DVD authoring

[Paddy]

My daughter has just turned one and I was wanting to make a DVD of the first year of her life to send off to the relatives.

I have imported VRO files from my camcorder which seems to be a MPEG2 stream as it plays in any VOB player. i have noticed that the header information is incorrect in a couple of the files as the time stamp is incorrect and the audio goes out of sync in places...

In any case. I want to try and repair the above files and then export them to a DVD and create a custom menu. Sounds simple enough, but all efforts have failed over the past year. I don't know if it is my hardware or software but every program that i've tried seems buggy and crashes frequently. Having sold my PC i'm forced to do this on the laptop which is causing me some anxiety, but at least it has 2GB of RAM.

Can anyone recommend a software package that will help. I'm not going to buy it as this will be a one time affair so I'm up for suggestions.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

[Paddy]

Oh, the laptop runs Vista...

[Dr Mordrid]

A lot of video programs won't work in Vista unless you get a certified "Vista compatable" version.

If you want a video editor with basic, but decent, DVD menuing there's VideoStudio 11. Lots of room to grow for beginning editors and the authoring is good enough for 95% of users. A beginners Swiss Army knife.

If you want a DVD authoring program with basic editing features tnere's DVD MovieFactory 6. More menuing options including photo slideshows, DivX file conversion and support for .srt subtitle files.

In either case you have the choice of 'regular' or Plus versions, the latter of which are usually worth the extra cost, especially in the case of VideoStudio; more tracks, extra editing features, 5.1 Dolby audio vs. stereo Dolby and HD features. In MovieFactory the difference is 5.1 Dolby audio vs. stereo Dolby and HD features.

Both are Vista-ized & have free trials, though for licensing purposes some features are limited.

[Paddy]

Cheers DM.

I'll have a play with them both and shout if I have any problems.


Thanks matey.

Any advice on the imported VRO files with corrupt headers?

[paulw]

Oh, the laptop runs Vista...

From my experience at work this week getting a laptop with Vista working with our apps we had to go and yet again pay the Micr$soft tax and buy a copy of Win XP get get it going. I would rather go to a MAC or Linux than Vista. The cost of replacing the apps must be about the same..

[Paddy]

Yeah. It's always the same with a new OS....