DVD Ripper/DVD Maker

[j1232]

I am looking for a small basic app that I can creat a DVD and Burn it from most any video format. Would DVD Flick be a good choice?

What other programs are out there and why would you choose that over DVD Flick?

[+BudMan MVC]

dvd flick is a easy no brainer method for this sure. Use to use it for special projects.

But to be honest, who still writes DVDs? Are you trying to make something for your Grandma? There are like a gajillion ways to play any video format directly on your TV these days. I can't recall the last time I had to make a actual DVD that would play in a DVD player?

Many Tvs will play video files even - just plug in USB flash/disk and play it. Worse case transcode to format your TV plays, etc.

[mikiem]

You're talking about a 3 step process, converting/encoding the video, putting it in a DVD layout, & then burning it. You can handle it as 3 separate steps, go for an app that's more-or-less a front end for individual apps you could use, or go for something like Nero or one of the cheaper versions of Vegas. There are 2 problems with apps like Nero & Vegas -- cost [though in the U.S. Nero & home versions of Vegas can be found for free after MIR], & they won't import every video format. For the ft. end sort of app you might try multiAVCHD, which I think will do DVDs, even if it's intended more for AVCHD & Blu-Ray. To do it in separate steps start with a video converter [there are loads to choose from], then use something like the free Muxman for your DVD layout if you don't want/need menus, or one of the DVDAuthor ft ends like DVD Styler if you want menus, then after testing use whatever burning app, e.g. imgburn. Check out the tools & links etc. at videohelp.com, & check the Software section here at neowin for occassional free offers on video convertor apps. I've never ben a fan of DVD Flick, & it's no longer developed, but it's free so if you want to try it go for it.

That said, BudMan is right... DVDs are still cool -- they're both cheap & convenient to store a large collection of video that can play almost anywhere nowadays -- but it's a lot more work creating them & unless the original, source video you're converting/encoding is higher quality than the DVD you're making, it'll probably look kinda nasty. Every time you re-encode video you loose quality, often a lot, so you're better off figuring out a way to play your files as-is. If you have to re-encode it's faster to encode the mpg2 DVDs use, & takes less horsepower, but it's pretty inefficient compared to the currently much more popular AVC/H.264 -- something that would fill a single layer video DVD might take up 1/4 the space [or less] in the same quality if it's AVC. Just burn your AVC video files to a data DVD if you want to store them cheaply off your hard drive(s).

[mendel]

I can recommend that you try Audials Moviebox. It does DVD ripping quite well and you get to have some extra functions like online video recording and video converting as well.