First post so please go easy on me. I have a few video files I obtained from other peers saved to hard drive. They are in various formats (avi, mpeg, mov, mpg, wmv)I already burned a couple of them to DVD using some shareware. The quality on DVD playback was pretty bad. I suspect I'm going to need to purchase a better software. Based on this information, can someone narrow the search for me?
There are a lot of options for software out there. On my machine I use mostly AnyDVD (a purchased program-and one of the best around), DVD Shrink (free), and Imgburn (free). On my machine I also have Nero (a purchased program), DVD Decryptor (free), and RipIt4Me (free). With these you can burn very nice DVDs. The way to use Shrink if you are burning a 4.5G DVD is to set it for 4300 so you don't burn too close to the edge. I also most of the time use the reauthoring and burn the movie only which gives you much higher definition. I try to keep the definition at 70% or higher. On a lot of DVDs movie only will give you 100% definition. Forgot to mention I write to an ISO file on the hard drive. From there I do the burning with Imgburn. After burning when you delete the file, be sure to empty you recycle bin or it uses up a lot of space on your hard drive saving it in the recycle bin. I'm just learning to use RipIt4Me which is a free version of a decryptor that from all accounts is first rate. Hope this info helps. Good Luck
If you plan on acquiring AVI, mpeg, mov, mpg, wmv in the future DvD Santa would be good to convert to Vob files. Any DVD is great too. I went with the freebies for a couple of years then broke down and bought it. Should have done that sooner. I really like nero as well with Nero vision express. I can do almost anything with these. Also VOB Blanker is great to remove all the unwanted notices and extras while keeping the movie and menu at high resolution. Sometimes you dont need to recode.
A lot of the software listed above is very good, but for the question you asked it is also unecessary. So you are looking for software that will convert all differnt types of video formats to DVD compliant files. It is going to be hard to find one that will do everything, but if you get DVD Santa and or Nero Vision Express you will be able to convert a lot of different formats. Also as a free proggy DivXtoDVD is still pretty good at encoding. If you are looking for versatitlity though like making your own navigation menus and such then Nero would be good to go with as most others just convert the files.
