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[SickBoy]

I would have figured that with all the various photo and other such products out there, that DVD authoring software would be pretty basic.

I got a Radeon AIW the other day, and proceeded to capture about a 1.5-hour videotape to my hard drive (home movies and such -- I've so got to get my in-laws into a DV camera). Great, that process is easy enough. Then, I decide to install Pinnacle Studio 8 (came with the card). Easy to use, a little stupid and finnicky in places, but so far, it's OK.

Unfortunately, my video is too big for the disc at current bitrates. Fine. I'll take it down a bit, but I'd much rather do that with a program of my choosing (i.e.: DVD Shrink)... but whatever... (what happens if I've got a dual-layer burner though?). So since I can't do anything but let Pinnacle do it, I set it up to create the files on my hard drive.

I think it took some 10 hours to render the video. I know rendering takes some processing power, but that's ridiculous. Add to that, the menus were screwed up compared to their preview (WYSIWYG my ass). And that video that was too big for a DVD? Well, thanks to Pinnacle's crappy custom setting, it's now about 400 Megs smaller than it needs to be.

So then I try "neoDVD," which came with my burner. A program I've since deleted in my hard drive in haste... It's a little less user friendly than Pinnacle, and seems to want to open my CD-ROM drive for no apparent reason. But, I've read reviews that it encodes screamingly fast (based on the benchmarks I took a look at, probably two hours for this project). So I slog through the (long) video and set chapters and whatnot... then I get ready to insert Chapter 7... "Only six chapters can be displayed per menu page." And guess what, no apparent way to add another menu page. I can add another "menu" from the main menu, but fat lot of good that does me when I can't link from that menu to the video file I'm working with.

I saw Adobe's Elements Suite today for $200CDN. I've got PS Elements 2, but sadly, I gave the idea of buying it real thought, even though my photo and video editing needs are infrequent at best. I thought these programs were that bad. I might be getting a hand-me-down Mac soon. Maybe I'll wait until then to do any more of these video projects.

 

[Phoenix]

No one will tell you that iDVD and iMovie are straightforward enough for what you're describing so I'll say it and wait for the anti-Mac hordes to descend upon the thread.

 

[The Shadow]

I'm not really sure why all the DVD authoring software is shit. I used to think it was because they wanted to make it brain dead easy for end users but they're all like that, pretty basic in functionality. You'd think there's be one or two that were more "professional" but they all seem pretty limited in some critical way, particularly with what you can do with the title menu, subtitles, and alternate audio tracks.

 

[border]

Just do everything separately....don't look for some stupid All-In-One suite. Their encoders are always crap.

TMPGENC is a great conversion tool for MPEG2 video, if you want to shift the bitrate down. Doing this WILL be time-consuming, so either get it right on the first capture or be prepared to spend a while re-encoding.

TMPGENC DVD Author is also very straightforward and well-liked. I tend to use Ulead DVD Workshop myself....I can't remember why though. I think it's because (at the time) TMPGENC either wouldn't let you use custom menu backgrounds or wouldn't let you use your own music for menus.

particularly with what you can do with the title menu, subtitles, and alternate audio tracks.

What sort of crazy home movies are you making where subtitles and alternate audio tracks are needed?

 

[DaCocoBrova]

I have access to Adobe Encore and all types of higher level sh!t, but always find myself going to Ulead DVD Creator (I think that's the name). Functional and intuitive (enough) for novices.

 

[SickBoy]

No one will tell you that iDVD and iMovie are straightforward enough for what you're describing so I'll say it and wait for the anti-Mac hordes to descend upon the thread.

I was talking to the family member who may be handing down the old Mac, and I asked him about importing just straight MPEG into iDVD... he wasn't sure if it was doable or not (he's used it solely for DV). Any knowledge on that? On my laptop, I've been using Quicktime files with iMovie... and assume I could do the same with MPEG and iMovie, but not sure it'll work straight into iDVD.

...though really, iMovie treatment would be great to give some of this stuff anyhow...

 

[Minotauro]

I have the same problem. I absolutely cannot find DVD authoring software that I'm happy with. Recently, I've been using Nero VisionExpress which works but there are all kinds of little annoyances. For instance, if I have two video files, it forces me to add them as separate titles (?) instead one long one. So, I have two groups of chapters instead of one.

The software also has a built-in burner that pretty much sucks too. It places delays in between chapters and the stupid thing automatically ejects when the disc finishes burning instead of waiting for you to press done. This isn't really that big of a deal but I usually burn DVDs overnight which means the tray will be ejected for hours on end. Shit, even if you choose to have the computer shut down when it finishes, the tray will still be ejected. Seeing as how the configuration menu for the program is absolutely paltry, I don't know if it's even possible to fix these things.

I've tried Pinnacle and Adobe Encore as well but they're so fucking picky about the resolution of your video (Nero automatically resizes it), that I gave up.

Also, does anyone know of a decent free video editor other than Virtual Dub? All I want to do is join video clips and maybe mess with their resolution but VD seems to have trouble with a bunch of different file types.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Also, does anyone know of a decent free video editor other than Virtual Dub? All I want to do is join video clips and maybe mess with their resolution but VD seems to have trouble with a bunch of different file types.

Windows Movie Maker 2

Buggy as the first one, but it works when it doesn't crash (seldom).

 

[goodcow]

I hate the Mac with a passion, but I can't deny that Apple makes the only functional, yet high level DVD authoring app out there, DVD Studio Pro. And iDVD is wonderful for easy drag n' drop DVDs.

