Looking for the most professional DVD authoring tool

[Tegilbor]

Ok, I'm a total newbie to this board, so I hope this is not a FAQ that is being asked every day. I checked though and it seems as if most people are actually looking for simple DVD authoring tools.

Anyway, I've been doing some DVD authoring with DVD Studio Pro on the Mac. Now I got a DVD writer for my PC, and I'd like to find a DVD authoring tool for the PC which is as professional as DVD Studio Pro, i.e. something that really gives me access to every single aspect of a DVD. I'd like to be able to create motion menus (without being restricted to predefined button shapes), subtitles, multiple angles, multiple audio tracks, etc. I had a look at the trial version of Ulead DVD Workshop, but it also appeared a bit too limited to me (though it's hard to figure out the more interesting features with its utterly useless one-sentence-per-feature help system).

It looks like Pinnacle's Impression Pro may quite a bit better. Does anyone here have any experience with Impression Pro? Is it really the most professional DVD authoring software available to the "ambitious amateur", or are there other even better software titles?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Greg12]

The most advanced DVD authoring program is "Scenarist" which is 40,000 us dollars (edited by craigtucker)

[tonyp12]

DVDit PE at $599 is probably pretty powerfull

http://estore.sonic.com/dvdit/pe.asp

[Tegilbor]

Thanks for the info so far. Scenarist looks cool, but $40,000 is a bit steep, and I'd like to remain in the legal area. I guess $1,000 is the absolute limit for me.

And DVDit PE... according to this comparision at Ulead's web page, DVDit can not even do motion menus/motion buttons: http://www.ulead.com/dws/compare.htm

For $599, that's rather scary. I wish DVD Studio Pro were available for the PC.

Any other suggestions? Any (good or bad) experiences with Impression Pro?

[BJ_M]

The most advanced DVD authoring program is "Scenarist" which is 40,000 us dollars (edited by craigtucker).

scenarist (which is not that much unless you buy an entire encoding station with it - but it is darn expensive) is the really the best ... closer runner up but no longer made is Maestro which was bought buy apple and killed.

ReelDVD is the next step down from scenarist (all of which are form the same company making the mac version you liked) - its $1000 and you may find it to your liking


impression pro is a pretty good program i recommend often but in your case - not ...

[RexEscape]

I see ReelDVD from http://www.sonic.com/products/reeldvd/default.htm for msrp $999.99 and someone from another post (not worthy of vcdhelp.com of course) got it for only $895.

[Craig Tucker]

The most advanced DVD authoring program is "Scenarist" which is 40,000 us dollars (edited by craigtucker)

Do NOT ask for warez, give warez or link to warez

[BJ_M]

downside of REEL DVD i shouldmention is that it doesnt support dolby digital 5:1 --only 2ch dolby digital which i find nuts in a product in this price range .. other than that its a great product.

i tryed a demo version of sonic's dvd producer but couldnt get it to run ..

[Smart Dumb Guy]

Downsides of some of the other "professional grade" authoring programs:

DVD Maestro - Seems to flag MPEG 1 files as MPEG2 in the IFOs, but otherwise real nice.

Impression DVD Pro 2.2.1 - Locks up when trying to drag an MPEG1 file to the video track. (at least for me).

I've been struggeling to find a good program for a month or so now, and all I want is:

Simple menu (not looking for motion menus or anything like that).
Real chapter points.
MPEG2 & MPEG1 on one DVD.
AC3 2.0 / 5.1.

I've tried so far (in order):
Sonic MyDVD
Ulead DVD Workshop
Sonic DVDit PE
DVD Maestro
Impression DVD Pro

DVD Maestro comes REAL close and would be perfect for me if it wasn't for that IFO bug.

It seems that Ulead is announcing MovieFactory 2.0 today, and I can hope that they're bringing out an authoring program that does all I want for $49.95, but I highly doubt it.

[BJ_M]

if maestro is that "close" , could you maybe edit the IFO ? just a thought

[Smart Dumb Guy]

That's my next thing to try (I'm just a newb you know).
I briefly looked into IFOEdit, but I'm not sure on how to do it.

[Smart Dumb Guy]

OK, so this is one of the occasions where the DUMB part of my user name applies.

Evidently I couln't figure out that you need to double click on one of the lines in IFOEdit in order to edit them.

[vandakeg]

ReelDVD actually DOES support 5.1.. 6.1 and. 7.1 for that matter, as long as it's pre-encoded as an AC3.[/quote]

[BJ_M]

thats great --they should make thier spec page reflect that

http://www.sonic.com/products/reeldvd/matrix.htm