converting m2v/mpa or mpeg to vob

[earthping7]

I'm using the Cinema Craft Encoder (CCE) Basic (yes, I sprung the $60 for this mpeg encoder :-) ...and I'm very happy with its encoding capabilities, especially for scenes with lots of motion from my home videos.

My question is that once CCE does the AVI->MPEG (system) or AVI->M2V/MPA (elementary) conversion, how do I create the VIDEO_TS directory and the VOB, IFO, etc... files? I am using CCE to encode the AVI to a "DVD" quality/DVD standard MPEG format.

It appears that DVD authoring programs like "TMPEGEnc Authoring" will read in this MPEG or M2V/MPA combination and you can then make further "edits" to this video/sound stream.

But, when it comes to generating the VIDEO_TS directory with all the VOB, BUP, IFO, etc files, does the M2V stream get "re-encoded" again using an internal/built-in MPEG encoder to adjust the M2V to a DVD standard (which is what I've already done with CCE before bring the video into the dvd authoring tool)?

Basically, I want to make sure that the M2V portion of the MPEG I've encoded with CCE maintains it's quality, even if I make further edits (like adding menus, chapters, subtitles, etc...) using any dvd authoring tool.

[LT. Columbo]

you should be fine as long as you stick to TDA 1.6. many people have been complaining about the new transcoding feature in 2.0 re-processing their files with noticeable quality loss.

[earthping7]

so does adding a menu, subtitles, and chaptering modify the m2v?

[benbryant]

TMPGEnc DVD Author is an easy to use tool for authoring DVD. Unfortunately, AFAIK, it doesn't accept subtitles. You can use DVD-lab Pro if you want to do that

Regards

[earthping7]

maybe I should rephrase my question:

Which DVD authoring tools allow you to select a custom MPEG encoder (like CCE) when encoding the source (AVI, etc) to the DVD standard?

[LT. Columbo]

no subtitles, another option is dvdauthorgui.

[earthping7]

Thanks for all the feedback!

Both DVDAuthorGUI and DVD-lab fit the bill! I'll be trying them out shortly.

They don't come bundled with a built-in MPEG encoder, which is exactly what I was looking for.