Question For You Experts

[drvette]

I have a compilation of albums in MP3 format and am looking for software that will create menus in the form of pictures of the actual cd covers on the television screen when the disc loads. Then you would select the cover to play on the screen and it would play that album.

Any suggestions???

Thanks in advance.

[Epicurus8a]

That's a great idea, although your MP3 files would most likely have to be converted to PCM or AC3, as MP3 is not part of the standard DVD specs. For a project like this I would use Ulead DVD Workshop 2. It's a bit expensive, but iy does a fine job.

Good Luck!

[drvette]

That's a great idea, although your MP3 files would most likely have to be converted to PCM or AC3, as MP3 is not part of the standard DVD specs. For a project like this I would use Ulead DVD Workshop 2. It's a bit expensive, but iy does a fine job.

Good Luck!

You are so right!!! So lets scrap the DVD thing and use a CD-r. Will DVD Workshop 2 work with CD's???

[guns1inger]

No. If you want this to play in a DVD player on your TV, then you have to abide by the DVD specification. MP3 is, thankfully, not part of the spec. As far as I know, no DVD player allows playback of a menu on a CDR or DVDR to playback mp3 files. Many easy to use a relatively cheap DVD authoring tools will allow you to create this type of DVD, and will convert the audio for you. Look at TDA with the AC3 plugin, DVD Lab Studio, with the same AC3 plugin, or something like this -> http://www.eximius.nl/dvdaudio.php although I don't know what it's menus look like.

[Epicurus8a]

You are so right!!! So lets scrap the DVD thing and use a CD-r. Will DVD Workshop 2 work with CD's???

Use a CD? Well, you could make a VCD. But once again the audio would have to be converted (to an MPEG1 video & audio clip). You'd only get about 65 minutes per disc, and that's about the same as a standard Audio CD. The only benefit would be the inclusion of some video. WS2 can handle this if you want to go to all that effort.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I recommend a DVD also.You don't need Ulead WS(unless you already have it),any one of these can do it:
Ulead DVD Moviefactory
Ulead VideoStudio
Sonic MyDVD
NeoDVD
WinDVD Creator
TDA
NeroVision Express

For best sound use LPCM but if you have alot of songs then use AC3 or MP2.Another problem is some authoring programs can't use multiple songs as background so use an audio editor such as Audacity to convert multiple songs to one file....or you could make sub-chapters on the menu for individual songs.