business

[Scuba]

And in most cases it's very clear to see if you authord the DVD using DVD MovieMaker or Scenarist, and a Professional will be able to tell each product in the middle.
So don't think you can use IfoEdit to just remove the program signature ;)
Playing with Scenarist or Maestro at home for personal use is one thing.
Using warez in a buisness is another.

BTW, I have seen VHS to DVD conversions at 30$ allready.
If you want to do it think of the extra benefits you can give to your clients and charge more.
For example, you can't earn nothing from strait DVD conversions but there is money to be made in costume menu design, adding chapter points not exactly every 5 min and such.

We are running a secessfull buisness with Impression DVD Pro and PhotoShop.
Depend on your clients needs.

[Jestorius]

Impression DVD-Pro is acctually one of the best you can buy for a low budget start. Easy to use, the best menu-creation (24bit) and supports most of your needs. Subtitles etc. You don't get Command Sequence or Advanced Sripting but it's not so many Hollywood-made DVDs using this option as well.

Proff. menu creation isn't the authoring software it's graphic-design and mostly Photoshop.

Try to go for bundled software. It's hard to leach hardware so when buying one take a look at what kind of software you can get. Is it possible to upgrade to something better?.

[easy2Bcheesy]

Originally posted by Scuba
I encode weddings at 6Mbit CBR. Less then this and my boss who is used to DVC-Pro shout QUALITY IS SHITTTTT.

We some times do weddings and events over 7 hours long :scared:
lot's of dancing and stuff like this.
And yes, My clients pay for a 4 DVD set

I want to see how long it take to encode 7 hours two Pass VBR with TmpgEnc using best settings.
I know non of my clients will be willing to pay the computer time. (not to mention what happens if there is a problem and it's crashing at the end) :eek:


Hey I'm not suggesting you MUST use TMPEG, simply offering advice on how I fitted two hours of good quality footage onto a DVD. I could've used a warez encoder but I don't use pirate gear.

If you're running a business and using fairly decent authoring software, perhaps you could outlay $1,000 for Cinemacraft? Tons quicker than TMPEG, very stable and the quality of the MPEG2 file will be far superior to the hardware solution you are currently using.

[dvdwizard]

How about sonics reelDVD?

[Jestorius]

ReelDVD ~1280$ is a excellent investment if you have contact with a Scenarist Studio to make a finish on your DVD.

You can author your project at home and take it with you and just pay for a few hours studio job.

You have 3 subtitle and audio stream but you can't make a language menu for language and subtitle selection. You have to use the remote to change it.

It has the same engine than Scenarist and has a subtitle editor.

Stay with Impression DVD-Pro.

[dvdwizard]

Impression DVD Pro? Why?

[Jestorius]

It's cheap, easy to author, the best menu-creation ever, all the needs for your DVD project without Scripting. You can't buy Scenarist, can you? DVDMaestro cost you allmost the same as Scenarist. You don't need copy protection and other extras from Scenarist. You can use Impression DVD-Pro to author the same Hollywood is making.

We are tallking abouth to start your business, right? Your custumers is comming from the privat sector and the industry. They don't need those extras finding in Scenarist. Even if you had the capital to invest you couldn't be a competition to other film-studios. And one more thing: It isn't the name of the authoring software which is selling your product, it is your creativ design. The DVD authoring software isn't more than a place to put all the elements together. But you have to produce those elements which means you have to shut the movie, edit the movie , make the soundtrack, make the voiceover, make the menu-graphic. It's up to design all the time. If the design and the concept is right than you can sell your product.

Impresion DVD-Pro is giving you the most power for the money you have to pay for it.

[Jestorius]

dvdwizard

Why don't you give oss a hint? What you have and what you want? How much you wanna invest? What is your goal. Do you have a NLE system? Do you know anything abouth programing? Do you use Photoshop or any other software?

[dvdwizard]

I now have DV-Storm card. I use Adobe Premiere and Adobe Photoshop. I want link control, button shading (when selected), dolby digital support,etc. in my authoring ware.

