Specific needs for a DVD Authoring program

[ClayinCA]

Hello All,

Apologies if this is better posted elsewhere - I've done a search throughout the forum and haven't found a thread that dealt with a specific request like this one. My boss has asked me to find a DVD authoring program for our office that will answer certain needs, to wit:

• We're using a PC
  We need to be able to use MPEG-4
  We need static menus
  We need the option of not having preview windows on the menus

We've been using Ulead DVD MovieFactory 3.5, but we're having a lot of what I gather are compression issues; and looking around this forum, nobody seems to have anything good to say about that program anyway. Does anyone have any suggestions for something to replace it with?

Thanks in advance!

[greymalkin]

just for clarification..you are wanting an authoring program that accepts mpeg-4 then converts to mpeg2 correct?

[lordsmurf]

You want an advanced authoring tool, but let's you act like a newbie with MPEG-4 sources? Sorry, but that's unlikely. At least unlikely with any software that is going to prove itself stable and quality.

You need to encode to DVD-compliant MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 in advance. Then author with the advanced tool. Ulead DVD Workshop 2, for example.

You can always batch encode the MPEG-4 to MPEG-2 with something like Procoder.

[mikiem]

FWIW... Suggest in your situation, depending on boss and all that, it might be a good thing to really nail down the requirements, what they're looking for.

If the source is mp4, conversion to mpg2 isn't likely as much a problem as the quality of the original. If the source is garbage, nothing's going to make it look otherwise.

If the DVD Workshop problem is the number of options &/or settings, there are simpler programs available that remove most of those choices. Unfortunately, they often also do a poorer job of encoding to mpg2.

As far as static menues, plain buttons, & PC platform, imagine you'd have a harder time finding something without all 3.

[harley2ride]

ADS Tech claims that their new product can do this. Check out the link below. It comes with Ulead Studio 9 and supports mpeg1, mpeg2, and mpeg4, direct captures.
http://www.adstech.com/media/mediafiles/02-14ADS%20Shipping%20DVD%20Xpress%20DX2.doc