DVD Software

[Denali]

If you are making DVD’s from a Media 100 program, use BitVice or Compressor. They seem to handle the colors from Media 100 the best. If you use just Toast, iDVD, etc you will find everything is washed out.

[Andrew Mehta]

Hi,
I have Cleaner 6 on my first Mac,
my second Mac has Compressor, haven’t checked which version.
I don’t seem to have BitVice.

It was my understanding whichever programme you use for encoding, you still need to burn using an authoring programme.

[Floh Peters]

[Ajmetz] “t was my understanding whichever programme you use for encoding, you still need to burn using an authoring programme. “

More or less. Programs like Toast and iDVD do their own encoding and authoring in a single step. What do you really want to do?
If you want to create client review copies quickly the best thing you can do is to get a cheap standalone DVD recorder, hook it up via composite or S-Video and hit record on the DVD-Recorder and Play on your Media 100 timeline.
If you want to do more complex authoring get BitVice for MPEG 2 encoding and use DVDStudio for the authoring. This way you can create DVDs that can be compared to commercial DVDs you can buy (quality-wise and feature wise). But the encoding takes time, and building DVDs in DVDSP needs some knowledge and some time learning how to do it.

[Andrew Mehta]

Cheers Floh.
Already got a DVD VCR and have been playing out via S-Video for the past year or so.

Now I’ve a 2hour 30min production I need to make about 10-20 copies of and post out. So either I’ll do one recording to the DVD VCR and then hope my SuperDrive could duplicate it (which software would be best for that?), or perhaps I can burn to disc via the Mac in the first place, and cut out the VCR. It is kinda annoying waiting 2hrs30mins for a programme to finish playing out.
Further down the line some menu design would be nice,
right now, for these 10-20, just doesn’t matter – they’re just trade previews, although chapter marks for every 10-15mins would be good, as people will want to skim through it rather than watch all 2 and a half hours of it.

BitVice looks beyond my budget atm.
Can I get away with Compressor or Cleaner 6?
And the only DVD Studio Pro I have is Version 1.1 on OS9. Think I’ll be fine with that, despite it’s age? Or am I better off using the less professional, but more up-to-date OSX software I mentioned?

So I guess it boils down to two questions:
Basic duping of a DVD VCR burnt disc, would be best in what app?
Is my old OS9 DVD Studio Pro still the safe bet for proper authoring with menus?
Oh – and are Compressor or Cleaner 6 gonna be okay in BitVice’s absense?

Of course, maybe these are stupid questions. When I get my drive, I guess I can experiment with the different apps and see which yeilds the best result. That said, advice could still save me time.

[Floh Peters]

[Ajmetz] ” It is kinda annoying waiting 2hrs30mins for a programme to finish playing out.”

Wait before you see how long an MPEG encode (especially on a “older” Mac) will take. You at least should think 4 times as long as realtime (probably even much more).

[Ajmetz] “Basic duping of a DVD VCR burnt disc, would be best in what app?
“
Toast.

[Ajmetz] “Is my old OS9 DVD Studio Pro still the safe bet for proper authoring with menus?”
Yes. But of course you need to learn the software, and you need to get your SuperDrive working under OS9.

[Ajmetz] “Oh – and are Compressor or Cleaner 6 gonna be okay in BitVice’s absense?”
Generally speaking yes. I

[Denali]

I think I read on another post about a week ago on how to set the settings of compressor to avoid the washed out look. Try looking for a post called “DVD’s on MEdia 100 HD” or something like that.

[Andrew Mehta]

Yeah, I remember seeing something like that too. I’ll look it up. Although first I’m gonna see if I can’t find a copy of BitVice maybe…

Totally forgot MPEG encoding would take ages – of course! =P Doh.
[ I do some web encoding and that takes long enough. 😉 ].
Might be better just duping the VCR produced DVD in the first instance.

But anyway, thanks for the top answers guys. =)

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Ajmetz,

When I am making viewing copies of long things (like VHS’s or rushes) I record them on my DVD Recorder, then demux the disc to m2v & ac3 with Mpeg Streamclip and use these files in DVDSP to make a nicer branded Disc. You can get rid of the nasty recorder-made menu and put a nicer one in, or make the DVD self-start and loop etc. You can also put the chapter points in where you want them.

Also if you are using DVDSP 1.0 in OS9 but your superdrive won’t, you can always create a disc image in DVDSP and then burn it in OSX using Disk Utility.

K

[Andrew Mehta]

Thanks for the heads up.
Have been doing a lot of wmv conversions with MPEG Streamclip since you first recommended it to me.

Obviously, all this advice isn’t gonna go anywhere until I recieve the SuperDrive, but when I do, I’ll have a fiddle around and see how it all goes.

[Bobby Mosaedi]

dvd studio pro is not a bad app. you can definitely use it to create some good DVD’s. the only thing about it is that it does not come with menu presets or encoding options, so all of your content (menu and media) must be prepared outside of DVDSP. You can design your own menu graphics in photoshop, along with the buttons and their states, and import the PSD’s into DVDSP and select by layers the textures for your buttons.

theres a ton of stuff out there that can help you with this just do a search for DVDSP1 and how to prep photoshop files for menus

also encoding your videos with compressor can give you pretty good results, you just have to do what others have already said and test a few short clips and adjust the brightness, contrast etc. also remember that if you dont encode your audio to AC3 you will have to reduce your video bitrate to compensate for larger PCM audio. im not sure what DVDSP1’s audio requirements were…

You alrady have all the stuff you need to create a good-looking DVD. the only thing you’re missing from DVDSP is the simplicity of being able to encode average-looking MPEG2 files and some ok-looking menu presets all in the same program.