Creation of DVD disc with original menu. Creating a DVD Menu

20.08.2019 Safety

The DVD menu is a topic that will be discussed in this article. The site has already considered the issue of creating menus for DVD discs, but over time, programs have come out that greatly simplify the procedure for creating menus for DVD. Therefore, several programs were specially selected that allow novice users create a DVD menu without any hassle. You can find a lot of programs on the net that create disc menus, but we have selected the best of them. To create a DVD menu, you only need one program, but it was decided in the article - to use several programs to create a DVD menu, since each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. It is up to you to decide which program to use to create your DVD menu.

This article will also discuss the following questions:

Why do you needDVD menu

Each DVD video disc, whether licensed or pirated, has a built-in menu. Using the standard menu, you can:

Easily switch between movies

Turn on/off subtitles,

Select audio track in music discs,

Switch between slides quickly

Implement a convenient search for a video fragment on a DVD disc

But the DVD menu you create can be much more attractive and functional than the standard menu, because you will create the design of the DVD menu yourself. according to the theme of your disc. In addition, you can insert a beautiful photo instead of the usual background, you can make playing episodes instead of standard icons, etc. Therefore, the menus created by you will be original and unique.

Self-creation of a menu for a DVD disc

We offer you two ways to create a DVD menu. The first method is simpler and easier to quickly master for a novice user. It is built on ready-made templates. This way you can quickly create a DVD menu in just a few clicks. The second method provides more flexibility when creating DVD menus. This method involves working with a professional program for creating a DVD menu. Which way to work - you decide!

Creating a DVD menu with NERO 10

(spoiler title=Easier way opened=0)

To create menus, NERO 10 has an application called NeroVisionXtra. It is in it that we will create the DVD menu. This application looks like this:

Since we want to make a DVD menu, we go to "Make DVD/DVD-Video". Screenshot:

A new project will open. First you need to import files into it, and then make a menu. Therefore, click "Import / Import files ..."

Specify the video files that will be included in the DVD, their format does not matter, the process of adding video files to the NeroVisionXtra program is as follows:

After adding to NeroVisionXtra:

We have added four files, these will be the corresponding four DVD menu buttons. How many menu buttons to make is up to you. You may have a significant number of separate video files, but to have fewer buttons on the menu, you can merge or merge several video files into one. How to do this was covered in the guide: How to merge videos?

Go to the "Templates" tab and select the "Smart3D" value in the category. It has only one template called Cube. We select it (additional templates can be downloaded from the Internet by clicking on the "Additional templates" button). It already has built-in music and flash animation. It is well suited for those who agree to use ready-made templates. Screenshot:

As a result of applying the template:

In total, the template is designed for six buttons. In our case, two will remain free. Now you can make the appropriate inscriptions on the template. It has the corresponding fields marked in red. See screenshot:

Double-click on the field marked with red lines and a window appears where you can enter a new name:

Enter a different name and apply the changes by clicking anywhere on the menu template.

At this stage, the menu video will start playing, we can view it. By the way, this program emulates the operation of a DVD remote control. If everything suits, then click "Next"

Now let's set where the DVD movie will be recorded. The program can write it to a disc, or to a folder on your hard drive. For example, let's write to a hard disk (hard drive). Specify the folder where the DVD movie will be recorded and click "Record".

I would like to speed up the recording process. To do this, change the priority of the program. Replace "Normal" with "High". NeroVisionXtra will significantly speed up your work. At the same time, it is recommended not to do anything on the computer, because work with other programs will be significantly slowed down. At the end of the recording, NeroVisionXtra will prompt you to save the protocol file. You don't need it, so don't save it. When the menu is created, the following window will appear:

Creating DVD menus with DVD Lab Pro

The program that we will use to create a DVD menu has a complete set of tools for creating quality menus. The developers of the program paid special attention to setting up effects and unique elements of the DVD menu. Often when preparing DVDs, the user is looking for the best program to achieve their goals. Such a program is DVD-lab Pro - a fairly powerful solution for creating DVD menus. The program can create beautiful animated effects of moving buttons on selection, etc. With the help of the program you can create menus for DVD discs on any subject. You can also make a slideshow of photos for easy viewing on TV. Detailed instructions (in the drop-down line) will help you achieve the desired result. So, let's begin!

