Best simple authoring solution?

[Dentist]

I've been trying to author a simple disc, 1 video(.m2v) and 1 ac3 track, no menus, but have been unsatisfied with the results thus far. So far I've tried Muxman, ReJig, DVD Lab Pro, IFOEdit, DVD Architect. And I don't remember having any success with dvdauthor/gui, but I haven't tried that recently.

What would give me the best results.

[thecoalman]

Well i'd imagine it's something you are doing if you're unsatisfied with the results. First play video is pretty simple to make even on the most rudimentary authoring apps.

Using DVDWS it would simply be a matter of dragging the the clip to the first play slot, associate the audio track with it and burn away... not quite that simple you may have to adjust some settings so it doesn't reenecode... but in a nutshell that would it.

Not famialir with some of the other apps you listed above but they shouldn't be much more complex.... DVDWS is probably the easiest to use though.

[jimmalenko]

TMPGEnc DVD Author perhaps ?


Please describe "unsatisfied" though ....

[Dentist]

Depending on the program I've had sync problems, low quality looking video, hollow sounding audio, skipping / freezing type problems with the output.

I will try TMPGEnc DVD Author, I was about to yesterday but my comp froze.

[guns1inger]

Almost none of what you describe is an authoring problem. Pretty much all of those are symptoms of bad encoding/comversion, or bad media.

A computer than just freezes could also be part of the problem.

Before spending money on any solution, I would concentrate on getting a techniques for producing reliable, DVD compliant material first, so you know then that any problems are related only to the authoring process. I don't believe you are at that point.

[Dentist]

Encoded with CCC 2.7 and BeSweet for the AC3, the video and audio are fine beforehand. I've only had the audio problem with one movie, the AC3 sounds fine but after I authored with Muxman thr music bcame way louder than any dialogue and was hard to hear.

And with either IFOEdit or ReJig it made the video 4:3 and there was no option for either 4:3 or 16:9, so I couldnt choose. With DVD Lab Pro in any dark spots on the screen the movie looks really pixelated, much worse than normally expected.

[guns1inger]

DVD Lab Pro won't affect the visual quality unless you allow it to transcode. If you have encoded with the correct bitrate to begin with them there should be no need. Any movement you are seeing is as a result of mpeg4 compression in the first place being made more obvious by the resizing and encoding to mepg2.

4:3 or 16:9 should be chosen at the encoding stage. IFOEdit certainly supports 16:9, as you can use it to correct errors in the authoring of 16:9 material.

[Dentist]

DVD Lab Pro won't affect the visual quality unless you allow it to transcode. If you have encoded with the correct bitrate to begin with them there should be no need. Any movement you are seeing is as a result of mpeg4 compression in the first place being made more obvious by the resizing and encoding to mepg2.

4:3 or 16:9 should be chosen at the encoding stage. IFOEdit certainly supports 16:9, as you can use it to correct errors in the authoring of 16:9 material.

Ok, then it was ReJig which made everything 4:3, I wasn't sure which it was.

[honorarybrutha]

if you're starting off with an avi as source material, a good one-click app
is The Film Machine. it's free in the tools section. you'll probably want CCE already installed for the encoding portion.