[Jestorius]

But how much you wanna use on the start up? Link control can you get with all the software today. Shading it depends of what you mean. This 4 bits overlay in Scenarist is just agly. It can be usefull with smart color and transparancy design. But the only one with 24 bit shading is Pinnacle DVD-Pro.

Are you gonna make traning DVD-s, Hollywood-like DVD-s or what? I guess for training DVD you gonna need Advanced Scripting. It needs to make smart solutions on the DVD to check what the user know and jump to a specific place on the DVD. But Impression is still the best. You just have to make a go around solution with menu mavigations.

We didn't tallk abouth MAC. MAC has something to offer, it has Advanced Scripting and ReelDVD-like navigation design. Don't forget, they just get DVDMaestro and all the technologi behing Spruce. It's your move!!!

[dvdwizard]

I would like to make the menus like hollywood DVD's.

[Jestorius]

What is Hollywood DVDs? Most of them is just sh...t. Isn't it better to use 24bit?

[easy2Bcheesy]

I don't understand what you mean by "24-bit" - subtitle layers are 4-bit in nature. It's a part of the DVD spec.

[Jestorius]

in Impression DVD-PRO you can use 4bit subs or 24bit image. How does the progr. combine all ot it to a working DVD I don't know but it is possible. You don't assign overlay color to the subpicture, you actually make a 24 bit overlay picture.

[Jestorius]

If you ever worked with Macromedia Director, so the concept is the same, you just make a rollover image.

[Jestorius]

http://www.highvid.com/video_t/imp02/imp18.shtml try it

[Scuba]

Personaly I will not use the True Color menu creation in Impression as it make the navegation slow.
With most of the Hollywood DVD's that I have seen the menu was a simple motion menu with a 4bit overlay for the hilite, and Impression can do it without any problem.
With most DVD's you will also have one long video with chapter points and several menus, play all, and chapter selection. Impression DVD Pro can do this also without any problem.

Menu's are created in PhotoShop and being imported into Impression as full menu. Make the menu creation very simple.
It also support multiple languagees and subtitle tracks - If you will need them. As well as up to 6CH .AC3

[Jestorius]

if you include the Pinnacle color palette it works faster even you don't use these colors.

[dvdwizard]

In Scenarist under the category Subpicture and Highlight it gives three title categories: Display, Selection, Action. I normally set the display color to 0%, selection at 25%+ ( what ever allows the button lettering to be visible), Action 50%. I like to make subpicture boxes around the button lettering, like hollywood videos. I want an authoring program that supports the adjustment of subpicture and highlight colors like in Scenarist.

[Jestorius]

Maestro, Scenarist, ReelDVD, Impression (with color layer in Photoshop)....

We didn't get HOW MUCH YOU WANNA USE ON SOFTWARE? Can you answer it?

[dvdwizard]

My budget for the authoring ware is around $800.00. I would like to work out a deal so that I can get Canopus DV-Storm snap on encoder card with an authoring program for $1,000.

[Jestorius]

It isn't to much. easy2Bcheesy had to giv 25.000 £ only for the software. (Maestro). ReelDVD is over 1200$.
Get a demonstration of the Pinnacle DVD-PRO at your local store. This software can do what you are looking for plus many more.

[Scuba]

Yep,
with Impression you have the hilite pallet in photoshop and you can set the colors and ocupacy for all hilites.
0% to 100% and such.

[dvdwizard]

Has anybody heard that Sonic is going to release RealDVD 3.0 in the near future and charge $2,000 for it?

[samdesai10]

I have TMLGenc 2.52, and I used it successfully with Matrox RT2000, Premier 6.0, DVDiT2.5PE for short movie. I tried to encode a 2 hr DV movie, using 2 pass, VBR with Best Qality (Slowest settings) and I had to stop, beacause it looked like it was going to take about 50 to 60 hours! Any suggestions to speed up the process will be greatly appreciated. I also tried CCE 2.5 SP, premier plug-in but DVDiT would recognize the file created by CCE. Please help me with correct settings for CCE in Premier, thanks-Sam