Make custom menus without reencoding

[kevster]

Yes I have a dvd recorder for my church. I want to record on the dvd recorder for our services and make custom menus for the dvd on the pc. I dont want to have to reencode the dvd on the computer. It takes a long time to encode dvd on pc. I want to let dvd recorder do it and finalize the disk then get it on pc and make custom menus for the dvd. Is this possible and if so how? which software? God bless, Kevin

[blutach]

Kevin,

There are a few packages around that can make menus, including the Ner0 suite, DVD Styler, NuMenu4U etc. There would be no need to encode the movie.

Regards

[kevster]

Okay how would I do that ? Copy the contents of the hard drive over and make a new menu? and then add that to the dvd content and burn the data on a new disk? Please explain? thanks for the help so far!

[drfsupercenter]

You would use an authoring program...

I wouldn't reccomend Nero as the only way to make menus (As far as I know) is to re-encode the video.

TMPGEnc DVD Author can make simplistic, but effective, menus... I use that program and it's well worth the money. You can get a free trial if you want to try it out.

There are also free ways... numenu4u I've tried, but it's a bit hard to use. Never tried DVD Styler.

Did you want really fancy menus? Or just ones that aren't generic looking like the recorder's? (I use a DVD recorder too, so I know what they look like)
TMPGEnc lets you use a JPG image in the background, you can make the buttons look virtually any way you want... and that does not re-encode the video. It just copies it, and makes a new menu.

[admin]

You can import VOB files straight into most authoring tools, like Nero Vision or TMPGEnc DVD Author (TDA) - guides available here for Nero Vision and TDA. Unfortunately, Nero Vision will always re-encode your VOB files even if they fit properly on the disc. TDA doesn't suffer from this problem I think. Both packages come with some templates you can base your menus on, and if you are creative, you can create quite nice looking menus (even animated ones).

These two are the fairly easy ones to use, mainly aimed at home users. They have some limitations, such as limited audio support. There are other free tools like GUI for dvdauthor or DVDauthorGUI that simply makes menus from scratch, or the more powerful (but perhaps slightly harder to use) tools like DVD-lab and Vegas+DVD.

[drfsupercenter]

That's what I meant about Nero re-encoding the VOB.

I wonder if you lose quality that way? The only time I use Nero is if I'm converting a different type of file... everything else I use TDA.

[admin]

Technically, only a small quality loss should result if the encoder is good, but I've noticed that the results are average at best. Also, instead of taking 20 minutes to make a DVD, it takes 2 hours, which is a bit of a waste of time.

[kevster]

Thanks this is been very helpful. I will give it a try most likely with one of the free ones first. Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

IN gui for dvd author, I seleceted the vob draged it to the menu editor, and the put my titles in. I also put a background picture but it wouldnt read my mp3s to put back ground music. Then I clikeced creat dvd and it put the dvd files in a temp folder. I then burned them with nero to a data dvd but my dvd player wont read them. Did I do something wrong? Also if I wanted to add dvd menus that were animated could i do this with gui for dvdautor?
Is there any more free programs that will let me add custom menus without having to re encode which takes so long? I would like to create one menu and have it saved so I can do it on future dvds for my church without having to re design the menu. Is this possible?

What about windows dvd maker in vista? If i import the .vob and make menus with it would i have to reencode with it? I like windows dvd maker but it took forever to make a dvd the last time i used it. Kevin

I belive dvd styler will do what I want it to do. Make menus off .vob without having to reencode. However, I import .vob make menus and start to make dvd and it gets like half done and says error and stops. anyidea what this could be. It does it on both making .iso and straight burn. Anyone else have same problem?

[blutach]

Perhaps there's something wrong with the VOBs.

Personally, I make all my menus by hand using a BMP, PgcEdit (for commands, button positioning and colour schemes) and DVD SubEdit (to make highights). This is not a technique for beginners, however.

Regards

[kevster]

dvd styler

Okay I figured out what caused the error. I had a menu button pointing to a file that wasnt there. Now heres the problem. It made iso i burned using nero. when i put the dvd in the dvd player the menu is very jumpy and i cant get it to play anything. Any suggestons now. By the way it didnt have to rencode the dvd which is exactly what i wanted, and it was fairly easy to use. If i can just get it working now.

[blutach]

Sounds like you got a media quality issue now (assuming the mux is OK). What media are you using (MID code). Read and implement the Golden Rules of Burning.

Regards

[kevster]

My dvds are are sony dvd +r ver 1.3 1-16x with accucore. I have made many burns with these before with no problem. I will try again and see. I think i burned at 16x so i will slow it down to like 4x. thanks for the help so far.

hey i used dvdsytler and burned it at 4x now the menus are still jumpy but i can press enter and it play the movie. This is exactly what I need to do the job. If Icould only figure out why the menus are jumpy. they jump like up and down. Maybe there is a settign in there somewhere. Anyhelp would be appreacticed greatly.

Okay I switched to ntsc fro pal to see if it did anything. Same thing the movie plays fine but the menus are too jumpt to read. I went in settings and it listed the following jepegtompegcommand frame count of menu
menu video bitrate slideshow video bitrate multiplexing command
demultiolexing command spumax command dvdauthor command
preview command create iso command burn command burn iso command
add ecc command format command out of those everyone had some stuff behind them execpt preview command. The only one that stood out at me was the menu video bitrate it was 9000 and so was slideshow video at 9000. Does any of these setting affect why menu is so jumpy? Please help

Hey those settigns are defianlty the problem. I changed the frame count of the menu to 1 and the menu video bitrate to 1. now its stable not jumpy but a little blurry and off centered. any idea what those settign should be? also is pal or ntsc better?

[thaum]

What Ever Happened With This?

I need to do something very similar.

And since so much time has gone by, is there anything newer and either free, or VERY inexpensive that will allow you to create a decent menu without having to re-encode the video or audio?

Thanks.