Movie Studio 3.0a DVD Authoring

bbexperience wrote on 12/14/2003, 10:36 PM
OK, first time poster, so bear with me here.

I have video tapes which I want to capture and then burn to DVDs. I have been downloading and testing many trial versions of software that claim to be able to do this (and actually got suckered into buying Studio 8, which I am promptly sending back), but I haven't found one that can do everything I want. So, here's what I'm looking to do with whatever I find:

1.) Import a previously captured AVI (I've resigned myself to using iuVCR for capture as I've gotten great results from it, and the AVI must be compressed due to drive space restrictions).

2.) Split and edit said AVI and create chapter points within it.

3.) Create custom menus (main and scene selection). This is one of the hardest things to find! I've tried Ulead, as many in this forum have suggested, and it won't let you completely customize the menus (i.e. move the buttons around/create your own buttons from text or images.) I've also tried InterVideo WinDVD (same problems as Ulead) and looked at DVD X Maker. Pinnacle Studio 8 is/was PERFECT for that, but the rendering part of it really, really sucked. Which brings me to...

4.) Burn the creation (menus and video) to DVD. Or even just create the DVD files on my hard drive so I can use Nero to burn it.

So, my question to the gurus of the forum is this: Can Movie Studio do all of these things? I know it can import, because I have the trial, so I guess my main question is on menu creation/customization. I see NO options for this in the trial version. I've read ambiguous comments on the forum about something called MyDVD that, I think, comes packaged with the retail Movie Studio, which I can pick up at Best Buy. Also, in the trial, the "Create DVD" selection is greyed out from the Make Movie button. I assume that the retail version can at least burn onto a DVD, right?

This program sounds so promising, but I want to make sure it can do everything I need before I drop 100 bucks on it, you know?

Thanks in advance

Comments

IanG wrote on 12/15/2003, 1:03 AM
1 is no problem and 2's ok apart from the chapter points, but I'm afraid you're out of luck with 3! Despite claims of DVD authoring being integrated in MS, it's actualy done by a separate program - MyDVD. My DVD is not highly regarded! As an NLE, MS is outstanding, but to do what you want with the authoring, including adding chapter points, you should have a look at DVDLab. DVDLab is now available as a pro version as well, but that would be overkill for what you're asking for.

Ian G.
vwcrusher wrote on 12/15/2003, 5:11 AM
Wouldn't TMPGenc Author also accomplish what he wants?
ChristerTX wrote on 12/15/2003, 5:34 AM
I would recommend UleadDVD movie factory for the DVD authoring. Love it !
JohnnyRoy wrote on 12/15/2003, 6:38 AM
I have to agree with the others that MyDVD, which comes with Movie Studio 3, has less features than Ulead MovieFactory 2, like it doesn’t do chapters, so that’s not an option for you. I’ve never tried WinDVD so I can’t comment but I’m surprised you didn’t like DVD X Maker. This should allow you to make the kind of DVD you want. I assume you want to control the menu structure and make scene selection and special features menus (which MyDVD and Ulead cannot do). I’ve only played with a trial copy of DVD X Maker when it as DVD Complete but I bought DVD Architect when I upgraded to Vegas 4 instead.

It’s really sad that there isn’t an easy to use application on the market that will easily let you capture and make Hollywood style (i.e., Play, Scene Selection, Special Features, etc.) DVD’s. Ulead MovieFactory locks you into its own templates that are more picture slide show oriented than a standard DVD you get from Hollywood. I thought DVD Complete came close but it didn’t let you edit the templates either so it wasn’t perfect. (there was a good reason for this, they wanted to “sell” you more templates!).

I haven’t used DVD-Lab yet but I’ve heard good things about it and the price is right. ($99). I doesn’t do capture or MPEG2 encoding so you would do all of your editing with Movie Studio 3 and then output an MPEG2 file for use in DVD-Lab. This means you need to buy Movie Studio 3 and DVD-Lab.

Another solution would be to purchase Vegas+DVD which will do everything you want including creating chapter points in the editor that carry over to the DVD authoring process. This is significantly more money and is a much more powerful application.

~jr
SonySCS wrote on 12/15/2003, 9:33 AM

It you can do capture points although, as jr says about DVD programs in general, it seems to be a lot of work.

Maybe this Knowledge Base article helps.

Suzan

907: Creating DVD's with chapter points in MyDVD
bbexperience wrote on 12/15/2003, 12:18 PM
Thanks to all for the replies...

"but I’m surprised you didn’t like DVD X Maker. This should allow you to make the kind of DVD you want. I assume you want to control the menu structure and make scene selection and special features menus (which MyDVD and Ulead cannot do). I’ve only played with a trial copy of DVD X Maker "

DVD X Maker looked like it would do what I wanted, but they no longer offer a trial version, so I just had to go by what I saw on the web site. There is one site that claims it has a trial, but when the downloaded file is run, it prompts for a serial number. Anyway, does anyone use DVD X Maker that can tell me for sure if it will allow complete control over menu creation as described above?
dand9959 wrote on 12/16/2003, 9:13 AM
Yes, I use X Maker (and used it back when it was called DVD Complete).
You have a great deal of control over your menus, even to the point of being able to control how the up/down/left/right arrows will work on your remote.

There are some things in the templates you can't change, (like if a template has room for four chapters on each submenu, then that's what you get....you can't change to an 8 chapter per page form) but you can get by.

The most annoying thing about X Maker - and it's very annoying - is that if you ever change anything about the clips in your project (add a new one, rearrange them, delete one, update one, move a chapter point, add a chapter point etc..) then ALL of the customization you've done to your menus will get lost when the app regenerates its menus. SO, you MUST make sure your movie and its chapter points are set just the way you like it BEFORE you start customizing your menus.

Other than that, the product works very well. I've never seen it crash, even when doing motion menus.
nodak wrote on 12/16/2003, 9:27 AM
Can someone explain how these 3rd party authoring software programs work with Screenblast? Do you save the project file on the hard drive then edit it with 3rd party software??

BTW, DVD-Lab's website is not working today.
IanG wrote on 12/16/2003, 10:08 AM
For DVDLab, you'd render in MS, using a DVD template and saving the results on disk as a .mpg. That .mpg is the (or an) input to DVDLab, which adds chapter points, menus etc. Other authoring programs will accept different inputs, though there are pros and cons to this approach.

The Mediachance site is back up.

Ian G.