brombie

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to ask so my apology if this is off-topic.

Do you have a recommendation of a DVD authoring software that will let you produce something on the par of commercial DVDs if you have the talent and the will?

I've only tried ULEAD VideoStudio 7 and it lacks a lot of important features such as setting anamorphic flags, adding subtitles, creating complex menu trees, and many others.

SCHMEGGA

I use Final Cut Pro! It is very powerful and very easy to use. However, it is not cheap.

brombie

I keep hearing praises for Final Cut Pro. Maybe the answer to the question is buy a Mac

futbol

This is a computer-related question, and so it really belongs in the computer forum.

Final Cut Pro has nothing to do with DVD-authoring. It is a video editor. The Mac does have a powerful DVD authoring program in DVD Studio Pro.

Personally, I use a PC and Adobe Encore DVD. I really love it, and it produces some very professional looking discs.

Rogue588

Quote:

Originally posted by futbol
Personally, I use a PC and Adobe Encore DVD. I really love it, and it produces some very professional looking discs.

But is it as hard to use as it looks...?

hell, I haven't even come anywhere near close to learning half of Photoshop yet...

ScottyWH

I like DVD Architect by Sonic Foundry... couldn't be easier to produce near professional quality discs... however, it's only available as part of the $400 package with vegas video now. I still need to give encore a whirl to see if I like it... sounds pretty good.

Jason

Adobe Encore and DVDS Studio Pro will are the closest thing you'll get to commercial DVD production without spending thousands on Sonic Scenarist. I found DVD Studio Pro to be more "user friendly" than Encore.

futbol

If you're at all familiar with the Adobe interface, you've got a head start. Basically, it took me about an hour to get aquainted with the program.

Granted, I already knew a lot about DVD authoring from using DVD Maestro, so, for me, it was just a matter of getting used to a new of doing things.

I don't think Encore is any more difficult to learn than any other of Adobe's programs.

BigDan

Of the Adobe Difficulty Scale, I found Encore to be easier to learn than Photoshop and perhaps on par with Premiere.

But that's just my personal opinion. It honestly didn't take me long to get good quality results with Encore. It was fairly intuitive to use.

And now that I've played with it for a little while, I have to say that I love it.

mikewendt

I geuss the real question is how much are you looking to spend and what quality (Professional or just for fun) discs are you looking to produce?

A inexpencive program ($99.99) that is a editing program with DVD Authoring in it is MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 2004.

It's not bad and the discs come out pretty good.

Gunde

DVD-lab. Unless you're a professional dvd author there's no other. It's cheap and it's easy to use even though it's features are quite advanced.
Much better than Encore which looks good but just doesn't deliver IMO.

www.mediachance.com

jayson1017

this is an interesting topic.

futbol

I'm curious - what makes you say Encore "doesn't deliver?" I haven't spent too much time with it, but the one disc I have made has been very nice.

Jason

Nice stuff, especially considering it's basically the work of one man. The menu transitions are an interesting touch. This absolutely buries any of the mid range products (DVD Workshop, DVDit!, etc.) I'll have to d/l the new version and give it a try. The biggest drawback is lack of multiple audio tracks and no subtitles.

brombie

Wow. I didn't realize there're so many out there. I got hold of Encore and so far, I like it. I'm already familiar with Photoshop interface and objects. I'm going to look at DVD-lab and ULEAD DVD Workshop as well.

Thanks for the suggestions.