There are all sorts of programs out there which claim to let you author 
video DVDs. (E.g., K3b claims to be able to do this - but on closer 
inspection, it only has the ability to write files to disk. You have to 
somehow create those files yourself first.) There are freebie scripts on 
the Internet and there are shareware and commercial programs that can 
supposedly do this.

When I bought my original DVD drive, because it was Hewlett Packard it 
came bundled with some authoring software that nobody's ever heard of. 
It works though. Just about. (When you install it, it tries to discover 
whether you have a HP DVD drive in your PC - which I don't, now. You can 
get round it though.)

The package I've got allows you to take multiple AVI files, encoded with 
just about any codec known to Man, and concatenate them, possibly with 
some (rather cheesy) transitions. You can also insert static title 
frames and so on. And you can create a very simple disk menu to play the 
various chapters. Unfortunately, there's a split-second pause between 
chapters (or maybe that's just my mum's DVD player, I'm not sure).

What do other people use for putting DVDs together?

Post a reply to this message

> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?

Like you I used to use some commercial program that came with my DVD player 
(don't remember the name).

Whilst I haven't done anything like that recently, I heard from a 
not-very-geeky person that they used DVDFlick and made a proper DVD using 
it.  Might be worth a look, it's open source too if that's your cup of tea.

There's a quick guide here I found:

http://www.dvdflick.net/guide/index_en.html

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?

I've been using DVDlab quite a lot. Not free though but quite powerful with
respect to menus and playlists.
But you need to have the videos converted to DVD standard beforehand. It doesn't
re-encode anything.

Post a reply to this message

Aydan wrote:

> I've been using DVDlab quite a lot. Not free though but quite powerful with
> respect to menus and playlists.

OK.

> But you need to have the videos converted to DVD standard beforehand. It doesn't
> re-encode anything.

Ah, but MPEG-2 encoders (and decoders) almost always cost money for some 
reason. ;-)

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:16:49 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?

ManDVD on Linux.  I don't have very complex needs (in fact, since I 
started using the PS3 as a streaming media server, I haven't needed to 
burn video DVDs at all)

Jim

Post a reply to this message

Jim Henderson wrote:

> ManDVD on Linux.  I don't have very complex needs

OK. I'll take a look.

> I started using the PS3 as a streaming media server

What does that even *mean*?

Post a reply to this message

"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion 
: 4bd59242$1@news.povray.org...
> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?
For very simple stuff Windows Movie Maker. Click click click, done.
For more complex editing and DVD authoring:  Sony Vegas Movie Studio 
(Platinum version). IIRC for the non-pro user on Windows it's a choice 
between Adobe Premiere Elements, Pinnacle Studio and Sony Vegas. The 
Premiere demo just crashed, I didn't like Pinnacle too much so Vegas was the 
best choice. Note that these kind of apps are *** very *** complex, they are 
not shining models of clean / friendly UI,  and have a steep learning curve. 
Vegas and Pinnacle are very powerful for the price though (about 60 euros 
for Vegas).

G.

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Invisible wrote:
> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?

At the time I bought it a few years ago, the uLead DVD creator was the only 
one that did B-frames (apparently). It's "normal quality" far outdid the 
"best quality" of any of the other packages I tried.

Nowadays, Windows comes with things that will make DVDs, I think, yes? Maybe 
not, I don't remember, but I know I processed the individual videos with 
Windows Movie Maker and I think the DVD maker burned them.

Play around with it if you've upgraded to a version of Windows that has it.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:10:08 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
>> ManDVD on Linux.  I don't have very complex needs
> 
> OK. I'll take a look.
> 
>> I started using the PS3 as a streaming media server
> 
> What does that even *mean*?

It means "I had a brain fart" - I actually meant that our PS3 accesses a 
streaming media sever, not that it *is* a streaming media server.

So instead of burning DVDs of videos, I just stream the videos to the PS3 
for playback.

