Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DVD Authoring

This is topic DVD Authoring in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Matthew Peters (Member # 1495) on 05-06-2006, 12:52 AM:

Could someone please suggest a good DVD authoring utility. I have already created my content.. exported MPEG2 multiplexed. I am not looking for the program with the most bells and whistles, just something that will allow me to make a DVD menu and 7-8 chapters.

Most importantly the content is already MPEG2, and I can very easily and successfully get this straight on to DVD - working on virtually every standalone DVD player. So I’m looking for something that will not Re-Encode or Process the streams.

Thanks [Smile]

,
any comments or suggestions are very much appreciated

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-06-2006, 03:26 AM:

In order to import your stuff into a DVD authoring program, you'll need the UNMUXED .m2v and .ac3/.pcm files. The authoring program will mux them for you after you've created your extremely long, whiz-bang, and unskippable menu. You probably don't use a Mac so I can't recommend anything for you. But what I can suggest is that you make everything unskippable and extremely annoying. People love that.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-06-2006, 05:06 AM:

I use Adobe Encore 1.5 and have no major complaints, given its features and price range. However, it might be overkill for what you want, as its real strength is its ability to transcode source source files (e.g. DVCAM AVI) into DVD-compliant MPEG plus Dolby 2.0 sound automatically to a bitrate which uses all the space on the DVD without running out of it.

Given that all you want to do is create menus and IFOs, the basic packages which come free with DVD burners or which you can probably pick up for £15 or so from somewhere like Ebuyer would probably do the job.

It occurs to me that you might find a bargain on Adobe Encore 1.0 (e.g. cheap copies on Ebay from people who have upgraded) - this is because it's so bug-ridden and unstable as to be practically useless, even with the patches installed. With a lot of perseverance and not touching the internal burning facility (i.e. output to an ISO and then burn it using something else) you might just get it to behave, but treat Encore 1.0 with extreme caution.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 05-09-2006, 09:51 PM:

I find the easiest to use is "TMPGEnc" DVD Author 1.6.
Bacically just select the clips required & import them into either 1 of lots of chapters.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 05-11-2006, 12:56 AM:

Nero Vision Express here. No complaints about the program the menus work really well. Ton of templates and you can use multiple formats.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-11-2006, 12:57 AM:

The problem with templates is that everyone else with the program will use them as well, making your DVD look like everyone elses. That's why I always design my own or steal them from a place where most other people wouldn't think to steal them from.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-11-2006, 12:46 PM:

Hey! Who stole my damned templates!?

Posted by Matthew Peters (Member # 1495) on 05-15-2006, 06:05 AM:

I ended up using Nero Vision Express, was already on my computer and it worked really well.