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130 reviews, Showing 1 to 130 reviews


Do not use this product if you intend to burn DL DVDs. I had issues with DL burning of DVD but it failed always after burning first layer and not to mention pathetic technical support.

Review by jeet49 on Jul 12, 2010 Version: 4.0.11.39 OS: Windows 7 64-bit Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 6/10 Value for money: 4/10 Overall: 5/10




I purchased this product 2 versions ago and have never been disappointed. The codecs used are first-rate and produce quality images consistently, much better than similarly-priced offerings and hugely better than the "free" products.

Most of the time I take my old mini VCR camera tapes or old VCR-based movies, feed them into my Toshiba D-VR6KC VCR and DVD player/recorder and cut a DVD-RW copy. Then feed that (and other) DVD into TMPGEnc's product and produce a dual-layer DVD suitable for viewing on European DVD players and TVs (original in North American standard).

Horsepower helps but, no matter the time taken, the output quality is excellent! The interface takes a bit to get used to it, but if you aren't (like me) a video nerd and just want a one-click product ... this is it.

The only thing I don't like is that firing up the program involves it making a quick internet connection to the vendor's site to verify you are licensed for the product. I understand the need to prevent piracy, and as it only takes a second or two it's hardly an inconvenience, but what happens if the vendor goes tits up? Is our investment lost?

Review by burpnrun on Dec 13, 2007 Version: 3.1.1.174 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




to add srt files select edit menue import subtitles select srt you will find this works fine TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 is an ok prog

Review by dessieclive on Sep 7, 2007 Version: 309 166 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




Unable to import known good .srt subtitle files, no
information to be found on just what the program is
looking for. Poor documentation in this respect.

Program is improving, but still has long way to go.

Review by wa5dxp on Aug 29, 2007 Version: 3.0.8.158 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 5/10 Overall: 7/10




Please fix crashing problem that occurs while editing menu

Review by hgh on Aug 10, 2007 Version: 308185 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 7/10




Positive points:
1. Easy editing clips by "cut selected area"
or easy "set start point" and "set end point" accurate by frame.
2. Easy import clips from DVD VIDEO disks without using other rip tools.
3. Can join several clips in one title.
4. Fastest and stylish menu creation from templates.
5. If project over size 4.7GB DVD by 10-50MB, its fast reencode on fly to correct size.

Negative points:
1. Useless DivX authoring, its require long time to encode
and not compatible with all DVD players.
2. Cannot set custom "end action" to each title.
3. Cannot set custom link to each button in menu.
4. Cannot insert new custom button in menu.
5. Cannot simple delete button from menu,
to delete button need go to menu setting,
find specific button from the list and confirm.
6. Require each month Internet Activation.

For some reason japanese version have 21 more menus then english version:
http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/ja/template/tda30.html#theme01

Despite negative points it good product.

Review by roma_turok on May 18, 2007 Version: 3.0.8.158 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Program crashes when trying to compile menu............It was O.K. before the upgrade.

Review by booboo on Apr 26, 2007 Version: DVD Author 3.0.8.158 OS: Vista Ease of use: 3/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 4/10 Overall: 5/10




Works great under Vista x64. During DVD to DivX conversion will preserve AC3 audio if needed.

Review by ofbarea on Mar 13, 2007 Version: 3.0.5.149 OS: Vista Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 6/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




Thanks. I looked everywhere, and couldn't find the chapter settings. Still don't like the way it copies all the menu templates to Documents and settings (like ver 2).

Review by SandyB on Feb 16, 2007 Version: 3.05 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 6/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 5/10 Overall: 7/10




Auto chapter is --not-- gone in this version; it's hidden in the "Edit Menu", the button in the lower right corner of the Cut-Edit screen.

Haven't tested the Divx authoring feature of this version yet. For standard MPG2 DVD authoring, it is marginally easier to use (once you have found the buttone/switches that have been relocated). The compiling-burning stage seems faster, but that may be because I have a new, faster computer.

Review by OldAmateur on Feb 16, 2007 Version: 3.0.5.149 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 8/10




Auto chapters is gone in this version.....

Review by SandyB on Feb 15, 2007 Version: 3.05 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 6/10




Just completed the A,B, comparison between the embedded Intercom transcoder, and my freeware DVDShrink, and it is no contest. The freeware wins hands down. So why do software developers who charge for their product never seem to get it right, when the guys who do it for love manage to achieve great results (Linux community is a good example, I think).

Source material - 4 one hour transcriptions from beta tape to Fine mode DVD on my Sharp standalone PVR which were then imported to TDA for a total of almost 12 gb of material.
TDA would not let me convert this to a TS file on my hard drive so I ran it through the transcoder (for the second time, see my previous post). This time I got a 7.7 gb TS file, which I then converted to ISO inside TDA Pro.

I had previously split the project in two in order to create two separate TS files on my HDD, each one being bigger than 4.7 gb, obviously. These were run through Shrink to create two compliant ISO files, each capable of being burned to a standard DVD.

Viewing the ISO files on my LCD monitor already told me that the Intercom compression showed significant "posterising elements" (colour run in areas that should be monochromatic, and blocky or jiggly pixels) I don't really know how else to describe the results. The two DVDShrink ISOs on the other hand were much cleaner (I also could have sharpened them a little more I guess, but was scared to overdo it). Played back on my TV, the differences in quality were even more pronounced

The time taken to render the file in TDA was about an hour and twenty minutes, whereas each of the smaller Shrink conversions took at least that much time and maybe more. This gives the lie to the claim on the Intercom website about compression speeds of up to sixteen times faster that the competition (they don't name the competition however). Bottom line - TDA/Intercom WAS actually faster but only by a fctor of 2, but nowhere near as good quality as DVDShrink.

Was this because the Intercom transcoder intervened BEFORE the TS output, whereas the Shrink encoder kicks in at the post TS level? Who knows?

The final caveat is that TDA does not want to burn to Dual Layer regardless of how often I try. It just keeps telling me that the file cannot be burned on dual layer - period. So I send it to DVD Decriptor - yet another amazing Freeware program.

Conclusion - TDA Pro still does an amazing job of fast reauthoring in the simple realm in which I operate, but so did the old version. So why did I have to cough up $100 to get no additional benefits except a few extra menu templates that I will never likely use?

Review by the wordsmith on Jan 10, 2007 Version: PRO OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 4/10 Overall: 7/10




Unlike Relayerman, I like to get my ISO file on the HDD and view it in VLC media player before wasting a disk, especially when using Dual Layer at two or three bucks a pop.

Anyway, the fact that he finds the transcoder fast is scary in itself, and also explains why my resultant file was so "blocky". When I use DVDShrink, it takes an hour to two hours to resize and sharpen a large file, but the results are really worth it. I suggest you try an AB comparison between the two programs, as I am currently performing.

Now for the really weird stuff - TDA Pro consistently refuses to burn the 7.79 gb file to disc, either on my LG or my HP drives. It comes up with an error message saying file cannot be burned to dual layer. Why the heck not? Isn't that why it claims to support DL in the first place.

So from a neat program that worked fine (old version), I just blew CDN$100 on something that is full of bugs. And they don't offer refunds!!! This added to their internet validation procedures smacks of the ultimate in teutonic arrogance.

You will note that I have downgraded my rating on this since the previous post.

Review by the wordsmith on Jan 6, 2007 Version: PRO OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 4/10 Overall: 5/10




I don't quite understand how the previous poster got a 23g file size. I have had TDA Pro 2 do the transocde from a large file size to a smaller one, BUT I let TDA do a burn to DVD instead of to an ISO file. It works for me flawlessly and I got a 4.7g DVD from about an 8g MPEG-2 file with menus, chapters, etc. It all fit, was transcoded fairly quickly, and the DVD looked great!

That is a bit weird about the large file size.

Relayerman

Review by Relayerman on Jan 5, 2007 Version: 2 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Just upgraded to version 2 (PRO) as I had a 4 hour concert tape to re-author to DVD. Old version wouldn't let me render an edited file bigger than 8.5 gig, so I needed the assumed extra capacity that would oome with the Dual Layer support and the new "shrink" capability. However, my prefernce would still be to render a full 12 gig file and then run it through an external program like DVDShrink (which also does some very nifty sharpening in the same process). No such luck - TDA directed me to the built in transcoder since it didn't like my resultant 12 gig project file. So, OK let's see how well it does. Told the tool to shut down afterwards, and toddled off to bed. Got up this morning and guess what? New ISO file was 23.7 gig. and TDA burn tool wouldn't accept it. Go figure.

Now this was an interesting problem with the old version too. I often wound up with files twice the size of the intended 4.7 gb, but it was no big deal as I would run them through DVDShrink and they would be recognized as regular size immediately, and recoded in about ten minutes. No big deal.

Bottom line? Great editing program for tape to DVD. Not sure if it will satisfy the amateur movie maker who needs more features, but ease of use makes it still invaluable to me personally. However, upgrade was a waste of money if they can't fix such a basic problem. I still have to run the transcoded file through DVDShrink to resize it to less than 8.5 gb. (which incidentally it immediately recognized as the smaller size file that it was intended to be). So where in gods name did the 23.7 gb file size come from?

