Is MyDVD worth bothering with?

[david1939]

Has anyone had much experience with MyDVD? it seems to be an alternative to creating DVD's within VideoStudio. I find it non-intuitive and the help document isn't much use. In the past I have created with VS a project with nothing in the various tracks, gone to save, selected DVD, then entered the various video files I've created previously, and then designed a screen to select the files. I started doing this quite a number of years ago it was recommended by one of the moderators of this forum (sadly my memory of his name has gone away). Does anyone think it's worth chugging on with getting to know MyDVD?

[lata]

Video Studios authoring stage (share - disc - dvd) has been the same for as long as I can remember, the available menus being limited, there were additional menus provided via the Welcome screen store section, although VS X10 was the last time those were available to install.
My DVD on the other hand has 50 menus with an additional 50 from the store.
Which version of Video Studio are you using, your profile shows VS 2020, is that correct?

MyDvd over the years has been updated although I believe does need a little more attention regarding Bluray.
Your approach of creating mpeg video files to be used to create the disc is sound and is the same for My DVD.
Workflow is a little different as we add video and select our menu on the same panel.
I would have to check and test the options to edit menus, but with 100 menus available there is plenty of scope.

Moving to a new process is just a learning curve one which I believe worth while given the menu choices.
If you have any specific problems I will try to run through the processes with you.

I have to say that I would normally create an ISO video file then use another processes to burn that to disc.

[david1939]

Trevor, thank you for your useful reply. I have been investigating MyDVD some more and am beginning to understand the gist. Since I am an old fogey (you've seen my profile ) I tend to go for non-flashy menus, lists or thumbnails. I've experimented with creating new menus, but can only make thumbnail ones, not lists, also once I've made one, I can't find the way of making later alterations. Another thing, with the thumbnails, on VS you could select what to display, and no motion was an option (I usually used that), MyDVD always has motion, and just starts from the beginning of the video. I find these restrictions annoying, am I missing something! Thanks so much for your help!
Oh yes, I recently downloaded 2023 and am tentatively started to use it!

[lata]

Hi David
Yes we can select a Text Menu, view my attached image.
Unfortunately, whilst playing about with the options MyDVD gave an error then closed, maybe did not give the program enough time to catch up with my mouse presses, could not repeat the crash.
OK
Modify the Rows and Columns to add remove titles or hit the A* button to add one.
I found it a little awkward repositioning the titles without having a grid to “snap—to”.
Selecting one of the Titles opens a small text editor, there is an alignment option that did help once I understood how to use that.
There is also an option to add a background image / video (top right 2nd icon)
When complete I saved the template to return to the Themes, scroll to the top to find the new menu, Hit the + at the bottom to “apply theme to all menus”
Now I can do a little more changes, replace Background, if not already done, select the icon to the bottom left of the slider “Menu Editor”. Remember to close when finished here.

As for No Motion, using text menu and changing background to still image should help there.

click image for larger view

post updated
As a side note, I find MyDVD very slow when trying to Preview Project.
It is also slow when changing the background image, very slow to the point of struggling with that......

Playing the finished DVD having 4 titles always returns to main menu after playing any title, there is no continue to play next title that is available using Video Studio, I guess the workround is One Title with Chapter points.

[david1939]

Hi Trevor, I've tried playing around some things and have come to the conclusion that for my modest needs, using VS is sufficiently effective and easy to use! Thanks so much for giving your time to help me. Yes I have found MyDVD very slow to load and process.

One more question! I seem to remember that when moving to a new version of VS the "My Favorites" in the menu layouts need to be copied over from the previous version. But I now can't remember how to do it!

Thanks!
David

[lata]

The Favourites folder is located here:_
C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Corel VideoStudio Pro\21.0
This is for Video Studio 2018, for VS 2020 it will be the 23.0 folder
You should be able to copy the favourites or content from an older version to VS 2023