C h a z II

Thanks for the previous software suggestions, I have now managed to back up my DVD's. Is there any software available that will allow me to make my own menus etc. I would like to make a disc that contans all my best demo material with a nice little menu to navigte it all.

Free software would be a bonus!

Nimbus

DVD Lab

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/index.html

Very good, but not free....

(edit to add, this will not encode any video so you will have to ensure you have DVD compliant files ready (either M2V+wav/ac3 or Mpg+mpa - it may do others).

I think you may be able to find something that will do what you wont for free, but it's going to be a combnation of tools I think...

C h a z II

Thanks

Nimbus

Try http://www.videohelp.com if you havn't already. There's lots of tools and user guides listed that may get you what you need.

bigsinky

nimbus, dvd lab do a trial version, well they used to do. had the dvdlab logo plonked in the corner of your footage, but then there are ways and means. easy to use, as you say as long as your files are already dvd compliant.

Started to used abobe Premiere Pro that is one serious piece of software, but apparently the one to have is Scenarist, the holywood studios use that. hmmmmm........where to get an evaluation copy.

cheers

sinky

Nimbus

Yea, DVD Lab does have a 30 day trial period, but as far as I know it does not put the logon in the the corner of your footage (or at least it didn't when I had it on trial). Not sure how it can unles it add a sub layer over your video during muxing.
Not used Prem Pro as I use Vegas myself. Scenarist is the daddy apparently (though not seen anything of it)....

Chaz,

If you only need to do a few DVDs then give DVD Lab a go on trial. I think you will be impressed by what it can do. As long as you have all the assests in the right format you will be able to do some really good productions.

bigsinky

i actually managed to get 10 second clips of a movie in my little scene selection boxes. well impressed as the files were mpeg movies files that need to be converted in TMPEG, completely reauthoured and remuxed, got all the assests right even managed 16:9 menus. all with dvd lab. cracking wee piece of software. just to make you all feel envious, i recently installed a Skystar 1 DVB card in my machine as i have a 1.2 meter motorised disc. using ProgDVB, and pointing the dish at Hipasat 30w i recorded some stuff of Taquilla movie channels. Guess what..... the recording is in Mpeg 2 format and sound is 48Khz, I dont even have to convert to DVD compliance, just remux using dvdlab and burn onto dvd. well pleased.

cheers

sinky

InvisibleMan

which software uses H/T & SSE which should make the whole encoding business faster?

bigsinky

probably the more expensive packages like scenarist and abobe premiere have hyperthreading and sse extensions

Iain Young

I know premiere pro supports hyperthreading...

InvisibleMan

just got a new pooter so will start testing them all. just gone from a

p2-350 (several weeks to encode ) to a p4-3.2 (not too long i hope - 1 or 2 hrs maybe?)

bigsinky

dream on matey. a full dvd re-encode with CBR (constant bit rate) and single pass might do in a few hours, but image quality will be crap. if you want good quality picture then VBR (variable bit rate, this allocates more processing to faster moving pieces in the movie for better pictures). on my machine xp3200 with 1 GB of Ram and 0.5 TB of hard disk space (2xIDE & 2XSATA) it will take about 4 hours just to analyse the movie and another load of hours to re-encode. sorry to burst you bubble.

cheers

sinky

Nimbus

Yep. I concurr. Set it up at the end of the day then let it run overnight if you have a lot to do.

Nimbus

Stinky,

VBR is good if you're worried about total size of the end file but still want to retain good quaility. The qualirty will still depend on the Max/Min/Avg values you set. If you set the CBR high (8000) you will still get good results with a faster encode. The down size is that the resulting file size will be larger than if done with VBR.

InvisibleMan

ah well hours is what i was expecting, Ive only done one 10min vid & a good result was done in what seemed like mintues was probably longer its just cos it was a huge improvement to what ive been used to or cant be bothered to do cos the old one just wasnt up to the job.

InvisibleMan

now im interested in getting Renderman going

InvisibleMan

by the way im not talking about doing full dvds ie copying rented dvds but my own

bigsinky

we would never think that

doesn't matter mate whether its ripped off dvds or raw DV footage of you video camera. the only thing going for raw DV stuff is that it tends to be alot shorter than most movies.

cheers

sinky

InvisibleMan

unfortunately im not in dv land just yet, the stuff i have is all in analog. ive got to play around with the equipment ive got atm(pinnacle capture card&Studio) which doesnt work with xp so ive got to tinker with it then find out whats going to be the best software/settings to get the best dvd results.

Iain Young

Which capture card have you got then InvisibleMan? I used to have a Pinnacle DC10 card and it worked just fine in xp...

InvisibleMan

its the DC10+, yeah it sort of works with xp if you have the hardware patches but its Studio 1 thats the problem...ive got studio 7/8/9 demos though so will have to try them all cos they didnt seem to like my old system or maybe the system didnt like the 'demos'
Out of 7 or 8 which one would be recommended, ive heard that 9 is pants

InvisibleMan

i will try the ulead videostudio stuff as well

Iain Young

9 is utter rubblish. So many bugs that I would consider it pre-release alpha quality at best. Steer well clear...

Version 8 is actually quite good once you've downloaded all the patches. The only problems I had in the end with version 8 was that when editing titles / menus, the program would often crash and dump you back to the desktop. As long as you regularly save your project though it's not really a major problem...

Ulead stuff is a lot more stable, and works well with the DC10+ card, but I didn't think the quality of the final output was as good as the Pinnacle stuff (at least, the output from the demo I tried wasn't).

Iain