What program is the best?

[janeydoll]

I have the free dvdlab trial download that only lasts another 25 days, I was thinking about getting the full version, but i wanted to know if there are any other programs that are better than dvdlab? I would like to be able to edit in the program but dvdlab doesn't have that feature, so I would like to know if there are any better ones out there.

I like to be able to use my own pictures as backgrounds, so any program you suggest make sure it can do that, so programs you can only use template backgrounds.

thank you so much.

[Denvers Dawgs]

TDA is what I use if you only want an authoring program. Some consider it limited in customization, but it's fine for me.

[lordsmurf]

Ulead DVD Workshop 2 is easier to use, and just as poweful.

[KTH]

I agree with Lordsmurf.

[pchan]

Not sure what format is your video source. For MPEG source, I use the following program.

1. MPEG Video Wizard to edit(cut, join, add audio, add text)
2. DVDlab Pro to author (DVDLab Pro is bad for DVD slide show)

To edit other format and encode to DVD, I use Adobe Premiere 6.5 and TMPGEnc. You can easily add your own picture as backgrond in DVDlab. But, when you want to create a DVD slide show, that's where the trouble starts. During picture transition, the audio gets cut off. Very irritating indeed.

[FulciLives]

I love TMPGEnc DVD Author but you can only have 2 audio streams and no selectable subtitles. Plus your audio cannot be DTS.

Most people don't need much and for most TMPGEnc DVD Author is all you need.

The reason I like the program so much is ease-of-use and reliability.

However if you need something more advanced then I would either go with DVD-Lab Pro or maybe Ulead DVD Workshop 2 although I must say I tried a trail of the Ulead product once and I was not impressed but usually LordSmurf is spot on with stuff so I give him the benefit of the doubt here that he knows what he is talking about

I still think though that DVD-Lab Pro can do stuff that Ulead DVD Workshop 2 cannot do but I could be wrong there.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[lordsmurf]

I still think though that DVD-Lab Pro can do stuff that Ulead DVD Workshop 2 cannot do but I could be wrong there.

Not really. Most of what it does beyond DVDWS2 is out of spec stuff, like SVCD on DVD.

[FulciLives]

I still think though that DVD-Lab Pro can do stuff that Ulead DVD Workshop 2 cannot do but I could be wrong there.

Not really. Most of what it does beyond DVDWS2 is out of spec stuff, like SVCD on DVD.

Actually the only thing that came to mind was DTS audio ... I've done some PAL DVD to NTSC DVD conversions where I had to use DVD-Lab Pro to keep DTS audio tracks.

Of course how many people need DTS support and for all I know maybe Ulead DVDWS2 can do DTS although I thought it couldn't.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[janeydoll]

I'm new to this authoring stuff, in fact i had to figure out how to do it all by myself, no one here would really help me, so I just had to do it myself.

Im not sure if I can get all the terms right, but hey i had to teach myself.

I record episodes on my dvd recorder, then I copy them with roxio copier to my computer, it is the video_ts file, then I take and convert it with VOB2MPG into mpg to be able to put it onto my dvdlab and then I make my movie with menu and compile it to a folder then copy that video_ts onto a disc with roxio copier.

is that right? is there a better way?

hope that helps. I just want to know if dvdlab is worth the money or if there was something elese that was just as easy and was better, but i want the menu to have my own pictures as backgrounds.

thanks

[FulciLives]

I'm new to this authoring stuff, in fact i had to figure out how to do it all by myself, no one here would really help me, so I just had to do it myself.

Im not sure if I can get all the terms right, but hey i had to teach myself.

I record episodes on my dvd recorder, then I copy them with roxio copier to my computer, it is the video_ts file, then I take and convert it with VOB2MPG into mpg to be able to put it onto my dvdlab and then I make my movie with menu and compile it to a folder then copy that video_ts onto a disc with roxio copier.

is that right? is there a better way?

hope that helps. I just want to know if dvdlab is worth the money or if there was something elese that was just as easy and was better, but i want the menu to have my own pictures as backgrounds.

thanks

In my opinion TMPGEnc DVD Author is a bit easier and quicker to use ... at least for your purposes.

Nothing wrong with using DVD-Lab as you do but it is a bit more cumbersome and time consuming than TMPGEnc DVD Author.

Then again you can make more "complicated" menu designs with DVD-Lab than you can with TMPGEnc DVD Author but then again you can change the background of TMPGEnc DVD Author to any picture you want so ...

I think you are doing it the hard way.

Also I would use DVD Decrypter to get the DVD to the computer (instead of Roxio) and then burn with ImgTool classic and ImgBurn ... or just burn with TMPGEnc DVD Author ... if you ever decide to get it.