Review by the wordsmith on Jan 5, 2007 Version: PRO OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 10/10




great tool for easily authoring mpeg 1&2 dvd projects. It would be even better if they added the ability to author vcd/svcd's with this tool as there is practically nothing out there that does so with ease. Additional dolby digital sound support would be welcome as well.

Review by hgh on Dec 1, 2006 Version: 2.1.9.90 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




I've been using TMPGEnc DVD Author since v1.6 and absolutely couldn't be without the tool.It's easy to make nice looking menus,it's stable,fast and gives 100 percent compliant DVD Files.
There is no quality loss during authoring and if your mpg files are too big to fit onto a single layer DVD then you have the option to transcode (I use DVDShrink for this though).I personally prefer v2 and cant see the big deal with having to use the old,outdated version as the newer gives you more powerful features.
I will cetainly be sticking with this tool as it is the easiest and most reliable DVD authoring app I've come across.

The only thing I dont like is the internet activation and constant upgrade fees,but I suppose this tool is worth the money and minor inconveniences.

Review by laspis59 on Sep 10, 2006 Version: 2 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




It would be great if TMPG continued to provide support and updates to version 1.6 for those whose processors don't support SSE or who don't like the smart-rending tool that re-encodes projects.

Review by hobbs on Jun 8, 2006 Version: 1.6 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




AWESOME! That is all I can say. I downloaded the trial and knew I had to purchase a license! I used VideoRedo to cut commercials out of four television episodes of American Idol (for my daughter) that were recorded on my standalone DVD-Recorder. Used TMPGEnc DVD Author 2.1.9.90 to transcode a 4.7 Gig DVD-R complete with Menus and Chapter points. The transcoding and DVD burning took less than 25 minutes. Much better than Roxio 8 and Nero 6 - and without the crap video produced by Nero 7 Ultra! DVD creation should have always been this easy and fast. Don't mess with anything else! Buy a license! You won't regret it!

Review by jcorb99 on May 19, 2006 Version: 2.1.9.90 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Warning: CD-Rom drives disappears!

Installed this new trial version today but did not reboot my PC like it said after installing. Tested it and then decided to uninstall it ....bad idea my two cd-rom drives disappeared like the old time Roxio CD Creator nightmare!!!

Anyways if this happens to you, here was my solution in getting your drives back. Be warned!

Review by Whoosh25 on Apr 19, 2006 Version: 2.1.7.88 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 5/10




The easiest and most useful tool for DVD authoring, in my opinion. If you have several DVD's or video files, which you want to mix to your own DVD, this is the tool for you.
And you can design your own menus, to a certain degree.
The DVD-material is not re-encoded, so you keep the original quality all the way. This is very important to me.
It also supports DVD_RTAV-folders, which are the files produced by DVD-RAM DVD-recorders, for example Panasonic.
Easy to learn, easy to use.
Get it now!

Review by fedet123 on Apr 3, 2006 Version: 1.6 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Exelent tool. You just have to play with it for a wile and will have good results. The help file its awsome, with it you can fine tune the program to your taste. No need to demux the imput like Cutermaran, dvd author gui & gui dvd author (another great tools and free).

Review by A_51 on Feb 27, 2006 Version: 1.6 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




I have been using TDA+AC3 Plugin for over 2 years and have authored over 700 DVDs with zero problems. It is reliable, fast, easy to use and accurate.

It can be used for cutting commercials, it only cuts at 'I' frames, and has always maintained audio sync. Menu creation is fairly extensive and flexible for a software package in the price range of $60.

Without a doubt, this is one of the best software investments I have made during the 3+ years I have been working with video. Just wish I had found it sooner!

Review by bits on Feb 20, 2006 Version: 1.5.34.89 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




TDA has worked perfect for me for months and months then out of the blue i was getting out of sync problems with it, could not get rid of the problem even after restoring a ghost image where TDA was working great.

I really believe TDA has code in it what messes up the program after x months to make the user upgrade, i know it sounds silly but i can not think of another reason why the program just went pear shaped.

Moved over to DVDauthorGUI and never had a sync problem.

Review by paul_g on Feb 20, 2006 Version: 1.6.26.73 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




Easy,fast and reliable and thats what most people want.Takes approx 25 minutes to author a DVD and never crashes.The DVD Video Files are completely compliant and all play in the DVD Players I burn them to.
To the post below.why haven't you got the latest version 1.6.34.89?

Review by laspis59 on Nov 11, 2005 Version: 1.6.34.89 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Hey...thanks for letting me in on this program it seems to be good...but you guys are saying that its fast...is it just me but it is taking me 2 hours to make the DVD folder...is that slow or what?...would be nice if u guys can reply and let me know if this is normal or its jst my computer...thanks!

Review by nidserz on Nov 11, 2005 Version: 1.6.26.73 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




All you beginners out there listen up! Start with TMPGEnc DVD Author, it so easy!!! When i get lazy and dont feel like using DVD Lab pro i would use tmpgenc instead. I like how it gets the job done fast with just a few clicks and your're done. All those other dvd authoring appz take too long and its not easy learning to use them either.

Review by sirlude on Aug 28, 2005 Version: 1.6.26.73 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




This sofware was fine about 2 years ago but now its not comparable to most software in funtionality. What it needs

Batch Mode
Fix the File Size bug
Needs to support Multiple Audio
Needs to Support Subitles
Needs to Support NTSC and PAL files on the same Disc(I managed to do this manually, a tutorial is in order but barely have the time to create one)

I have been in email contact with the Author. He claimed Version two has been released in Japan will translate and release soon. That was about two months ago. He also mentioned



Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your mail.


>>>> > > Olivier cant believe you dont know about this problem already since
>>>> > > there are several references to it on www.videohelp.com. I suggest
>>>> > > doing a search on that site, Here are two jpg files for the same video
>>>> > > your software says 4440MB and the video authored is not gonna fit on a
>>>> > > DVD 5 but when I author it its only 4.16GB.
>>
>>> >
>>> > This is not a real problem since the outputted file is smaller than the
>>> > input (it would have been a real problem if the contrary occured).
>>> > Calculations are based on the file input size minus cut-edit, audio
>>> > re-encoding expected size (which cannot be precisely calculated if you
>>> > use a VBR audio format, hence a difference) and menu video size.
>
>>
>> I would agree it is not a problem if I had unlimited time to do trial
>> and error to fit as many movies as I can on it. I author movies
>> encoded with tmpg vcd template but sound encoded to 48khz MP2 as it is
>> needed for DVD specs, I dont let DvdAuthor to do any change in the
>> Audio format, so its not the problem. When I cut parts from a movie in
>> Dvd Author it shows more space so its showing me updated space
>> remaining to be put on the Disc, but the final output is not correct
>> since I was Authoring movies which showed me I am using full Disc but
>> when the projects were finished they have not made effective use of
>> disc space. Sometimes I have Authored a Disc which showed me Disc
>> almost near full, then finished Authoring and found out I could fit
>> another hour of documentary in it. Anyway its up to you to see if you
>> wanna fix it. The question is while most other softwares get it right
>> why is Tmpg Dvd Author have this problem?


Maybe it has to do with the way the authoring engine process the MPEG
file after all. It seems it has been fixed in the version 2.0.


>>> >
>>
>>>> > > Also at this moment I have
>>>> > > to hardcode subs on some asain movies I have coz DvdAuthor does not
>>>> > > support SUBS, SRT etc please make this feature available.
>>
>>> >
>>> > Depending of the market demande for such feature we may include it in
>>> > the version 2.0.
>
>>
>> Would be good. Many people will probably buy the second version as
>> well since many people need to hardcode it in the movie since your
>> software does not support it at the moment. And currently its so hard
>> hardcoding the dam subs


The risk is to have such feature massively used for DVD copying instead
of pure creation. Still, there is also the possibility to use it for
digital TV captures.


>>> >
>>
>>>> > > Also
>>>> > > SVCDtoDVD software also lets you author ntsc vcd files and and pal vcd
>>>> > > files together which is not in the same title but a different one
>>>> > > would be good.
>>
>>> >
>>> > SVCDtoDVD does not follow the DVD-Video standard that requires a
>>> > DVD-Video folder contains one TV system format only.
>
>>
>> I understand, but giving people an option does help, coz most dvd
>> players these days support both anyway. Also a program called dvd
>> patcher patches files to dvd frame size especially SVCD files to dvd
>> specs which can be Authored and then changed back to their own frame
>> size which is SVCD and then burnt to dvd which plays fine on most dvd
>> players. All this does is makes it convinient for us if I have couple
>> of SVCD files I wont have to reencode them again.


If we want to sale our software as a DVD-Video authoring solution we
must stick on the standard. This is also the only way to be sure the
DVD-Video created by our software is compatible.You are free to use
other software to tweak the format.


>>>> > > I am seriously thinking of using DVDlab pro since this
>>>> > > software may be hard but once I learn to use it, it will get easy. You
>>>> > > have not seriously updated the software for a while, which is not a
>>>> > > good business decision in my opinion.
>>
>>> >
>>> > We just updated it, corrected a few bugs and upgraded the DVD writing
>>> > engine for compatibility. As we are now mainly on the version 2.0 there
>>> > is no reason we add more features for the version 1.5/1.6.
>
>>
>> I meant 1.5/1.6 to version 2 took a long time with features


Because developing a software almost from scratch requires a lot of time.
Version 2.0 pushes the limits, and worths to wait for.


