best dvd-rw software?

[scott123]

right now im using some sonic dvd crap that came with my sony drx-500ul and it's just garbage. it's set up like crap and just generally sucks. could anyone reccomend a good extensive program i can use to put together and creat my own dvds; along with copying dvds and whatever. i use my editing program to encode my video to mpeg2; but it would be an added bonus if the dvd burning software somehow came with encoding capabilities also.

[pam123]

For personal use copying DVDXCopy is $100 .

[Xayd]

http://www.doom9.org

For authoring your MPEG-2 and Audio files into VOBs, I dunno. There aren't many freeware or low-cost software options out there for this yet. The best are of course DVDMaestro and Scenarist, these are the programs that the Hollywood Studios use, but their pricetag is in the thousands of dollars.

Home DVD authoring is relatively new, there just isn't that much software out there aimed at the enthusiast yet (although IfoEdit, available at the above link, can make DVD compliant files out of audio and video streams, it doesn't have anything included for flashy menus and such).

For burning, I've gotten the best results with DVDDecryptor, after making an ISO with ImgTools (both are downloadable from the link above, and freeware).

[scott123]

thanks for the help, but im not sure that's what im looking for.

i'll be more specific:

forget the encoder, my adobe premiere encoder works just fine.
SO, ill export all video files from adobe, in which i then load them into the dvd burning software, where i set up the files into chronological order (much like a video editing program...where instead of exporting to a filetype...it would export to dvd ). it doesnt have to have stupid little backgrounds, idealy i could just load a .jpg or .gif as a background screen, and not offer special features. but i do want to be able to skip through chapters; so my movie is not just a striaght through 40 minute video that can't be skipped to. i hope this stuff makes any sense, cause im totally confused about it. im planning on using 2x dvd-rs, most likely a generic type from www.dvd-rwmedia.com.

also, price is not an issue. thousands of dollars is out of the question, but anything from 100-600$ would work

[Xayd]

I can't really give much insight into the low end DVD Authoring programs out there. I've not used any of them to be honest since I have DVDMaestro and it can do much more than I'm capable of . From looking at their list features, I would definitely take a look at the trial version of Ulead's DVD Workshop, though. If everything it advertises works, there shouldn't be much that you are unable to do with it.

IfoEdit is nice in the fact that it's free, but it has no support for menu creation that I know of, only chapter points. If all you need is the ability to make vobs, ifos, and chapter points, it can do that, just not much else.

I can give you a recommendation on media, however. The best bulk media hands down is Ritek. I personally order mine from http://www.allmediaoutlet.com since they have package discounts and free shipping if you get DVD cases with the blank disks (which I always do anyways ).

Definitely check out DVDDecryptor and ImgTools for making ISOs and burning, though. I have tried several burning apps and ironically enough the freeware DVDDecryptor has given me the best luck so far in guaranteeing compatibility with standalone players.