Best DVD authoring software?

[skybadger]

Hi,
I am new to DVD authoring and I have been given the task of creating a professional DVD for a popular band that will be sold in shops all over the world.

I have never done this before but I recently created a multimedia cd for them and they were impressed with my work so asked me to try the DVD.

I have been told by the record label to choose the best software (within reason) and they will buy it for me to do the job.

I would be greatful if anyone could recommend a program that will produce professional results but is not too difficult to learn.

Thanks in advance.

[guns1inger]

I hate to break this to you, but the software you choose will be about 2% of what will make this a professional looking disc. What makes a professional looking DVD menu is the quality of the design, the quality of the assets, and the skill of the person putting it together.

If you are used to Adobe product (especially Photoshop and Premiere/After Effects) then Encore is natural choice. I have doubts about it myself, both from experience and from the posts here about some of the issues it has, but you may find it fits.

I use DVD Lab Pro to assemble my assets, but I create everything else outside it using Photoshop and Vegas amongst other tools.

DVD Workshop 2 from Ulead is also worth seriously considering.

However all these tools do is assemble the parts for you. How "professional" it feels is down to all the work you do before you open the authoring program up.

On a side note, I am intrigued by the number of posts looking for software that will give their DVD a "professional" feel. What exactly does this mean ? Given that many commercial discs have very simplistic and often tacky menus, I can only assume that the fact you paid for it makes you feel it is professional. The menus that do impress do so because they have access to high quality assets, have several people working on the design, and take a much larger amount of time than most individuals are willing to spend.

[classfour]

Da Slinger is correct - It's all about time.

Prep time on assets.

Authoring time on collecting assets.

Inserting chapters at the exact moment - with the exact name.

Ensuring every piece is encoded in Dolby, including the menu clips.

Ensuring the video is perfect - and I mean perfect.

Price - for yourself, and if you're picky - priceless.

Selling it on ebay - about $2, not worth the time.

Never forget your audience.

On a movie that I record from cable for later viewing.

I insert chapters at 5 mins or so, plus one at the end credits - in case I need to skip things.

On a customer video - the paying kind - motion video, AC3 encoding, the best detail work that I am capable of.

I want their business.

Anymore, I use TDA for final work - set the encoding to 100%, put the clips together with other programs, even use DVDLab to locate chapter points when I'm too lazy to find them. I've found the tricks to inserting the motion stuff into TDA, good end result.

[skybadger]

Yeah sorry I forgot to mention that all the design/art work etc will all be done by professionals and the video will be all ready with Dolby/5.1 etc.

So I will simply be putting it all together. It is just a case of authoring the DVD with the completed videos, graphics and extras.

[dcsos]

DVD ARCHITECT by SONY is my fave appliction

[ntscuser]

If it needs to be sold in shops around the world I strongly advise you to use a professional authoring house. There is no way with limited experience you could put together a master which is acceptable to a disc duplication plant.

[videopoo]

If it needs to be sold in shops around the world I strongly advise you to use a professional authoring house. There is no way with limited experience you could put together a master which is acceptable to a disc duplication plant

I completely agree with you! Have someone who has experience do it.

[dcsos]

You can't give most good replication houses a DVD-R anyway, they'd require a DLT
digital tape instead, in order to press, rather than burn, many copies

[GeorgeW]

You can't give most good replication houses a DVD-R anyway, they'd require a DLT
digital tape instead, in order to press, rather than burn, many copies

There are Replication houses that will accept DDP Images (or authored DVD's) on DVD5/9 discs. So you could check with the Replication House you are considering to see what they will accept.

In terms of SD DVD Authoring on the PC -- outside of Scenarist, the next program to offer the most SD DVD Authoring functionality would be DVD Lab PRO 2.x (imho). After that, I would vote for DVD Architect 4.x (if DVDA added robust scripting instead of the pseudo scripting it has, it would be awesome). But if you do alot with Adobe products, then Encore 2.x or CS3 might be better to take advantage of the tight integration with other Adobe products.

Regards,
George