Roxio is not known for making the best stuff.

Oh one last thing ... if using TMPGEnc DVD Author you can skip the VOB2MPG part as it will read the ripped/copied VOB files directly ... in fact I don't even think VOB2MPG is needed for DVD-Lab but my DVD-Lab skills are not very good so I'm not sure about that LOL

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[pchan]

I record episodes on my dvd recorder, then I copy them with roxio copier to my computer, it is the video_ts file, then I take and convert it with VOB2MPG into mpg to be able to put it onto my dvdlab and then I make my movie with menu and compile it to a folder then copy that video_ts onto a disc with roxio copier.

thanks

If you do not need to edit the VOB files, just import the VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01__2.VOB... files to DVDLab.

[janeydoll]

thank you all for your replies.

I have to convert to mpg to be able to play the movie in windows movie maker so i can get the pictures I want from the episode, does any one have a better way of doing this?

thanks

[guns1inger]

All of the authoring software suggested to you will let you take stills from your video to create backgrounds or thumbnails, if that it what you need them for. Otherwise you can play the vobs with PowerDVD or Media Player Classic and grabs stills from there. No need to demux and load into WMM.

[janeydoll]

thank you for explaining that.

Now I record the episodes on SP so that means I can get 6 episodes on one disc, is there a way after I make my menus and get ready to burn to a dvd that I can get more episodes on one disc even like 8 or 9 total, without losing the quality, 8 would be great on a disc. I can reauthor on roxio copier but I don't get to keep the menu,

Also, in dvdlab, I see the map color place with the 3 sliders for colors, but I don't know which slider makes the color change to make the highlighted title change from pink after I burn my disc, right now they are pink when you move over the selected title, but I want to be able to change that, but I need to know what slider does that.


One more thing, I started recording episodes in LP but I didn't like the quality, so is there a way to make those few episodes in SP quality now? Or even close to SP quality.


thanks again, you guys are making this so much easier for me.

[janeydoll]

Is there a way to take the theme song and make it play on the menu screens? If there is, how do I take the theme song from the episode?


thank you guys so much.

[janeydoll]

is there a way to get this trial version of dvdlab again after my 30 days runs out.

if so please tell me how.

thanks

[jimmalenko]

is there a way to get this trial version of dvdlab again after my 30 days runs out.

if so please tell me how.

Of course there is .... buy it

[guns1inger]

just import the song into your assets bin, then drag and drop the asset over the menu. You know have background music.

[janeydoll]

when I buy dvdlab will i be able to put it on 2 computers? I will probably buy the back up cd so I know that I can put it on 2 with the cd but I just wondered if it can be put on 2 computers just from the downloaded full version.

[janeydoll]

I don't know how to get the theme song into a file by itself from the episode, that is the song I want for the menu, does any one know how to get the theme song?

[manono]

Yes. So this theme song plays at the open of every episode? Usually the opening song is its own chapter. You can demux it with DVD Decrypter by choosing the first chapter only, and then going into Stream Processing. An even easier way is to use PGCDemux. Open the IFO for one of the episodes. Set PGCDemux to demux by Single Cell and by Title, and find the right cell in the drop down box. It'll probably be the first one. Check only the "Demux All Audio Streams" box, give it a destination Output Folder and "Process"

[janeydoll]

thank you for explaining that.

Now I record the episodes on SP so that means I can get 6 episodes on one disc, is there a way after I make my menus and get ready to burn to a dvd that I can get more episodes on one disc even like 8 or 9 total, without losing the quality, 8 would be great on a disc. I can reauthor on roxio copier but I don't get to keep the menu,

One more thing, I started recording episodes in LP but I didn't like the quality, so is there a way to make those few episodes in SP quality now? Or even close to SP quality.


thanks again, you guys are making this so much easier for me.

I need these questions answered please

[FulciLives]

Now I record the episodes on SP so that means I can get 6 episodes on one disc, is there a way after I make my menus and get ready to burn to a dvd that I can get more episodes on one disc even like 8 or 9 total, without losing the quality, 8 would be great on a disc. I can reauthor on roxio copier but I don't get to keep the menu

Unless you compress everything again you cannot fit more and it doesn't make sense to re-compress. Be happy with 6 episodes per single layer DVD disc.

One more thing, I started recording episodes in LP but I didn't like the quality, so is there a way to make those few episodes in SP quality now? Or even close to SP quality.

The simple answer is NO.

Garbage In ... Garbage Out.

You can't take LP mode stuff and make it look like SP mode stuff. The details was lost when you recorded it using LP mode. That quality or level of detail cannot be gained ... it's gone.

You could hope that those episodes get played again and then re-record them at SP speed.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[janeydoll]

thank you all very much