DVD authoring (no video)

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 03 Jan 2005 14:30

Hey. I've never made a DVD before. I have a question and problems.

What menu editing software does everybody use?
I began with Nero Express but found it terribly restricting. I did some research and I'm experimenting with DVD-lab PRO right now. It's sooo amazing and I feel so free and comfortable with it -- I could make an amazing DVD with this program. The problem is that I think it's too high-end.
1) It won't let me use MP3s as menu background sound, so I tried to convert the song I wanted to WAV and change the frequency from 44.1 to 48 (because it said it only supported 48 and 96, or something). That didn't work, so I figured I would leave that until later or sacrifice background music in the menus.
2) It only accepts MPEG video, and all of my video is AVI, so I have been spending that past 2-3 hours trying to find a high-quality AVI to MPEG converter to convert all of my video files. No luck -- nothing I have found retains 100% video quality.

Aside from these two (major) problems the program is working wonders for me. So another question is, does anybody know of a good AVI to MPEG converter?

acxel22 · Post by **acxel22** » 03 Jan 2005 15:00

for question 2, I'm not sure about it, but let's say you use adobe Premiere, you could import the AVI file and compress it as MPEG
not sure if this works, but hope it can help

ebo · Post by **ebo** » 03 Jan 2005 16:48

as for the background sound, just stick with .wav.

Avi->MPEG converter: A good one is TMPGEnc. Best way to make
a DVD though is to save the original raw data directly as mpeg (hint
for future DVD plans).

hope this helps.

jerkki · Post by **jerkki** » 05 Jan 2005 14:05

Erik,

In case you use Adobe premiere or are familiar with some other adobe products, I would suggest using Adobe Encore 1.5 for DVD authoring. I´ve made a couple DVD´s with that program and it is superior to other DVD authoring programs I´ve tried. It allows you to import AVIs and Mpegs, mp3s, wavs and ac3s. You can add multiple sound tracks, create subtitles, use animated menus, import photoshop files straight to menus and lots lots more. The best thing is that it isn´t a 'drag and drop' program. You can use your creativity and imagination to build any kind of structure and navigation style you want.
I don´t use premiere but I´m familiar with photoshop, Encore is very easy program to use, you should try it. And the recompress method it uses to convert avi to mpeg is very high quality.
Ask, if you have any questions.

Jere

footjam_heger · Post by **footjam_heger** » 06 Jan 2005 00:43

mpg is just for dvds!!! isnt it?

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 06 Jan 2005 23:24

Ahh! Thanks so much, Jere! I even already had Encore, but I didn't realize what it was when I acquired it. This has been SUCH a pain for me -- I tried exporting all of my AVIs as MPEGs through premiere, but lost 2/3 of the quality!!! I still wasn't able to use my audio tracks in the menus and there was a TON of encoding required for all of this. I also tried TMPGEnc -- my brother suggested that as well, but I couldn't get it to work for me.
Encore is working wonders and I have just whipped up, really quick-like, what I spent days, previously, labouring over! Thanks again, Jere! Adobe is top notch!

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 06 Jan 2005 23:27

jere is a smooth criminal.

Pornstar · Post by **Pornstar** » 11 Jan 2005 11:33

Im looking for decent software as well.. if anyone has Adobe Encore .. could you make a copy of it for me n Chan for free of course because its quite illegal to copy and sell it

Dan
Klokow