Page 1 of I want to create menus for my dvds how do I do it?

Heading says it all - any info greatly appreciated
Best Wishes
Dan

Depends on which DVD Authoring software you are using. They will all have some menu creation in them-some allow you to get more creative than others.

I don`t know what dvd authoring package I should use - DVD Shrink doesn`t allow you to keep the menus.
Cheers
Dan

Quote:
DVD Shrink doesn`t allow you to keep the menus.

It does if you`re doing a complete rip



(A.C.C Founder)

I know about Shrink and the full disk option. The problem is I got a few old episodes of Family Ties off ebay and the first four can be entered through a menu but the rest of episodes play after the 4th episode and I would like to change this so I can access all episodes through a menu I create.

Well, my personal choice of DVD Authoring software is TMPGenc DVD Author- it`s simple enough to use straight away, but you can creare quite complex menus when you get used to how things work. It`s got a nice `import` feature which means you can stick your orginal disc in the DVD drive of your PC and import inidividual episodes (providing they were authored separately originally) - though if you are going to want to import `everything` off the disc, it`s a good idea to rip the DVD video folder to your HDD first and import it from there (speeds things up enormously) -of cpurse, this is assuming it`s not a commercially released disc -if it is, you`ll need to decrypt first.

TMPGenc DVD Author is also available on a free months trial.

There are plenty of others around -for instance, if you`ve got the full version of Nero from V5 onwards, that too will have DVD authoring software, but I always found it a bit flaky- don`t get your settings right and it will re-encode all your footage-and you don`t want to do that for 2 reasons-Time and Quality!!

I`ll second that!

I used to use Nero for all my dvd`s and it took HOURS, some times 5! Nero is a fab buring tool and is still the best for just burning, but all the "add ons" that look really cool, invariably cock up eventually and are "flakey".

TMPGenc DVD author is the way to go, it`s ridiculously easy to use once you have got to grips with it and the results are ace!


In my expierience, it`s best to have a single tool for each job rather that an all in one suite.


My DVD collection




67suissac[at]moc.tenretnitb/cassius76.html" target="_blank">JamesL

I`ll third that.

Just finished putting all my downloaded episodes of Lost on to DVD. Been using win2avi to convert files and TMPGenc DVD for the rest of process. As the others say very easy to use and quick. :D

Gordy

I used to try to use TMPGenc DVD Author but it would often fail (after all the work was done setting it up..) as I was about to do the encoding. Error was that the resolution wan`t a valid resolution for a DVD and I used DVD Lab instead. I think I was putting mpegs (svcd compliant) on. Anybody still get that?

Ste

Quote:
I used to try to use TMPGenc DVD Author but it would often fail (after all the work was done setting it up..) as I was about to do the encoding. Error was that the resolution wan`t a valid resolution for a DVD and I used DVD Lab instead. I think I was putting mpegs (svcd compliant) on. Anybody still get that?

Not wishing to sound pedantic, but TMPGenc DVD Author IS NOT an encoder-it only authors what you feed it-and If it was SVCD compliant files you used, then that is why it failed. SVCD resolution is not DVD compliant SVCD is 460 x 460, DVD authoring can only use 720 x 576, 704 x 576, 352 x 576, or 352 x 288 (For PAL).

If you try and use a resolution that is non- DVD compliant, you will be told by TMPGenc DVD Author and it will not author.

Some DVD Authoring programs also have an encoder built in and will accept anything, then re-encode your footage (Like Nero as I mentioned in my earlier reply)- not a good idea if you ask me. MPEG should not go through unnecessary re-encoding because, as it`s already a `lossy` format, it really degrades the output if it`s re-encoded.

This item was edited on Friday, 25th November 2005, 21:55