Download the program for creating DVD menus. Programs for creating DVD menus
DVDStyler is a free and simple program for creating copyright DVD disc and with video. Ideal for DVD recording disc with home video - even a non-professional can create a movie with a menu on a laser disc. To burn a movie to DVD with DVDStyler you do not need any special knowledge, you do not need to be a programmer or video editing specialist. In just a few minutes, thanks to the user-friendly interface of the application, you can create a movie in DVD format with an interactive menu with buttons on beautiful background, add subtitles and sound, and burn the created film to a laser DVD disc. The disc recorded by DVDStyler will open on any DVD player. Also, using DVDStyler you can create a photo slide show.
How to record DVD video
After launching DVDStyler, a window will open asking you to create new project or open an existing one. Here you can set the name of the disc, specify its size, select the audio and video bitrate, select the video format (PAL/NTSC), determine the aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9) and set the audio format (MP2 or AC3). After this, all that remains is to select the background on which the menu will be located, arrange the navigation buttons, assign actions to the buttons when pressed, and select a video. The final stage creating video on DVD - compiling the project and burning the film onto disk.
Supported Formats
The program supports working with such common video formats as MPEG, AVI, MKV, MP4, MOV, OGG, WMV, FLV, and understands audio formats such as WAV, MP3, FLAC, DTS, AAC, MPEG, RL2, PCM. WITH full list supported formats can be found on the developer’s website. DVDStyler supports drag-and-drop function - video and audio can simply be dragged into the program from Windows Explorer.
Screenshots of the DVDStyler program
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A free program for creating DVD video images and burning them to disc.
Everyone has probably seen professionally made DVDs with all sorts of transitions and navigation menus. Have you ever wondered how these menus are created? Wouldn't you like to try to create something like this yourself? Probably, I wanted to (more than once :)).
Today we will learn how to create and record our own DVDs, which will be little inferior to their professionally made “brothers”. And one very good one will help us in all this free program entitled DVD Styler.
The program combines everything you need for DVD authoring (as the process of creating menus is called) from scratch. And although it still falls short of professional solutions, it allows you to create a decent-looking disk with minimum costs time and effort. If we compare DVD Styler with paid analogues, then ZC DVD Creator Platinum will be closest to it in terms of functionality.
Comparison of the free DVD burning program DVDStyler with the paid analogue ZC DVD Creator Platinum
With relatively identical functionality, DVD Styler weighs five times less than its paid counterpart! Another plus is multilingualism, which makes the work of a Russian-speaking user much easier.
Installing DVDStyler
Download and install DVD Styler. In principle, the installation follows a standard scenario, but there are some minor nuances. The most important hitch will be associated with the proposal to install a plugin for Internet Explorer and/or Mozilla Firefox - kikin.
If you agree to install this plugin, then your browser, based on the history of pages visited, will begin to offer you the “most interesting” information from various online resources. If you can find everything you are interested in on your own, I advise you not to install kikin.
DVDStyler interface
When the installation procedure is completed, the program itself will start. The first (and, in principle, the only) thing you need to configure is the interface language.
Select "Russian" from the list and click "Ok". After this, you will see the program itself, which will offer to create a new one or open a ready-made project.
We choose to create a new one and set the required information: Disc name (optional), disc size (standard DVD or double-layer), video format (PAL/NTSC), aspect ratio and sound format of future films. Install it as needed and click “Ok” to start working.
Let's take a closer look working window programs:
We hardly need the menu bar at the top, since all the necessary buttons are located on the toolbar (below). On the left is the program’s file manager, with which you can manage downloaded pictures and videos. Below is a kind of storyboard for navigating through the sections of the future DVD. The main space is occupied by the work area displaying the current active element menu.
Creating a DVD Menu
When creating a new DVD, we have one ready-made menu on the storyboard. True, it is empty. Let's add some background image to it. Go to the "Background Images" tab and double-click on the image you like. If the standard ones do not suit you, you can add any image from your computer.
