Other DVD Authoring Programs

 

  Comparison Chart
   
1-19-06 Free versions of Nero vs 6 (newest is 7)
I did a search on the new Nero 7 and it sounds like Liquid 7 and some guys went back to Nero 6, which I found a FREE download. So save $79.99. http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=nero

 
 
 		  
 
stephenlnoe

 		  Posted: Dec 23, 2004 - 22:51   Web Board Link  

Interesting, what do you mean by better DVD authoring? If your talking about an author with predictable results then there are a bunch to choose from.

If your talking about full featured authoring (multiple audio tracks, subtitles and subtitle editing, Dolby Digital audio conversion etc) then your talking about REELDVD ($250).

Dave listed DVDLab Pro ($200) down below in this thread. I think it is a great value in DVD authoring (and easy). Mediachance makes a light version of DVDLab ($99) as well.

It might be a good move to get a full featured author.

 
DStone
 		  Posted: Aug 07, 2005 - 12:01     
Martin,

You probably can't get the quality you'd like encoding 123 minutes using the LE encoder (IMHO). You'd be better off with a 3rd party multi-pass encoder. I used CCE Basic by Cinemacraft, which allows for 2-pass VBR encoding. You need to use VBR; if you try and use CBR the bitrate is going to be very low (about 4Mb/s). For a truly professional result, I'd recommend CCE Standard. It's a lot more money (USD $1,995 vs $60) but you can squeeze every bit out of the video for quality results.

For authoring, I use and highly recommend DVDLab Pro by MediaChance. This is one of the most popular authoring programs out there, and is [IMHO] better than many other authoring programs costing thousands of dollars more.

For AC-3, it depends on what you want. If all you want is AC-3 stereo, then you can use the TMPGEnc Sound Plugin from Pegasys Inc. This is a licensed Dolby Digital stereo encoder for only USD $29. It's designed for use with TMPGenc, but you can also use it to encode files separately (this is what I do) through an application supplied with the encoder.

Please note that Dolby has some interesting licensing terms, and not all licensed encoders allow you to use the Dolby logo, so you should check with Pegasys Inc. first, just to make sure.

There are certainly other encoders out there that definitely do allow the use of the Dolby logo, but they cost a lot more.

Hope this helps.
 
DStone
 		  Posted: Aug 07, 2005 - 21:44       
Martin,

My workflow is something on the close order of:

Edit in LE and fuse the final cut.
Encode the final cut in CCE Basic using the DVD preset. I use a bitrate calculator to determine the settings. You should probably set the audio bitrate in the calculator to 448kb/s, that being the max. AC-3 bitrate for DVDs.

The output from CCE Basic are an elementary stream (.M2V) and a .WAV file. I run the .WAV file through the TMPGenc Dolby encoder (use 448kb/s for the bitrate) and that generates an .AC3 file.

I put both the .M2V and .AC3 files into DVDLab Pro and author the disk. The authoring process creates a directory (by default called DVDVOLUME) that contains the DVD structure. I usuallyopen this in a DVD player application and test everything before burning. You can burn in DVDLab, but I prefer to use Nero.

It may seem like a lot of effort, but it lets me get the best possible DVDs, and it's faster than it looks (CCE Basic encodes at 1.5x, so a 1-hour video takes about 45 minutes/pass). For myself I prefer the DVDLab method of creating DVD menus, and the ease which with things can be linked (it's very quick and easy to make an auto-play DVD with things like FBI and Interpol warnings that can't be bypassed, and add autolooping videos for things like kiosks, etc.) The TMPGenc AC-3 application that you use for encoding is a bit kludgy, and it requires that you have an internet connection as it has to validate the license when you run it, but it does work.

Before you go and buy the applications, you may want to try and encode the 123 minutes in LE and build a DVD. The LE encoder is a 1-pass statistical encoder, and depending on the material it might work well enough for what you want. The only caveat is you can't use the Dolby Digital logo if you use the LE AC-3 encoder. It's licensed but technically not for commercial use.

Hope this helps.
 
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