I'm making a DVD of my Poser stuff but didn't know where to post this. I've been useing Showbiz DVD since it cam with my recorder. But I'd like to know of a more advanced program as far as menus and so on.

Adobe has one that is pretty good.

Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator is pretty popular as is Nero http://roxio.com http://nero.com

I prefer nero way more than roxio, and here's why: Nero has a lot of automated features such as back up utilities, compression and menu importing. Nero has stronger resource management. When burning in Roxio, you'll often want to multi-task, but Roxio will take priority on resources. This means that if you try to open a web browser, often it will be like trying to drive a boat through mud, and when you do get going, it will often cause Roxio to lose data coherency as it's buffer management isn't set up as well. With Nero, on the other hand, it buffers to it's limit, but will sacrifice some resource intensity to the end user, allowing you to manage other tasks during the burn cycle. The last reason that I like Nero is that their support is crazy good, and if you have any problems, the general turnaround time to figure things out is about 10 minutes. This won't come up often, but if you're planning on constructing custom animated menus, or adding in bad or negative data sectors to protect your work, then you will truly appreciate the strong community Nero has.

I use Adobe Encore for all of my DVD authoring needs. It integrates perfectly with all adobe programs and you can even use photoshop to design backgrounds and buttons.

I'll have to look into Nero again. I tried it once but didn't play around much. I'm really trying to make a good demo reel of my work and would like a nice layout. Like animated menus and so on as softriver mentioned. Thanks!

Adobe Encore DVD...seems like $549 is a bit pricey for a program to burn DVD's.... Nero is $70 for downloadable version..

lynnJonathan; If you were doing video DVD creation, then Encore would be the -best- option (not neccesarily the cheapest, though). For data DVD archiving, Nero would probably be the best, although, I've had good results with Veritas RecordNow.

I'm a Veritas user and found it simple to use but has the bells and whistles when needed....Friends swear by Nero but i've had problems with it on various PCs...Steve

Oh and watch which discs you use i've got Bulkpaq white + that are almost spotless yet i have trouble reading yet i have Arita's that are scratched to hell and still work fine, Bulkpaq orange seem ok and Ridisc are pretty good.....Steve

Some people seem to be confusing programs for burning the dvd with programs for making menus etc. Ulead videostudio seems to be a good program for making menus etc but dont use it to burn the dvd. I read somewhere that you shouldnt let these menu making programs burn the dvds as the output is unreliable, but you can still use them to make the menus.

DVD Authoring: Ulead DVDWorkshop/VideoStudio, Adobe Encore DVD, Final Cut Pro

DVD Burning: Nero, Roxio, and Veritas/Sonic RecordNow!

For data burning, I use RecordNow! since it works well, but has become slightly less stable (since Veritas changed to/sold it to Sonic). I used to use Nero for all of my CD burning, but have yet to see if they actually have a working DVD burning feature yet :) (didn't seem to work at all with my Sony at version 10.x).

Windows XP has a feature that allows CD burning just by dropping files onto the CD drive, but am not certain whether or not this works with DVDs. Secondly, you might want to ensure that you are getting a 'crossover' format, like ISO9660, instead of an OS dependent format (something that occurs with Veritas RecordNow! - luckily not an issue for Windows archives). P.S.: I've used DVDWorkShop to create a set of instructional DVDs for mass production/sale and it burned disc images without any problems. The key is to make a disc image (iso file) after testing and burn THAT to the DVD. Very reliable.

Message edited on: 08/18/2004 09:39

For encoding MPEG2 I use TMPGEnc plus For Authoring I use TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5 (It lacks Subtitles and multiple audio tracks but is very easy to use, very compatible with my DVD players and has real fast menus.) You can also get a $30 2.0 Dolby digital plugin which will save you TONS of space on your disc and provide added compatibility with standalone DVD players. These software are very inexpensive but well made and less of a pain to use than any other authoring solutions I tried. For Burning I use Nero. TMPGEnc DVD author has a burning app, but Don't use it if you plan to have DVDs professionally replicated, as it won't be fully compliant. Use Nero to burn the DVD files that TMPGEnc puts out.

In Windows - Veritas RecordNow (if you can locate it, HP has a free version of it called HP RecordNow that works much better.) Most Sony DVD-RW devices come with Veritas RecordNow as part of the package. In Linux - K3b, hands down. You have to grab the latest version to get the DVD tools (SuSE 9.1 comes with it) Dunno about the Mac, since I've never had to use the Mac for video or DVD-sized data backup. /P

Adobe Encore also burns DVDs and does a very good job. (I have yet to burn a coaster) After making all the animated menus and such, you just encode it to the DVD. For professional results, this product does probably the best job of any I have seen. Of course, the price tag is a bit high and may turn most home users to other means. Also, if you own other Adobe products (such as Premiere Pro, or Photoshop) they can be used for much more creative DVDs. And with Premiere, if you have set bookmarks for chapters in your videos it carries over to Encore as chapter points. This makes it very easy when setting up menus later and pointing buttons at chapters. With Photoshop, you can create your own buttons and animate them from within Encore. Of course, as with all Adobe products, functionalty such as this does not come cheaply. If you are just looking to archive material, than Nero is what I use for regular burning.

But it can be less expensive if you upgrade. Adobe Premiere 6.5 came with my Pinnacle DV500 (practically free). I upgraded this to Adobe Video Collection for only $700 (not bad considering that is comes with Premiere Pro, Encore DVD, Audition, and After Effects!). Definitely worth the extra expense in this case. Added: MacOS X has built-in DVD burning capabilities - and you can write data DVDs that are readable on Mac and Windows.

Message edited on: 08/18/2004 12:37

After effects is the only one I'm missing at the moment. Is not Audition a sweet audio editor?

I've used Nero, Easy CD Creator and RecordItNow. I like Nero the best. I tend to make mostly multisession cds. Nero remembers what files I've already recorded onto the cd and just adds the new ones that I've added to the folders I've already burned to the CD or DVD. I used to like Easy CD Creator. I don't think it had that option, but I can't remember for sure. Easy CD Creator lost me over that fiassco when WindowsXP first came out. First they wrote the native burner that comes bundled in windowsxp, but if I installed their full package, it would tell me that I had no burners. And the native burner would stop working to boot. Add to that the fact that there was no upgrade pricing, and I decided they were history. I had version 3 and 4 but I still had to pay full price for the new version which I had to buy since earlier versions were incompatible with XP. That still sticks in my craw. And then it didn't work. And they knew it didn't work. But it's been fixed now, I guess. Anyway, I'm a happy Nero burner. RecordItNow works well and it was priced favorably, but it didn't have that feature I liked. At least I couldn't find it.