To do this, go to the “File Manager” and find what you need. The drawing can be prepared in advance in any graphics editor so that it contains ready-made inscriptions and/or additional fragments that correspond to the general theme of the future DVD.
Adding movies
Once we have decided on the image, we can start adding films to the project (although this could have been done before choosing an image for the menu). This is done simply: click the "Add file" button and select using Explorer Windows required movie. It is better to do this by expanding the program window to full screen.
Why? Because in this case, in the lower right corner you will see a scale for filling the future disk over time. Be careful not to overdo it with the number of films!
So, the films have been added, they’ve been completed within the allotted time, now it’s time to think about the menu. Right-click on it and select “Properties”.
Sound design in the menu
Here we can add sound accompaniment to our menu (if you want, of course). Click on the button after the "Audio" field and in the Explorer window that opens, select the right music. You may be alarmed that the formats listed are only MP2 and AC3 files. Just set this field to "All files" and you can add any MP3 or WAV tune.
Typically, a DVD consists of several menus: a main menu, and an episode menu for each movie (although the latter are not the main attribute). We'll create a disc with just the main menu as an example.
Creating Buttons
We go to the "Buttons" tab and can add navigation keys to our menu by simply dragging the button you like directly from the list. I note that among the buttons there is a frame in which arbitrary frames from the movie “linked” to it will be displayed. Adding such frames significantly improves the overall appearance of the menu.
The first button is by default "linked" to the first added movie. Let's see what we can do with it. Call the context menu of the button by right-clicking the mouse. Here we are interested in two items: “Add” and “Properties”. Thanks to the first one, we can add beautiful inscription(for example, the title of a movie) using the “Text” and “Text with shadow” items.
There shouldn't be any problems here, so let's take a closer look at "Properties".
Here are all the settings for a specific button. In the first section we can set the action that will be performed when the button is clicked. This can be either a transition to a certain part of the DVD, or, for example, playing a certain melody or go to another menu. The "View" section is responsible for the design of the button.
In the case of a frame, we can install any image from a computer into it or allow us to install an arbitrary frame directly from the film (you can also manually specify the time of the desired frame). Here we also indicate the transparency level of the inserted image, the width of the frame and its color. It is better to adjust the location and size using the mouse.
Above we looked at how to add text with the title of the movie. However, the name can also be written on the button. Select the appropriate one, drag it into the working window and write the desired name in the properties. Then we “bind” this button in “Actions” to one of the films, and the job is done!
In a similar way, we create buttons for moving to other movies, and we will get a rather beautiful and functional menu:
Since all the films may not fit on one page, sometimes it will be very useful to make another one, linking it with cross-references to the first one. You can also add additional images if you have not taken care of this in advance.
Saving a project and burning a disc
Now that everything is ready, you can move on to last stage- preservation. You can save a project, a disk image, or directly burn a DVD. If we don’t want to stop there, click the “Burn” button on the toolbar and be transferred to the following window:
This is the “last bastion” of DVD Styler. Whatever you choose, in any case you will have to wait (and for quite a long time). After all, all files are first converted to DVD format, and only then can be burned to disk. For processing video, you will need free space on your hard drive (about half as much as the DVD project takes up).
You can reduce the size only if you select “Create ISO image” (probably the word “image” was translated incorrectly). If you choose this option, you will also need to specify the folder to save the image. You can also activate "Preview" after DVD generation by checking the appropriate option.
After all the installations, finally click the “Start” button and wait until everything is ready:
conclusions
As you can see, creating your own DVDs is not that difficult if you use good software. DVD Styler may not have some of the features that it does. paid analogues, but it is quite convenient to use, and it has a lot of functions.
Another plus is that DVD Styler allows all manipulations to create a disc to be carried out within one window, which significantly saves time and effort when searching for the necessary tools. I wish you successful and beautiful projects that will give you joy every time you watch them!
P.S. Permission granted to freely copy and quote. this article provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.
