Wing Commander Academy DVD menus.

DyNaMiX

Spaceman
Ages ago someone made menus for the series. I was going to burn my own DVD now that I've got a write (I've also printed off that nice cover that was made) but I was wondering if someone could tell me what software I need in order to burn a proper video dvd and have all the cool menus on it? If I can't get menus that's but what do I need to produce a proper DVD? I'm using a windows system.

Thanks for any help. :)
 
Depends on what you want to do. For simple stuff the software that came with your DVD writer should be sufficient (Power Producer Gold,...). I kinda like DVDLab which is a considerably cheap and VERY powerful software (not very intuitive however) for more complicated projects (animated menus,...).
 
I don't really have any DVD software. All I have is my DVD player.
Basically I just wanna burn the DVD so DVD players/stereos can play it. I just tried a data CD and the dvd player with the TV couldn't read it.
 
expecting a DVD player to read video files on a CD is like expecting a standard CD player to read audio files off of a CD

You need special software what will decode the video files and then create a DVD disc image from it, which you can then burn to DVD.

Also you might try making a VCD, if your DVD player can play one.
 
Most modern DVD players can play VCD (video compact disc). For all your VCD creating needs head over to www.vcdhelp.com. They have everything you could possibly need to create a VCD (at least software wise).
 
Thanks for the help guys. I'm using the guides found on that DVD site and converting the avi files to DVD, then authoring/burning them to DVD. So Iv'e got that all under control now.
However one problem when I'm converting, what "bitrate" should I use? I went with the default (6000) and that increased the filesize of the first academy episode from 200 to 700mb.
 
This keeps getting worse. Every single avi converter (to DVD) is trying to tell me a 200mb file is going to be 9gig?!
This is starting to get annoying. I've tried heaps of programs and they're all causing trouble.
Is anyone able to please recommend a simple program that will:
-Convert all the wing commander academy episodes into ONE DVD?
 
To convert the file you're best to use TMPGENC. It will convert your file to a .mpg file that you can use to burn. It might increase your file size slightly but nothing too massive. Due to the limited size of a CD you will probably only get one episode per cd.

http://www.tmpgenc.net/
 
Maj.Striker said:
To convert the file you're best to use TMPGENC. It will convert your file to a .mpg file that you can use to burn. It might increase your file size slightly but nothing too massive. Due to the limited size of a CD you will probably only get one episode per cd.

http://www.tmpgenc.net/

It increased the size to 1200mb. It also only lets me do 1 video at a time. :/
 
You have to understand that DVD/MPEG2 is a HIGH QUALITY format. So filesizes are INTENTIONALLY that large in order to give best quality. Of course you can use higher compression, but then quality suffers. In any case DVD will NEVER look as good as a DivX on the same filesize, as it is an OLDER standard.
You'll have to decide for yourself which quality is acceptable for you (just view the videos at different settings), but personally I'd not try the one DVD approach (unless maybe with a Dual Layered one).

As far as one file at a time and TMPEGenc goes, that is not true. Just click on "do not start encoding immediately" at the end of the wizard and que up more files.

PS: Regarding Video CDs: Those are supposed to carry 1 hour of video at VHS quality (so it will be quite poor), one episode will be about 300MB in this MPEG1 format. SVCDs are higher quality, one episode per disk then ~500 MB IIRC.
Again DVD files will be larger then either usually...
 
Ahh starting to make sense now.
So what would be the best approach to keep the quality the files are in now? Would that be to go for 300mb MPEG1?
I wanna keep them at the quality they are before they're put on DVD. If that means a couple DVDs I guess that's cool.
 
Well, standard single layer DVDs are looking at about 2 hours of video. When No Mercy made WCA DVDs a while back, the series fit on three discs.
 
300mb MPEG1 is seriously worse then the highres versions. Somewhere between VHS and VHS longplay. As ChrisReid said. Aim for something like 1.1 GB MPEG2 files and use 3 DVDs. Which is what TMPGENC gave in the first place. You might be able to squeeze out a bit more quality for your MBs by using VBR and MP2 as audio.
 
cff said:
300mb MPEG1 is seriously worse then the highres versions. Somewhere between VHS and VHS longplay. As ChrisReid said. Aim for something like 1.1 GB MPEG2 files and use 3 DVDs. Which is what TMPGENC gave in the first place. You might be able to squeeze out a bit more quality for your MBs by using VBR and MP2 as audio.


Would MP2 have more quality than PCM? I'm not sure what the two are. You said here you can squeeze more quality for mbs by using MP2, but PCM seems to take more space so I assume PCM would offer even better quality?
 
DyNaMiX said:
Would MP2 have more quality than PCM? I'm not sure what the two are. You said here you can squeeze more quality for mbs by using MP2, but PCM seems to take more space so I assume PCM would offer even better quality?

No, as was established earlier in the thread, larger file sizes do not automatically equal better quality. Older codecs simply doesn't compress data as well (or at all).
 
DyNaMiX said:
Would MP2 have more quality than PCM? I'm not sure what the two are. You said here you can squeeze more quality for mbs by using MP2, but PCM seems to take more space so I assume PCM would offer even better quality?

MP2 is more or less a perdecessor to MP3. As such it is a lossy compressor. So obviously PCM will give you more quality.

However a 10 MB MP2 sound file will sound MUCH better then a 10 MB PCM/WAV file. Which is what I said - more quality for your MB.

So its just the question qhat you want: A perfect 200 MB sound file or one that sounds identical and only needs 30 MB. Considering this is a TV capture and consequently has less then 100% perfect sound quality I know what I'd pick.
 
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