(spoiler title=A more flexible way opened=0)

Launch DVD Lab Pro. The program proposes to set the main characteristics of the future project.

First of all, we indicate the desired television system - PAL or NTSC. Below we mark the item that best suits your project.

Normal (VTS Menu+Movie) - the most common way to build a DVD: menu + movie. If the disc will contain several VTS (Video Title Set), then you must specify the second item - Advanced (VMG, VTS Menu + Movie).

If the disc will be without a menu - mark the third item Simple (Movie Only).

And if you have already used the program, and you have a template or an unfinished project, we mark the last option.

Now you need to enter the necessary video, audio data into the project, as well as images for the menu background and subtitles if necessary. For these purposes, the Assets window serves. DVD-lab Pro supports the main types of video and audio stream files: mpv, m2v, mpa, m2a, ac3, dts, wav, aiff, mpg, vob. An interesting feature of the program is that it immediately checks the imported files for compatibility.

Using the "Explorer" button, double-click to add a video to the project.

Now a few words about the format of sound files. A DVD usually requires audio at a sampling rate of 48kHz. Therefore, if you input audio with a different value for this parameter (for example, the sampling frequency of an AudioCD is 44.1 kHz), DVD Lab Pro will offer to recode the "wrong" audio file. If you want to use Dolby Digital AC-3 sound in the project, then you should either encode it first using third-party programs.

When importing files in MPEG or VOB format - the program offers to demultiplex them or use them as is. Please note that when using MPEG or VOB without demultiplexing, they must be compatible with the DVD format (mpeg-2).

Now we introduce a video file of the main movie and a starting movie and two sound files into our project. If necessary, we transcode the sound into AC-3 format. Since we are using two video files in the project, we will add one more Movie element. To add new elements, right-click in it and select the desired item in the context menu. This Project window displays the project elements that will be included on the DVD: movies, menus, slide shows, and links between them. All elements are shown in a tree structure.

It remains to drag the files from the Assets window to the Movie 1 and Movie 2 windows and their sound files.

And now we need to break our movie into chapters. This is necessary in order to be able to create a menu of episodes. You can do this in two ways - automatic and manual. In most cases, it is more convenient to use the manual arrangement of chapters - you need to click on the episode, a vertical bar and a plus sign will appear. By clicking on it, a marker will appear at the top (as in the figure).

By the way, for the convenience of viewing, you can use the viewport. (Bottom right). You can also place markers there.

The automatic search for chapters analyzes changes in the image of the scene. Sensitivity (Sensitivity) set in the range from 0 to 255. The recommended value is 220. To call the menu, you need:

And set the required parameters.

Creation main menu

Now let's start creating the main menu. It will appear immediately after inserting the disc into the DVD player. In the "Project" window, double-click on the line Menu1. A window will open in which we will work on the design of the future DVD menu. In fact, it is a simple graphics editor with support for raster and vector graphics.

Let's start by adding a background. Open the “Backgrounds” tab in the Assets window (below) and transfer the picture you like.

A window will open in which you can select the font type, its size and type the inscription itself. You can then resize the label or position it depending on the requirements of the project.

But in our 3d project, several default lines have already been created. We just have to change the inscriptions to our own. You can do this just below the project itself.

The project already specifies where the menu item will be, but you can tweak it a little if something doesn't fit somewhere.

1- Name of the disc "My DVD".

2- "Watch",

3- "Episodes"

As you can see, the last three labels will be active menu items or buttons. But more on that later. In the meantime, let's see what properties of objects can be changed. The entire right side of the program is occupied by the Properties panel. It consists of several bookmarks. Now we, perhaps, will not dwell on those tabs that allow you to change the appearance of objects. Since you yourself can customize the design of all menu items, without any difficulties.

The Fill tab provides additional textures for object fills that can be combined with the effects of the Colors tab. In addition to choosing the texture itself, there is a fill type setting: normal fill, overlay, negative, transparent. Additionally, we have four effects: emboss, metal shine, 2-lights shine, RGB-shine. In addition, you can replenish the textures yourself - for this, simply copy your JPG files to the C:\Program Files\ folder DVDlabPro\Textures\.

