So, what is the BEST DVD Authoring tool?

[strangelove91]

Hi there,

I'm trying to figure this one out. I have a PC, so don't mention Mac apps, please! :)

I know of the following:

Ulead DVD Studio
DVD Maestro
Sonic(?) Scenarist
DVD-Lab
TMPGEnc DVD Author

Assuming any of these can be obtained, what's the best one - in terms of ease of use, low error rate, lack of glitches, and quality of final product?

I'm interested in making DVDs from my LD rips, as well as family videos, in both PAL and NTSC.

The parameters are: non-animated menus with music and chapter access sub-menus, maybe more than one audio track, and several movie clips on one disc.

[Matthew]

My personal opinion is that DVD Maestro would be a fairly good bet for what you want, as it combines power (multiple audio tracks) with relative ease of use. If I recall correctly, DVDlab Pro, in beta, has multiple audio track support though, so that should also be a decent choice.

Scenarist is a poor choice for this situation IMO - making menus is too complex - and I haven't tried the other two listed apps but my understanding is that they sacrifice power for ease of use to a greater extent than maestro/dvdlab. But who knows, maybe they are "best" for you...

[oddyseus]

I concur with Matthew. Assuming that u have access to Maestro or Scenarist, there is nothing else to look for.

These r the two top programms for dvd authoring. Scenarist has a long learning curve, whereas Maestro has a much smaller and smoother one.

If u want to push the envelope to the limits then Scenarist will do it a bit easier than Maestro.

Bottom line? Go for Maestro. It suits your current specs and the future ones as well. If u get to a situation that Maestro can't handle, there isn't a lot of them out there, drop us a line, we will be glad to help.

[Rockas]

I couldn' disagree more :) ... sorry...

Try the DVD-LAB PRO... it's in a beta stage... but it is much more user friendly and it has almost everything for professional authoring... still misses multi-angle feature, though :(

[influenza]

Hi and welcome to the forums :)

I don't want to start complaining right away, but you might have read in our forum rules that no 'what's best threads' are allowed ;)

I think it's rather hard to give a clear answer to your question anyway (also because of the what's best thing).

Every situation might give you a different answer. Personally I like scenarist, but on the other hand it might be a bit overwhelming because of it's complexity.

I also like dvd-lab pro. It has a lot features, is easy to use and has good (web)support. If I were you I would start with the dvdlab trial version (which has no limitations other than a 30 days usage afaik). See if it fits your needs, from what I read it will surely do.

Good luck!

[Andra]

Hi guys,

So far the only limitation I've found in DVD-Lab is no multi-angles.
Are there more restictions to DVD-Lab in comparisson to the DVD-spec?
As far as I can tell DVD-Lab uses all GPMR's instead of only eight like Maestro does.
Are there any other significant differences between the two, and perhaps Scenarist?

Yours,
Andra

[hendrix]

DVD-Lab pro is an excellent product for it's price - if not the best, but iirc it's still an early beta and NOT 100% up to DVD spec..yet

am i the ONLY person who thinks Scenarist is easier than Maestro - seriously Scenarist isn't that hard to learn - making menus are very easy, just use photoshop and a NLE (if making dynamic menus), making subtitles couldn't be easier with Subtitle Workshop and MaestroSBT plus DVDMaestro isn't even sold anymore

[Trahald]

I find scenarist easier to maestro as well. maestro i believe cannot do multiple pgc with duplicate vob-ID's (some may call it non-seamless multistory).

[hendrix]

Originally posted by Trahald
I find scenarist easier to maestro as well. maestro i believe cannot do multiple pgc with duplicate vob-ID's (some may call it non-seamless multistory).
thank you - im NOT going mad

[cona812]

am i the ONLY person who thinks Scenarist is easier than MaestroNo. I'm the opinion too. Authoring with Scenarist you have much more control over the structur of DVDs. And Scenarist is the only prog to author on cell-level.im NOT going madYou definitly not

Cona

[hendrix]

ya that's the what i love about Scenarist...cell level authoring

[Matthew]

Scenarist is easier for multi-PGC (Maestro requires concatenation of assets, it seems, yuck), but if you are just making a simple DVD and don't mind having any multiple videos in separately VTSs then maestro is simpler IMO.

It's not like the thread starter is backuping up complex Hollywood titles :)

[Arky]

Personally, I'd love to be able to use Scenarist - I fully appreciate the high level of control over assets and domains, as opposed to the restrictions imposed by Maestro's abstraction layer. However, I can only afford DVD SP (basically, this is Maestro, give or take the odd feature, here and there), so I must (for the timebeing, at least..!) make do without manual VTS allocation of Title assets, for example. Those of you who know me, know that I also use a third-party tool to augment DVD SP, so that I can strip out all the abstraction-layer-generated command sequences, and re-author on Spec-level (this allows me an enormously-increased level of command control, and a huge increase in disc navigation speed), but it'd still be nice to have the level of control over asset/domain allocation that Scenarist offers, along with the capability (that the 'Pro' version has) to multiplex NON-Seamless Multi-Angle Blocks in my Titles.

Those of you who have access to Scenarist are truly fortunate individuals (notwithstanding the relative lack of ongoing product development).

Having said that, the combination of the two programs I currently use does result in an incredibly powerful toolset, for a mere fraction of the cost of Scenarist Pro, and can achieve 95% of what Pro is capable of (and, in some respects, even more than Scenarist Pro can), so at least you lucky Scenarist users don't get to have all the fun! :)


Arky ;o)