:?: Authoring software recomendation/encodes multiple formats

[pgwerner]

I have a MacPro running OS X Leopard (10.5) as well as Windows Vista. I have iDVD on the Mac side and Windows Media Center on the Windows side. I've found these to be very easy-to-use DVD software packages, each with one major drawback – iDVD writes most formats to DVD, but with the notable exception of WMV, which is an extremely common format. Windows Media Center, on the other hand, can't seem to format any video type other than WMV.

I'm looking for a way to either get iDVD to encode WMV files, or lacking that, find another piece of software that encodes all common video codecs – the various AVI types, MPEG, MOV, and WMV. Since I'm basically a beginner at this, I need software that's easy to use and intuitive, and includes DVD menu presets.

I prefer Mac software, but can run Windows software too. Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Peter

[Baldrick]

Maybe ffmpegx.

And as you prefer mac software I'm moving you to our mac section.

[tomlee59]

Others will shortly chime in with their recommendations, I'm sure, but my general advice is not to seek an all-in-one tool. Encoding and authoring are best done with separate tools, IMHO. On the Mac, as Baldrick suggested, ffmpegX is the Swiss Army Knife of video; it will convert pretty much anything into anything else. On the PC side, there's Quick Media Converter, which uses many of the same modules as does ffmpegX (just recompiled for that world). Ffmpegx is inexpensive shareware; QMC is free. Both will convert from at least some forms of wmv into DVD-compliant MPEG2.

As to authoring, there are many choices. A favorite around these parts is GUI for DVD Author.

[rumplestiltskin]

Install Flip4Mac (the free codec from Microsoft). Then open the WMV files with MPEG Streamclip and transcode to DV. Drop the resulting file into iDVD. Done.