TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4, any opinions?
 

I'm trialing this program now. Seems pretty basic with menu creation but I'm not looking for anything fancy or custom. I realize that the old Ulead DVD Workshop is dirt cheap, but I'm looking towards the future, namely BluRay and AVCHD support.

My only nitpick with it is it seems to re-encode the first and last frames of a chapter, even though I imported each chapter as a separate file (m2v/wav pair)... of which the first frame is naturally an I frame. Other then that, it doesn't touch the source videos as they are properly encoded for DVD Video spec. and fit on the disc. As for audio, it has a licensed AC3 encoder that works well. Any opinions/problems with this program I should know about? Any other program recommendations?

TAW4 (TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4), formerly TDA (TMPGEnc DVD Author), is a program best use for creating DVDs with no menu. Lacking a Blu-ray burner, I've not delved much into authoring BD-R, but I would assume menu-less discs would be the best choice there, too.

The editing abilities are not quite as accurate as can be had from dedicated editor programs, namely Womble software for editing MPEG-2 for DVD video. And then the menus, templates or your own custom work, is pretty limited and craptastic. It's very rigid and inflexible in many ways. I've only seen a few decent menus come out of TDA/TAW in the past 6 or so years since TDA was introduced.

Ulead DVD Workshop (currently $11 from B&H) is far better quality for DVD authoring. It works fine in Windows XP, Vista and even Windows 7, and although it's not been updated since about 2005, neither has the DVD specs! Ain't broke, nothing to fix. It's sole limitation is a lack of 16x9 menus, but it works fine with 16x9 video assets (main movies, episodes, bonus clips, etc). It's just a menu, and 4:3 is fine.

For Blu-ray authoring, Sony DVD Architect Pro 5 is probably the current best bet, unless you're willing to jump over to Mac OS X and delve into Final Cut Studio.

Buy Architect: http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/...type=1&subid=0
That link goes to a 30% OFF sale that ends at the end of Dec 14, 2010 (not sure of time zone).
The Vegas Pro 10 collection (the only way to get DVD-A v5 Pro) is $475 with the discount.
Normal price at Amazon is $499: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B0045IOLHG
So not a bad deal at all.
Trial for Architect: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/...pdates/dvdapro

Authoring BD-R is very much in infancy, almost like burning DVDs in 2001-2002. Limited tools, and what is available is maybe not as perfect as you wish it was. However, unlike DVD, there's not really a market pushing BD authoring to get better.

I don't like Adobe Encore.

Yeah, it seems like an odd product. You'd think they would use their own MPEG encoder engine in it, but they don't!

I'll likely pick it up today, for that price whats the worst that can happen? My only concern was it working well with Windows 7 x64, but I suppose running it in a XP VM will work in a pinch if there are problems. Plus B&H can get it here this week since its just going across the river.

This will have to wait. Future plans are pointing towards an AVCHD camcorder and a BluRay burner for sharing and archiving. Leave it to Sony to bundle the good stuff away in an expensive suite. I don't foresee going back to Mac anytime soon, my Powerbook G4 would have to get replaced before I do something like that. Besides, Final Cut Studio STILL doesn't support AVCHD without lengthy transcoding to an intermediate format. The whole suite seems to be languishing anyway, plus it lacks BluRay support..... because Steve Says So(tm)!

I can't say I have actually used Vegas before. Folks seem to prefer it over Premiere. Of course if Premiere CS4-5 is anything like v6.0 that I used years ago (with a Pinnacle DV2000 board!), I can see why.

Only the ones you meet online. I have yet to meet anybody in the offline world that's not using a system based around Premiere, Final Cut or Avid, that does professional video work. Vegas was an audio program that added video, and it just doesn't operate the same as most experienced editors expect from their NLE.

Easily the worst version of Premiere -- ever. With v6.5, it all got better. The first CS version had some bugs, but from CS2 onwards it's been fine. CS3 was an excellent move forward, with the addition of H.264 and better Flash encoding, with CS4 and now CS5 further improving on it. I use CS4 currently, but keep 6.5 on an older machine and a laptop -- just in case I need it for something small, as it has a smaller resource need.

And don't miss that $11 B&H deal. That app cost $300 just a few years ago, and it was worth every penny even at that price. And it's going to work just fine for you in Windows 7 x64. There are instructions in this forum for how to make it work by simply adding a DLL file.
It's right here: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/show...shop-2126.html

Picked up the $11 DVD Workshop, we'll see how it goes. I'm not surprised about Vegas not being common in the field, I always got the impression it was consumer level DV editing software that came with Sony products. Avid seems to be doing well despite Apple trying to kill them off by hardware (switching from NuBus to PCI) and Software (OS X) obsolescence. Plenty of pro environments were still using OS9 Macs running Avid around 2004ish from what I saw. My university even had a couple old Avid workstations (NuBus Powermac 7100s in a custom chassis).... hooked up to U-Matic SP decks!

As for Premiere, I think v6.0 was a major reason why so many folks switched to Final Cut Pro and led to Adobe discontinuing Mac support. Thankfully Adobe returned back to the Mac now that Apple is slacking with Final Cut Studio.

Adobe and Apple have been quarreling for at least a decade now. Their latest public bickering is over Flash support on iPhone and iPad. I used to know it, but I forget the reason Adobe withdrew from Apple platform across the boards (sans Photoshop, which was simply semi-crippled compared to the Windows version -- and I forget what that was, too). It comes down to the same thing now as it did then -- Apple gets too big for its britches, and forgets Adobe is a bear that can fight back.

A big issue is the antiquated CPUs on pre-Intel systems, and how much they would so vastly change the architecture (PowerPC to G3 to G4 to G5, etc) that it would screw up software. I remember OS8 being a total code abortion. It was a pretty version of an unstable OS7. I can remember typing thesis papers in Word and the machine would suddenly $hit itself for no reason, from idle to a big bomb icon on screen. The idea that a "Mac is more stable" is complete horse manure. OS9 thankfully came soon thereafter, and was a decent OS, all things considered. I prefer OS X, of course.