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GarySumpter Special user UK 857 Posts |
Hi all.
Looking for recommendations of software to use for a Magic DVD. I have access to all the big ones (can get them through the company) but I think that most of them do way more than I will need! Must have flexibility with regards to menus / interfaces as I want it to look smart! Look forward to your suggestions! Gary |
mrunge Inner circle Charleston, SC 3716 Posts |
Hi Gary,
I use Pinnacle Systems "Studio" Version 10.5 software and have great results. It's very user friendly and creates fantastic, professional looking DVDs, complete with menus, etc... You can find it on Ebay a lot of time for not much money. That's where mine came from. Good luck. Mark. |
GarySumpter Special user UK 857 Posts |
Thanks Mark, will take a look.
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mrunge Inner circle Charleston, SC 3716 Posts |
A friend of mine runs a television / video studio and uses this same software in his business to create DVDs for clients. It produces very professional disks and is easy to learn. That's how I found out about it to start with.
Mark. |
GarySumpter Special user UK 857 Posts |
It looks very inexpensive too!
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sfmiraj New user san fransicko, CA 45 Posts |
I strongly discourage Pinnacle products (Studio). Very buggy software, inept product support. Strong advise avoiding this product.
Adobe Premiere Elements/Pro are VERY professional apps that give superior results. Elements if you're novice/intermediate. Elements is affordable and is a very robust app. Pro if you're advanced. |
ScottRSullivan Special user 874 Posts |
When getting into DVD authoring, there are a number of items to keep in mind. While I know OF the Adobe and Pinnacle line, I am unfamiliar with them on an intimate level. I use DVD Studio Pro (I"m entirely Mac based - but that won't matter for this discussion).
Make sure your software can set bitrates. Many will encode it at predetermined bitrates and often, bitrates that are too high. Think of it as turning a hose on full blast. Especially a fire hose. It becomes hard to hold unless you are strong enough. Same thing with DVD players. Some have better buffers and can read higher bitrate DVDs. When I encode for clients, I am always very aware of this so that my DVDs play on the majority of players. Scott |
RileyG Special user Las Vegas 840 Posts |
I own and use Liquid Edition, now AVID owned... It's a great product for higher end users...
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Jeff Inner circle Orlando, FL 1238 Posts |
I use Sonic's DVDit Pro HD for most projects and if I need something a little stronger I use DVD-Lab Pro2.
Jeff Pierce
Available for order now:
http://www.thecardwarptour.com See new, used, and collectable magic and books for sale at: http://www.jeffpiercemagic.com |
ScottRSullivan Special user 874 Posts |
Gary,
Its been a few weeks since your posts and I hope your DVD authoring has been going well. Let us know how you are progressing! Also, if you'd like to take your DVD authoring up a notch, PM me. After all, I do this for a living and have created DVDs for David Roth, Michael Rubinstein and Mike Gallo, plus others. Scott |
mghia Veteran user Kymystical 387 Posts |
Scott,
you mention setting bit rates. Could you mention what bit rate works best? Also, does anyone know which software packages have the best(fastest) codecs? I hate how long it takes to author when needing to make simple changes and the movie is already in MPG format. I have used Ulead Video Studio 9 and 10. It would seem this and many others have plenty of bugs. I know the forums for Ulead VS are very helpful to figure ways around most of the bugs. However I think that is where I read that how fast, given all other things equal and up to speed, a piece of software authors all comes down to the codecs. Thoughts? |
ScottRSullivan Special user 874 Posts |
It depends on what it will play back on and what the footage is. I've done 4-5 MB/Sec with pretty good results for certain footage like talking heads and things with little movement.