Jim

Post a reply to this message

Gilles Tran wrote:
> "Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> a écrit dans le message de groupe de
> discussion
> : 4bd59242$1@news.povray.org...
>> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?
> For very simple stuff Windows Movie Maker. Click click click, done.
> For more complex editing and DVD authoring:  Sony Vegas Movie Studio
> (Platinum version). IIRC for the non-pro user on Windows it's a choice
> between Adobe Premiere Elements, Pinnacle Studio and Sony Vegas. The
> Premiere demo just crashed, I didn't like Pinnacle too much so Vegas was
> the best choice. Note that these kind of apps are *** very *** complex,
> they are
> not shining models of clean / friendly UI,  and have a steep learning
> curve. Vegas and Pinnacle are very powerful for the price though (about 60
> euros for Vegas).
> 

WMM can create DVDs? That's news to me. Last time I tried, it burned a CD 
with a proprietary format (XML, JPEG thumbnails, and the video in WMV) which 
it claims is a "standard" but it's not supported by any played I tried, 
software or hardware.

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?

iDVD on the Mac. Although there's something quite weird...

Macs can play DVDs out of the box. iDVD can create DVDs, transcoding from 
whatever format the video is into MPEG2.

Yet Quicktime cannot play MPEG2 files, and iDVD can't create a DVD from a 
video that is already in in the correct MPEG2 format, without buying a $20 
Quicktime component for MPEG2 decoding. WTF?


So I created the damned DVD using the simplest dvdauthor config file 
possible:

<dvdauthor>
  <vmgm />
  <titleset>
    <titles>
      <pgc>
        <vob file="video.MPG" />
      </pgc>
    </titles>
  </titleset>
</dvdauthor>

[cue Darren's rants about XML]

dvdauthor can create menus too, and there are many GUI frontends for it.

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> Gilles Tran wrote:
>> "Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> a écrit dans le message de groupe de
>> discussion
>> : 4bd59242$1@news.povray.org...
>>> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?
>> For very simple stuff Windows Movie Maker. Click click click, done.
>> For more complex editing and DVD authoring:  Sony Vegas Movie Studio
>> (Platinum version). IIRC for the non-pro user on Windows it's a choice

>> between Adobe Premiere Elements, Pinnacle Studio and Sony Vegas. The
>> Premiere demo just crashed, I didn't like Pinnacle too much so Vegas w
as
>> the best choice. Note that these kind of apps are *** very *** complex
,
>> they are
>> not shining models of clean / friendly UI,  and have a steep learning
>> curve. Vegas and Pinnacle are very powerful for the price though (abou
t 60
>> euros for Vegas).
>>
> 
> WMM can create DVDs?

No. WMM edits the videos for you. Then "Windows DVD Maker" makes the DVDs
, 
organizing the menus and stuff like that. But you don't get to pick which
 
bits of what videos or which transitions to put in with WDM.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> Macs can play DVDs out of the box. iDVD can create DVDs, transcoding from 
> whatever format the video is into MPEG2.

I'm betting it's still the case that iDVD won't work with a non-Apple DVD 
writer. Hence, you've paid the licensing fees when you bought the DVD writer.

At least, that's how it used to work.

> Yet Quicktime cannot play MPEG2 files, and iDVD can't create a DVD from a 
> video that is already in in the correct MPEG2 format, without buying a $20 
> Quicktime component for MPEG2 decoding. WTF?

You didn't pay the licensing fees for QuickTime yet.

> [cue Darren's rants about XML]

I have no rants in this case. ;-)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
>> Gilles Tran wrote:
>>> "Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>>>> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?
>>> For very simple stuff Windows Movie Maker. Click click click, done.
>> 
>> WMM can create DVDs?
> 
> No. WMM edits the videos for you. Then "Windows DVD Maker" makes the DVDs,
> organizing the menus and stuff like that. But you don't get to pick which
> bits of what videos or which transitions to put in with WDM.

Ah, just like iMovie and iDVD on the Mac then. I never used (or really knew 
of the existence of) Windows DVD Maker.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
>> Macs can play DVDs out of the box. iDVD can create DVDs, transcoding from
>> whatever format the video is into MPEG2.
> 
> I'm betting it's still the case that iDVD won't work with a non-Apple DVD
> writer. Hence, you've paid the licensing fees when you bought the DVD
> writer.

iDVD can save to an .iso that I can transfer to another machine and burn 
later. I did that once.

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> Ah, just like iMovie and iDVD on the Mac then. I never used (or really knew 
> of the existence of) Windows DVD Maker.

