Burning programs

[Nuclear Krusader]

Besides Nero, which other good DVD burning programs are there? I remember reading a review of the first DVD burning drives long time ago and they came with programs that let you create DVDs besides simple burning. I know Nero is jolly good, but I was wondering which other good options are there.

TIA for any input.

[rspassey]

Roxio is pretty good too, I used to make music cds with Roxio all the time, now I use Nero. Also any video editiong program (well most I would guess) come with the ability to produce the video in DVD.

[RJ]

which other good DVD burning programs are there?

For just burning: DVD Decrypter. It does an excellent job at burning. It's also AFAIK the only program that can burn a DVD+R DL with the layer break where *you* want it to be.

I remember reading a review of the first DVD burning drives long time ago and they came with programs that let you create DVDs besides simple burning.

The whole creation of a DVD-Video (creating menus, setting chapter points, etc.) is called authoring, and you need an authoring program to do that. So what you really want is a good authoring program ?
Authoring programs can also burn DVDs.

Good ones are DVD Lab and DVD Lab Pro, for example. Also TMPGEnc DVD Author (TDA) is a good program.
On the freeware side, try GUI for DVD Author.

RJ

[Jaggannath]

The one RJ mentioned that I know is DVD Decrypter and DVDShrink, which are both good apps... and Roxio is crap btw, don't ever use it.

[rspassey]

LOL, sorry, I like my roxio, I must not do as demanding burings as you guys. Thanks for the Tip, I probably would have kept on using Roxio on my other computer for ages.

[TwoRails]

I've found that not one program will cover all needs as the whole process is way too complex. For examples: for "serious" editing, I have Media Studio Pro. I don't use it as much as I use to as most of my stuff doesn't require that level of editing, not to mention for quick work, programs like Easy Media Creator 7.5 (Roxio) does most of what the high dollar MSP does.

And, as RJ mentions, there are different aspects. If you want to pop a few home vids on DVD takes a different approach compared to doing some heavy authoring. Again, Roxio is hard to beat for "simple" things and is far more powerful than Nero. My favorite example if you want to put something like 3 home movies on one DVD. It's a snap with Roxio. Not so easy with Nero as chapters in Nero will carry the luggage of thumbnails all over the screen.

If I want to be a little fancier in "authoring" then I use DVD Labs. But don't forget that you have to have the "final product" already produced. With Roxio, you can build and edit and have some decent authoring tools.

Then you have the ripping department, which is totally different. This is where programs like DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter come into play.

And then "crunching" comes into play. Some editor do a good job, but many stand alone programs, like TMPGEnc do a fantastic job. So you edit in one program, crunch in another, then author with a third to get what you want...

And that is why a package like Roxio, that can do it all but maybe not at the same level, is so popular. I like Roxio for the simplicity and for the other apps in it's suite that the other don't have. I use all of the above programs, but since I don't do "pro" work, I do find myself using Roxio more than the other programs (and ones I didn't mention).

It's all in what you want and want to do.

HTH

TR

[Nuclear Krusader]

Hmm, but which one of all the Roxio galore?

[TwoRails]

I was pretty tired last night when I wrote that; today it sounds like a sales pitch

I've upgraded to version 7.5. There is tons of stuff in it I don't use, but a lot I do. You can see more here:

http://roxio.com/en/products/emc75/index.jhtml

The DVD stuff didn't change much from the 7.x version, but the sound editing apps did (as well as including more new apps). And that was my main reason for updating. Ever record something like a cassette, or from radio, where you have one big wave when you're done? One neat sound editing feature is that you can now treat that wave file kinda like a movie, meaning you don't have to chop up the wave into the individual tracks! You can simply set "chapters," (called clips) and simple burn from the one big file. You can even set individual transitions between the tracks on the CD so can have tracks that have no empty sound delay (for like when two songs fade into each other) or you can have the traditional 2 second sound break.

If you "qualify" you can get the upgrade for $29.95 USD, but it's also on sale all over the place. On their Web site, the "full" price is down to $69. Sonic bought them out so I don't know if the price reduction is an indication a new, company merged product coming out or what.