I'm about to buy DVD workshop, mistake?

[Hulk]

I've decided that the entry level DVD authoring programs will be too restrictive for me. I know I'll want to be able to create my own menus and such. I'm ready to purchase DVD workshop, I've been happy with MS Pro so I'm figuring I'll like Workshop.

Any comments or suggestions? Are there any major features this program is lacking, compared to the competition that is?

Thanks,

Mark

[wkulecz]

Download the free trial first!

You'll have 1 month to figure out if it works for you.

--wally.

[Hulk]

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. It's just that I'm using dial-up so I have to get over to my brother's with my laptop for the download.

I was just wondering if I was going to get some, "no, don't buy that program get blabla because it can do blablabla," replies.

[wkulecz]

Overkill for what I want but it doesn't seem to be able to do the simple thing I want -- auto play the movie and only put up a menu when requested.

--wally.

[KRSESQ]

I've been experimenting with the free trial and I've found the program's response time when working with a one hour DVD-format project is ridiculously slow. Also I've had several hard crashes using it. Anyone else have these problems?

Athlon 1200
KT7A
17 gig boot dr
80 gig vid dr
TBSC
256 MB PC133
Pioneer 104 DVD-RW
Win98FE

Kevin

[Jerry Jones]

DVD Workshop is easily the best authoring package in the sub-$500 price range.

It's fast, flexible and responsive... in my personal experience.

Every review that's been written about it has been positive.

1. http://www.postmagazine.com/post/art...l.jsp?id=31026

2. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,7128,00.asp

3. http://www.ulead.com/dws/reviews.htm

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Ted222]

Amen...Jerry....


I use it and it works great for me, no crashes, excellent MPEG Codec(takes DV or Whatever video you throw at it).

Ted

[Hulk]

I'm new to DVD authoring but seem to be having a lot of trouble getting going with the trial version. Here's what I'd like to do. I have two video clips, each with 3 different scenes, or are they called chapter? Anyway, when I click on one clip (title, right?) I'd like to either be able to play it or go a menu deeper to the scen selection. Any tips would be appreciated, I'd really like to like this program.

Thanks,

Mark

[Ted222]

Start here:

http://www.ulead.com/learning/dws.htm

good luck,

Ted

[Hulk]

Ted,

Thanks a lot. I'm going to check that link out now. I haven't struggled with software in a long time! After about an hour of head scratching and messing around I'm starting to figure the logic of the program out. Now if I can just figure out how to get the remote to skip from one chapter to the next. I am starting to like the flexibility here...

[wkulecz]

Hulk,

If you can figure out how to get the behaviour I want -- auto play the movie with working chapter advance and display a scene selection menu only if/when requested I'd love to hear about how to do it!

"best <$500 and flexible" it may be, but don't seem to meet my simple requirements. The above behaviour is on the Warner Bros "Road Warrior" DVD so I know it can be done!

Micro Center has an ADS Pyro ProDVD with full bundled DVD Workshop (and MSP 6.5 "director'r cut") for $179. You can throw away the 1394 card and still be ahead of any other way I've seen to buy the software.

I'd have bought it if I'd been able to figure out how to do what I want with the 1 month trial :-(

--wally.

[Hulk]

Well, things were going great. I finished up the project and tried to create the video files but got the following error message:

"Failed to convert video file
Error. 800041c21"

Anyone have any idea what this is about?
Tough to buy a program before you can actually get it working. Maybe the 1.3 update would fix this, but then again maybe not.

[Dr Mordrid]

What kind of source is at the point where the error occurs? A glitch in a source file can cause authoring programs to crash out.

Dr. Mordrid

[Hulk]

I'm not sure. The program is in step 1, "verifying and converting files." Detailed information says, "Converting video title (video and audio part)..."

I know this is a compliant video, I used TMPGEnc to create it and used in in MovieFactory before using this program.

The error is happening less than a minute into the process.

I know my system is rock solid so that's not an issue.

[Hulk]

Okay, I AM A BELIEVER!!!

I figured out the problem. After selecting the highest quality template for encoding the program left my MPEG's alone and created the project. I was creating a VBR template with high specifications (higher than my imported files), for some reason the program didn't like it. No problem.

I created a project that I really like. This program is nice. No crashes, good speed, and I can do pretty much whatever I want.

Wally -

Auto play the video? Hmm, that's a tough one. I guess you could make the first autoplay video the project but I don't know if there is a time limit on that and I don't how you would get to the menus! Except for at the end of the movie.

The other idea is to make the timeout really short, like 1 second. But then again you wouldn't really have access to the menus.

It does seem like a simple thing and the instructions are obviously there is "Road Warrior" does it.

Perhaps in a future update Ulead could create a link for "play when inserted" that could be linked to the main movie that would play when inserted until a menu button is pressed. I can understand your frustration but it's not a deal breaker for me.

Somehow I'm on a software spending spree here. I think I'm going to pick up Sound Forge 6.0 and DVD Workshop.