What Software do you use to make DVDs of pics and video?

[jenmcadams]

Just wondering what software everyone uses to make DVDs of picture slideshows and movies. My new Dell laptop came with a cheap version of MyDVD (need to upgrade to get the slideshow capability)...does anyone else use this software? What other (PC-based) software do people use? I'm looking for something fairly simple that allows me to splice together short digital video clips, music and photos/slideshow images.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[August Mom]

We use Pinnacle Studio. I like it a lot and think that it's pretty easy to use. The nice thing about Pinnacle is that you can use multiple songs in 1 video. Not all programs let you do this. Some just allow 1 song. You can easily integrate still pictures with the video. It also allows you to add transitions between scenes and you can add fancy text (either for the intro, credits or in between scenes).

[mik8]

I use Ulead 8. It is not fairly easy to use (took me awhile to get the hang of it and a lot of patience)for amateurs, IMO. After a lot of "experimenting", I'm really happy with its results. You can do fade-in and fade-out with your music which is nice if you only want to feature a portion of a song. There are so many transition designs to choose from. I can put titles with different designs, background and texts in between chapters/sections. The most outstanding feature is the movie editing "timeline" because I can see in "millisecond-per-millisecond" the points of when my title appears, length of exposure per picture, length of music background in relation to your slideshow so you know when to start fading in and out, etc. Music is very easy to import whether you use a CD or a from a USB stick/storage device. Let me tell you though, when I was looking for video-editing software, about 2 sales guys recommended Pinnacle Studio. They said Ulead is hard. I don't even know why I ended up with Ulead. This video-making can become addictive. I have made 3 home movies so far and I'm really pleased with them. They're great personal gifts. Good luck!

[luvmypeanut]

Has anyone used Vegas+DVD? The reviews for Studio 9 were not so good. I'm also looking at Ulead 8 and came across the Vegas software. I'm a newbie at this too and since I'm overseas I've got to order online and would rather not have to return it if it didn't suit.

[indy1710]

I didn't ask the original questions but so glad I saw this as I am trying to find some software that does this as well. So thanks. I'll be watching for more info! :)

[mik8]

I'm not familiar with Vegas+DVD but I'm showing here a link of the 2004 Video Editing Software Report outlining side-by-side comparison review of the most popular ones out there.

http://www.video-editing-software-review.com/

HTH!

[Java]

I use Adobe Premiere, which is an AWESOME program but it's (1) expensive and (2) complicated at first glance.

I got the program from my brother and had to borrow the manual at the library to just get started. I'm not a computer dummy but this has so many bells and whistles that I didn't even know where to start. But having played with it, it's pretty easy now if I want to do the basic movie with audio.

Here's what I've done so far (my first attempt):
http://philpham.com/sonya/15nov04.mov

You'll need the quicktime player to open it but this is just the bare-bones-basic stuff this program can do.

BTW, I had to squeeze this clip from 57MB to 7MB so I sacrificed quality (video and audio) but you can easily make any clip into DVD quality.