I'm even considering purchasing a Mac just for DVD authoring.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

I thought you already had a Mac, what with all the video editing you do.

 

[deadhorse32]

Get DVDMaestro from a P2P network. The product has been discontinued a few year ago when spruce technologies was bought by Apple (though none of their software were running on mac at that time).

It's simple to use if you want to do simple stuff but very powerfull (lots of feature multiple audio tracks/subtitle, no crappy automatic menu,.... ) if you want to.

Since the company doesn't exist anymore you aren't hurting anybody.

GO WAREZ BOY


edit

That program now appears to have been dumped altogether in favour of authoring software originating from another acquisition - Spruce. When Apple bought Spruce, we figured that the purchase had been made to acquire the company's high-end MPEG encoding hardware. Thankfully, it's now clear that the software development team has been kept working, too. But DVD Studio Pro 2 is much more than a port of the Maestro program from Windows to Mac - a lot of work has gone into the interface to make the learning curve as gentle as possible, and it's had a facelift to bring it into line with the aesthetics of Final Cut Pro and iDVD.

So it's basically the guy behind DvdMaestro making DVD Studio Pro, you can't go wrong on that one

 

[bishoptl]

haha too late milhouse!

 

[deadhorse32]

haha too late milhouse!

It's maybe not the best tag in the world but it's MY tag and I LOVE IT

 

[goodcow]

I thought you already had a Mac, what with all the video editing you do.

I use Adobe Premiere Pro.

 

[mrklaw]

anybody tried adobe premiere elements? That looks promising.

 

[aaaaa0]

Anyone try DVDit?

http://www.sonic.com/products/dvdit/default.asp

 

[mrkapawutzis]

I was talking to the family member who may be handing down the old Mac, and I asked him about importing just straight MPEG into iDVD... he wasn't sure if it was doable or not (he's used it solely for DV). Any knowledge on that? On my laptop, I've been using Quicktime files with iMovie... and assume I could do the same with MPEG and iMovie, but not sure it'll work straight into iDVD.

Converting it is a bitch. Tried it and it was taking forever, to the point that from the looks of the timeline it looked like it might have taken about a day to import. With no guarantees that it would work I gave up trying to do it.

Of course, I was trying to import a 500 mb file on an underpowered iMac, so if anyone else has another perspective I would like to hear it.

 

[border]

If the video file is not DVD-compliant MPEG2, then file conversion is ALWAYS going to be a pain. I don't think there's really any way around it. It's always going to take a lot of time unless you want to compromise quality...

 

[SickBoy]

Yeah, the time isn't a huge factor for me, but there's a limit for everything.

After searching for info, I've found Pinnacle's notoriously bad for slooooow render times. Most programs are at least twice as fast. Apparently neoDVD screams, and I might reinstall it (if the Mac doesn't come through), but it seems a little on the unstable side.

I'd love to give Premiere Elements a whirl, but I don't really care to spend $140CDN on it. Maybe it'll start packing in (a la Photoshop Elements) with better hardware sometime in the future.

 

[gblues]

I can relate, I'll share the story of my first and only DVD authoring adventure.

I have both Premiere Pro and Encore DVD. I used them to make my father-in-law's Christmas present (a couple U2 specials I TiVo'd off TRIO).

I used Premiere Pro to edit together each program sans commercials. This actually turned out to be a bigger pain in the ass than I expected due to Premiere's apparent inability to actually edit MPEG-2 clips. I ended up re-capturing each segment into its own MPEG-2 file and then using 3-point edits to trim the start/end of each clip.

Then I had problems with the picture quality. Turns out it's best to tell Premiere to create a non-interlaced stream because if you choose interlaced you get some really strange-looking motion artifacts (like RRV on the PS2). This could have simply been a problem with choosing the wrong field ordering setting, but I was working on a deadline and didn't really have 2-3 hours to waste.

My last hurdle was the fact that my burner is DVD+RW. I initially had used 2-pass VBR, and while the resulting DVD played fine in my PC, I had really strange glitches playing on the set-top box. It started looking like a dirty NES game, with tiles of random colors. Thankfully I had sprung for the DVD+RW media, so I was able to experiment a little. Re-encoding as CBR resolved the problem.

My biggest problem was not so much Encore (in fact, Encore was really easy to use, but then all I had was a title with 2 buttons) but with the clip editing.

Despite the difficulty, the project was a success. Even with the re-encoding, the picture quality was acceptable and the audio sounded superb.

Nathan

 

[musicplustv]

You're not really supposed to edit MPEG-2 files, because they are super compressed. But you can purchase plugins that allow you to edit MPEG-2 files natively and smoothly in Premiere Pro. MPEG-2 format is made for finished DVDs, not for editing purposes.

 

[gollumsluvslave]

DVDLab is an extremely nice DVD authoring environment

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/

The interface is great, kind Visual Studio .Net like, and I've never had a problem with it yet.

 

[gblues]

You're not really supposed to edit MPEG-2 files, because they are super compressed. But you can purchase plugins that allow you to edit MPEG-2 files natively and smoothly in Premiere Pro. MPEG-2 format is made for finished DVDs, not for editing purposes.

Even in the compressed state, I should be able to delete info from the clip without having to re-encode the whole damn thing.

Thankfully, for the purposes of my project, the re-compression didn't hurt the picture quality too badly.

Nathan