Software suggestions?

[thedge]

I am looking for dvd authoring suggestions. I have Nero for cd writing already but I assume this won't do for doing dvd authoring (menus, titles, and such)?

Is DVD Movie Factory the way to go for most consumers? If so, do I create the DVD there and then actually burn it with NERO?

Not sure how this works and I don't want to dump too much money into things I don't need.

Any suggestions on DVD writers? I am not looking for a huge debate and I am sure that my player plays both types of media.

[G-man]

DVD MF works very well; easy to do simple menus. It will burn directly to many DVD writers, or you can have it create the DVD folder on disk and then just burn them as data files using any thing that can burn to your DVD write. I have used RecordMax for that (new name for Primo-DVD) and it works well.

I normally capture thru a Mini-DV Video Camera with Analog passthru which creates AVI files; then use TMPGEnc to do simple cut editing and encoding to Low DVD (352x480) @ 2700CBR. This makes for very good looking results and up near 4hrs per DVD.

You can download a 30-day trial of DVDMF from WWW.ULEAD.COM

I have a Pioneer DVR-104 (DVD-R/RW); it works great and is fairly inexpensive (compared others)

[dgraham]

Regarding software, Sonic's DVDit! 2.5 SE is a pretty good program, but I have one major complaint: it doesn't like menus with buttons that are anything but straight across or straight up and down. So if you don't want to get to fancy with menus, it might work for you. It won't do motion menus either, which would be nice. There is no demo of this program and the documentation is pretty basic. They have a pretty good forum that has helped me a lot, but the tech support is slow. I've not heard good things about Ulead's (DVD workshop) tech support either. DVDit! will burn directly to many DVD writers like the Pioneer dvr-104.

I have the Pioneer DVR-A04 (same as the DVR-104) and I love it. I have had no problems whatsoever with it. I bought it with DVDit! from www.esbuy.com for $345.

Good luck