Also a useful bookmark - Lyrs (Layers - layers) - allows you to work with layers, similar to Photoshop. To move the layers are two buttons - Bring Forward (up) and Send Backward (down).

When designing a DVD menu, you can use a set of already built-in libraries, which is located in the Assets window. If for some reason you do not have enough pre-installed blanks, it is possible to independently supplement the libraries with your own objects.

In the program, among other things, there is a standard set of functions for aligning and centering objects. All the changes you make are immediately displayed on the project screen, so you can adjust all the elements according to your plan.

Now it's time to start creating the episode menu. Using this menu, you can quickly select the desired fragment of the film. In automatic mode, we divided the film into four episodes, each of which will be displayed in the working menu window as a small repeating fragment. This type of menu is called Motion Menu. In addition to being visual, the Motion Menu gives the DVD a professional look.

Creating such a Motion Menu is extremely simple. We click on the Wizard panel -> Add chapter selection menu, and go to a small window where we select a template for the future menu for episodes.

The program will create a new menu, and after that another line Scenes1 for Movie1 will appear in the Project window. Double-click on it and go to the already familiar menu editing window. In each of the template windows, the first frame of the corresponding episode will be automatically inserted.

At the bottom of the frame it is indicated with which place on the disk the object is associated. Beside each frame, the order in which you navigate the disc using the DVD player's remote control is displayed. And below - the name of the object from which it is taken and the episode number. The resulting menu is already quite functional. But let's modify it a bit by adding a decorative border to each frame. You can get them in the Assets library. The program will automatically fit the frame to the size, as if “flowing around” the frame on which it was superimposed. Also, if the object has a link, the frame will inherit the same link. You can also import your sample frames in *.png format. But this is already with a more professional use of the program. In the meantime, standard elements will suffice for us.

Establishing links

Let us dwell in more detail on the methods of selecting frames and establishing links. To begin with, we can check how our menu works, for this we will press the "Simulation" button.

A "navigator" will appear that emulates the remote control of a DVD player. By clicking on the arrows, we see how the menu reacts to these actions. In our case, the active frame is highlighted with a different frame color. Let's try to ensure that the entire active frame is highlighted, i.e. a frame and a frame inside it. To do this, use the function - "Group objects".

It allows you to group multiple objects. The group acts like a single element. Press the "Group objects" button and circle one of the frames with the frame. The group is highlighted with a red and white dotted line. It remains to restore the connection with the desired fragment of the film. Click on the group with the right mouse button and then click Link/Movie/ChapterXX, where XX is the number of the corresponding episode. Do the rest of the frames in the same way.

Now let's try to change the highlight color of the active element when hovering over it. Open the "Map" tab in the Properties panel.

Using the switch in the “Color map” tab Normal / Selected / Activated, select the state of the button, where Normal is an unselected button, Selected is the selected button, Activated is the button at the time of pressing. Each of them has three sliders that are responsible for the color in each group of buttons. By default, the third group is set, so we use the lower slider.

The color is assigned by clicking on the square (a palette of sixteen colors), and its transparency - by the position of the slider. Customize according to your project.

Now it's time to make video clips in the episode selection boxes. Select Menu->Animate Menu (the program will warn you that 10 seconds of uncompressed AVI file can take 300MB) and go to the "Animate Menu" window.

Top left - preview area. It displays a general view of the menu, the active link is marked with a red rectangle.

In the right corner there is a list of objects that can be Animation Objects. In the Preview window, you can view the active clip, and using the slider (to the left of the window) select the starting points of each Motion Menu clip. Next, set the duration of playing the clips "Total clip time", within 10-40 seconds. For a smooth transition from the end of the clip to its beginning (do not forget that the clip is “looped”), check the “Smooth development at the end of the cycle” checkbox and specify the duration in frames a little lower.

Noteworthy is the "Screen Saver Effect" feature. It allows you to add the effect of the "appearance" of the menu on the screen. There are several preset options: gradual development (Cross-fade), appearance from above / below, right / left, etc. In addition, there are two special options: Buttons Cut and All Objects Cut. The first one makes all buttons invisible for the time specified in the Intro Effect parameter (all other objects remain visible), the second one makes all objects invisible except for the background.

