In more sophistated software, one apparently can define Chapters in video
production, or scene selection defined as titled chapters or scenes.
Instead of Movie Maker defining scenes in the DVD made from Movie Maker, is
there any way that this can be done in the video editing, i.e., define scenes
and titles applied to the scenes, such that a menu is shown at the beginning
of the DVD?
Thanks for any guidance.
Will
Maybe the following links
will offer some ideas:
Windows DVD Maker:
Burn a DVD-Video disc
http://tinyurl.com/38qgzd
Change Windows DVD
Maker DVD-Video settings
http://tinyurl.com/2sop4p
More info:
Help and How To :
Windows DVD Maker
http://tinyurl.com/yusbhl
Windows Vista edition of
Windows Movie Maker
http://tinyurl.com/rt49p
You said it yourself... more SOPHISTATED software. Movie Maker isn't
more than a toy. Following not just for Will's benefit. I've been
around the block a few times with video editing software of all kinds
and faced all the issues seen here and learned my lesson.
To make home brew DVDs that rival the features of commerical DVDs you
need a few things.
1. A DECENT video editor. One capable of getting down to the indvidual
frame level and is able to do real editing and serious color
correction. This means more than simply cutting out a few unwanted
frames. Decent video editors accept mixed source files on the
timeline and can easily stretch a range of frames to make a scene
play slower or faster, in reverse, zoom in, pan, etc.. Better ones
allow way more. Like blue screen tricks, overlays, composits, etc..
2. If your goal is more than simply putting any old video on a DVD
then burning it as is, then you also need DVD Authoring software if
you want to build a menu system. Avoid applications that use a
cookie cutter template approach.
Real DVD Authoring software allows very complex menu structure,
looping video backgrounds, background audio and a sub menu system
plus you get to decide how to arrage elements, size them, have
thumbnails loop a portion of the video they are linked to and so
on. Better software also allows you to recompress the files so they
"fit" on a DVD by re-encoding them at a lower bitrate.
Decent video editing software also allows embedding of chapter points
that DVD Authoring software will detect and automatically convent into
chapter that play the video from a set point to the end. Most DVD
Authoring software also easily allows you to simply click on a
timeline view and set chapter points that way and automatcally will
create thumbnails.
The point I'm trying to make is you get what you pay for. You can
either pound your head against the wall and waste hour after hour with
toy software like DVD Maker or invest in real software. Your time
should be spent editing your videos, not wasted fighting with some
lame software that barely works at all.
Good video editing software costs about as much as entry level digital
video cameras. Anything else is basically a toy and that's the results
you'll get which may be fine for some people's needs. If you want good
results decent video editing software is as powerful and also as
expensive as Photoshop is for still photograph work and so we come
full circle. You get what you pay for. You can either invest a lot of
time fooling around with mickey mouse software and in the end just be
frustrated and disappointed with the results or get the real thing.
Yes, the learning curve is pretty steep too. Again, it is the results
that matter. If you want good results, you got to get good tools or
you'll never be happy with the results.
To define chapters in DVD Maker, you need to make each chapter a separate
project in Movie Maker. You can then add all the projects to DVD Maker and
it will treat each as a different chapter.
Unfortunately, I do not see a way to add a title to each chapter in the menu
without making it part of the video. This is an incredibly lame omission.
Thanks Evan for your help - I too had the same question. As to what Will
said about better video software programs, is iMovie (on Macs) considered a
higher-level editing program? It is incredibly easy to use, yet you can
customize so much, especially in terms of the DVD menus. I don't do
professional videos, mostly just for my family and all our footage of our new
baby, but since my husband didn't want a Mac, I had to learn W.Movie Maker.
It's okay and pretty easy, but I sure do miss iMovie!
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