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.