>>
>
>>>> > > Anyway a batch mode is also
>>>> > > needed as many of us need it. Anyway this is my opinion you need to
>>>> > > sort this out soon.
>>
>>> >
>>> > Batch encoder may appear in version 2.0 if we found such function would
>>> > be a tremendous plus, we already implemented an automatic
>>> > shutdown/hibernate/standby option in version 2.0 that can help to
>>> > establish a more optimized scheddule.
>
>>
>> Every new feature is welcome. but batch encoder will make life easier,
>> since at the moment I have to start multiple instances of Author and
>> Author multiple projects at the same time and they all have to be run
>> at the same time since I have to leave the PC to do the job.


I see the point, but please realize this may be not the most awaited
feature of our software for the majority of the users, This is why we do
not make it top priority for now. Of course, this may change in the
future.

Yours Sincerely,

Important:
Always use the Pre-sales Inquiries form to contact us or answer our
mails.

******************************
Olivier GRAVES
Management Division
Pegasys Inc.
************************


So release it already

Review by mrsash on Aug 12, 2005 Version: Latest OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 2/10 Value for money: 2/10 Overall: 5/10




Easy to use, need no manual, user friendly, clear messages.
But, supports only one sound track, it strips all other tracks.

Review by suk on Aug 11, 2005 Version: 1.6 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 7/10




I have been using this prog for over a year. I have been very happy with it but lately I am having a sporatic problem with this program losing Audio sync. i created a DVD folder using 4 mpeg2 files I offloaded from my replayTV using DVArchieve, edited with Womble and loaded into TDA. The resulting DVD files are out of sync with the audio on at least one of the 4 movies on my DVD. I checked the original files that Womble generated and they are in perfect sync, so I know it was TDA that generated the sync problems. For now i am directly burning the Mpeg2 files as data DVDs, luckily my Magnavox player can play the raw files, but i would like to author my DVD for compatability issues.

Review by laqbn on Apr 12, 2005 Version: 1.6.26.73 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 7/10




I'm still using a relatively old version of TMPGEnc DVD Author because a) It's already paid for, b) It's 100% reliable. I find it's an ideal programme for the intermediate user who is already familiar with TMPGEnc's own mpeg encoder. With a bit of practice and some help from the relevant forum I was able to make animated menus which amazed my friends and made them think I was an authoring genius (which I'm not). I've even added menus and chapters to videos made on a stand-alone DVD recorder without having to re-encode the original recording. That saved me many hours of encodng time. I wouldn't recommend the program to a complete beginner or advanced user who requires more functions.

As a backup program for commercial DVD's it has severe limitations. There is no facility for multiple audio tracks or subtitles. (In fact I think it strips them off during the trancoding process?). I like to access the audio commentary which many of my DVD's have and sometimes the English subtitles when viewing late at night. For those you need something like DVD Lab and the skills to use it.

For the complete beginner I'd recommend NeroVision Express. It's free and foolproof and the final results are reasonably acceptable.

Review by ntscuser on Apr 9, 2005 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 7/10




Wonderful software. Very stable and easy to use. Simply the best program for making menus with a big number of links (e.g. in audio compilations on DVD). But I miss subtitles support ....

Review by Paco M. on Apr 8, 2005 Version: 1.6.26.73 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




excellent software...
easy to use...
very fast at getting the job done...
makes professional looking menu's easily...
wish i had bought it sooner...

this software is for beginners and pros alike everyone can use it and you dont have to be a rocket scientist to author a dvd its just point and click all the way through..

Review by kenmasters83 on Apr 8, 2005 Version: latest version OS: Win2K Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




This is a great tool, easy, fast and reliable. The menu-templates delivered are nice, although I would wish for a wee bit more possibilities to play around with them. Especially the buttons to chose from are few. But these are minor drawbacks. I would advice any newbie in DVD-Authoring to try this one!
Another thing to mention: the AC3-plugin. It is extremely efficient. I cannot say anything about the technical details, but in this respect it beat BeSweet (even), at least on my standalone player. With BeSweet encoded ac3-files turned always out to be very low in volume, here you get fine quality of sound (surround almost without any being present in the source .wav!) AND volume is not tuned down, no distortion either.

Review by nbarzgar on Apr 6, 2005 Version: 1.6 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




There is a new version of this program availabe through retail stores. It is being sold as "Tsunami DVD Author" and the only difference from the downloaded version is that the AC3 encoder is built in !! Functionality is exactly the same, version number is slightly diffent. I bought this product from a online retailer for $45 shipped, which I understand is a introductory price to get a foot hold in the retail market. Seems to work great so far !!

-ken

Review by ken_v on Mar 2, 2005 Version: 1.6.32.86 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




A very easy to use piece of software and esp. useful for making VCD-DVDs. Have authored all my DVDs with this tool so far.

I encountered one bug where the titles on the menu were being 'jumped over' when navigating with a DVD player's controls/remote. Only solution I found was to keep experimenting with the layouts (may be an issue with SP2 on XP as this had never happened prior to SP2 update).

Other than that, a nice simple program for nice and simple authoring.

Review by Cole on Feb 28, 2005 Version: 1.5.26.7 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 8/10




This tool is great for condensing VCD-compliant MPEG files onto a single DVD (close to 450 minutes - 7.5 hours - on a single disc).

StevenT: "My computer wouldn't respond at all, so I was forced to do a hard reset. Upon restarting Windows XP, I get an error message that a system file is corrupted and WinXP cannot start."

Never do a hard reset - ever. If you need to power off, power off by holding down the power button for about 15 seconds or so.

Review by robrosen on Feb 20, 2005 Version: 1.5 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




I find this app to be a bit lacking in features, but what it does, it does *extremely* well. It's especially good for quickly and easily adding menus to your DVD projects, including backups of your own DVD's made with DVDShrink in "re-author" mode (provided the number of audio tracks are limited).

Although it does lack functionality in some areas, there are occasionally workarounds... for example, you can select which chapters are displayed in the chapter menu with simple checkmarks, which allows you to treat chapters like separate titles if you wish. Very handy when combining multiple clips in each track.

Very good proggie, not high-end pro stuff but indispensable just the same. I give it a "9" because it's one of those handy apps that sometimes does just what you need (as fast as you need it done) when nothing else quite will.

Review by Zisguy1 on Feb 15, 2005 Version: 1.6 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 6/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 9/10




I found this to be the easiest software for simple editing of compliant MPEG captures from my LeadTek card. It does not take all night to render - a ninety minute file with eleven chapters was ready to burn in 15 minutes, and the chapter and menus were easy to customise as long as you don't need fancy backgrounds.

So, what is the catch? Sound synchronization. I tried twice to create a usable "in-synch" product (the original MPEG was perfect) and both times the sound went out by about five seconds.
I don't undertsnd this since other posts on this board have given it the thumbs up in this respect.

I will try again, as I am fed up wiith ULead's lack of reliability and PowerProducer's non standard RFD file structure. But, I am really getting frustrated trying to find a cost effective authoring product.

Review by the wordsmith on Feb 2, 2005 Version: 1.6 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 9/10




The Good:
Very nice mpeg editor. Fast, easy and frame accurate. No re-encoding of mpeg compliant files. Can work with VOBs.

The Not-So-Good:
Very limited menu creation. No ability to add transitions from one chapter to the next, such as fade out and fade in. No story board or timeline editing.

This would be a great piece of software if it were more reasonabley priced!

Review by wwjd on Dec 19, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 9/10




Very easy to use. Had no problems at all so far. Lack of features. Great for starters!

Review by tmlim on Dec 8, 2004 Version: 1.6.26.73 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 6/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 8/10




Great tool. works graet with AC3. after convertion of the video in TMPGEnc 2.5 to movie.mv2, it is possible to add the AC3 file as is and get a great DVD.

Review by danravit on Oct 9, 2004 Version: 1.6.23.73 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5, now can it get better than this, yes with version 1.6 which is the same as 1.5 except for dual layer 8.5GB support, but for now I am talking about 1.5 4.7GB. This is a small program with big features, the best feature is editing cutting tool for mpeg clips. I use this program to take out commercials out DVR recording or bad clips in camcorder shots.

TMPGEnc DVD Author is faster than even the Ulead DVD Author Workshop 2.21, which I also use because unlike Ulead which will take any SVCD, VCD, MPEG1, MPEG2 movie or TV show and burn it as a DVD, but with TMPGEnc DVD Author it won't let you do that, it has to be a VCD or MPEG1 or MPEG2 or else it won't work, meaning it's not standard.

So TMPGEnc DVD Author is for those quick PCTV recordings with commercials and if you want to turn your smaller MPEG to VOB to burn in Nero Express as miniDVD onto CD-R or CDRW. Otherwise you can use your VOB and burn it with TMPGenc DVD Writer tool and it has many features there you can erase DVDRW quick before you burn a new image on them.

One thing about this program again compared to the expensive Ulead DVD Author Workshop 2.21, is TMPGenc DVD Author is quicker to create a new DVD than it with the Ulead program.

For creating fancy DVD style menus with sound I would go with Ulead DVD Author Workshop it has more features and yes it can use your capture cards, but not with BT WDM drivers it won't work.

