What Software is Out There for DVD Authoring?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
July 25, 2023
3 replies
9624 views

Encore, DVD Studio Pro, and most of the rest are gone. What else is left to make a DVD? (They're still getting made, right?)

I have tried Toast, but it is way too crash-y.

Thanks.

This topic has been closed for replies.

A

ann_1427

Participant

Nowadays, there are more and more DVD authoring software in the market. I recommend AnyMP4 DVD Creator, which is available on Mac computers. It allows me to add frequently used video formats, like MOV, MP4, MKV, M2TS, VOB, etc., to the software and burn them to DVD discs. I can customize disc type, aspect ratio, and video quality. Moreover, it offers editing tools for me to adjust DVD video effects and chapters. It also provides NTSC and PAL standards to fit the specific DVD player requirements. You can try its trial version to burn a DVD disc for free.

neil wilkes

Legend

Nowadays, there are more and more DVD authoring software in the market. I recommend AnyMP4 DVD Creator, which is available on Mac computers. It allows me to add frequently used video formats, like MOV, MP4, MKV, M2TS, VOB, etc., to the software and burn them to DVD discs. I can customize disc type, aspect ratio, and video quality. Moreover, it offers editing tools for me to adjust DVD video effects and chapters. It also provides NTSC and PAL standards to fit the specific DVD player requirements. You can try its trial version to burn a DVD disc for free.

By @ann_1427

Sorry, but that's not DVD authoring - it's putting data files onto a data DVD, with the end result being a DVD-ROM and not DVD-Video. I hate to nit pick about this (actually, that's probably not true ) but it's an important difference.
This is exactly why I get so irritated with people claiming things are DVD-Audio when they are simply DVD-Video with no video content. It's not the same thing, any more than BD-ROM with film content is Blu-Ray (and Sony would agree with me here too - you cannot (okay, you should not) sell BD-R as Blu-Ray because it is non-compliant and if they catch anyone doing this they will order all stock destroyed for rights breaches).

The tool listed above seems to be able to make a very, very basic DVD but I wouldn't want to replicate from it, and what it is claiming as Blu-Ray authoring is non compliant, and should never be marketed or sold as Blu-ray.

Not that they will care - I suspect they are Chinese or China based

neil wilkes

Legend

You're on a Mac, so that's an immediate disadvantage right there, sorry to say.

The best tools that are still selling new seats are the following - both are Windows PC only though, so if you need to do a lot of authoring I would highly recommend putting together a PC that can run these tools.

Media Chance Labs DVD-Lab Pro 2

Scenarist SD

The first one can be bought outright (follow the link) for a mere $90. The website has a lot of tutorial material, and the manual is superb as well. I still use this on a regular basis for all DVD-Video & Video_TS content for DVD-Audio/Video hybrids and can highly recommend it.

Scenarist can be bought outright but it is expensive (although not as dear as it used to be) with the additional option of a monthly subscription model that also gets you full tech support as well as all updates as part of the package and is THE 'Hollywood/Studio' industry standard. The learning curve is steep but it works well, and is still in development too. Additionally, the core is very similar to what Adobe licensed for Encore, with the main difference being that unlike Encore, Scenarist SD is full spec with no features disabled or not accessible.

The other link posted by Peru Bob is end of life and has been superseded / abrogated by version 7

Much as I love TMPGEnc & their products however, I am n ot a fan of this software at all - and again, it is Windows 11 PC only (the options I listed above will happily run on earlier versions, with DVD-Lab Pro 2 happily running on Windows 7, 8, 10 etc but I have no clue if it will run on 11, and Scenarist is also perfectly splendid on Windows 10 and a Bootcamped Mac too - just like DVD-Lab Pro 2).

The reason I am not a fan of the TMPGEnc tool is because it is seriously restricted in spec implementation, and it's abstraction layer design will rapidly box you into a corner there is no escape from - just like Encore used to do if I am to be honest (and I used to like Encore).

TMPGEnc do make superb tools however - in particular I can highly recommend their Premiere Pro plugin for H.264 encoding as it is vastly superior to the dreadful MainConcept powered AME built into Premiere, and again whilst it is Windows only it is backwards compatible to Windows 10 build 15.x, and encodes not only to H.264 but also MP4, MPEG-TS and - perversely, given that you cannot actually import the result back into Premiere at all - MKV!!

But I digress, and I apologise.

For DVD authoring it is necessary to get a PC to do the work these days. Sorry, but that's the way it is.