Finally, we select the MPEG-2 encoding method, the bitrate and the temporary folder in which the rendering result will be stored. When everything is ready, click the "Create" button. The process occurs in two stages, the rendering time depends on the length of the menu clip and the number of episodes. The final touch is setting the background music that will sound during menu playback. Just transfer the necessary file to the Audio track.

Let's summarize

Now let's finish editing the main menu. We just have to link the buttons to the corresponding objects of the project and arrange navigation links. We associate the “Watch” button with the first chapter of the movie (Movie 1)

“Episodes” link to the episodes menu (Scenes 1 for Menu 1), “Settings” connect to the settings menu.

Defining connections

The main part of the work on the future DVD menu is over. It remains for us to determine how the various elements of the project are interconnected. For these purposes, go to the special Connections window.

Each object of the project is represented as a conditional graphic icon. Audio/video data files are displayed as a piece of film, menus are framed in various frames, and so on. As you can see, some of the links have already been placed. They appeared at the stage of menu creation and defined links for buttons.

If you want to change something, links are defined using the Draw Link tool.

Next, we need to loop Menu 1, i.e. connect the end of the menu icon to its beginning. When looping, a special LOOP connection is formed. Thus, after the disc is loaded, the main menu is played, which will be played until the user chooses what to do next. Loop the episode menu in the same way. In principle, there is practically no need to loop (LOOP), since by default the duration of the menu in the program is set to infinity. But just in case, I made my own. Now let's get acquainted with some interesting additional objects. The ruler of these objects is located at the bottom of the Connections window.

Return to last Menu. At the end of the movie, determines the link to the last menu shown. Therefore, if watching a movie is started from the episodes menu, then at the end of the movie we will return to it. Very logical in terms of navigation.

random list. Plays movies listed in random order. Ideal for use in audio/video clip compilations.

Chapter Play-List (Movie Branching Object). Allows you to create a playlist and play movie episodes in the specified order.

Almost FINISH!

Almost all of us have already done, and it remains for us to compile the project and burn it to DVD. Click Project->Compile DVD.

In the DVD Compilation window, specify the path to the folder where the disk image will be placed. If you need to immediately burn a disc, check the box next to Autostart recording.

That's all. Click "Run" and wait a few minutes until the program compiles the project. Since we have practically no experience in creating DVD menus, we will make a trial recording on DVD-RW. Then check on the DVD player. The program provides the opportunity to professionally create projects of any complexity. The purpose of this article was to familiarize you with the program and help you understand the basic concepts. If you want to study the possibilities of the program in more depth, there is a lot of literature on the net. Also in the program there is a help (F1), but in English. I assure you - there is nothing complicated, and you should not be afraid to create a menu for a DVD disc on your own. Remember, no one will ever do better than you yourself. Good luck! (/spoiler)

Editing an already prepared DVD disc menu

Editing an already prepared DVD disc menu will allow you to change the design or structure of the entire content. Also, sometimes, on different DVDs, you can find intrusive advertising, all sorts of agreements, movie trailers and the like. You can get rid of all this and make the appropriate changes in that menu, and make it your own - you can use the program, which we will consider below. But first, in order to edit the finished menu, you need to familiarize yourself with the principle of operation and the structure of the root directory of a DVD disc.

(spoiler title=Instructions for editing the menu opened=0)

DvdReMake Pro is the program we will use to edit DVD menus. The interface of the program is quite simple and should not cause any difficulties. You can download it at the end of the article. The program presents the menu in a tree form, which facilitates the editing process. Therefore, it will not be difficult for you to find and remove ads or unnecessary menu items. As an example, let's remove the part of the disc menu called "Episodes". So - let's get started.

We open the program, and specify (using the Import DVD command) the path to the folder with the DVD movie.

Please note: you need to specify not some file, but the folder itself. The program will download the content. You just need to wait a bit until the import of the DVD content is completed.

Before us is a tree-like menu structure. Since we want to remove the button from the menu, we need to find where the main menu is located. In our case, this is Video Title Set 1/Menus en/PGC 2.

Now we work directly with the main menu of the disc. To remove the "Episodes" menu button, right-click on it and select "Hide button"

We've removed the Episodes button functionality, but the button's name remains because it's written in the background image. Unfortunately, editing the background image in this program will not work. To do this, you need to use other programs.