Yes TMPGEnc DVD Author can create somewhat fancy menu more basic templates than the Ulead program, but I haven't seen TMPGEnc DVD Author crash yet like Ulead does. Oh Ulead DVD Author Workshop needs a lot of RAM where TMPGEnc DVD Author does not.

On the whole TMPGEnc DVD Author is quick, no sound sync problems here, everything works except it doesn't like you to mix formats together.

If you can live without that, then this is a program you should try out.

Review by tipstir on Oct 5, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




It is the best from all I tried to work with, easiest too.
I lve it! if only the Ac3 was integrated...

Review by ruger44 on Oct 1, 2004 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 9/10




If you've ever experienced audio sync issues ONLY after mpg's are authored, then this is the tool for you. DO YOUR CUT EDITING OF THE MPG'S FROM WITHIN DVD AUTHOR AND GUARANTEED OUTPUT DVD FOLDER WILL HAVE PERFECT AUDIO SYNC. Also, easiest motion menu creation and options anywhere, AND you can mix dvd spec mpg2's with svcd spec mpg2's and/or even those with vcd spec mpg1's all in same project (only each "track" needs same mpg type, but you can add multiple tracks to make mixed dvd). For instance, try making a "vcd on dvd" which is basically many hours of mpg1 video on dvd! Great for tv sitcom,etc.

Review by masterpug on Aug 26, 2004 Version: 1.6+ (latest) OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




This is THE BEST that I try and it is the easyest that I can find but I gave a 9 to the functionality because the theme is very restricted and can not change in some cases.

Review by amadeira on Aug 25, 2004 Version: 1.5.20 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Overall I prefer this to all the other authoring programs I tried. It's relatively simple and just takes a couple hours to learn most of the options it has.

I'd hate to see anyone pass this program up because of complaints by someone who didn't take the time to even look for options. It's very easy to select the option to show the TV safe zone- and the same menu will also let you show show grid lines and automatically adjust text and buttons to the grid.

It's also very simple to drag a button or menu item anywhere you want to move it.

And it's also simple to set chapter points at a preset time (you can select the time- from 1 to 60 minutes).

It's very fast. It was the only authoring program that never gave me audio-sync problems. (Recently I've used PowerProducer Gold for some things and there's never sync problems with it- that's why I was TMPG "was" the only one instead of "is" the only one.

Review by bobk on Aug 22, 2004 Version: 1.5.20 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




This program is so easy and simple I love it!
I can convert almost any format with no sync errors! wow!

I can make menu's,chapters, etc. I'm amazed how fast it makes the dvd. I can use the tmpgenc or nero. both play fine on my cyberhome ch300.

I need to update to the newer version. :)

Review by bishopx3368 on Aug 22, 2004 Version: 1.52062 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




I dont believe the last guy who posted could possibly have tried this program. Most of the things he is complaining about this software can do easily............if you take the time to learn how to use it properly. This is the ideal program for beginners and i'm afraid if you can't master this give up any chance of ever authoring a working DVD.........................

Review by booboo on Aug 22, 2004 Version: v1.6.26.73 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




My NUMBER 1 peeve --- app windows or dialog boxes that CAN NOT be maximized!!!! I use 1280X1024 and this program seems to be stuck at 1024X768. Makes everything rather small especially when trying to edit the menu. When you create a New Theme, the window is MUCH larger so why not the main application window?

The window for the menu does not show the TV 'safe zone' making you guess if the text or buttons will even be displayed. Even the DEFAULT 'main menu' text is not inside the safe zone.... at least on my old TV, the first two letters are not shown.

Creating a custom 'theme' is VERY limited. Preset layouts and buttons. At least, you can import any JPG as a background. Why can't I just place a button or menu item ANY where?

I still couldn't figure out how to have two menu items that 'point' to the same video. One menu item that Plays the movie. The menu items takes you to Scene Selection (like a commercial DVD).

Speaking of scenes, there is no way to EASILY set scenes automatically. Strickly manual as far as I can tell. I'd like to see a button that sets chapter points at a preset time like ever 5min.

Definitely NOT for beginners.

Review by ggrussell on Aug 21, 2004 Version: 1.6 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 2/10 Functionality: 3/10 Value for money: 5/10 Overall: 4/10




One of the best authoring tools available. Easy to use, fast and the more you get used to its functions, the more you can create more sophisticated menus.

I only rate the overall score 9 because you can't add subtitles to your work and creating your own buttons would have been an extra plus too. I hope a future update will make adding subtitles possible.

Great tool!

Review by scandic on Jun 1, 2004 Version: 1.5.19.59 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




poraluisao, why do you downgrade a program even though you admit you may not be using it right....200+ authors with no problems myself...it seems here that downgraders use it improperly, based on the successful/unsuccessful disparity comments. This program is the easiest by far to use of most other authoring prorams as well as one of the fastest.

Review by gkar on May 31, 2004 Version: 152062 OS: Win98 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Yes, after trying so many malfunctioning softs, this one is the first that really works a little bit. A little bit, because the menu doen't work well: once you are watching a movie, you can't go back to the menu. It might be because of my inexpertise level, but it should to be easier to work with anayway.

Review by poraluisao on May 30, 2004 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 4/10 Value for money: 5/10 Overall: 6/10




TDA is fantastic! It does 99% of what I want, and it does it easily, intuitively, and accurately. Clipping out video you don't need (adverts) is a breeze, creating your own menus is child's play.

The only thing I would like that is lacking is the ability to add sound to menus.

Program is stable, and extremely fast. It creates the DVD files/folders for a 90 minute DVD in just 10 minutes on my system.

Was using Ulead MovieFactory SE (came bundled with TV Card) and it was generally fine so long as there were no chapters in the final DVD... the last chapter on the disc would play at 2x speed, or else the sound would be out of sync. No such problems with TDA.

Review by ericbinford on May 18, 2004 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




For DVD Authoring this program is the best for the money! I have tried many programs and no other program I've tried is more simple and reliable. I'm tired of trying out junk to see if it can compare to TMPGEnc DVD Author. I'm set with my descision now! Just look at the reviews this program has the most comments and the most users because it is the best! It only needs a more friendly menu creation but really it does everything I need! Great Product!

Review by Crush on May 8, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




WOW - TDA is a great product. OK, so there are a few downsides such as creating background music in menus and subtitle restrictions, but generally speaking this is the best "consumer" DVD authoring software I have used. Intuitive, fast, and just the right ammount of customisation available regarding title/chapter menus and layout.

ULEAD Movie Factory always made horrible "flickering" movies, but TMPGEnc DVD Author (TDA) made absolutely rock solid movies from exactly the same source video capture in less than 30mins. Tell my why ULEAD MV2 couldn't do that?

It also displays the total time/space on DVD accurately - meaning that if you have a little too much in your project you can just snip a little video off of a chapter, or reduce the audio bitrate and hey prseto - time/space values updated for you. ULEAD never trimmed out movie segments and reported the file size reduction like TDA does - great stuff. In fact ULEAD produced a 6.4GB movie whereas it took up only 4.48GB in TDA. It really does do what it says on the tin...

Review by easyman on May 5, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




The only program I've found that easily allows me to edit out commercials from TV shows I've recorded on my Go Video DVD Recorder. With the add-on extension it also handles AC-3 audio, which so many of the other programs don't. MPEG2VCR didn't work and it lost my sound. I allows you to easily cut out commercials without reencoding, does basic authoring. Great tool and well worth the money.

Review by carolann on Apr 28, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




TMPG DVD Author is an ideal program for a beginner,it has an easy step by step interface and is also one of the fastest DVD Authoring programs I have tried(Easy to use compared to DVD Lab,which is another great DVD Author but requires a bit more knowledge than TMPG.)
Its a fast and reliable program that you can use to easily create motion menus etc...
The program is most definetely worth the money and I prefer using this program over all the other programs available.
You can also get an AC3 audio plug in which can encode the audio as you author the DVD,which to my knowledge doesn't use any more space of the DVD media that you intend to burn to.

Review by laspis59 on Apr 27, 2004 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




this program is bad you can only make scene selection type menus DVD LAB is better then this you can make motion menus like the one on terminator 2 if you want any software get DVD LAB and not this on i gave it a 4 because of scene selection type menus and i have used and every single dvd duthor program but is you like it like that then get U-lead it is like this one but better and easy to under stand.

Review by ace cool on Apr 13, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 6/10 Value for money: 3/10 Overall: 4/10




I trialed ULead, DVD-Lab and TDA. I use TDA now for everything. It handle's pretty much everything I throw at it.

All things considered, TDA is the easiest to use for what I do. U-Lead takes too much time to set up, and for me is too cumbersome and over-kill. DVD-Lab, not even close.

O.

