wot do you recomend for creating DVD menus etc

[jamieuk]

hi wot software do you recomend that will allow me to make my own DVD menus with background picture in the background, and some music playing when the menu first comes on >???

[ultimatebilly]

This one: ultimate software for DVD menus with audio (http://www.doom9.org/mpg/dvdauthoring.htm).
Seriously, if you can wait a few yours, I will try to write a quick guide how to create such a menu with DVDAuthor and DVDStyler, which are both open source tools (at the moment I'm at work).
I don't know how long I'll have to be here, but once I'm home I will try to write down how you can do it using these tools (it's a bit complicated, but no big deal).
See you later! ;)

[ultimatebilly]

Ok, I just came home from work, and am a bit tired, but I will try to write something useful together...
Don't be afraid because its so much text, I think I talk too much, it really is easier than it seems!
DVDStyler (http://dvdstyler.sourceforge.net/) is a frontend to DVDAuthor (http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/) and a number of other great open-source programs.
Creating DVDs with DVDAuthor is relatively complicated, because it is a command-line program that you have to feed with xml-files where the structure of your DVD is described.
But with DVDStyler it is incredibly simple, and you will see that the menu with audio you want to create can be done probably much more easily in DVDStyler than in most commercial programs.
First, you have to install DVDStyler of course.
After that, you have to prepare your input files.
For a still menu with sound, you need a picture (DVDStyler uses jpegs as input) in the appropriate resolution (for PAL its 720x576), an audio file and your movie, of course.
Your audio file can either be ac3 or mp2, I didn't manage to use a pcm file (which is also allowed by the DVD standard), but maybe I just did something wrong...
Whatever your audio source is, you can convert it to ac3 or mp2 using BeSweet (http://dspguru.doom9.org).
Now to the movie itself.
DVDStyler (or rather DVDAuthor) needs a program stream as input, which means a .mpg-file rather than seperate video (m2v) and audio (mp2 or m2a).
So you have to mux your files together, if you havent done so already.
This is easily accomplished by using the "mplex" program that ships with DVDStyler (or with TMPEG or with bbmpeg...)
My approach to command-line tools (like mplex) is, because I usually don't (and sometimes don't care to) understand all options, to find a GUI for it and try to use it as best to accomplish what I need.
Maybe its just because I'm extremely lazy, don't know...
But anyhow, DVDStyler tells us exactly what we have to feed mplex with, just click on "configuration->settings".
Copy the multiplexing command, start the command prompt, type cd "c:\program files\dvdstyler\dvdauthor", press return, and paste the multiplexing command into the command prompt (just right-click).
Of course, you have to substitute the variables "$FILE_OUT" "$FILE_VIDEO" and "$FILE_AUDIO" with the corresponding files, if you move them to the directory the mplex tool is located, you just have to type in the name, not the complete path.
The output file has to end in .mpg, of course...
Now you are ready!
Copy the background image for your menu into the subfolder backgrounds in the DVDStyler directory (for convenience), and start the program.
Now drag and drop your movie into the so-called project timeline panel at the bottom of the window.
Now you are ready for the menu!
By double-clicking on one of the background-images (your image) you select it.
Now the buttons!
Click on the buttons-tab on the left, and drag the button onto the background image (if you're interested in creating your own buttons, you should visit the DVDAuthor homepage for information)...
By right-clicking and selecting properties, you can change the text, select the colour, the colour when its highlighted (it always is when you have only one button), and the colour it becomes when you press "play" on your remote.
The action will automatically be set to "jump title 1;", which means that this button jumps to your movie (you will notice that creating DVDs is a little bit like programming, especially when you dig deeper into the topic).
Thats all.
Now you have to get DVDStyler to mux your audio-track with the background-picture (which would normally be muxed with a blank audio track, I think).
This is once again done using the settings.
You just subtitute the "$FILE_AUDIO" variable with the complete path to your audio-file, for example like that: mplex -f 8 -o "$FILE_OUT" "$FILE_VIDEO" "C:\Documents and Settings\ultimatebilly\Desktop\audio.ac3".
Thats it!
Now you click on file->burn dvd, uncheck create iso image (unless you want to create an image), select a path for the temp directory (where your DVD structure is created), and click ok!
Now you have your DVD, and can test it in PowerDVD using the "DVD on HDD" option!

I know that this sounds much, much more complicated than it really is!
So give it a try!
You could of course also use a commercial program, and maybe(!) have slightly less hassle, but I think it is absolutely great that we finally have the possibility to use freeware-tools to create our DVDs, and therefor should use them whenever possible!
And while you certainly cannot accomplish everything you can do in Scenarist in DVDAuthor (yet), it can create very complex menus.
The learnig curve is just a little bit steeper than with most commercial programs (but not steeper than that of scenarist! ;)).
I hope this whole mess is useful, I will now go to sleep! ;)
cya
If you have any questions...