With more dynamic images, you might have to bump it up to 6 or so. I have found that many DVD players (especially older ones) can choke around 6-9. It varies on their internal buffer. With bitrates at 6 to 9, you are potentially sending too much information to the DVD player to decode on the fly. Newer players don't have this problem, as they have a much better decoding chip and larger buffer. That's why I keep it as low as possible without the image falling apart. In Compressor (a Mac program), you can see a live monitor of what the image will look like as you scrub through the video and set your bitrates and other variables. As far as codecs, you are limited to one as far as DVD authoring. DVD uses an Mpeg-2 codec. Mpeg isn't a codec that should be edited, due to the way it compresses the video. You should be editing in the native codec for most formats. Captured in DV, edit in DV, for example. A typical workflow at our studio is as follows: Record the talent on camera to P2 card (like an SD card in a digital still camera, but for HD video) in the DVCProHD codec, copy the files from the camera to the hard drive, edit in DVCProHD, export the finished video as a quicktime movie (still in DVCProHD). Open in a program called Compressor and encode it as an Mpeg-2 and an audio file, bring them into DVD Studio Pro and build the DVD, then burn with Toast. You'll notice everything is done in DVCProHD until the very last step. I can edit four streams of HD video simultaneously on my Macbook Pro in realtime without any problems. What is the best codec? There are so many and each is best for a specific task. It is like asking what is the best car? Scott |
wdwfan71 New user 100 Posts |
Quote:
Scott, I'm curious as to why you don't burn your DVD while in DVD Studio Pro. |
ScottRSullivan Special user 874 Posts |
Several reasons.
Toast Titanium 8 is the actual version I use. It has a bit more control over the actual burning of the dvd. Plus it does a great job of the verification process. And if I want to make some changes for a second copy (maybe change a track or menu design) I can keep working in DVD Studio Pro while Toast is burning. If I burned with Studio Pro, I'd be stuck twiddling my thumbs since I wouldn't be able to use Studio Pro during the actual burn. Finally, I've just found that Toast burns discs better. I've had very few bad discs with Toast when compared to DVD Studio Pro - and I burn a LOT of discs! While I don't make enough discs to justify purchasing a duplication machine, I am still sending plenty of approval copies to clients and master discs to replicators and you learn to be VERY efficient with your resources with this many discs going out the door. DVD Studio is great for the design of the DVD, from the navigation menus, to structure of the DVD to alternate tracks. But Toast makes fewer discs with errors. Hope that helps. |
wdwfan71 New user 100 Posts |
I've always used DVD Studio Pro or iDVD, I may have to check out Toast, you've peaked my interest. Thanks for the info.
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liljay510 Regular user Dallas, TX 101 Posts |
TMPGEnc has been great for in my case transferring from VCD to DVD...I did it for my set of World's Greatest Magic (Tv Specials) I got great results and DVD worked in all dvd players, but I may also check out Toast.
No matter How much you know you can never stop learning.
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fxdude Loyal user Hollywood 241 Posts |
Quote:
On 2008-02-24 10:00, ScottRSullivan wrote: I will second all of the above. These are the same experiences I've had, I probably burn 10-15 discs a day using the above process. |
fxdude Loyal user Hollywood 241 Posts |
Quote:
What is the best codec? There are so many and each is best for a specific task. It is like asking what is the best car? At our visual effects studio we are very picky about color. We have to be extremely color accurate since we are dealing with full resolution film images and have to match the color of the original film. The film gets scanned at full resolution and our artists work on the full resolution images but I compress those images into Quicktime to work with editing and dvd authoring. I use MotionJpegA for our codec since it is essentially a photo for every frame of the film. The codec is on all machines with Quicktime installed (PC and Mac) so there is never an issue with someone not having the codec. The files are not small in size but they play back well and are the most color accurate out of all the codecs (we've done tons of codec testing). Most magic videos don't need to be that color accurate but I thought I'd throw out this information. ScottRSullivan is correct that you should work in the resolution that the original material was captured at until you're ready to go to a dvd. Apple's Compressor does a good job at compressing to MPEG2 with it's standard settings. Hope this helps. |
Jeff Inner circle Orlando, FL 1238 Posts |
Quote:
On 2008-02-23 22:50, ScottRSullivan wrote: Scott is absolutely correct. Most older DVD players will chock on bitrates above 7. I keep my disks at VBR of 4-7 depending on the content. Another secret is when writing to the DVD, write at the slowest speed possible. Lwss chance for errors written back to the disk. Jeff Pierce
Available for order now:
http://www.thecardwarptour.com See new, used, and collectable magic and books for sale at: http://www.jeffpiercemagic.com |
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