Best DVD Authoring Software

[rIK]

In another post I told of my problems with DVDIt! and the dreaded PTS>DTS error...which I`m working on.....
What I'm wondering is peoples opinions and experiences on the best DVD authoring programs available.

Have any of you produced DVDr with menus and chapters which will p;ay in a DVD Standalone.

Has anyone created a DVDr which will play in a PS2 (important for me!)

If you have done any of the above, what software did u use, did you have any problems etc ?

Thanks in advance.

[Jestorius]

Yes, with DVDit PE and A03 for standalone.

[rIK]

Cool...I have those, but keep getting "DTS>PTS" errors....(see my other post)...did you these play in PS2 ?

Did you get any errors when trying to create the disk ?

[Jestorius]

You have to check your mpegs before inserting it in to DVDit. The user spike at the end of the mpeg stream was a problem before, not anymore. Allways demux your mpegs. Refresh the projectsize before burning. Don't use test, just burn away. Never use DVDit to encode avi's . Use what ever you are using to encode.

I don't have PS2.

[shinomen]

I use the Spruceup authoring program myself. I have successfully burned a dvd w/ multiple chapters and special features. AND YES IT WORKS IN MY PLAYSTATION 2! (whoohoo) I have the Pioneer A03 and I think it's the verbatim dvdr's that I'm using (I'm not at home right now so I can't check, if not it's TDK)

Unfortunatly Spruceup is no longer available for download off their website, but if you look around the net you can find a copy (might have to read some spanish though)

The good thing about spruce is it's wide range of acceptable formats. (specific DVD formats anyway) Example, when I try to create a DVD in DVDit I have to pick either 4:3 or 16:9 then I've got to pick MPEG1 or MPEG2, and once you've made your choice you can't change it half way through unless you start over. Personally not all the content I put on a DVD is going to be in the same format so it's nice to be able to throw an MPEG1 in with an MPEG2.

But the drawbacks (as far as I've experienced) to spruce is that you can't make animated menus, you can't have audio running in the background of your menu, and I can't seem to figure out how to do multiple audio tracks.

Supposedly DVD Maestro (also made by Spruce Technologies) will allow you to make the animated menus and everything else I said in the last paragraph. Bad thing is, the damn program is hard as hell to find (I still haven't found it, so if anyone does let me know

Hope this helps