So you want to create your own DVD? And you want it done like an A++ professional? You’ve come to the right place.
For this you must have the following:
- An MPEG-2 converter (TMPGEnc Plus)
- A DVD Authoring tool. (Tsunami DVD Author)
Using TMPGEnc to convert to MPEG-2:
First off, you must get your video converted to MPEG-2. If you live in a region for PAL, you use PAL type conversion. If you live in a region or NTSC, use NTSC.
So how do you recognise 4:3 source video versus 16:9 source video? Simple; if you don’t have a widescreen pc monitor, 16:9 will create black frames above and below the video if put fullscreen. If you use this wizard it’s really easy to do. In the end if you are encoding 16:9 video, don’t let tmpgenc’s encoding process confuse you. It will look completely out of shape, but that’s just because their encoding window is one format only. The file will come out ok.
Using Tsunami DVD Author:
Set up your project as you picked your region (PAL, NTSC).
Go to Source to add your MPEG-2 files.
It will ask you to start chaptering the source video. But you can always return to this screen later by using the ‘Clip Editor’ button.
When the file is in a track, and has chapters, you can start building the menu.
It’s advised to take advantage of the wizard. You are afterwards able to completely change the look and feel the way you see fit.
The wonder of Animated Chapters.
The only thing slightly tricky in Tsunami, is creating Animated chapter selections.
You will need to activate it globally and/or override it in Top and Track menu’s. It will then take the first 15 seconds out of each chapter. However! You can override this default by right clicking the menu item and setting an in and out point, possible looping the animation if it’s too short.
The last step before exporting is the simulation. Here you can see what the dvd will look like and how it will function. If you’ve got animated chapters, do not be alarmed!! I know you won’t see them function. You must click the button in the screenshot below for it to work.
The final export is best done to your hard disk. I wouldn’t recommend burning immediately. This way you can still see if there’s something you’d like to change last minute by using Power DVD or any other dvd viewing tool for your pc. The project can be burned with Tsunami, but of course you could also let Nero set up a DVD project for you. Just put everything into the folders they belong into.
There you have it! Custom made, professional DVDs.