Current DVD Authoring Programs suck ass!!!

[khermans]

I have tried almost every authoring program listed in the vcdhelp.com tutorials, yet I am dissatisfied with all of them. Let me count the ways...

Ulead DVD Movie Factory:
Haven't tried it for two reasons. 1) It doesn't support MPEG1. So when I wanted to make a DVD with Seinfeld episodes on it encoded by TMPGEnc it wouldn't let me. 2) It doesn't support TRUE chapters which makes it incompatible with some DVD players.

DVDit SE/PE:
Like it for the most part, but one feature that I absolutely loathe is the necessary audio conversion to PCM or DD. I have these Seinfeld episodes that are MPEG1 352 x 240 encoded by the most recent TMPGEnc with the Low Quality DVD setting in the wizard. I make my entire project, get ready to burn it, and then it takes me another hour just to encode to Dolby Digital audio from mp2. I was ripshit! Not only that, but I couldn't lower the DD quality any lower that 128 kbit/sec mono, when there is an option for 56 kbit/sec. Anyway, I don't like the user interface either. It is kind of lacking in features and is hard to navigate. Sometimes it's picky about movie files encoded by TMPGEnc as well.

SpruceUP:
Ok. This program really sucks. Now I know why they abonded the project. It took almost 2 minutes for me to set a chapter point near the end of the movie. This due to the fact that SpruceUP is very inefficient about the way it searches the movie file from the last chapter point. If you have 30 chapter points like I did, things get quite hairy. It was also picky about my TMPGEnc files, but I didn't need to convert to PCM or DD. Anyway, it is not worth trying out since there is no future for the program anyway.

What other programs are left? I am not going to spend $10,00 on a production level authoring program, but I need something that is well made. Maybe I'm just a ******* idiot when it comes to encoding and authoring, but I highly doubt it. I assume that other people share my frustration. Who else has had problems like these?

If anyone knows of a program that will do a lot more than these buggy pieces of crap, send me an email <khermans@amalasoft.com>. Also, if anyone knows what the compatibility is with MPEG1/MPEG2 and home DVD players let me know. Are there limitations to the resolution? And do home dvd players support mp2 at all or am I just retarded? Thank you...

Kris Hermansen

[Neishaverse]

I second everything you said!!!!!


Barney

[CiRe]

Hey Kris I found spiderman svcd and I'm trying to burn it on a dvd with the HPDVD200i or j(series not sure) so that it is compatible with any dvd player- of course it would have to be able to play DVD-R and DVD-RW.

I may be able to point you in the right direction- HP.com has a list of DVD players that play MP1 and MP2- Although I am very new in Video editing myself- I may be wrong- but no one can figure out my problem- you sound like you know what your doing - any idea?

Also more on your complaint of the current DVD editing software- I think the software that comes with the HPDVD200i(j) is decent although since I'm new I bet its still got some quirks of its own. Could some of the problems be avoided by software updates- or is it just the complexity of the formats, encoding - and all that other jargin?

[neffs]

http://www.doom9.org/ may help you in your quest

[docfly]

Try Ulead DVD Workshop..its list for $279 and is sort the Pro version of DVD Factory

[PATBOY]

I have Ulead DVD workshop and you can author: vcd, svcd and dvd.
Not too Hard to use and it can resize and change you bitrate of you (svcd for exemple) so it become dvd compliant etc... It has alot more feature but im not gonna describe them all :P

Patboy

[mazinz]

i have to disagree with you Spruceup is a very straight forward and good program when compared to the hassle of the others listed. input your clip add menus,. etc and burn no audio conversion or that other garbage, plus it does not have a bitrate limit either, so if your clips hit 10 it still loads/creates your dvd 9unlike the dvdits).
you said it took 2 minutes to go through to make a chapter point? do you mind me asking then how fast is your pc it tkaes me less then a minute to go through a 4gig file and put in 15 or so chapter points.
Wish they had not dropped it, because when compared to others out there this one is easy to use with no BS

[Baldrick]

Spruceup is also my favorite, easy and straigt forward but I miss some basic features and it has been discontined so I hope it will popup some better apps in the future...home dvd authoring is kinda new so far...but I don't want it too be complex like the $10000000 scenarist and dvdmaestro(maestro is the best and "easiest" if you want all dvd features though) and not like ulead workshop that includes everything in one application(capturing,encoding,editing,authoring).

Maybe a open source dvd authoring tool would be something to work on....like vcdimager...with a nice gui to also...

[leebo]

khermans,
Another "feature" of DVD Workshop (though I consider it a disappointment), is that the program dosn't support DD audio.

[joe boston]

PATBOY: I have Ulead DVD workshop too.

Very happy except there is hesitation between dragged in clips.

Most of the time I just want it to play through smoothly with no hiccupps.

It stops between clips every time, even when I skip the menu stage.

Why doesn't it play the various mpegs smoothly?

Any thoughts?? Thanks!

[Neishaverse]

I like Spruce Up also, but maybee i just can't figure it out, but I can't get my chapter points in EXACT spots, I make DVDs with music videos and need my points to be EXACT and it's hard to do that with spruce. At least with DVDiT! I can enter in a time point maually, not clicking and sliding a tab. But I wish DVDiT! would add support for MPEG audio. Also why is it that the DVD Specs alow for 9.8 Mbps but DVDiT! wont accept above 9.4 and you need to use DD to use the 9.4. And only 8 is using PCM audio.

Barney