DVD Authoring Questions

[Gurm]

Folks,

I registered over at DVDR Help, but of course they have a waiting period before you can post, so here goes.

I just got a nice spiffy Plextor DVD burner. I've made a few DVD copies with DVD XCopy... they work AWESOME. I've burnt a few images, also awesome. The drive is great, I have no complaints at all, my system loves it.

The questions:

1. What's a GOOD authoring program? I want to make cool menus and stuff. ULead DVD Movie Studio 2 is... ok, but very limited (you can customize their templates, but only in a very limited way). I'm leery about installing Roxio 6 unless someone can swear on their dead grandmother's grave that it will NOT bork my system like the last 8 versions did. So basically what's a GOOD program to make full-featured DVD's? Money, as you might guess, is no object. I also tried Pinnacle Studio 8, and it seems to be overkill (really designed for people with many video sources and whatnot) and is also terribly slow.

2. What programs am I gonna need for various conversions? I have an ever-growing list of shareware/freeware progs that are going to have to live on my drive, in one form or another, to do VCD/SVCD/AVI conversions to DVD video. The list so far is:

- VirtualDub
- TMPGEnc
- BeSweet
- Etc. etc.

Ok, maybe this should have gone in the desktop video forum. I dunno. Feel free to move it on me.

- Gurm

[Brian Ellis]

Gurm

If you want something more sophisticated than MF2, try Ulead DVD Workshop. There is a trial version available, I believe, with a few minor limitations, but it will give you the feel for it.

My grandmother was cremated.

TMPGEnc wiill possibly be the main one you will use to convert AVIs to DVD compliant MPEG-2.

[Kris1]

or http://www.dazzle.com/products/dvdcomplete.html

Demo available, so you can see if it fits your needs. Is of the "quick 'n Dirty" variety though I presume. Want to do better, you'd have to look at ReelDVD or Impressions Pro.

Take Care,
Kris
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[JerryH]

? about DVD Workshop 1.0: does that capture directly to MPEG2 format? There should be no need to re-render the capture files for final output, correct (perhaps some cutting and stitching to remove unwanted footage?)

I'm using a Canopus ADVC-100 for capturing.

[Dr Mordrid]

Yes, but you'll likely find a system faster system than an Athlon 1.1 more satisfying. I found it worked rather well using an AthlonXP 2000+.

Dr. Mordrid

[wkulecz]

I tried Dazzle DVD Complete as part of a USB MPEG2 capture device bundle. The USB MPEG2 capture device was hopeless.

DVD Complete had possibilities but was too buggy at actually use. If it worked, I'd still prefer DVD MF or DVD Workshop since these let you design your project and then do the time consuming steps in an unattended batch. DVD Complete processes everything "in line" causing some rather long delays as you complete project design steps when it goes off and processes something leaving you to twiddle your thumbs.

IMHO don't buy anything from Dazzle unless you can return it without hassle when you find it doesn't work right.
Its possible they've newer patches to download than what I tried a few months ago.

--wally.

[Fred H]

Did somebody try IFOEDIT?
http://www.dvdr-digest.com/software/... file=ifoedit
and
http://mpucoder.kewlhair.com/Derrow/index.html

Ideas? Comments?

Fred H