[Stu Jordan]

Create custom menu styles in Toast 7.
Found this tip the other day, but not yet tried it out yet.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050828135331105#comments