DVD Video burning software...what to buy ?

[griffin]

I just recently bought a Pioneer DVR-104 and have yet to burn a dvd. I was wondering what you guys are using to burn dvd's. I got the OEM drive and it came without any software so I need recommendations for all software needed.

Thank you,

Todd

 

[crazydave]

i have a hp dvd+rw and it came with sonic my dvd (or whatever their cheapest one is). don't get it, it is crappy--i couldn't get it to recognize files that i made with most encoders including tmpgenc and it's own encoder sucks.. and when i finally did get it to make a dvd it didn't work on a standalone player. however, i'm now using ulead dvd movie factory and that has worked really well so far, its built in encoder is fairly decent and the dvd's play on standalone players. however, it's pretty basic so i'm going to look into getting something that looks more professional (menus, chapters, titles, etc) when i have some time...hope that helps!

 

[ScottMac]

I've had pretty good luck with Sonic's DVDIT! (PE). It'll do 16:9, and encode to Dolby Digital (1.0 or 2.0) and accept AC3 files if you have an encoder that can generate 'em.

Pinnacle Impression is very versitile, but you have to make your own menus, buttons, etc on something like Adobe (or other .bmp capable paint program). For a full-blown package, I'm sure it's a great way to go (I don't need that capability right now).

MyDVD is not too bad (especially considering it's under US$100.00). The trade-off is always going to be versatility versus simplicity / ease of use. MyDVD is very easy to use, but doesn't have a lot of options. Any problems with playability I've had with MyDVD were the same problems I had in the other packages ...I believe it's more of an encoder issue or media issue (some of the cheap DVD-Rs don't work worth a damn) than the DVD authoring package.

Figure out what you need in the way of features, the level of "Ease of Use," and price ...then go looking. You can spend anywhere from US$ 79.00 to $2000.00+ on DVD authoring packages.

Good Luck

Scott