Hello. I have a friend. A very old, excellent, reliable, kind friend. So he has a daughter - Veronica, as he affectionately calls her. I have never met people who adore their child so much. Seriously.
Volodya simply has all the GIGABYTES of memory in his smartphone and computer filled with her photos and videos. 😯 He asked me to find a simple and free program For creating a DVD video disc with beautiful interactive menu options. So that you can record a video on a disk and shove a slideshow of photos there.
How can I refuse a friend? I found such a program and today I will describe it - it’s called DVDStyler. Personal opinion - an excellent, simple program with great capabilities for creating a DVD video disc with an interactive menu. I hope it will be very useful to you too.
In order for you to always be able to download the most new version program I give a link to the page of the official website - there at the top, on the right there will always be a green button with the most latest version programs. It looks like this (don't click on the picture - link below)...
Download DVDStyler
Have you downloaded it? Well done! The installation process is as simple as three pennies and there is no point in describing it. I’ll just mention one window, a clever one...
All the checkboxes in it need to be unchecked if you don’t want to pick up a bunch of bars, etc. on your computer.
Let's start working in DVDStyler by adding our own backgrounds for the interactive menu (they are there by default, but there are few of them and they are all sad in my opinion). To do this you need to follow this path...
We put (insert) our photos or wallpaper into a folder...
That's it, now you can run the program. When you launch it for the first time, a window like this will appear...
Here you can name your future DVD video disc, indicate the disc size, video format (if you plan to watch the disc not on a computer, but on a TV) and aspect ratio. I left everything as is and the disc was displayed perfectly both on the laptop and on the TV. Click “ok”.
Now a window with interactive menu options has appeared...
Choose a menu layout that “looks right at you.” Now, the main window of the DVDStyler program has finally opened. The first thing we are offered is to select a menu background. You and I have already prepared it, remember?
Selected a background and assigned it double click mice.
This is the background I chose for myself. I rewrote the inscriptions with the same double click on them (initially they were in the angelic language). Now go to the “File Manager” tab...
...and having selected your videos that you want to burn to disk, simply drag them down while holding down LEFT button mice…
It looks like this...
This is a preview in the player, and in the program window you can drag these windows as you want. Double-click on any window to open...
Here you can experiment. Note! In the “View” section there is a dot on “Video”, and to the right there is a button with three dots - click on it...
Here you can specify the duration of the video and your disc menu will have buttons for sections with live video.
And if you double-click on one of your videos in the bottom line of the program...
You can add more video files to the section and it turns out that there will be several videos under one section button.
In the same way, you can make a section with photographs. You can place one photo between videos, or you can make a whole slideshow, just like combining several videos into one section.
As you can see from the screenshot, you can also attach music to the slideshow.
On the left in the program tabs there is a whole section with buttons for the menu. The choice is simply huge. Try, assign, drag, rename...
Have you calmed down? Have you been spoiled? Now save the project just in case...
Menu for DVD is a topic that will be discussed in this article. The site has already discussed the issue of creating a menu for DVDs, but over time, programs have been released that significantly simplify the procedure for creating a menu for DVDs. Therefore, several programs were specially selected that allow for novice users without unnecessary problems create a menu for DVD. You can find a lot of programs online that create disc menus, but we have selected the best of them. To create a menu for a DVD you will need only one program, but it was decided in the article to use several programs to create a DVD menu, since each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. It’s up to you to decide which program to use to create your DVD menu.
This article will also discuss the following questions:
Why is it necessary?DVD menu
Every DVD video disc, whether licensed or pirated, has a built-in menu. By using standard menu Can:
Easily switch between movies
Turn on/off subtitles,
Select an audio track in music discs,
Quickly switch between slides
Implement a convenient search for a video fragment on a DVD disc
But the DVD menu you create can be much more attractive and functional than the standard menu, since you will create the DVD menu design yourself according to the theme of your disc. In addition, you can insert a beautiful photo instead of a regular background, instead of standard icons you can make playing episodes, etc. Therefore, the menus you create will be original and unique.
