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Making DVD's on a Pc, Can you help?

Hi there,

So, I have just made my first short film, I edited on a mac with FCP7, now I have made an apple pro-res master and am trying to make some dvd copies on my pc at home but don't know what is the best program to use?

I have tried a few but they either left watermarks or wouldn't read the file, any suggestions? Hopefully something I can get free or on trial as the budget has been exhausted.


Thanks,

Stan.
 
Your PC should have Windows DVD Maker on it already. :hmm:

You'll probably need to convert your pro-res file first, though, to an MPG2 format. Try the free open-source Handbrake utility for that. There are a few other free conversion tools, as well.

Do you no longer have access to the Mac you used to edit with?
 
I don't know how to, but if you could stick with Mac that'd be easier. Or, try the free download off the Gopro site for Cineform. Cineform is supposed to be cross platform.
Steve is right though, at some point you're going to have to render out to MPEG2 if you want it on DVD. That's the standard DVD.
 
Your PC should have Windows DVD Maker on it already. :hmm:

You'll probably need to convert your pro-res file first, though, to an MPG2 format. Try the free open-source Handbrake utility for that. There are a few other free conversion tools, as well.

Do you no longer have access to the Mac you used to edit with?

I was looking for something a bit better than windows dvd maker. I don't have access to the mac, like I said the budget is gone. So you say get handbrake to convert it to mpeg2? does it lose quality in doing that? I haven't used mpeg2 before.


just remembered, when I tried to add the file to windows dvd maker, it is not available, which makes no sense to me, any ideas why that might be?

Thanks for the tips.
 
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it might not work, because it doesn't recognize it as a movie file, if you tried to make a movie dvd...

if you made a data dvd, yes, then windows dvd burner should do the job... but for a movie you need a format it recognizes...

so get converting... use handbrake, and try the different settings so you get the best quality.

also google this

(your format name) convert to dvd(or mpeg2)

and see what shows up of tips....
 
Nero is excellent for DVD authoring and copying.

There is a whole suite of Nero software for authoring, copying, and making disc images for faster copying in everything from PAL to NTSC to HD in various formats and you can customize your DVD authoring and save the templates as future short cuts for revised DVDs. Nero even has automatic chapter insertions.
 
DVD's are Mpeg2. No matter what file you give ANY DVD software it will end up as MpegII.

So ZenSteve's route makes most sense. Actually using legit transcoding software like handbrake for the Mpeg conversion instead of something cheap like Windows Movie Maker will probably make a better product.

If you want more control over the DVD menus and codec, download the free trials of Adobe Encore and Adobe Media Encoder. Free for 30 days and you have full access. Again, learning curve though.
 
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