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With the professional market for uncompromising authoring systems nearing saturation, today's generation of tools targets the broader potential of corporate DVD authoring and range in price from about a hundred dollars to just less than $1500.
When EMedia reviewed DVD authoring tools through a series of articles in the spring of 1999, the available solutions boasted thorough DVD functionality, but also prohibitive five-- digit price tags. Thankfully, the cost of creating DVD-Video discs has changed dramatically. While you can still pay a lot for top tools, several products now deliver all but the most exclusive features without busting budgets or confusing the process with complicated interfaces.
With the professional market for uncompromising authoring systems nearing saturation, today's generation of tools targets the broader potential of corporate DVD authoring and range in price from about a hundred dollars to just less than $1500. Admittedly, if you need features like region coding, parental control, or copyright protection, these tools may not cut it. But, for the large majority of corporate titles-for training, kiosks, promotions, presentations, etc.-they have most of what you're likely to need for a lot less money.
Here we review five such DVD authoring tools from Daikin, Intec, Multimedia Technology Center, Sonic Solutions, and Spruce Technologies. Two products-Spruce's DVD Virtuoso and Intec DVDAuthorQuick LE (Light Edition--are feature-- reduced versions of higher-end authoring tools that retain the user interfaces of their older and pricier siblings. A third, Sonic's DVDit PE, goes in the other direction by adding features to the early standard edition of DVDit! Daikin's ReelDVD is a completely new interface that leverages most of the power of the company's Scenarist warhorse without the complexity. And MTC's DVDMotion, which has deep roots in VideoCD authoring, is a family of three products that range from a mere $95 to $895.
WHAT YOU GET
Each of these tools is designed to create a DVDVideo disc image that, when burned onto a DVD disc, will play in a consumer DVD player. They don't create video assets, but rather format existing MPEG videos, graphics, and audio for interactive playback, linking video clips together with menus and buttons for remote control navigation. DVD discs can also be played back on a computer with an appropriate DVD player and in...