Authoring tool which converts several audio CDs to one DVD

[Okar Gona]

Because not a lot of DVD players can play MP3-files burned on a DVD, I’m looking for a tool which automatically converts several music albums to a playable DVD format (AC3-format). The created DVD should contain a menu structure where you can choose which album (still image) should be played. During playing the still image of the album and track number should be shown.

Who can help. Personally I think there is a huge market for such a program because it gives the possibility to store around 60 music albums on one single DVD! The author of such a program could get as famous as the author of the legendary tool DVD2SVCD.

[TRILIGHT]

Sorry. There is no such software at this time.

[MovieNut]

Sure there is, check out DVD Architect from www.sonicfoundry.com (it is part of vegas+dvd program). There is even a demo & manual for download on the site.

[Okar Gona]

I'll give it a try.

[TRILIGHT]

@MovieNut: Sounds cool! I was not aware of this feature. Does it actually automatically create the menu system with chapters for the audio tracks and encode it all? I have a hard time believing it makes track numbers/names into a menu selection automatically. If not, it's no different than any other authoring software in that it is still a lengthy manual process to create the menu. If it DOES do this automatically then that is VERY cool! :)

[Okar Gona]

@Trilight:

I've tried DVD Architect. It's really simple to create a DVD filled with audio tracks. To add a music album to a DVD you just have to do the following steps:
1) Select "Music Compilation". A button is added to the main menu. Of course you can change the appearance.
2) Double click the new button. A new screen opens.
3) Drag all the wav files to the "compilation" screen. Each track will get it's own chapter point (of course up to 99).
4) You can add per track (or all tracks at once) a picture which will be shown while playing. This could be the cover of the album.
5) Also the filename will automatically be shown as text. Of course you can change the text, looks etc.

Now you have added one music album. Of course adding 50 music albums is still some work. The program really works easy but keep in mind that this easy working will not mean that the user is very limited like other simple authoring programs.

Keep in mind that encoding the audio to AC3 (it's a lot of music which must be encoded!) and creating the final DVD takes rather a long time. It took about 7 hours on my P4 2.4 GHz to create the DVD.