Review by orion940 on Apr 1, 2004 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




I have 4 problems with my registered version of Author as follows:
a, Program will not allow me to select DVD burn speed. Menu grayed out for speed.
b, When creating ISO files, the progress bar does not advance beyond 12 to 18%, varies with file size, and locks. Sometime the program completes the ISO file.
c, When creating ISO files, sometimes Author locks up my PC maybe at the point where the progress bar locks up.
d, Pegasys-inc support does not answer my emails on their forms.
Radman

Review by distendad on Mar 31, 2004 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 5/10 Overall: 6/10




Very easy,and very good quality.I edit my home DV with Pinnacle Studio 9,render the video as Mpeg2,then author to DVD with TMPGEnc DVD author.I do this because Pinnacle authoring is very buggy,but it has a ton of editing features,only thing missing from TMPGEnc is lots of menu templates,and more menu editing features...If someone has a guide for making menus or buttons with Photoshop that can be used in TMPGEnc DVD Author,please post one... :)

Review by grimsweeper on Mar 25, 2004 Version: 1.5.19.59 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 9/10




I like this software so much that I'm re-authoring my DVDs that were authored with another software.

It's easy, has soooo many options, and makes beautiful menus. In fact, it's so customizable that I can't imagine what else I'd want in DVD authoring software; I got the AC3 plug-in, too.

It's perfect to use with TMPGEnc Plus. After capturing with the ADVC-100, encoding with TMPGEnc Plus, and authoring with TDA, I NEVER have audio sync issues.

TDA has so many features for such a small price -- a great bargain!

Review by Redeye07 on Mar 22, 2004 Version: 1.5.20 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Not sure the exact version I have, not at that system. Should be 1.5 or higher.
For those that posted some negatives, learn what your doing before commenting and check your own system for bugs :)
I have used this program since version 1 when it first came out!
Several systems and OS and no problems and it is fast!
It does open DVDs! Use the Add DVD button, not add files button! I have ripped DVDs then added them just fine.
It is fast! If it took someone longer than using nero you must have been making a 30 minute motion menu! I authored a full disk with 2 2minute motion menus with sound and it took less than 30 minutes on my system! Faster than most other programs I've tried (not even motion menu's on those)
As for someones post about the disks not working he made, lots of varibles, burners, disks, etc... But the program makes a perfect DVD everytime for me. The variables are in burning, not creating! Actually read the help files and you can make great disks in no time! Skip the help and jump in like I did and you can make good disk to start with, and great latter when you read the helps :)
I have used the built in burner with a toshiba sdr5002 2x burner perfect disk everytime on -R riteks or cheapos, and my new NEC 8X dual format burner I burned 1 Ritek g03 at 2x and a G04 ritek at 4X, I did not have any 8X disks to try.
Nero does not even reconize the new drive is installed, as usuall! Tmpgenc DVD author saw the drive soon as I put it in, first time I opened the program!
Nero don't even know it's there at all! Had the same problem with Lite on cd burner and a different DVD burner, Nero never sees a new drive is installed, Nero has burned bad dvd's that don't play in all players! I have yet to have any disk burned with Tmpgenc DVD author to NOT work in any player it in yet.

I am sure there are better programs out there, but this one is great. 30 days for free fully working! See what it does for you.

Review by overloaded_ide on Mar 4, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




It's the greatest/easiest authoring software, the only big problem is that has no support for multiple languages and or subtitles.
I use it to encode my own DVDs from the DVD recorder, I like a lot the freedom that it gives me to design menus. I like that doesn't reencode the files, I like that it warns me that "it might make an out of standard DVD" and still goes ahead and does it. This is very important when the source had more than 10 MB/s, or the end result was a DVD with more than 4.4 GB. In the later case I shrinked the DVD I created with DVD-Shrink.
Of course the biggest plus is that you can use sources of different qualities. But you already knew that.

Review by 422j3 on Feb 29, 2004 Version: 1.5.19.59 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 9/10




Easy to use, intuitive software. Keeps the audio in sync, unlike some products I've tried. It has GOP-accurate video editing at the file set-up stage, with a very useful thumbnail timeline, so you can easily see what you are editing.

The supplied menu templates are rather limited, but you can develop your own templates based on one of 26 "new themes", which allow some customisation.

Above all, this is easy to use and reliable.

Review by pete800 on Feb 20, 2004 Version: 1.5.13.44 OS: Win98 Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




The idea is great, although some key features are missing!
No subtitle support! That is really bad!
No re-encoding of VOB files, so not 100% suited for re-authoring dvd's.

Review by BounceMeister on Feb 12, 2004 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 5/10 Overall: 7/10




For basic DVD authoring, this is by far is my tool of choice! Here's what I like:

* Ability of mix-match any DVD-compliant resolution
* Ability to create motion menu
* Don't need to re-do the audio part (i.e. 44.1 to 48KHz), it will do it for you
* Very crash-resistant
* Time line is very easy to edit when creating chapter or cut/split

I would score a 10, if the followings are supported:

* Multiple Audio track
* Subtitle support (at least 1 or 2)
* Audio support for menu

Overall, I do like this a lot.

Review by viper10000 on Feb 11, 2004 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




Texneus, if you had read the help file or specs, this program accepts for input mpeg1 or mpeg2 files only, and it outputs VOB's. You can edit the VOB's if you created them with Tempgenc and saved the project files. You folks should should check your facts before downgrading a program due to operator malfunction.

Review by gkar on Feb 11, 2004 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: Win98 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




I hope the version people are paying for are better behaved than the trial version! When importing a DVD Video all I got was some error message that appeared to be in Japanese. When I imported VOB files directly I got an error that they were not MPEG 1 or 2 files despite that they orginated from a disc created with a Sony RDR-GX7 recorder which plays just fine on other equipment and imported sucessfully into other software! A truely disapointing experience.

Review by texneus on Feb 10, 2004 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: Win2K Ease of use: -/10 Functionality: -/10 Value for money: -/10 Overall: 5/10




I normally use dvd author to combine 2 full movie only dvd's onto 1 dvd i have a pent 3 600 and 256 mb ram it does my authoring in about 20-30 minutes giving me chapters and basic menus i then burn as a data dvd(VIDEO_TS , AUDIO_TS) for better compatability

Review by scaryscooby on Feb 6, 2004 Version: 1.5.69 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 10/10




Not sure what the previous writer was talking about, I've authored hundreds of MPEG2's (satellite captures) to DVD with most 2 hour movies taking less than 15 minutes to process.

Review by gkar on Feb 6, 2004 Version: 1.5.20.62 OS: Win98 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 10/10




Here's my story. I normally used DVDit PE for my authoring. However, a movie I recently captured a widescreen movie off digital cable. The file size was 4.1 Gb, and DVDit rejected it as being too large for project size. Not wanting to recapture or re-encode the file, I tried TMPGENC author with the DD plug-in, and it worked no problem. Wrote the whole DVD folder in 20 minutes, which blew me away. DVDit normally takes 60-90 minutes. Now that I have the menus figured out, I've switched permanently. Plus, not having to create chapter menus is a big plus too!!!!!

Review by Forum Troll on Feb 5, 2004 Version: current OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




After getting my Plextor PX-708A DVD burner, I was very unhappy with the bundled software, Roxio. So I searched all over the internet and came upon this website, which recommended the TMPEGEnc Encoder. From Pegasys' website, I found this DVD author software and decided to give it a try. I have to admit that this software is far more superb than most other softwares. I have been using this for 2 months now and didn't find any issues at all. There are times where a more flexible menu creation would be nice, but it's good enough for my projects. However, with my latest project, I found out that this software does not support Unicode characters. I was stunned as it is clear that Pegasys is an international company with different language versions of its software. And yet, it doesn't support Unicode. Since I'm using Windows 2000, which uses Unicode for international support, I can't really use the language specific version to complete my project. So overall, this is a great product. But beware that it doesn't support Unicode.

Review by GAMacky on Feb 3, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




TMPGEnc DVD Author is an excellent utility. I had been using an older version for a couple of months and recently upgraded to the latest version with the AC3 plugin for $89. Let me tell you, the AC3 plugin is a god-send. I simply can not imaging DVD authoring being any easier than this program makes it. The interface is simple and usually self explanitory.

There are a couple of very minor bugs and desired functions that are not present, but I still love this software. The biggest bug that I have encountered is that occasionaly, when playing a video in edit mode, I recieve the error "Audio Playback stopped. Your CPU is not powerful enough" or something along those lines.
Desired functions that are not present include the ability to have a simple audio track play with a still menu background and frame editing rather than GOP editing. Presently, there are ways to get audio to play with a still menu background, but they are a bit complicated for my tastes. The GOP style editing used in TMPGenc DVD Author often places limits on the level of detail to which you can clip video segments.
All in all, however, this program is a great value and stands out head and shoulders above the overpriced and overcomplicated competition.

Review by mbaker_jr on Jan 26, 2004 Version: 1.5.19.59 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




I've tried MANY different pieces of software, and they all failed miserably. At one point in time, I had even given up, returning the DVD drive and going back to VCDs.

Recently, feeling up for some punishment, I gave it another shot. My new PC (with all the bells and whistles) came with ArcSoft, which stank. I ried 6 others and I was about ready to give in again....until TMPGEnc DVD Author.

Not only is this program easy to use, it actually works. Encode files with TMPGEnc Encoder to MPEG 2, create the DVD files in TMPGEnc DVD Author, and then burn with the same program. I have a DVD with chapters, menus, title screen, and other stuff.....easily.

This is the brainless way to go. It's that easy.

Review by vernbone on Jan 25, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: Win95 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




This is the easiest program there is. I love how I can put so many mpeg 1 file on one dvdr. But I have encounter a problem with it. I have some mpeg 1 movie that have some subtitle on it. When I make the dvd and play it in the my player it seem that the subtitle are cut out half way.