I had forgotten that's what I used until I hit the Windows key and typed 
DVD. ;-)  I like Vista's start menu.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

On 04/26/10 06:16, Invisible wrote:
> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?

http://tovid.wikia.com/wiki/Tovid_Wiki

-- 
Copywight 1991 Elmer Fudd.  All wights wesewved

Post a reply to this message

Neeum Zawan wrote:
 > Copywight 1991 Elmer Fudd.  All wights wesewved

I must admit, that made me giggle way too much.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?
> 
> Like you I used to use some commercial program that came with my DVD
> player (don't remember the name).
> 
> Whilst I haven't done anything like that recently, I heard from a
> not-very-geeky person that they used DVDFlick and made a proper DVD
> using it.  Might be worth a look, it's open source too if that's your
> cup of tea.
> 
> There's a quick guide here I found:
> 
> http://www.dvdflick.net/guide/index_en.html
> 
> 

I have used DVD Flick to stitch together several videos into a disc. It
handles creating the title screen, chapters, menus, but I do not think
it allows you to do any editing, fades between chapters, or anything
like that. I used the Windows version so I have no clue on how it
behaves, or if it is available, on other platforms

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:28:11 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> Neeum Zawan wrote:
>  > Copywight 1991 Elmer Fudd.  All wights wesewved
> 
> I must admit, that made me giggle way too much.

Same here, but wouldn't Elmer say "Elmew"?

Jim

Post a reply to this message

Jim Henderson wrote:
> Same here, but wouldn't Elmer say "Elmew"?

It's usually "Elma" from what I've heard. :-)

For many years, I thought it was "Yosemite" Sam, pronounced like "Yosa 
Might". :-)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

> For many years, I thought it was "Yosemite" Sam, pronounced like "Yosa 
> Might". :-)

I always thought it was pronounced like that - until I heard someone 
actually say it...

Post a reply to this message

> So instead of burning DVDs of videos, I just stream the videos to the PS3
> for playback.

OOC what software do you use on the media server to stream to the PS3?  I 
could never get it to work reliably with high-bitrate videos.

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez wrote:

> Ah, just like iMovie and iDVD on the Mac then. I never used (or really knew 
> of the existence of) Windows DVD Maker.

Apparently they added it in Vista. (Which is why I've never heard of it 
either.)

Post a reply to this message

> At the time I bought it a few years ago, the uLead DVD creator was the 
> only one that did B-frames (apparently). It's "normal quality" far 
> outdid the "best quality" of any of the other packages I tried.
> 
> Nowadays, Windows comes with things that will make DVDs, I think, yes? 
> Maybe not, I don't remember, but I know I processed the individual 
> videos with Windows Movie Maker and I think the DVD maker burned them.

What I do know is that the DVD software I've got produces fairly poor 
quality. Like, I render some stuff with POV-Ray, burn it onto DVD and 
play it back, and there are fairly obvious MJPEG artifacts. I don't know 
whether the encoder is just poorly implemented, or whether the quality 
settings are just set too low. (The quality options are "auto" and 
"manual"... really helpful!)

I guess the next question is whether any software supports BluRay 
authoring yet, once I manage to save up the £££ to buy a BlyRay burner. 
I've already got the player to play it on. ;-)

(And hell, by the time I've finished saving up, it probably won't even 
be expensive any more!)

Post a reply to this message

Gilles Tran wrote:

> IIRC for the non-pro user on Windows it's a choice 
> between Adobe Premiere Elements, Pinnacle Studio and Sony Vegas.

I believe my dad *has* Adobe Premiere Elements... Maybe I should go 
investigate?

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> What I do know is that the DVD software I've got produces fairly poor 
> quality. Like, I render some stuff with POV-Ray, burn it onto DVD and 
> play it back, and there are fairly obvious MJPEG artifacts. 

Yeah, that was my experience a while back with everything but uLead Movie 
Factory, or whatever they call it.  I went thru a bunch of trial versions 
before I found one that wouldn't just turn completely flat and blocky with a 
picture of a rippling pond.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

On 26/04/2010 2:16 PM, Invisible wrote:
> What do other people use for putting DVDs together?

A sometimes poster to these forums’s young brother has developed a 
windows front end for MEncoder. I found that it worked quite well.

It can be found at
http://blackblueice.bl.funpic.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3

English is supported but German is the native language.

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

Post a reply to this message

On Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:51:27 +0200, scott wrote:

>> So instead of burning DVDs of videos, I just stream the videos to the
>> PS3 for playback.
> 
> OOC what software do you use on the media server to stream to the PS3? 
> I could never get it to work reliably with high-bitrate videos.

