Home PC DVD Video Production - what software? (1 Viewer)

[Philip Hamm]

I a simple DVD production software for my computer. I am eligible for student pricing. I currently use Pinnacle Studio 8 which I can not bear to use any more because it is so unstable. My PC is an Athlon XP 2000+ with 3/4Gig RAM and plenty of HDD space. It should be able to handle almost anything.

Stability is king here. My budget is tight. I can afford up to $150 but I'd rather spend less. Vegas is only $50 for me, should I try it?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I've been using Pinnacle Studio Plus 9 and haven't noticed any stability problems on a Celeron laptop with 768 MB of RAM. Just make sure you get all the latest patches.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Philip Hamm]

I will absolutely not buy another Pinnacle product ever.

 

[Mike LS]

How simple is simple? I tried the Pinnacle and Ulead offerings in a side by side, and even though Pinnacle beat Ulead with features, Ulead was just easier to use for me and seemed more stable.

It may not be as robust as you need, but is worth checking out.

http://ulead.com/vs/runme.htm

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I've been using the Ulead software, too. It's not fancy, but it does a decent job for editing and has been very stable so far running on a P4 3GHz Windows XP SP2 machine.

 

[Philip Hamm]

If I stretch my budget to $200 I can afford Adobe Encore. Very tempting.

 

[Will_B]

If you can afford Adobe Encore, and you're already a Photoshop user, then, well, I'd do that. Though some people say Adobe is a suckers game, the way they overprice everything.

Adobe Encore is powered by Sonic Solutions, so a cheaper alternative would be the latest Sonic MyDVD. Avoid earlier versions, but the very latest version is supposedly very nice.

Try to know in advance if you need multiple audio tracks (commentary track for example) or subtitles, because that's where the differences really are exposed, and the prices start going through the roof.

 

[Joey_R]

Are you looking for editing or authoring software? What are doing with it? If you are just editing simple DV movies, Win MovieMaker 2 included with SP2 free may be your ticket. I've found it to be stable and easy-to-use, not to mention the price is right. After creating the movie in MovieMaker 2, I just use the Sonic MyDVD (free with my DVD burner) to author and create the DVD.

Now, if you are turning flips and need elaborate features, MovieMaker 2 is not for you.

My 2 cents.