If you accidentally deleted the wrong thing, DvdReMake Pro has the ability to return the button function. To do this, click on the name "Episodes" with the right mouse button and select the "Restore block" command. With this method, you can remove not only menu buttons, but also advertisements and other unnecessary menu items.

Now you need to save your changes. To do this, click File / Export modified files or using

A window will open in which you can specify the path to save the files. At this stage, there is one feature: by specifying a folder to save, the files will not be saved in it, but near it. Then you should replace the original files with these files.

DVD disc structure

A standard DVD disc consists of two folders and several files with different extensions. The AUDIO_TS folder is usually empty on DVD video discs. It is used in DVD-Audio as a directory of audio files. The Video_TS folder contains files, the meaning of which we will now consider in more detail.

video_ts.ifo is the file that is responsible for the disc menu. It is he who needs to be launched by the player in order to open the disc menu.

*.ifo - files containing information used by the player during playback.

*.bup - backup file of the *.ifo file in case of its possible damage.

*.vob are DVD files that store information about video, audio, and titles.

Movies on DVD are compressed using the MPEG-2 codec. The .vob video format takes up a lot of space because the bitrate of such a video varies from 2000 to 9800 Kbps. The size of a video frame in the PAL standard is 720×576 pixels, and for the NTSC standard it is 720×480 pixels.

The DVD menu display can be static (does not change over time) or animated (the first few seconds of the movie will play).

Since editing a finished menu is a rather complicated process that requires the use of third-party programs, we decided to make a detailed description of the process of editing a ready-made DVD menu without going into technical details. If you have any questions - write in the comments.

Create a DVD menu from any video format

To create a DVD disc with a full menu using video files of other popular formats (*.avi, *.mp4, *3gp, *.ts , *.mkv , *.wma, *.flv etc.) , which are not supported by programs for creating a DVD menu, you need to convert to a format supported by the program. For these purposes, you can use any converter from the Video Converters category. But I recommend using the free video converter "Format Factory", it also contains a description of the conversion process.

Conclusions from what has been done

The first is aimed at the novice user. That is, the program that is used in the first method creates a menu in a few clicks. It uses ready-made preset templates. The advantages of this method are the simplicity and speed of creation. The disadvantage is that it is impossible to deviate from the subject of the template.

In the second method, a more professional program is used, where the user needs to set all the parameters and settings himself. It takes more time, but also gives you more creative options.

We wish success!!!

In this article, we have suggested two ways to create DVD menus. The process of creating a DVD menu is available to everyone: both beginners and advanced users.

The first is aimed at the novice user. That is, the program that is used in the first method creates a menu in a few clicks. It uses ready-made preset templates.

Advantages

of this method lies in the simplicity and speed of creation.

disadvantage

is that it is impossible to deviate from the theme of the template.

In the second method, a more professional program is used, where the user needs to set all the parameters and settings himself. It takes more time, but also gives you more creative options.

We wish success!!!

A free program for creating DVD video images and burning them to disc.

Everyone has probably seen professionally made DVDs with all sorts of transitions and navigation menus. Have you ever been asked how these menus are created? Wouldn't you like to try to create something like this yourself? Probably wanted (and more than once :)).

Today we will learn how to create and burn our own DVDs, which will not be inferior to their professionally made "brothers" in anything. And one very good free program called DVD Styler.

The program combines everything you need for DVD authoring (as the menu creation process is called) from scratch. And although it still falls short of professional solutions, a decent-looking disk allows you to create it with minimal time and effort. If we compare DVD Styler with paid counterparts, then ZC DVD Creator Platinum will be closest to it in terms of functionality.

Comparison of the free DVDStyler program for burning DVDs with the paid analogue ZC DVD Creator Platinum

With relatively the same functionality, DVD Styler weighs five times less than its paid counterpart! Another plus is multilingualism, which greatly facilitates the work of a Russian-speaking user.

DVDStyler Installation

Download and install DVD Styler. In principle, the installation proceeds according to the standard scenario, but there are small nuances in it. The main hitch will be associated with the proposal to install a plug-in for Internet Explorer and / or Mozilla Firefox - kikin.