Creating your own menu for a DVD disc
We present to your attention two ways to create a DVD menu. The first method is simpler and easier to rapid development for a novice user. It is built on ready-made templates. This way you can quickly create a menu for a DVD disc in just a few clicks. The second method provides more flexible options when creating menus for DVDs. This method involves working with a professional program to create a DVD menu. What method to work with is up to you!
Creating a DVD Menu with using NERO 10
(spoiler title=Easier way opened=0)
To create menus in NERO 10 there is an application called NeroVisionXtra. This is where we will create the DVD menu. This application looks like this:
Since we want to make a menu for DVD, we go to “Make DVD/DVD-Video”. Screenshot:
A new project will open. First you need to import files into it, and then make a menu. Therefore, click “Import / Import files ...”
We indicate the video files that will be included in the DVD, their format does not matter, the process of adding video files to the NeroVisionXtra program is as follows:
After adding to NeroVisionXtra:
We have added four files, these will be the corresponding four DVD menu buttons. How many menu buttons to make is up to you. You may have a significant number of individual video files, but to have fewer buttons on the menu, you can merge or merge several video files into one. How to do this was discussed in the guide: How to merge videos?
Go to the “Templates” tab and select the “Smart3D” value in the category. It has only one template called Cube. We select it (additional templates can be downloaded from the Internet by clicking on the “Additional templates” button). It already has built-in music and flash animation. It is well suited for those who agree to apply ready-made templates. Screenshot:
As a result of applying the template:
The template has six buttons in total. In our case, two will remain free. Now you can make the appropriate inscriptions on the template. It has the corresponding fields marked in red. Let's look at the screenshot:
Double-click on the field indicated by red lines and a window appears where you can enter a new name:
Enter a different name and apply the changes by clicking anywhere on the menu template.
At this stage, the menu video will start playing, we can watch it. By the way, this program emulates the operation of a DVD remote control. If everything suits you, then click “Next”
Now let's set where the DVD movie will be recorded. The program can write it to disk or to a folder hard drive. For example, let's write to a hard drive (hard drive). Specify the folder where the DVD movie will be recorded and click “Record”.
I would like to speed up the recording process. To do this, change the program priority. Replace "Normal" with "High". NeroVisionXtra will significantly speed up your work. At the same time, it is recommended not to do anything on the computer, because work with other programs will be significantly slowed down. When recording is complete, NeroVisionXtra prompts you to save the log file. You don't need it, so you don't have to save it. When the menu is created, the following window will appear:
Creating a DVD Menu Using DVD Lab Pro
The program that we will use to create a DVD menu has full set tools for creating quality menus. The program developers emphasized Special attention on setting up effects and unique DVD menu elements. Often when preparing DVDs, the user looks for the most better program to achieve your goals. Such a program is DVD-lab Pro - a fairly powerful solution for creating DVD menus. The program can create beautiful animated effects of buttons moving when selected, etc. Using the program you can create menus for DVDs on any topic. You can also make a slideshow of photos for convenient viewing on TV. detailed instructions, (in the drop-down line) will help achieve the desired result. So, let's begin!
(spoiler title=A more flexible way opened=0)
Launch DVD Lab Pro. The program offers to set the main characteristics of the future project.
First of all, we indicate the desired television system - PAL or NTSC. Below we mark the item that best suits your project.
Normal (VTS Menu+Movie) is the most common option for building a DVD: menu + movie. If the disc contains several VTS (Video Title Set), then you must specify the second item - Advanced (VMG, VTS Menu+Movie).
If the disc does not have a menu, check the third item Simple (Movie Only).
And if you have already used the program and you have a template or an unfinished project, mark the last option.
Now you need to enter into the project the necessary video, audio data, as well as pictures for the menu background and subtitles if necessary. The Assets window is used for these purposes. DVD-lab Pro supports the main types of video and audio stream files: mpv, m2v, mpa, m2a, ac3, dts, wav, aiff, mpg, vob. Interesting feature The program is that it immediately checks imported files for compatibility.