Review by TNguyen on Jan 22, 2004 Version: 1.5.19.59 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 7/10




I downloaded the trial version and played with it for 30 minutes, and it appears quite intuitive and easy to use. I decided to try and edit a 2 hour movie I had recorded on my stand-alone recorder, and the program indicated it would be best to copy the contents of the dvd+rw to the hard drive to work with. It got about half way through copying the +rw disc and then froze up. My computer wouldn't respond at all, so I was forced to do a hard reset. Upon restarting Windows XP, I get an error message that a system file is corrupted and WinXP cannot start.

I get out my WinXP system disc in hopes of being able to fix the problem, but to no avail. Consequently, I was forced to re-install WinXP along with everything else.

I've been running WinXP for 2 years, and have never had anything cause a serious enough of a crash that the system couldn't fix the problem itself.

I really want to like this program, but after all the work it has created for me (including a week's worth of financial data lost because I hadn't backed up in a while - aaaarrgghh), I am obviously hesitant to give it another try.

Review by StevenT on Jan 21, 2004 Version: 1.5.19.59 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 5/10 Overall: 3/10




***If you authoring needs are extremely limited, it does work, but at $68, you can get others that will do a better job and are not so limited. ****

Can you tell me which other software in this price range can do motion buttons and motions background with sound? I picked up this software and authored four titles with it with a menu and four motion buttons and 60 second motion background loop with sound. I don't think there's anything out there that can do this for this low price. I have tried Movie Factory 2, DVD Workshop, DVD architect, and DVD Lab. for authoring home videos, TMPGDVD Author is going to be my choice from now on.

Review by falberni on Jan 16, 2004 Version: Latest OS: MacOS8 Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 8/10




I tried this one for 30 days, there are some movies which it always complain that it cannot open, but when I try to open it on ULeadMF(free form DVD writer) it opens easily. So this program needs to add a wide range of movie files it can open.
I will stick with free ULead for now.

Review by jydgreat on Jan 13, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 4/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 5/10




I have a desktop video recorder Panasonic DMR-E50 burning
DVD-RAM media.
With TMPGEnc Author and a Super DVD drive from Iomega, I managed to read directly the DVD_RTAV directory of the DVD-RAM. TMPGEnc recognizes and import separatly the recordings.
It allows some trimming (not at frame but at GOP level. It means about one second of precision when cutting).
After, you can set up a menu if you want, and burns a DVD (any type).
TMPGEnc finalizes the DVD.
The audio Dolby AC3 is correctly transferred along the video MPEG-2.
The Panasonic DMR-E50 accepts to read a so created DVD-R, or even a DVD-RW.
It "sees" it as a DVD-V. Thus if you use a DVD-RW, you can reuse it when you are tired of the content,
and don't want to keep the recording anymore...

Just one minus: there is a short (1/4 sec) pause where you cut some sequence, but only when playing on the Panasonic, not when playing on the PC. I suppose the Panasonic drive is not fast
enough....

Review by francis2 on Jan 8, 2004 Version: 1.5 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 8/10




Great program, does what it says with no problems. Could use some different templetes for the menus, but they're not hard to create either. Use in combination with Studio 8, and Goldwave to edit audio and TMPEnc Plus to encode. Great combination for home movies.

Review by jjnwcar on Dec 30, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




well, i'm a noob , since few days i started to study Divx to Dvd guides and Dvd Authoring ....

this one, is really great , u may have many profiles, many custom dvd menus ..etc, and it's really easy to use ...

few hours after my first read, i've done a Xvid/ac3 to DVD conversion with superb animated Dvd Menu ... what more can i say ?

highly recommended !

Review by century on Dec 29, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




I have been using TDA for 3 months and it is really easy to use and covers most of the basic need to author a DVD, including building title and chapter menues. However there are two major pitfalls:
1) The menues are preset and do not allow much customization. You can choose from a list of the menu style and that is.
2) Exception handling. This is really frustrating when TDA gives you cryptic error messages like "Write error in ntdll.dll" and "Read error in TMPGEncDVDAuthor.exe module". These error messages are hardly useful. I got absolutely no ideas what the problem was. But most of the time, the problem comes from the video clips. But as TDA is targeted for non-advanced users, the error message should be more meaningful and informative.

Review by asisoft on Dec 27, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 8/10




Just like the encoder, a very good and reliable piece of software.

DVDs created with this play withoit problem on virtually all standalones, compared to some other well known ones, which do fail.

One of the best features is ability to produce multiple, independent vts as per requirement.

Only thing outstanding is better user editing features for the Menus.

Wish the price could be better(Lower)

Review by ark on Dec 27, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: Win98 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 9/10




I've been using this program ever since it came out, and it's now taken over as my default DVD authoring program.

Previously I was using Ulead DVD Workshop and VideoStudio7's internal DVD engine, and while both programs are more comprehensive than TDA, neither of them are especially user-friendly, and neither of them support AC-3.

I have had only one instance where TDA has refused an MPEG-2 file, and that was due to a bad encode that was easily fixed.

All in all, I heartily recommend this program. It's quite easy to use and a great value for the money.

Review by cubdukat on Dec 16, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 10/10




I use it to burn mpeg2 files to DVD that have been captured and rendered by Pinnacle Studio 8. It has performed this task (that even Studion 8 can't seem to manage) without flaw for over a month now.

Review by jeffery500 on Dec 13, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 8/10




Actually, I think, for the product of version 1.5
it is not that bad. But the price a bit too high,
considering that lots of stuff yet to be added (or fixed).

Review by koic on Dec 10, 2003 Version: 1.5.15 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 7/10




Sad that people drag the rating down on this program because they don't use it properly or don't know how to use it or use bad files and blame it on the program. I have had about 99% success with this program on MPEG2 files and my few failures were with old VHS tapes.

Review by gkar on Dec 10, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: Win98 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




update to previous post. found problem with TDA crashing a third of the way into compilation; had a memory optimizer running in the background that would try to optimize while TDA was running. optimizer now set to run maually. BUT...
with the output complete the first of the two movies had video glitches and audio was out of sych (probably because the video was slow and jerky). it was pretty much unwatchable. the second movie was fine, though. apparently i'm not using TDA properly. back to the drawing board...

Review by noki on Dec 8, 2003 Version: 151549 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 5/10 Overall: 5/10




I have been using DVD Author to add menu's and chapters to DVDs made from VHS movies captured via Avermedia USB2 and processed with DVD Shrink. Very pleased to date. A bit high priced though.
Will purchase if unable to find cheaper alternative.

Review by morrishs on Dec 7, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.19 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 8/10




This sucks ;[

Its VERY picky about what you throw at it.
I had two MPEG files same audio both with different asspect ratios, it refused to load them spat them both backout.
Poop

Review by Emo on Dec 4, 2003 Version: 2.513 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 1/10 Value for money: 1/10 Overall: 1/10




i've used this product for months now and have run into a problem when trying to create files for 2 short movies produced from DVD Shrink. the creation of menus and chapter points was very easy. but when i try to output the compilation the program locks up at about a third of the way into it. the total size of the movies with menus is 4.2G, and i have plenty of room on my HDD. I have been able to produce files for very, very small compilations (when total size is about 1.0G). if anyone has any suggestion please reply. thank you.

Review by noki on Dec 3, 2003 Version: 1.51549 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 5/10 Overall: 5/10




I've been using TDA since June 2003 in parallel with DVDLab (ver 1.1 to 1.3) and am impressed with the overall ease of use, and final product being playable.

Many complaints/wishes for this product are the same that Oscar was working on from DVDLab ver 1.1 on.

The features that impress me with TDA are these:
1. Ability to import from DVD-RAM media
2. Stability during use
3. Motion thumbnails (not available on DMF or others)
4. Ability to retain AC3 encoding
5. Burn DVD compliant discs
6. Excellent final quality - what you put in you get out!

Less than impressed:
1. Basic menus - but still better than what my E20 does
2. No available transitions

I still am glad that I purchased this product. To arrive at this conclusion, I spent several dollars trying to locate products that would work without fuss (crashing, complaining, slow) with DVD-RAM vro files recorded on my E20. Even though I keep getting hammered on this - here they are:

Sonic MyDVD SE wouldn't work with AC3
Ulead DVD Movie Factory (ver. 1.0, 2.0) crashed at the worst moments, had pretty much the same limitations in menu editing (nicer collection of templates), and wouldn't work with AC3 files (my vro files apparently were large enough that DVDMF wanted to re-encode everything) AND their customer support is NONEXISTENT. I suppose that if you're a reseller that's not an issue, but try waiting for 2 weeks for an insufficient email response (if you get one) when you're putting a friend's wedding video on DVD for them - and they want it....bad.
Ulead DVD Workshop was pretty much a more advanced version of DVDMF - and without the AC3 encoding package had the same problems with my vro files.
I know I'll get slammed on this post - but I'm not throwing good money after bad with Ulead to buy the latest version, when the ones sitting on my shelf never worked as promised.
NeoDVD Plus 4.0 Nice little program, didn't like file sizes larger than 1GB (even on W2K), and when the files were divided - or using the vob's directly) encoded a "pause" between clips (very annoying). MedioStream assured me this was normal. TDA (or DVDLab) doesn't leave these pauses that I've seen. Once again, menus were limited.