If you agree to the installation of this plug-in, then your browser, based on the history of visited pages, will begin to offer you the "most interesting" information from various online resources. If everything you are interested in you can find yourself, I advise you to refuse to install kikin.

DVDStyler Interface

When the installation procedure is completed, the program itself will start. The first (and, in principle, the only) thing you need to configure is the interface language.

Select "Russian" from the list and click "Ok". After that, you will see the program itself, which will offer to create a new or open a finished project.

We choose to create a new one and set the required information: Disc name (optional), disc size (standard DVD or dual layer), video format (PAL / NTSC), aspect ratio and sound format of future films. Install as needed and click "Ok" to get started.

Let's take a closer look at the working window of the program:

The menu bar at the top is hardly needed, as the toolbar (below) contains all the necessary buttons. On the left is the program's file manager, with which you can manage downloaded pictures and videos. Below - a kind of storyboard for navigating through the sections of the upcoming DVD. The main space is occupied by the work area with the display of the current active menu item.

Creating a Menu for a DVD

When creating a new DVD, we have one ready-made menu on the storyboard. Indeed, it is empty. Let's add some background image to it. Go to the "Background images" tab and double-click on the picture you like. If the standard ones do not suit you, you can add any image from your computer.

To do this, go to the "File Manager" and find what you need. The drawing can be prepared in advance in any graphic editor so that it contains ready-made inscriptions and / or additional fragments that correspond to the general theme of the future DVD.

Adding Movies

When we decide on the picture, we can start adding movies to the project (although this could have been done before choosing an image for the menu). This is done simply: press the "Add file" button and select the desired movie using Windows Explorer. It is better to do this by expanding the program window to full screen.

Why? Because in this case, in the lower right corner, a scale for filling the future disk in time will be visible. Be careful not to overdo it with the number of films!

So, the films have been added, they have met within the allotted time, now it's time to think about the menu. Right-click on it and select "Properties".

Sound design in the menu

Here we can add a soundtrack to our menu (if we want, of course). Click on the button after the "Audio" field and select the desired music in the Explorer window that opens. It may scare you that only MP2 and AC3 files are listed in the formats. Just set this field to "All Files" and you can add any MP3 or WAV melody.

Typically, a DVD consists of several menus: a main menu, and an episode menu for each movie (although the latter are not the main attribute). We will create a disc with only one main menu as an example.

Creating buttons

We go to the "Buttons" tab and we can add navigation keys to our menu by simply dragging the button we like directly from the list. I note that among the buttons there is a frame in which arbitrary frames from the movie "attached" to it will be displayed. Adding these borders greatly improves the overall look of the menu.

The first button is "linked" to the first movie added by default. Let's see what we can do with it. Call the context menu of the button by right-clicking the mouse. Here we are interested in two items: "Add" and "Properties". Thanks to the first one, we can add a nice inscription (for example, the title of a movie) using the "Text" and "Text with shadow" options.

There should be no problems here, so let's take a closer look at "Properties".

Here are all the settings for a particular button. In the first section, we can set the action that will be performed when the button is clicked. This can be either a transition to a certain part of the DVD, or, for example, playing a certain melody or moving to another menu. The "View" section is responsible for the design of the button.

In the case of a frame, we can install any image from the computer into it or allow us to set an arbitrary frame directly from the movie (you can also manually specify the time of the desired frame). Here we also specify the transparency level of the inserted image, the width of the frame and its color. The location and size is best adjusted with the mouse.

Above, we looked at how to add text with the title of a movie. However, the name can also be written on the button. Select the appropriate one, drag it to the working window and write the desired name in the properties. Then we "bind" this button in the "Actions" to one of the films, and the job is done!

Similarly, we create buttons to go to the rest of the films, and we will get a pretty beautiful and functional menu:

Since all the films may not fit on one page, it is sometimes very useful to make another one by linking it with the first cross-reference. You can also add additional images if you have not taken care of this in advance.

Saving a project and burning a disc

Now that everything is ready, you can proceed to the last step - saving. You can save a project, a disc image, or directly burn a DVD. If we do not want to stop there, we press the "Burn" button on the toolbar and move to the following window:

This is the "last bastion" DVD Styler "a. Whatever you choose, in any case, you will have to wait (and quite a long time). After all, all files are first converted to DVD format, and only then can be burned to disc. For processing video, you will need free space on your hard drive (about half as much as a DVD project takes up).