I use the PS3 Media Server (PMS) - available from 

http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/

I tried the beta and had problems, the 1.10.5 release works quite well 
for me.  I stream over wireless from a 64-bit openSUSE 11.2 system.

Jim

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:25:17 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Same here, but wouldn't Elmer say "Elmew"?
> 
> It's usually "Elma" from what I've heard. :-)

True... :-)

> For many years, I thought it was "Yosemite" Sam, pronounced like "Yosa
> Might". :-)

Hehehhe

Post a reply to this message

On 27/04/2010 5:57 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:25:17 -0700, Darren New wrote:
>
>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>> Same here, but wouldn't Elmer say "Elmew"?
>>
>> It's usually "Elma" from what I've heard. :-)
>
> True... :-)
>
>> For many years, I thought it was "Yosemite" Sam, pronounced like "Yosa
>> Might". :-)
>
> Hehehhe

How should it be pronounced, then?


-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

Post a reply to this message

Invisible a écrit :
> Gilles Tran wrote:
> 
>> IIRC for the non-pro user on Windows it's a choice between Adobe 
>> Premiere Elements, Pinnacle Studio and Sony Vegas.
> 
> I believe my dad *has* Adobe Premiere Elements... Maybe I should go 
> investigate?

I have been using Adobe Premiere Elements for a few months, and I found 
it quite effective and rather intuitive. I have not tried DVD authoring, 
but have used it for simple tasks like combine short films from my DV 
camera, correct color, contrast, combine the movies with music, etc.

Thibaut

Post a reply to this message

Stephen wrote:
> How should it be pronounced, then?

yo sem it ee.  Four sylables, with an ee like "beet" at the end, and an "i" 
like "it" before it. Yosemite like yosemite park.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

On 27/04/2010 8:13 PM, Darren New wrote:
> Stephen wrote:
>> How should it be pronounced, then?
>
> yo sem it ee. Four sylables, with an ee like "beet" at the end, and an
> "i" like "it" before it.


Thanks I'd never have guessed

Yosemite like yosemite park.
>

LOL, you swine I knocked over my glass of whisky :-)

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

Post a reply to this message

Stephen wrote:
> Thanks I'd never have guessed

I think it's a native american name. There's a bunch all over the country 
that are really complicated compared to anything descended from latin.

Yo like row.
Sem like phlegm.
mit like hit.
ee like bee.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

> I use the PS3 Media Server (PMS) - available from 
> 
> http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/
> 
> I tried the beta and had problems, the 1.10.5 release works quite well 
> for me.  I stream over wireless from a 64-bit openSUSE 11.2 system.

OK will check it out - thanks.

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> iDVD on the Mac. Although there's something quite weird...

MS is doing the same kind of weird stuff. "Download this update to turn off 
the anti-DLL-hell protection on some fonts so Office 2010 can install over 
top of them."

WTF don't you just install the fonts, then, instead of turning off the virus 
protection on them so that some program I don't own can update them if I 
ever buy it?

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

On 28/04/2010 12:02 AM, Darren New wrote:
> Stephen wrote:
>> Thanks I'd never have guessed
>
> I think it's a native american name. There's a bunch all over the
> country that are really complicated compared to anything descended from
> latin.
>
> Yo like row.
> Sem like phlegm.
> mit like hit.
> ee like bee.
>

I’ve got no idea how they should be written.
I like some of Australia’s name places like, Gulgong, Wagga Wagga and 
the area next to the one I lived in, in Sydney - Woolloomooloo.

Of course in Scotland we have Auchterarder and Auchenshuggle (pronounced 
as it is written). :-)


-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

Post a reply to this message

Stephen wrote:
> I like some of Australia’s name places like, Gulgong, Wagga Wag
ga and 
> the area next to the one I lived in, in Sydney - Woolloomooloo.

Yeah, I grew up next to the Schuylkill River, near Wawa, down the road fr
om 
Bryn Mawr. And probably a bunch more if I think about it.


Hmmmm... Cheese steak.  You just can't get the right bread without using 

Schuylkill River water.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

Post a reply to this message

On 28/04/2010 6:38 PM, Darren New wrote:

>
> Hmmmm... Cheese steak. You just can't get the right bread without using
> Schuylkill River water.
>

I know about cheese steaks thanks to you :-D

Yes, the food of our childhoods cannot be beaten. I long for the 
“tattie” (potato) scones of my youth. (Fried of course ;-) )

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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