good DVD authoring alternative for PC??

[fukly]

i've tried iDVD from my friends mac book pro..and it shows a marvelous 3d dvd menu... and its very easy just drag n drop using their templates..
i wonder if anyone have tried any dvd authoring software that has templates similar to iDVD(or better??).....FOR PC...PLS help..
other wise i will have to buy a Mac..just for dvd authoring ;P

[antonsvideo]

I use DVD-Lab Pro 2 and I am happy

http://www.videoproductions.com.au/dvd-lab/3D-menu.jpg

here are a few tutorials that may come in handy

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/tutorial/alphamask.html

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/tutorial/filmstrip.html

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/tutorial/menuback.html

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/tutorial/video_shape.html

[fukly]

a good dvd authoring

thanks anton i've visited the site.
but have u tried iDVD ? they have 7.0 templates ..the new one my friend got in his leopard mac book pro..they are amazing..the first page,second page, even the button text are moving (3d) and all we have to do.. is just drag n drop to change the source/background...i don't even have to edit the 3d background coz it's good already ;P ...maybe i could do it with dvd lab2.0 but i do have to create the 3d background first right..

[antonsvideo]

no sorry, I have not tried iDVD, I don't have an Apple other than the ones I eat

also note that the more flashy and animated a menu, the more annoying it is for the user

I have many Hollywood DVD's that drive me up the wall when it comes to finding my way around in the menus

[fukly]

yap i agree with u anton.
but here in my homeland...customers tend to ask a nice 3d menu..so i have to compete with other production house ;)
by the way i've read ur comments on hdv capture using mpeg capture.
but converting *.m2t to canopus hq avi using procoder2 will not degrade the quality?..i do afraid of quality degrading because the use of to many encoder.

[antonsvideo]

m2t to HQ produces 0.000001% of quality loss

in fact in order to edit in Edius, when you capture, the m2t can be converted in realtime to HQ as part of the capture process, you need to use the Generic HDV input and not Mpeg Capture

[antonsvideo]

btw, I was in your country last year to do a video on Bintan Lagoon Resort

here are a few short teasers in mpeg1 format, you may need to right click, save target as

http://www.videoproductions.com.au/assets/multimedia/bintan-golf.mpg

http://www.videoproductions.com.au/assets/multimedia/bintan-food.mpg

[fukly]

yes i got the info of capturing with hq avi for RT editing...but i have the same problem with the other guys..I CAN NOT CAPTURE HDV via my HDR FX1 and HDR-HC3.
my edius v4.02 detect my FX1..when i try to capture it , i could hear the sound but there is no screen preview(black)... and in 5 seconds it just FLASH!edius gone n go back to window...
i've set the camera to HDV and i use HDV 1080i - canopus HQ avi in the project setting...i mean whats wrong? there's no problem capturing DV with the same system n with the same camera (FX1 set to DV).
my system is : Pentium 4 3.0HT...mem 1gig DDR..320 gb SATA

[Mr Bill]

here in my homeland...customers tend to ask a nice 3d menu..so i have to compete with other production house ;)

If your going to get a Mac, you should seriously think of getting DVD Studio Pro 4.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/dvdstudiopro/

It makes iDVD look pretty lame in comparison.
Motion comes with Final Cut Studio and that is one piece of amazing software that
allows you to create your own individual menus. (amongst other things)

Both Motion & DVD Studio Pro have quite a lot of (different) excellent templates ready to go or you can tweak them to your liking.

You have total control over your DVD in DVDSP !
iDVD can not even come close to it.

You of course will still have iDVD as a quick back up if you need to as well.

Just something to think about ;)


Bill

[fukly]

TX Bill i'll try DVD studio pro this week.
hope it has lots of amazing templates...coz macbook pro is not cheap in my country ;)
just hoping that i could find similiar software in PC. ;( anyone?

[fukly]

btw i've watched ur video in bintan anton...
is it HDV camera u r using?

[Mr Bill]

macbook pro is not cheap in my country ;)

You really do not need to get the macbook pro,
you can just get the standard macbook.

Speed is what you will really lose out on, not quality of the final product (DVD)

Apart from DVD Lab Pro , Encore is the only other PC DVD Authoring app that l can think of
for the PC and Encore is Blu-Ray ready.

Hope you find something that works for you, is in your price-range and keeps your customers happy.

:)

[antonsvideo]

btw i've watched ur video in bintan anton...
is it HDV camera u r using?

no, I used standard def DVCAM with Sony DXC-D35WS and DSR1 dockable recorder

[GrassValley_KH]

Shifted this into a new separate thread, since it wasn't really following the parent topic..

[Jeff Chandler]

You really do not need to get the macbook pro,
you can just get the standard macbook.

This is not accurate. The latest versions of Motion and DVDSP are not compatible with computers with integrated graphics, which is what the Mackbooks have. You could get an iMac, though. Or a used 1.25ghz or faster Powerbook (although it would be much slower than an iMac),