DVD Menus

[cash]

what are the best programs to make DVD menus on at the mo, i am making my DVDs on a PC
Cheers
Cashy

[miker]

On the PC I've used Sonic Foundry (now Sony) DVD Architect. Very good.

If you are looking just for a simple menu then I think Nero 6 can do that (5 can do (S)VCD menus).

I think Adobe Premiere Pro also offers some form of DVD authoring also.

If you're looking to fry your brain (and your wallet) look at things like Scenarist.

HTH

[Xendar]

I haven't used DVD Architect, but I heard a lot of good reports.

I can highly recommend Ulead DVD Workshop. It has loads of pre-designed menus and includes lots of images and backgounds for creating you own, plus you can import your own images too.

[sn-films]

I've been using Ulead's DVD Workshop or the past year now and I'd highly reccomend it. Both DVD Workshop and CD Architect allow you to have animated backgrounds and thumbnails on your menus which really help to make your DVD look more professional. Also, you can specify a "first play" video so when you pop the DVD into a player you can have your logo come up before the main menu which is pretty slick.

There are a lot of $50 solutions out there, but after the novelty of creating one DVD, you'll hate the fact that you're locked into predefined templates so I'd reccomend spending a few extra bucks to get a more versatile software solution.

[Vertino]

I've been taking a look at Adobe Encore DVD... it looks quite nice... used Photoshop PSDs as the native format for the DVD menus.

It uses a naming convention for each layer, so they can be the buttons, highlight state, backgrounds, etc...

very light learning curve, but if you're familar with the other Adobe products, then it should be straight-forward!

[untamed_aggression]

DVD Studio Pro is a quite good piece of kit. From what I've seen of it (Over a mate's shoulder), it's relatively simple to use, you can do video backgrounds and generally all sorts of cool gubbins.

I don't rightly know, but I assume it's available on PC.

[highlander1432]

I also have been using ulead dvdworkshop. If you want to make professional looking menus with ease, this is the program to use. It has a lot of options such as first play video, no preset menu templates so you can configure a menu any way you like, audio play over menus, and even motion chapter selection. The thing that really sold me on this program is that it is very powerful and still has a very intuitive interface that lets you learn to use the program without having to invest a lot of time learning it.

[Generic Skinhead]

I't's not, you know. It's by Apple.

[miker]

Indeed, DVD Studio Pro 2 is my choice of DVD authoring app right now ... and it rocks. It's by Apple, for OS X only I think, certainly no PC version ever gonna be available.

DVD Architect comes a close(ish) second, and is now owned by sonypictures so no doubt it will be assimilated into the industry more readily.

[Kigo]

I've used a few like Ulead and Dazzle, even TMPG, but at a glance Encore DVD seems to be the daddy. Most of the others are very restricted, but encore lets you do what you like, as long as you know what you're doing! Plus some are very picky. If you have a film that's 2hrs and 3.6gig in length, although the size may fit on a 4.7gig DVD the programmes won't let you put it on because the time goes over the set length programmed into the package. I haven't burnt anything using encore so I don't know if that is the case with that package. TMPG isn't bothered by this and just creates the folders for you to burn to disc using a buring tool.