Author, Author: Burn Video Onto DVDs

Three popular movie-authoring applications let you burn your own.

Sales of recordable- and rewritable-DVD drives are expected to skyrocket in coming months as prices fall to about $500. And already, the competition to produce software that helps users create menus for and then burn video from camcorders, cameras, VCRs, and DVD movie players is growing. I looked at shipping versions of three popular offerings for authoring your own DVDs.

If you purchase a DVD recorder these days, the movie-authoring application bundled with it is likely to be Sonic MyDVD, from Sonic Solutions. (Recently, however, MedioStream's NeoDVD--which was not available in time for us to review--has won contracts from hardware vendors like Sony and Ricoh, thanks to its low price, excellent MPEG-2 encoding, and integrated transitional effects.) Sonic Solutions has been making DVD software since the inception of the technology.

If you prefer, you can purchase Sonic MyDVD 3.1 separately for $79. In my tests, I found that it provides all the tools a casual user needs for capturing video, trimming the captured files, and burning DVDs. It's far from perfect, however.

Sonic MyDVD 3.1's main strengths are its ease of use and its simplicity: It employs a wizard to step you through the DVD creation process. And unlike most of its competitors, the program also allows you to drag and drop media files using Windows Explorer--the easiest way to import large collections of video clips.

Its Direct-to-Disc feature speeds video transfers to your hard drive by skipping the authoring process: Your video is captured on your hard drive, but no interim image file is created, and you don't have to intervene after you start it running. Sonic MyDVD 3.1 also utilizes the OpenDVD standard. A free 3.5 upgrade (which should be available by the time you read this) is expected to permit users to edit menus and content directly on a rewritable-DVD disc, saving the considerable time it now takes to import them.

This program's major weakness is its lack of advanced video and DVD-menu editing. Sonic MyDVD 3.1 allows only simple trimming, letting you set start and end points. It also lacks scene detection to set chapters within video clips automatically, and it offers no video transitions or special effects. The only editable element of the autogenerated DVD menus is the text in button labels, though the upgrade is expected to let you drag buttons to a new location.

Sonic MyDVD 3.1 is fine for part-timers. But more-creative types may tire quickly of the program's artistic limitations. (Note that Sonic Solutions also offers more-complex DVD recording programs, including the $299 DVDitSE and the upscale $599 DVDitPE.)

For a Few Dollars More

Popular video editors are now adding DVD-authoring capabilities. One example is CyberLink's PowerDirector 2 Pro ($135 retail, $120 via download), which appends disc authoring and creation features via a separate wizard. Though this wizard is not integrated into the main program, it's slickly designed and lets you create Super VCDs (MPEG-2 VCDs) and MiniDVDs (DVDs on CD), in addition to the more common DVD and VCD formats that MyDVD offers. I found the wizard easy to use; but like Sonic MyDVD 3.1, this software provides no control over the size or placement of DVD-menu buttons. On the other hand, it does supply a wider variety of menu themes and automatic scene detection for digital video files.

PowerDirector 2 Pro shines in video editing and effects. Besides offering the normal splitting, trimming, and color control you'd expect of any video editor, it provides more than 20 video effects and 110 transitional effects covering the gamut of wipes, slides, and flips, along with everything in between. The program has no editing wizard to coddle neophytes, but its digital camcorder/storyboard approach is reasonably intuitive for users with some experience. My only serious beefs are that you can't drag files from Windows Explorer and you can't resize the interface to enable other programs to share the Windows desktop.

If you want greater control over the look and feel of your DVD menus, check out DVD Workshop ($299 retail, $279 via download) from Ulead. For a program that lacks advanced video editing functions, it's somewhat pricey; but I liked the software's professional finishing touches, such as motion buttons (menu buttons that display a looping excerpt of the video they point to) and chapter creation. It also has scene detection for automatically generating chapter points with raw digital video files.

DVD Workshop's iconic interface occasionally sends you running for the manual, and instead of a Windows menu you get Start, Capture, Edit, Menu (DVD), and Finish buttons. You can't drag and drop files from Windows Explorer. In addition, DVD Workshop's window occupies the whole screen and can't be resized.

Apple of Our Eye

None of these programs offers the complete capture, editing, and authoring solution that the average user is looking for, and all of them could take a lesson in user interface design from Apple's IDVD 2 for the Mac.

The upshot? Don't rush to replace Sonic MyDVD 3.1 if you're a casual user and it's already installed on your hardware. Looking for software with more options? Try CyberLink's PowerDirector 2 Pro for advanced video editing features or Ulead's DVD Workshop for more control over the final look of your DVD.

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