About Video Editing

Hardware Guide

Software Reviews

Free Downloads

Book Reviews

Video Editing Articles

Tutorials & Tips

About Video Editing > Articles

DVD Authoring

How to produce Hollywood standard DVDs?

Most probably, you can't.

Many of the advanced DVD features (such as multiple languages, multiple subtitles, camera angles, multiple audio formats, etc.) can only be achieved by industry level authoring facilities. But why do you need multiple subtitles in your wedding video anyway?

Speaking of video quality, Hollywood uses very sophisticated, multi-pass encoders and spends days to tweak their product. How can you beat them? And, let's face it, your video can't beat them either.

On the other hand, with DVD authoring software and burners on consumer market, you are able to produce DVD discs with impressive video quality, enough menu system, and simple interactivity. 

What do you need to burn your own DVD?

Besides computer, you need 4 more things:

1. A video capture card to get the footages into computer.
2. Video editing software to make your video. Most of the video capture cards are bundled with editing software - at least a basic one.
3. DVD authoring software to create the menus and interactivity. Some of the video capture cards come with DVD authoring software as well.
4. A DVD burner to actually make the DVD disk. They are getting cheaper and cheaper everyday.

How do you make your own DVD?

Basically, there are three steps:

1. Capture video
   First you need to capture, or digitize, the video into your computer. You should capture the video at full size - 720 x 480 for NTSC, 720 x 576 for PAL - which is the image size used by Native DV / FireWire capture cards.
2. Edit video
   Then you need to use your editing software to edit and compress it into a format suitable for DVD. Personally, I don't see much points to put raw footages into DVD.
3. Burn DVD
   The last step is to import your videos into the authoring software and create the necessary menus. Then you can use the authoring software and burner to actually write the data onto a blank DVD.

What features should I look for when choosing DVD authoring software?

It really depends on your needs. Here are some features you should consider:

• File formats it supports, make sure it can import files that your editing software exports
• Interactivity such as multiple menus, title and chapter marks, etc.
• Import graphics as background
• Preview or test function before burning

For detailed information, check DVD authoring software page.

Which DVD burner to buy?

Again, it depends on:

• Dash or plus camp you want to go for. If your girlfriend has a DVD+R drive, why not just follow her?
• Your budget
• Which features you want

Go to DVD Burner page for detailed comparisons.

Is standalone DVD recorder available?

Yes, there are several models available. They function just like traditional VCR. Really cool. And also affordable.

Check out DVD Burner page for more info.