Duvie
06-03-2003, 06:49 PM
recently I have been jumping heavy into DVD authoring software...I started simple with one menu and a couple of links to detailed animated menus and submenus with tons of interactivity. I have gone from little no editing and manipulation of audio and video clips to all sorts of special effects and tweaking.
The programs I have tried....
1) Pinnacle studio 8 (upgraded to 8.5)
2) Sonic's MyDVD pro 4
3) Intervideo's Winproducer and Encoder
4) Ulead studio version 6
They all have their quirks and advantages, but one thing I have to state is that most all are quite buggy and require frequent trips to user forums to work through issues.
Sonic's Mydvd is the least professional quality out of all of them with very simplified approach and very little room to screw up. In response it tends to have the least options and border on the cheesy. I think the program can be had for 30-40 dollars, but it is more famous for being bundled with certain Pioneer and Cendyne DVD-rw drives....The program is easy to follow with the tutorials but is full of bugs and glitches..i recommend having all clips located in 3 specified folders as shown in the guides. also keep clips on same drive that is well defragged. Gltiches happen when the preview button is applied with animated clip buttons I found. Also if the clips are strewn about their is more likely a chance it will give a DVDerr code during the writing to file or disk....
Overall I give it C+....for beginners I give it a solid B....
Pinnacles software is far more professional and I believe retails right around 100 dollars. ease of use is not quite there as it does take some playing around to figure some stuff out. Once you get the hang of it the functionality is encredible. Think of some of the best menus you have seen in commercial DVDs and this can nearly be attained. It was bundled with Hollywood FX which has some very sweet transition features to give it even more of a flare. The more complexed the system the bigger the bugs. MOst of my bugs were fixed with the upgradin g to the 8.5 version...However I have noticed that when mpeg2 clips are brought in if they are not in 48000khz mode the program will transcode it into the m2v file and the wav file. If it is in 48000khz file it does not have this happen. The problem is that it does a horrible job and usually leaves audio pops. this may be soundcard related but in all other programs I could not duplicate it with same file in same 44000khz mode. So make sure when you capture mpeg2 clips that you stop and think if this is going to be used in DVD authoring...If so definitely make sure it is 48000khz....
Overall I give the program a solid B...For beginners I give it a C
I wil add the others later.....
Too be continued....
The programs I have tried....
1) Pinnacle studio 8 (upgraded to 8.5)
2) Sonic's MyDVD pro 4
3) Intervideo's Winproducer and Encoder
4) Ulead studio version 6
They all have their quirks and advantages, but one thing I have to state is that most all are quite buggy and require frequent trips to user forums to work through issues.
Sonic's Mydvd is the least professional quality out of all of them with very simplified approach and very little room to screw up. In response it tends to have the least options and border on the cheesy. I think the program can be had for 30-40 dollars, but it is more famous for being bundled with certain Pioneer and Cendyne DVD-rw drives....The program is easy to follow with the tutorials but is full of bugs and glitches..i recommend having all clips located in 3 specified folders as shown in the guides. also keep clips on same drive that is well defragged. Gltiches happen when the preview button is applied with animated clip buttons I found. Also if the clips are strewn about their is more likely a chance it will give a DVDerr code during the writing to file or disk....
Overall I give it C+....for beginners I give it a solid B....
Pinnacles software is far more professional and I believe retails right around 100 dollars. ease of use is not quite there as it does take some playing around to figure some stuff out. Once you get the hang of it the functionality is encredible. Think of some of the best menus you have seen in commercial DVDs and this can nearly be attained. It was bundled with Hollywood FX which has some very sweet transition features to give it even more of a flare. The more complexed the system the bigger the bugs. MOst of my bugs were fixed with the upgradin g to the 8.5 version...However I have noticed that when mpeg2 clips are brought in if they are not in 48000khz mode the program will transcode it into the m2v file and the wav file. If it is in 48000khz file it does not have this happen. The problem is that it does a horrible job and usually leaves audio pops. this may be soundcard related but in all other programs I could not duplicate it with same file in same 44000khz mode. So make sure when you capture mpeg2 clips that you stop and think if this is going to be used in DVD authoring...If so definitely make sure it is 48000khz....
Overall I give the program a solid B...For beginners I give it a C
I wil add the others later.....
Too be continued....