Is this worth the money? (DVD authoring)

[tpr007]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001KOR8K/ref=er_ra_acc_dp_3/026-0593086-7248435

Ulead DVDmovie factory 3

Just need something that can burn DVD's from my own .avi files (i.e nothing dodgy!)

I have a JVC mini-dv cam and transfer my footage to the pc via Firewire which ends up as an AVI.

All i want to do is burn this avi to a DVD that will look as good as possible!


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As a side note: I already have a fully functional copy of CloneDVD which allows me to burn DVD files. Is there other software I should look at to create these DVD files from an AVI?

[stunno]

If you go to www.dvdrhelp .com there are some very good tutorials on doing exactly what you want to do, most using freeware tools.

I have used Ulead DVD movie factory and found it to be quite slow. I have had most success with VirtualDub (free) and TMPEGEnc (not free but a trial version is available).

[Grandmaster]

The problem here is that you're looking for two packages... Ulead does it all in one, but the results are not amazing. Here are my recommendations...

1. MPEG2 Encoder (turns AVI into MPEG2)
Cinemacraft Basic is by far the best consumer-level encoder available at a decent price ($57). A more powerful, cheaper alternative is TMPEGenc Plus ($37) - don't go for TMPEGenc Express. However, TMPEG is a lot, lot slower than CCE Basic.

2. DVD authoring program (makes MPEG2 DVD ready)
For the layman, I'd recommend TMPEG DVD Author. It's about $70. Another alternative (if you can create your own menus in Photoshop or whatever) is DVD Lab. But that's more complex.

One thing to bear in mind is that TMPEG DVD Author, DVD Lab and TMPEGenc Plus have one month free trials, so for the purposes of getting the disk you are doing done for nothing, it's cheaper than Ulead and gives much better quality :D

[slinky]

Due to the simplicity of ulead, I use it quite a bit. Animated menus (compared to version 2) are good, but if you use them it reduces the music on the menus to the same amount of time (10 to 30 seconds), which is a pain.
Restrictions to only 8 chapters per menu screen is limiting. But apart from that its ok.

[tpr007]

processing time isn't really the issue.

Just good picture quality from the avi file converted to the DV - menu's/chapters I can take or leave.

[DJBenson]

Ulead's MPEG2 encoding engine is awful - I've tried various encoders including TMPGEnc, CCE and various Ulead titles and the latter gives the poorest video quality of them all.

If you're not bothered about menu's or chapters, then a free alternative is IFOEdit which creates a standard VIDEO_TS folder (to be burnt to a DVD) from a standard MPEG2 a/v stream - a search on VideoHelp.com should give the latest version.

[threadkiller]

don't go for TMPEGenc Express. However,why do you say that? I've used both TMPGenc & TMPGenc express, & find express easy to use, with the same quality, & slightly higher quality if you add the AC3 plugin

[Grandmaster]

The MPEG encoding ninjas on Doom9 say that TMPEGenc Express is a major step down from Plus. But hey, if it works for you, fair enough.

I learned a great deal from those guys when I set up my first DVD studio four years ago and trust me, those particular members on that site know what they are talking about. These are the same guys that generate their own quantization matrices to increase picture quality such is their dedication to the best quality encoding.