If you want nice menus: Go for DVDLab - I guess Oscar's experience with other programs helped us all in this regard. The more I use TDA, the more I like it.

Wish List:
1. Scene detection (automatic chapter insertion like DVDLab)
2. Real Editable Menus!!!
3. Transitions

Have fun with this great program, I am!

Review by classfour on Dec 3, 2003 Version: 1.5 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 9/10




After trying a whole load of supposedly more sophisticated DVD authoring packages to edit my recorded DVD’s I am so glad I found this program. It is so easy and fast to use and more importantly it works with VOB files and AC3 audio. The only other program I found that would work with these is ShowBiz but it was painfully slow to use and the quality of the end result was average at best. Quality with TMPGEnc is almost on a par with the source material. Menu templates are a bit limited but as you can create you own (using graphics created in PhotoShop for example) this is really a minor quibble.

The only features I would like added would be some sort of basic (optional) fade transition between chapter edits. At the moment you can only cut out the frames you don’t want but this can cause the transition to be a bit abrupt when played back. The second feature would be the ability to add a backing soundtrack to the menu. As far as I can tell this can only be done if the ‘file’ you are using as the background image also contains audio but maybe I’m wrong on this.

Also on audio the one thing that didn’t seem to work was the audio in the editing window. I could play back the footage during editing but there was never any sound. Maybe this is down to it being AC3 (which can’t be re-encoded) but hopefully something can be done about this in future releases.

Overall this is a good program that does what it says. For creating DVD’s with menu’s it hard to beat and if you want more sophisticated options then this is most probably not aimed at you. One or two additions would make it better but I wouldn’t like to see it become top heavy with fancy feature that are not used very often. Keep it easy and fast.

Review by eagleeye on Dec 3, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




Well, I use this first of all to create menus. Simple ones.
And I'll say about negative stuff.
1. Chapters menu. If you're OK with the predefined choices
then no problem, but if you want to customize it and you have, say,
10 chapters then it's a pain. You have to repeat ALL your adjustments for each chapter, and in some cases, I don't know why, it is not possible.
I can continue on this issue on and on.
2. Thumbnails. If you use movie file then the picture will be blurry. At least I did not the way to make it sharp.
Overall the tool is not that bad, and I think these issues will be fixed later.

Review by koic on Dec 2, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 6/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 7/10




After trying for a week to get a DVD to play RANDOM tracks
on my PIONEER standalone using every authoring tool i could trial / searching the WWW (for hours...)

TMPGEnc DVD Author did it natively

Another excellent product
Thank You Hiroyuki Hori

(P.S : A customised button would be great though...)

Review by grantd on Nov 30, 2003 Version: 1.5.13 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




Excellent program!
I was able to create a menu and excellent DVD quality video in minutes! Maybe you can't create very professional menus (explains the grade of 8 for Functionality) but good enough for me, it does everything I need it to do (Value for money = 10).

I bought this program as well as TMPGEnc Plus to encode the video first. They are well worth the $99!

Review by Gildas on Nov 26, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




I have been trawling the net searching for a DVD authoring tool to enable me to convert my divx movies back to DVD format so I could watch them on my standalone DVD player that I have mostly downloaded of kazza. After trying other tools out there that where unable to produce the goods I tried this one in partner ship with TMPGEnc 2.5 and bam I am so happy it works like a dream, all play superbly on my standalone Pioneer DVD player.

Review by zillo on Nov 24, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 10/10




Can't reaaly say more than already been said. Where other programs fail, this one works.

Review by terrya64 on Oct 30, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 5/10 Overall: 8/10




Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all!! After beating my head against my PC for HOURS and days trying to use Pinnacle Studio 8 (kept skipping and repeating scenes while rendering) and a combination of Ulead VidoStudio and DVD Movie Factory 2 to create professional looking DVD's with "real" menu's, I found your posts!! What has taken me MANY hours to complete and still fail, took me minutes with TMPGEnc!!! Awesome tool!! The only thing lacking (or I can't find) in the ability to merge MPG clips into one scene. Otherwise---USE THIS ONE IT WORKS!

-B

Review by d4bjd0 on Oct 30, 2003 Version: current OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




I am presently using 30 day demo and have found it very easy to use and much faster than ulead dvd mf 2 and dvd labs. Editing is a breeze, very fast and accurate and chapter and menu creation are also very straightforward. A major plus is that it accepts all bitrates for dvd unlike ulead. What's lacking is a preview to view your work (esp menu creation) before output. It could also benefit from scene detection chapter creation as well. I thinks it's a little expensive at $70 since it's still a basic (although very good) authoring program.

Review by jamawass on Oct 22, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49, OS: Win2K Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 8/10




Been working with TMPGEnc DVD Authoring and it's pretty cool!

Info mostly for Newbies trying to work with their Discs directly from their home DVD Recorders... GET THIS PROGRAM!!

If you wanna chop out commercials, tuck in a few ends here and there, create custom motion menu's and burn it all to DVD with no hassles, and no out-of-sync probs, this is it. My DVD Recorder (Sony) produces a standard DVD-R with .vob files. You just import the .ifo file and TMPGEnc loads it all up no problem at all. No need to demux or use ANY other tools. The interface requires no reading, easy to use (be sure to check ALL menu options for motion menus etc..).

If I had to complain about anything, it would be that cRazY NamE, what's up with that? What's wrong with DVD Dee-Lite or something?

Thanks again for everyones .nfo !

Dan B

Review by imtigger2 on Oct 19, 2003 Version: 1.5.15.49 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 10/10




Easiest tool that I found for backing up episode disks. Worth the money.

Review by socrates63 on Oct 14, 2003 Version: 1.5.13.44 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 10/10




Tried them all, but for creating a DVD file structure and menu system, none are faster and easier. Latest version works fine with Windows 98/SE, included burning function requires Windows XP, I use Nero though so no problem. Purchased this after extensive use, and in my opinion it is tough to beat. ***** STAR rating

Review by pummeler on Oct 8, 2003 Version: 1.53.1.44 OS: Win98 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




This authoring software is exactly what I've been looking for. Two things almost scared me away - Japniz's comments about limited menu options, and the "requirement" of Windows XP. I gave it a shot anyway and found neither limitation turned out to be true.

Indeed, it doesn't seem obvious at first, but one little button lets you edit nearly EVERYTHING about a menu template. I could even import custom buttons directly from Photoshop PSD files with layer transparency intact.

Finally, it actually runs quite well in Windows 98SE. The Pegasys site claims XP is "required" but a following comment hints that it will run in other OS's, just with a limit in file sizes. Since I have that limit anyway in my NLE software, it was a non-issue for me. In fact, TMPGEnc encoder will let me encode several 2GB MOV source files into ~500MB M2V files, which I can then "Merge" together into one continuous M2V file.

Overall, great stuff. I highly recommend it.

Review by LucasBC on Oct 8, 2003 Version: 1.5.13.44 OS: Win98 Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




The best dvd authoring tool ever. Soooooooo easy to use. Will accept .vro file from dvd-ram without a hitch.

Review by ktton on Oct 7, 2003 Version: 1.5.13 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




Purchased mine months ago...then upgraded. To those who complain about Menu creation, there's more than meets the immediate eye. You can use multiple layouts, move objects around, control fonts/shadows, change button borders, use you're own backgrounds, etc. Not sure what else you'd want to do! Converts most everything flawlessly (occasionally problems with digital audio) but I'd say 90% of the time not a problem. I also use NeroVision Express - which fails to convert many files that TMPGEnc does without a hitch.

Review by motherofzeus on Oct 3, 2003 Version: 2.5 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




I can only echo other comments - excellent, simple-to-use interface and with a very useful file check of a movie's details when it's imported.

However,the menu construction tool is quite limited and certainly doesn't measure up to DVD Moviefactory 2, which is about the same price. More functionality here (more control of the templates and a wider choice of customisation options) would be a great improvement.

For this reason, I won't be buying - though I'll be checking on further versions.

Review by japniz on Oct 2, 2003 Version: 1.5.13.44 trial OS: Win98 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 7/10




Very easy and basic program to use for beginers like myself. TMPEGEnc DVD Author took the basic structure of Ahead DVD Movie Factory and improved upon it. The fact that it can accept VOB files or converted MPEG-2 files with AC3 is a definite plus. Would like to see better menu creation ability. The newewst version (1.5.13) has the ability to create motion menus. I think with a little more work, this will be the ONLY authoring tool I'll you to create a nice simple DVD with menus.

Review by bigb_y2g on Sep 4, 2003 Version: 1.5.13 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




I can't say enough about TMPGEnc DVD Author. It is simply the best program for DVD authoring that I have used. In my opinion, it outshines Pinnacle, My Sonic and even my most recent preference Ulead.
I only recently discovered that TMPGEnc DVD Author has the capacity to edit out the commercials of my mpe2 captured video, while you are compiling the tracks of your DVD.
Talk about easy and fast.
I love this program

Review by caliburn on Sep 4, 2003 Version: 1.5.13.44 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




One word:

E A S Y

It does what you want if you want something simple and fast..
I did both VCD to DVD and MPEG2 to DVD with this tool! It's so coool! Should try it! I'm sure u just need 5 mins to figure out how to use all the features it has!

