A decent substitute for DVD Maestro

[Drakul]

Hello,

I am looking for a decent substitute for DVD Maestro.

After 5 years of good service, finally came out a OS that cannot run Mastro. W7 will not allow Ravisent Cinemaster drivers to properly show RealView windows, rendering Maestro useless.

Any of you guys out there have a good solution for Mestro replacement?

Thanks,

[jman98]

GUIforDVDAuthor is free.

DVDLab or DVDLab Pro might also be of interest to you.

The Windows version of DVD Maestro was abandoned many years ago. I am amazed it worked as long as it did for you. I used it many years ago to author a very small number of DVDs but I abandoned it when I had a video capture from laserdisc that it refused to handle. Maestro enforced limits on video and audio that are below what the DVD specs allow and while you may not have ever run into any problems from that, I did.

[_Al_]

rendering Maestro useless.

What about that small preview window above timeline? You use that for chapter input. I do not see other reason to see actual footage while authoring DVD.

[mazinz]

Hello,

I am looking for a decent substitute for DVD Maestro.

After 5 years of good service, finally came out a OS that cannot run Mastro. W7 will not allow Ravisent Cinemaster drivers to properly show RealView windows, rendering Maestro useless.

Any of you guys out there have a good solution for Mestro replacement?

Thanks,

what if you run win7 in win XP mode?

[videopoo]

Just use DVDSP. 90% of it is exactly the same as Meastro since it was bought by Apple and reworked. The abstraction code is nearly identical too

[Drakul]

GUIforDVDAuthor is free.

DVDLab or DVDLab Pro might also be of interest to you.

The Windows version of DVD Maestro was abandoned many years ago. I am amazed it worked as long as it did for you. I used it many years ago to author a very small number of DVDs but I abandoned it when I had a video capture from laserdisc that it refused to handle. Maestro enforced limits on video and audio that are below what the DVD specs allow and while you may not have ever run into any problems from that, I did.

The problem lies with Windows 7 (x86 or x64). Up to XP (x86 or x64) worked flawlessly.

I´ve never had any issues with Maestro, at least not major ones. Since I author basic DVDs (video + audio + subs and a couple of motion menus), I never felt the need to upgrade to a more powerfull program.

I was taking a look at DVDLAB, but it ssems taht it is not being developed anymore. As a matter of fact, the interface of DVDLAB reminded me Maestro.

Thanks...

[Drakul]

rendering Maestro useless.

What about that small preview window above timeline? You use that for chapter input. I do not see other reason to see actual footage while authoring DVD.

That window works fine, as you reminded, whe working with chapters.

If you want to work with subs, making small adjustments, that preview window does not help much.

Thanks.

[jman98]

I was taking a look at DVDLAB, but it ssems taht it is not being developed anymore.

Yet oddly the fact that DVD Maestro's LAST Windows version was made somewhere around 2000 didn't seem to be a problem for you...

Just sayin'...

[Drakul]

what if you run win7 in win XP mode?

OK, already tried that.

It seems that W7 takes control of video interrupts.

Thanks.

[Drakul]

Just use DVDSP. 90% of it is exactly the same as Meastro since it was bought by Apple and reworked. The abstraction code is nearly identical too

Unfortunatelly, DVDSP is for Macs.

But would love to give it a try...

´till then, will stick with DVDLAB. It seems close to what I´m used to...

Thanks...

[_Al_]

I was taking a look at DVDLAB, but it seems that it is not being developed anymore. As a matter of fact, the interface of DVDLAB reminded me Maestro.

Navigation inside DVD Lab Pro is somehow all the way to the specific VM commands. Maestro used its simplified user interface for commands (which was a killer anyway, basically no learning curve easy, powerful). DVD Lab Pro can go far, far deeper. You can create navigation basically without any abstract layer inside DVD Lab. It allows you to jump what specifications allow. Not DVD Maestro. If you created some navigation in DVD Maestro, it created some dummy PGC and laser head was going back and forth to follow that, DVD Lab Pro allows you to put codes anywhere. PRE, POST of any PGC.

But it is somehow not intuitive to create menu, same way as inside DVD Maestro, for setting highlights you have to draw rectangle with specific tool, choose "invisible normal" for "Link" settings style and choose colors.

To import external background you have to go Menu/load external s-picture/ load external background .. a bit illogical but thank god for that,
loading subpicture I tested black, blue and red on white background and it worked. Colors must be set with Map option.

Great software that DVD Lab.

[Drakul]

Great software that DVD Lab.

Do you know if there is any guide or tutorial around to get me started?

Thanks again...

[chowmein]

Great software that DVD Lab.

Do you know if there is any guide or tutorial around to get me started?

Thanks again...

It comes with comprehensive manual, including "getting started" section.