You can reduce the size only if you select the "Create ISO image" item (probably, the word "image" was translated incorrectly). If you choose this option, you will also need to specify a folder to save the image. It is also possible to activate "Preview" after DVD generation by checking the corresponding option.

After all the settings, we finally press the "Start" button and wait for everything to be ready:

conclusions

As you can see, creating your own DVDs is not that difficult if you use good software. Although DVD Styler does not have some of the features that paid counterparts have, it is quite convenient to use, and there are a lot of functions in it.

Another plus is that DVD Styler allows you to carry out all the manipulations for creating a disc within a single window, which significantly saves time and effort when looking for the right tools. I wish you successful and beautiful projects that will give you joy at every viewing!

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

Today I'll tell you about a couple of programs with which you can easily create any DVD menu without any special knowledge. If it seemed to you that it is difficult, then I can only say that you are deeply mistaken. The following programs will make the process of creating DVD menus easy and interesting! Now you can make your own collections of your favorite movies with easy navigation through the fragments, which is very important when watching DVDs on a regular DVD player.

The developers of Super DVD Creator have built three utilities into the program:

Converter of video files to VOB format to create movie fragments. I emphasize that you can convert existing VOB files - useful if you want to reduce the size of the movie or crop it.
Creating a DVD menu, followed by burning to DVD and, of course, creating an auto launch for the menu
Burn movies to DVD. I don't think comments are needed.

So let's start the converter. A minimum of buttons and all sorts of gadgets, everything is clear - it's already good, but I want to note a drawback - you can't adjust the pixel resolution for video, which would be useful for laptops or just home computers.

The beginning and end of the fragment, the quality and format of the screen - that's all that Super DVD Creator offers to choose in its converter - it's not rich, but we need to create a menu, and therefore we go to the next stage and see how the program works there.

Clicking on the “DVD compiler” button is even easier here, the Super DVD Creator developers fit the entire process of creating a DVD menu in one window.

On the right, select a background screensaver for the menu (you can use your own), add movie fragments at the bottom and specify the screen format (16:9 or 4:3). Next, you should pay attention to the function of adding text to the menu and background music, this completes the menu creation process, it remains only to burn the resulting DVD, which can be done both in the program itself and using any other DVD burner, for example Nero, but this already your business.

Specifications:

Weight: 10.2mb

Interface: English Systems: Windows 95/98/ME/xp Vista

Main cons:

there are few opportunities, you can only make a simple menu, nothing more. For home viewing, you don’t need more;)

A more powerful solution for those who want to make a professional DVD menu. In DVD-lab Pro, the developers paid special attention to fine-tuning effects and unique menu items. The program has the ability to create beautiful animation effects, such as the movement of buttons when selected. You can make a slideshow of your images, for example for a presentation, or your favorite photos for easy viewing on a TV. Also DVD-lab Pro can make a DVD reading mode in karaoke format. I will not describe the capabilities of this program in more depth, if you are confident in your capabilities, download, there is always help from me, write in the comments that it is not clear. I'll help.

Specifications:

Weight: 27.3 Mb

Interface: English Systems: Windows 95/98/ME/xp

Main cons:

Pretty complicated interface. In general, what you may need in the program is available.

Update from 03/26/2012! The review is complemented by the excellent DVDStyler program.

DVDStyler (added 03/26/2012)

DVDStyler is a free DVD authoring application from the developer DVDStyler Team. This is the creation of DVD images that can be played in a standard DVD player. With the help of this program, anyone gets the opportunity to create one DVD image from any video or series of videos with all the relevant functions.

The feature set of the DVDStyler program primarily includes the ability to create an interactive menu, through which the user gets access to the contents of the disc. For convenience, the program itself has the ability to burn with a ready-made menu.

Simplicity of work is ensured by the fact that several templates are immediately available to the user to choose from, from which he chooses the most suitable one. With their help, you can quickly create your own menu for the disc.

The list of supported formats includes AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP4, MOV, OGG, as well as some other file formats that users encounter in their work. Supported audio formats include MP3, MP2, MPEG2, MPEG4, AC-3, DivX, XviD. At the same time, using this program, you can mount an image using several files of different formats.

