Whats the Best DVD Authoring Software

[jcool26]

Hello to all! I was wondering what is the best all around dvd authoring software complete with great quality and can create chapter menus and nice encoding?

[aedipuss]

authoring software is not for encoding. you import already encoded mpg-2 and audio, then create menus. for the price dvdlab pro was probably the best. as it's no longer supported maybe adobe encore is the best now.

[jcool26]

What's the best software for encoding?

[aedipuss]

mpeg-2 isn't all that hard to encode. the mainconcept encoders that come with vegas and adobe pp are fine. once upon a time cce was considered the best, but that was many years ago. tmpgenc was also an inexpensive but decent choice back then.

[jcool26]

A software that will work with various types of files with good encoding quality

[El Heggunte]

A software that will work with various types of files with good encoding quality

Give a try to the old TMPGenc Plus, then. My copy runs fine under Windows 7 x64.

BUT BE CAREFUL --- "good encoding quality" requires that the user knows what they're doing
If you're expecting an encoder that will always and magically output "great quality", then you'll be disappointed.
Specially when the subject is DVD-Video, which imposes various restrictions upon what an MPEG-2 encoder can do.

If you don't mind learning some basic Avisynth, then HCenc is the way to go --- very powerful, and very free

[smrpix]

AVStoDVD is excellent and uses the HCenc encoder.

[videobruger]

AVStoDVD for creating MPEG2 files (HCenc) and author with DVDStyler. More powerful when it comes to creating menus/navigation.

[jcool26]

Is Nero a good software to use?

[El Heggunte]

^ Friends don't let friends use Nero.

[jcool26]

So it's not good software to use?

[jcool26]

What are people's thoughts about Nero?

[Skiller]

No, Nero is not good.

I do a lot of MPEG2 encoding (more than anything else), for a decade now, and the best MPEG2 encoders are in my opinion (in no particular order):

CCE SP3 (not SP2, SP3 has a much, much better encoding engine)
HCenc (which is free)
Procoder 1.5 (version 1.5 is better because later versions have much more aggressive pre-filtering which I don't like)

Procoder is outstanding for interlaced encoding of very hard to encode videos such as camcorder footage and analog tape sources like VHS. Where all the others produce mosquitos or even blocking (even with the bitrate maxed out for DVD) Procoder looks just fine, maybe only a little bit of detail is smoothed. It's not as outstandingly good for any other kind of video though.

CCE SP3 is very good for film sources, I have yet to see another (MPEG2) encoder that can preserve film grain and gradients better. Tends to produce mosquitos if the bitrate is on the lower side though (HCenc would perform better in such scenario).

HCenc has few weaknesses as well as few strenghts, it's pretty well balanced and universal.


Except for Procoder, which doesn't have many settings, you need to tweak the others for optimal results, especially CCE SP3. It's defaults suck.

[jcool26]

What encoder does Nero use I have Nero 8 on my computer but I didn't know is there was a better authoring encoding software.

[jcool26]

No, Nero is not good.

I do a lot of MPEG2 encoding (more than anything else), for a decade now, and the best MPEG2 encoders are in my opinion (in no particular order):

CCE SP3 (not SP2, SP3 has a much, much better encoding engine)
HCenc
Procoder 1.5 (version 1.5 is better because later versions have much more aggressive pre-filtering which I don't like)

Procoder is outstanding for interlaced encoding of very hard to encode videos such as camcorder footage and analog tape sources like VHS. Where all the others produce mosquitos or even blocking (even with the bitrate maxed out for DVD) Procoder looks just fine, maybe only a little bit of detail is smoothed.

CCE SP3 is very good for film sources, I have yet to see another encoder that can preserve film grain and gradients better. Tends to produce mosquitos if the bitrate is on the lower side (HCenc would perform better in such scenario).

HCenc has few weaknesses as well as few strenghts, it's pretty well balanced and universal.


Except for Procoder, which doesn't have many settings, you need to tweak the others quite a lot for optimal results, especially CCE SP3. It's defaults suck.

So what's a step on how to do this and will it work with all files?

[jcool26]

Is procoder free?

[Skiller]

No, Procoder is not free, and nowadays it's impossible to buy version 1.5 because it's so old.

As alreadly suggested you are probably best off using AVStoDVD with HCenc for encoding, and DVDStyler (or maybe GUI for dvdauthor/MuxMan) for authoring. These are easy, free and produce good quality. Get those.

[jcool26]

Ok thanks

[jcool26]

What do I use to burn it on dvd?

[usually_quiet]

What do I use to burn it on dvd?

ImgBurn

[jcool26]

Thanks

[jcool26]

I have two titles that I don't want to merge to put on DVD can I use those programs to do that?

[videobruger]

Yes.

What about menu? If what you want is a menu with two buttons to play the titles enter the menu editor in AVStoDVD.

can create chapter menus

Then look here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0jIx0dukXU

[jcool26]

Which would be best encode with avstodvd or do all the encoding and burn with dvdstyler? Which would give me the best quality?

[videobruger]

Which would give me the best quality?

My advice: Test for yourself.

Take a small clip. Adjust the bitrate to say 5 Mb/s.

For DVDStyler you should use RC2 as it has ffmpeg 2-pass vbr encoding.

[jcool26]

Can I use freemake in conjunction with the software I heard the program was good with converting files

[jcool26]

Has anyone had experience with freemake and used it with dvdstyler?

[smrpix]

Your definition of "best" is getting extremely loose.

[usually_quiet]

Can I use freemake in conjunction with the software I heard the program was good with converting files

AVStoDVD converts quite a few types files for DVD, and probably does a better job with its to DVD conversions than Freemake, without installing any crapware or browser toolbars.

[jcool26]

Ok I'll use avstodvd with henc then use dvdstyler