Free & simple alternative to DVD Maker for my father

[heyjjjaded]

I realize that Windows DVD Maker is very limited, but my father likes it because its simple to use & came loaded on his computer for free. The one additional option he'd like though is the ability to add text alongside the chapters buttons in his menus ... like "Chapter 1 - Florida Vacation." Apparently Windows DVD Maker can't do this. So my question is can anyone recommend for my father a free DVD authoring program that is simple to use & similar to DVD Maker ... and hopefully with the ability to add text to chapter buttons? Thank you!

[guns1inger]

I have not used DVD maker, but your free options are fairly limited (in number, not abilities). Probably the most straight forward is DVD Styler.

If you are willing to spend a little cash, Tmpeng DVD author has a lot of fans around here.

It does depend on the source as well. If it is already compliant then it needs to have less done to it. if it isn't, it needs to be encoded.

[heyjjjaded]

Thanks a lot gunslinger. We'll give styler a try when he has some time. Thank you!

[NoBuddy]

Are you sure that DVD Maker can´t edit Title text?
I don´t use it either, but Microsoft site says:

"You can choose to customize the DVD further by adding a disc title and a notes page, and editing the menu text."

Now, I don´t know what "Menu Text" exactly means...

[guns1inger]

I just had a play, and like many of M$'s attempts at value add, it comes so close, and yet misses by so much. The menu templates themselves are actually pretty good, and put many commercial offerings to shame. They are easily as slick as anything in iDVD (and as we know, in the Apple world, eye candy is everything), and are full of motion and colour. The basic structure is simple - Play, Scenes (effectively titles) and Notes. You add your titles, choose a template, make some tweaks, then encode and burn. (Tweaks - choose a template, alter the disc title (shown on the menu), alter the options (e.g. change Play to Play All or Scenes to Titles), and enter a page of text, which invokes the Notes button. That is it. The title names are not actually shown on the sub-menu, and are therefore not available for editing - see point 1 below)

Where is does fall down is the lack of a couple of basic options.

1. Your scene selection - or title selection - menu is motion only. No text. This is fine if all the titles are different, however if the titles are episodes from a TV show, for example, and all episodes start with the same intro, there is no way to tell which is which. It would have been so simple to put a text label under each and to allow the user to edit this text.

2. No chapters. At least none that you have any control over. You cannot set chapter points, nor do you get a chapter selection menu. This is basic, authoring 101 level stuff.

So I see now what the OP's issue is. Unfortunately DVD Styler (and in fact most authoring tools) will not produce anything that looks as slick as DVD Maker without a lot more effort, but at least the bread and butter functionality will be available.

[usually_quiet]

DVDAuthorGui is another free program to try, but is nowhere near being as simple to use as Windows DVD Maker and the menus are not as impressive-looking.

I tried Windows DVD Maker for the first time tonight, and I probably won't use it much in the future. While the menus look great, in addition to the other things mentioned about it that aren't so great, it completely re-encoded the video I used. It was trimmed at the beginning and end to remove some unwanted bits, but originally came from a disc I recorded with my DVD recorder, so it should not have needed re-encoding. Also, I like to test the DVD files before I burn. but there wasn't an option to just create the files on the HDD instead of burning them.