The program interface is based on the drag&drop principle, i.e. to use a particular file or template, simply drag it to the appropriate cell. The DVD menu is created based on vector graphics, you can also import other files to create backgrounds, etc.

The user independently chooses not only the appearance of the created menu, but also the location of elements, active buttons, and other things. It selects fonts, primary colors, button sizes, and more at its discretion.

OS: Windows, MacOS, Linux

Summing up, I will say that depending on the complexity, quality of the DVD - Menu depends on which program is better to choose. For simple and quick creation of simple menus to help you - for others who want to do something more interesting, help or DVDStyler. By the way, DVDStyler was added to the review recently, there were reasons for that - the application is completely free and multifunctional. I recommend!

Watching your favorite movies in a pleasant company is always an interesting pastime. And although many of us are used to enjoying the latest movies on the Internet or on the big screen, it is most convenient to watch them on a DVD player. To do this, you just need to burn the desired movie to disk. A visual DVD authoring program such as VideoMASTER will help you with this.

"VideoMASTER" - incredibly simple and at the same time versatile, allowing you to work with any video files. With it, you can convert video recordings to various formats, as well as work with them in the built-in editor (crop and glue videos, add effects, etc.) The program easily converts both popular video extensions and rarer ones, such as MKV, FLV, etc. .d.

Support for any video format

One of the most useful features of the utility is the function of downloading videos from YouTube and VKontakte. And if the downloaded video is not played by your player for any reason, then it can be easily converted to another format, including audio. It is also possible to upload movies and clips to the Internet directly through the editor, because VideoMASTER generates FLV and SWF videos with a ready-made player. Media player settings are set in advance.

Video editing

The program for creating DVD discs is equipped with a built-in editor of video clips. This will allow you to make changes of various nature to a particular video file. The editor contains a huge selection of filters for processing. Thus, you can crop a video, add unusual special effects, improve image quality, extract sound, etc. with one click of the mouse. At the same time, you can add an unlimited number of files, and even entire folders with video recordings.

Convenient DVD burning

Now let's talk about using the VideoMASTER program. To get started, you need to insert a blank DVD into your computer's drive. Next, you will be prompted to add video files of interest to the user - be it movies, clips or something else. After that, you can start creating an interactive menu that will be displayed on the TV screen. A special module contains a collection of ready-made design templates that can be edited. Here it is proposed to change the background, choose a title, add pictures, etc.

"VideoMASTER" is not only a convenient program for creating DVD discs, but also a high-quality video converter for different devices. With it, you can download any video to your iPhone, iPod or other device at hand. The utility has over 350 video profiles for smartphones, players and game consoles, and the list of models is constantly updated.

Conclusion

Summing up what has been said, we note that "VideoMASTER" is a very good choice for home use, as this program is simple and comfortable to use. Thanks to an impressive number of features and a clear interface in Russian, the converter will help you convert and process video as soon as possible, as well as burn a DVD with an interactive menu.

Before creating your own DVD video disk many stops the need to install complex programs and their subsequent study. AT Windows 7 there is a program Windows DVD Maker, which allows, without having special knowledge, in a few clicks to create a full-fledged Menu DVD.

DVD creation starts when the program starts.

Add a movie to DVD creation.

Make a DVD with a large number of films we will not succeed, because of the 150 minutes our film is already occupied 107 minutes. You can view the parameters of the created disk and change it if necessary.

Since we know the characteristics of our film, we can set the parameters that are most suitable for us DVD, i.e. NTSC 16:9.

After selecting the menu style, change the name of our disk. To do this, press "Menu Text". We change any text to the one we need. Inscription "Notes", in the graph "Note Button", will appear in the disc menu, if in the column "Notes" some text will appear. Please note that the length of the text in the titles is limited and text that does not fit is simply not displayed.

Let's customize the appearance of our menu. We go to the menu "Menu Setting". By default, both the foreground video and background video use encoded video. Let's change it to something else. You can also put any music for the menu and choose the style of the button "Scenes".

If photos are also added to the disc, then you can set up a slide show for them. You can choose any background music and frame transition effect. Starting the slide show will be possible from the scene mode, where one of the scenes will be reserved for the added pictures.