Review by Kill-K on Sep 2, 2003 Version: 1.15.11.37 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




I thought this tool was excellent when i first tried it about 1 week ago, made several dvd's, just wished it had the ability to move buttons and windows where you wanted too.... well, a week later they released the newer version which allow's just that!!!
This program just got WAY better!! although i would still add acouple of functions, like tha ability to add buttons and program them to do exactly what you want, unless i missed something, i just updated it and tried one dvd, but this is one VERY easy to use program that gives GREAT results!!! this one is so easy to use and understand i don't know why you would ever even need a users guide!!! they need to include ac3 or better encoding on the audio track's if they did'nt already, but it does allow ac3 to pass through if it is already ac3.
I have tried many Expensive programs & this is the one i will use most if not all of the time!!!! Pegasys comes through with another great program!!
I would definately recomend trying & buying this one!!!!

Review by CHAOS on Aug 29, 2003 Version: 1.5.13.44 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 9/10




Finally supports user menu design, and has some ability to ignore non-standard DVD formats at last

Its getting there, with every version it gets better and better, for its price I think it is one of the best beginner and intermediate DVD creator packages

You should be able to grasp the basic functions and start to burn your first DVD within 10-15 minutes of running it, without having to spend forever reading the manual, its that simple to use

Excellant tool

Review by steptoe on Aug 29, 2003 Version: 1.5.13.44 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 8/10




This program did EXACTLY what I wanted easily and quickly. I captured a TV program with my ATI 8500 and just wanted to cut out the commercials and write it to DVD. I tried various programs with all the bells and whistles, but while I could write jazzy menus, editing out the commericals on a timeline was tedious. In this program, you see each frame, mark where to start and stop the cut, and it's done (with no hesitation or crashing!) This is a great DVD authoring tool!

Review by kbgorman on Aug 24, 2003 Version: 1.5.11.37 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 10/10 Overall: 10/10




SO far I love this program and plan to buy it. Fully working demo for 30 days, not too expensive to buy.
All my experience so far is using mpeg2 files I have already captured with an ATI capture card, though the program does others also, I have not. Program does not do video capturing.

Good, fast, easy to use program. Lot's of options.
Not counting the time I spent editing and deciding various options, the program created a full DVD from an mpeg2 file to the hard drive in less than 14 minutes and 30 seconds on a XP2000 system with 768mb ram.
Burning time depends on your burner and disks. You don't want to know my burning time, I was using 1x disks :(

I have not had any problems at all with this program! Very simple to use, but also has more advanced options too.
I beleave a child could use this program to make a working DVD the first time, and a professional looking DVD very quickly.

Start program, click new project, click add file, add as many files as you need, I've done 6 already. Edit your files, here you can cut the parts you don't want and add chapter points. I do alot of that. Sometimes I manually set chapters for certain parts, often I use the auto set and make chapters for skipping through the movie. You can choose how often to insert the points, I often do 5 minutes, Works good.

Then make menu's. Choose format, you can select the chapters that should be shown and hide others. Click on thumbnails and you can choose the scene from your file to use as the thumb picture. Enter titles, pretty much standard text stuff, fonts, size, color, etc...
You can set the background for the menus to any scene in the movie, also I think you can make your own and import them, though I haven't tried that. Also supposed to be able to do motion menu's, something else I have not tried yet.

Once you have your menus the way you want, make the dvd files. I create them on the hardrive as video-ts folders, but you can choose other options. If your DVD size is too big you'll get a warning, but you can ingore that if you want and make an over sized DVD. I have and then shrunk it with another program later.

Once you have created the files on the hard drive you can use the program to burn them to disk also. I have a Toshiba SD5002 -R burner, using cheap 1x disks. Never been a coaster problem with this program or my setup.

Has to be the easiest program to use, and best results I have gotten to date. Many features and options I haven't tried yet too.

You can play the file your working on, like durring cutting, that way you can hear if people or music you want to keep is in that blank area you are about to cut :)
There is a bar that shows what your DVD size will be. I accidently captured a 6gig mp2. Instead of capturing it over, I made a 6gig dvd. I got a warning about the size, but no problem making it. I shrunk it using another progam, then used DVD Author to burn it to disk. No problem!

Of course it makes no changes to your original files! So if you cut something by mistake, your orginal file still has it! I have not cut anything in error, so I have not looked for any type of undo features.

I have used the same file several times. Like 3 videos in the wrong order. First time cut all but the last video, it's now the first one on the DVD, second time cut all but first video, now it's the second on the DVD and so forth.

Review by overloaded_ide on Aug 13, 2003 Version: 1.5 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




With the trial version, have burned 5 dvd-videos in the last 24 hours(after installing the dvd writer only the day before).Very easy to use for the beginner, and it looks like all the chaptering stuff is not going to be too hard to learn. As a combo with Tmpgenc Plus, the cost on their website is $99 US, but the trial gives a month to find out if it's right for you. This is one I really think I'm going to pay for.

Review by poco on Aug 3, 2003 Version: 1.5.11.37 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 9/10




Ultra-cheese interface, and much to be desired on templates. To me, this program is ONLY good for ONE THING... multiple VTS. It's the only affordable program I have that will accept MPEG1/MPEG2 mix discs and MPEG2 mixed-resolution setups. And for that, it's useful. However, I refuse to use it on normal work until menus are customizeable in placement and actions.

Review by lordsmurf on Aug 2, 2003 Version: 1.0.4.20 OS: WinME Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 4/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 6/10




Good, and easy

Review by hogen on Aug 2, 2003 Version: 1.15 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




TMPGEnc DVD Author has a burner, I used it and it works very good

Very good tool I paid for it.

Review by Shopcat on Jul 31, 2003 Version: 1.5 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 10/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




This is not the most sophisticated DVD authoring software out there, but it does what it's supposed to do VERY well. And if you have an excellent real-time MPEG2 capture card (like my ATI AIW 9700 Pro), you can literally go from your "raw" MPEG2 clips to the finished project on your DVD+/-R disc in less than an hour. The key to its efficiency is "smart" rendering; if you already have DVD-compliant MPEG2 clips, the software will leave the clips' A/V bitrate intact on the finished project. (So make sure to get the capture card's settings to your satisfaction when you capture the clips.)

Review by desertnocal on Jul 30, 2003 Version: 1.5.11 OS: Win2K Ease of use: 7/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 8/10




Simple, easy to use, limited menus though, you really do need more example layouts or even better a way of creating your own (but it is still pretty new software)

Desperately needs the ability to 'allow' NTSC and PAL on one DVD-R, as separate tracks/movies, and non-standard dimensions, if DVD-Lab can do it, with a warning, why can't TMPGenc DVD Author allow this ????????

Apart from that major grumble, I find this easy to use, if a bit simplistic, but for transferring movies to DVD-R what more do you need

Review by steptoe on Jul 3, 2003 Version: 1.10.36 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 6/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 9/10




Playback of DVD's authored with TMPGEnc DVD work much better on home-DVD players than many other authoring programms. With the Disc Wizard included with Power Director for example, I had problems with playback on a JVC DVD-player (2003). When authored with TMPGEnc DVD the same MPEG-files worked just fine!

Burner isn't essential to include. Nero works just fine!

Flexibility of menu's could be improved however!

Review by dvd_user on Jul 2, 2003 Version: 1.5.11 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 8/10




Very easy to use. Menus are easy to construct, and it accepts AC3 audio. Doesn't output disk images, and seems to complain about VBR MPEG2 files created with Cinemacraft. Works perfectly along side Tmgpenc.

Review by mh2360 on Jun 27, 2003 Version: 1.04.24 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 9/10 Functionality: 7/10 Value for money: 8/10 Overall: 10/10




This is a very fast, utilitarian authoring program. I use Power Director to encode my older mpg-1 files to DVD standards, import and author them in TMPGenc DVD author, then burn with Nero. Very fast, and the quality is as good as I have seen for the source material that I have.

Review by tobias2020 on Jun 27, 2003 Version: Tmpgenc dvd author OS: Win98 Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Overall: 10/10




I am new to computers, let alone making DVDs. It was probably the easiest trialware I've ever tried. They really should include a burner. I made an excellent looking menu and sub-menu and the resulting DVDs played better than any I previously made. $68. if you want to buy it. Hard for me to purchase without a 'burner' included. I wish all 'trials' worked this easy. I just want to know why they didn't include a burner. This is going to scare people away. (including me.) For the person who has trouble understanding how to author DVDs, I recommend this. This is just basic, I'm sure more complicated programming will become available in the future.
I had nothing but problems with the Ulead trials. They worked but I really had to work at it and accept some flaws.

Review by TheGr8Steve on Jun 25, 2003 Version: 1.0? (released May 2003 OS: WinME Ease of use: 10/10 Functionality: 8/10 Value for money: 6/10 Overall: 9/10




Easy to use and it has a good built-in mpeg editor, perfect to remove commercials.

Review by Baldrick on Jun 18, 2003 Version: 1.0.10 OS: WinXP Ease of use: 8/10 Functionality: 5/10 Value for money: 7/10 Overall: 7/10


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