vs9 alternative authoring program

dmz · Post by **dmz** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 11:32 am

I find VS9 great for editing but very poor for authoring. I read from this forum that moviefactory is good for authoring. What other software is really good at just authoring? Does anyone actually produce a program that is great for capturing/editing/and authoring in one? I cant really understand uleads product strategy - vs9 great editor/poor author - mf4 - poor editor/good author?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 12:27 pm

dmz

There are 4 main DVD related products.

For authoring
DVD Workshop 2.
Quite expensive and doesn't do editing but produces Commercial Quality DVD's. There are very few commercial DVD's I have seen that I could not recreate with this software. It can convert your audio to AC3 if it is not already, plus handles MPEG Audio and LCPM audio.

Motion Menu's which can include motion thumbnails and/or a motion background. Multiple audio tracks, multiple subtitle tracks. You can define "playlists" so that when a user selects one of your buttons or text links it will play your selected sequence of clips including the ability to define the audio/subtitle tracks.

There are pre-desined Thumbnail menu's and pre-defined text menus.
All are of course completely editable. You can even begin with a blank screen and add your own buttons, text, thumbnails, music etc.

For Editing
Media Studio 8
This is the more expensive of Uleads two editors and aimed more at the professional user. This software is used for cutting up and then pasting back together video clips. It includes hundreds of transitions.
There are multiple video and audio tracks so that you can create things like picture in picture effects plus moving paths.
There is a large range of tools to enhance or correct your video such as colour correction, brightness, contrast and an array of special effects.
It includes audio filters and other tools to adjust or edit sound effects.
It includes Smartsound Quicktracks so that you can quickly add background music to your videos that will be an exact fit.

It includes a whittled down version of DVD Movie Factory 4 to enable you to create DVD's from your edited video's - Though obviously DVD MF4 is no where near as good as DVD Workshop 2 (above.)

Video Studio 9
This is the cheaper brother of Media Studio 8 and aimed more at the home user. It only has a video track plus an overlay track.
There are two further audio tracks (one labelled music, the other voice - though they both to me appear to work the same)
It also has a few hundred transitions, video correction tools for things like brightness, contrast, special effects. It also has smartsound Quicktracks.

Video Studio has its own DVD authoring tools which are similar to DVD MF4.

Obviously this is not as powerful as Media Studio 8 but less complex for the casual user or novice.

Combination
DVD Movie factory 4
Think of this as Media Studio 8 in reverese, that is an editor with a whittled down author. Movie Factory 4 is an author with a whittled down editor.

Obviously not as powerful as DVD Workshop but you can produce some good DVD Menus with this tool. It includes some basic editing abilities.
This is aimed more for the person who wants to simply grab a video and turn into into a DVD without much fuss.

dmz · Post by **dmz** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 11:50 am

Thanks for that comprehensive summary. As im happy with "basic" as I am with VS9 then probably MF will do me rather than having to go for dvd workshop. (others might like to mention non-ulead authoring programs). Does MF4 allow me to position text and thumbnails anywhere on the screen? (vs9 is not good for that). Also, with my vs9 "authoring" i have selected a background tune and 3 thumbnails per screen. When I scroll to the next series of 3 thumbnails the background tune starts again which is extremely annoying. Does MF allow me to scroll through many screens and not start the background music each time i change screens?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 9:42 pm

First, I should note that I am a happy user of VS 9 AND MF4. I have Worshop 2 but frankly have never taken the time to work it out and so have not been able to use it for authoring, though don't doubt its claimed efficacy.

But secondly, I am a little surprised that you find VS9 authoring 'very' weak. It is certainly more flexible, and gives more choices, than third party software like Nero (though Nero 7 is definitely better on this front than Nero 6 was). I have certainly had no problem moving text about on the menu pages or in personalising the screens in other ways. And VS9 has taken on more of the characteristics of say, MF3 Disc Creator in this regard than VS 8 ever had. In fact, I would have to say that there is not too much difference between the current MF4 and VS9 in straight out disc authoring these days. What I personally prefer in MF 4 is its ability to handle slideshows with no effort. VS 9 is streets ahead of VS 8 for slideshows, but still not up to the simple job which MF4 seems to make of it. MF4 also allows you to time your slideshows exactly to background music (if that is your thing), while VS 9 will not AFAIK. MF4 is also a bit more flexible with what you can do with menus, but the basic burning engine is much the same in both programs.

The one big weakness I see in both programs is precisely your last question: background audio. In fact, with both, you can set different background music to different screens, but again AFAIK, opening a new screen always makes the selected music start afresh. In neither can you have the music continue to play seamlessly. And another thing I tend to hate is that, IIRC, you can only play the background music for about 30 seconds maximum anyway, before it starts all over again. Unless you take this into account and tailor a 30 second grab of music and give it a fade-out, it sounds highly unprofessional to my ears to have the background music break off raucously and start all over again... and again... and again....!! I know you are expected to have made your menu choice in that time, but that is not the point... Workshop probably gets around this problem, though as I say, I don't know.

The only third party software that I have used apart from Nero, was MyDVD, which did a good job and at the time was more flexible than the MF2 I was then using, particularly in allowing for motion menus. But that problem was overtaken in MF3, and as I say, I am now using MF4. So I cannot say what other programs like MyDVD are now capable of.

dmz · Post by **dmz** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 10:57 pm

thanks for your replies. ive done a bit of searching and it seems that dvd-lab and tmpgenc dvd author might be worth a look.