DVD Authoring Recommendation

[Worm]

Anybody have a recommendation for DVD Authoring software?

[Lorne]

If you mean for VCD and SVCDs...then VCDEasy, hands down. (And free, to boot!)

If you mean for actual DVDs...which you probably do...then, um. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] I dunno. I tried a handful about half a year ago, can't say I really liked any of them. They were all either too clunky or too complicated.

I don't have a DVD burner, though, so I didn't really put them through their paces...was just interface-curious.

[AXXESS]

ReelDVD by Sonic... www.sonic.com

[eric_darling]

Have you checked out Adobe's new Encore? It's sweet, though not "available" until sometime this summer.

For now, to do truly professional dvd projects on anything under $1,000 US, you'd be talking DVD Studio Pro on the Mac only. Available now - I use it often.

[AXXESS]

I have looked at Encore and I am interested in its integration with Adobe Premiere. It will be SWEET to be able to export chapter points righ from the Premiere timeline.

I have looked at DVD Studio Pro... it also looks impressive. If I had a Mac, I would definitely use it. Right now the best (sub $1000) program for PCs is ReelDVD...

[Worm]

Thanks, for the info.

This is all for my own personal use. I'm more of a code person and I don't know a thing about video editing or DVD Authoring. For me it's one of those things best left to people who know what they're doing (like most of you). But of course, I have a new toy, and I want to play [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

All I'm looking to do is put my current pile of 8mm home videos of the kids onto a DVD. I don't need anything fancy. My DVD burner came with a copy of Pinnacle Studio 8. I haven't even loaded it yet. My experience with bundled software is that it is usually "lower-end" software.

A friend suggested Ulead Media Studio Pro 7. Does anyone have any experiences with this bundle of software?

[eric_darling]

Worm,

It's the least we can do for all your incredibly generous forum activity, mate.

It sounds to me like you've either got a lot of time on your hands, or you just want to tinker around. I think you'll find that Ulead isn't good for much beyond playing around with DVD - you will get frustrated before too long. I was doing so much videotape to DVD transfer work that I needed a better solution than the traditional digitize/transcode/author/burn process - it was just too time consuming. So, I have found two different routes to deal with the work.

1) I bought a DVD-R recorder. This is a standalone unit from Panasonic, available at Best Buy for about $499/US. It will record at different bit rates, and it looks every bit as good as the original media being fed. It has S-Video input and standard composite. Of course, it's not a professional product, so no component input, but the S-Video looks good enough. DVD-R media is getting cheap. You just need to finalize a disc before it will play in another DVD player (finalizing takes a couple of minutes max). You have the capability of setting track titles and disc titles. It's simple to learn and to use. You can't do fancy menus or slideshows or other various bell and whistle DVD features, but it works for the plain and simple. Oh, and it has a cable tuner built-in. Can you say, "really sweet copies of Six Feet Under?"

2) The other solution is to go to YesVideo.com. These guys will take your 8mm tape, transfer it to DVD (up to 2 hours), for about $30/US. But, they will mark up to something like 54 chapter markers based on scene changes that their software senses. These chapters have a picon that is generated and printed on the Amray case sleeve along with its appropriate number. VERY cool. You also can choose from a few different "themes" for menus on the DVD. If you have a lot of these tapes, you may want to consider signing up as a professional videographer, so that you can have your logo printed on the sleeve and DVD disc itself. You simply ship a disc to California, they process, and return both tape and DVD to you. Additional copies of the DVD are $10/US, I think. This is the same service available now at most Walgreen's drug stores. DVD is nearly a commodity item anymore, so unless you really WANT to play, there's just no need to do it yourself.

Now, like I said, if you want to play, then go experiment. You may get some satisfaction out of Ulead, but I have never been satisfied with anything made by them - it's just not powerful enough software, no matter what the application.

[Worm]

Thanks Eric.

I purchased my DVD burner more for archiving purposes rather than making a DVD movie. As an after thought I came up with the idea of throwing my 8mm on DVD too.

The service sounds like the way to go. I thought maybe editing some of the video out, and maybe throwing some transitions and titleing would make watching them a bit more enjoyable later on.

Since time is what I have the least of. I'll probably pack up my 8mm and ship them out. Then as time allows, I'll attempt to put my own twist on them. Should be done in about 2015 or so. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]