Using the “Explorer” button, double-click to add a video to the project.
Now a few words about the format of sound files. A DVD typically requires audio at a sampling rate of 48kHz. Therefore, if you input audio with a different value for this parameter (for example, the AudioCD sampling rate is 44.1 kHz), DVD Lab Pro will offer to re-encode the “wrong” audio file. If you want to use Dolby Digital AC-3 sound in your project, you should either encode it first using third-party programs.
When importing files in MPEG or VOB format, the program offers to demultiplex them or use them as is. Please note that when using MPEG or VOB without demultiplexing, they must be compatible with the DVD format (mpeg-2).
Now we enter into our project the video file of the main film and the starting video and two sound files. If necessary, we transcode the audio into AC-3 format. Since we are using two video files in the project, we will add another Movie element. To add new elements, right-click on it and context menu select the desired item. This Project window displays the project elements that will be included in the DVD: movies, menus, slide shows, and the relationships between them. All elements are shown in a tree structure.
All that remains is to drag the files from the Assets window to the Movie 1 and Movie 2 windows and sound files to them.
Now we need to break our film into chapters. This is necessary so that you can create an episode menu. You can do this in two ways - automatic and manual. In most cases, it is more convenient to use manual arrangement of chapters - you need to click on the episode, appear vertical stripe and plus sign. By clicking on it, a marker will appear at the top (as in the picture).
By the way, for ease of viewing, you can use the viewing window. (Bottom right). You can also place markers there.
When automatically searching for chapters, changes in the scene image are analyzed. Set Sensitivity in the range from 0 to 255. The recommended value is 220. To call the menu you need to:
And set the necessary parameters.
Creation main menu
Now let's start creating the main menu. It will appear immediately after inserting the disc into the DVD player. In the “Project” window, double-click on the line Menu1. A window will open in which we will work on the design of the future DVD menu. In essence, it is a simple graphic editor with support for raster and vector graphics.
Let's start by adding a background. Open the “Backgrounds” tab in the Assets window (below) and transfer the image you like.
A window will open in which you can select the font type, its size and type the inscription itself. Then you can change the size of the inscription or position it depending on the requirements of the project.
But in our 3D project several lines have already been created by default. All we have to do is change the inscriptions to our own. This can be done just below the project itself.
The project has already specified where each menu element will be, but you can adjust it a little if something doesn’t fit somewhere.
1- Disc title “My DVD”.
2- “Watch”,
3- "Episodes"
As you can see, the last three inscriptions will be active menu elements or buttons. But more on that later. For now, let's see what properties of objects can be changed. All right side The program is occupied by the Properties panel. It consists of several bookmarks. Now we, perhaps, will not dwell in detail on those bookmarks that allow you to change appearance objects. Because you yourself can customize the design of all menu elements without any difficulties.
The Fill tab provides additional textures for filling objects, which can be combined with the effects of the Colors tab. In addition to choosing the texture itself, there is a fill type setting: normal fill, overlay, negative, transparent. Additionally, we have four effects: emboss, metal shine, 2-lights shine, RGB-shine. In addition, you can replenish the textures yourself - to do this, simply copy your files to JPG format to the folder C:\Program Files\ DVDlabPro\Textures\.
Also useful bookmark- Lyrs (Layers - layers) - allows you to work with layers, similar to Photoshop. To move layers, use two buttons - Bring Forward (up) and Send Backward (down).
When designing a DVD menu, you can use a set of already built-in libraries, which is located in the Assets window. If for some reason you do not have enough pre-installed templates, you have the opportunity to independently supplement the libraries with your own objects.
Among other things, the program contains standard set functions for aligning and centering objects. All changes you make are immediately displayed on the project screen, so you can customize all the elements according to your plan.
Now it's time to start creating the episode menu. Using this menu, you can quickly select the desired fragment of the film. IN automatic mode We have divided the film into four episodes, each of which will be displayed in the working menu window as a small repeating fragment. This type of menu is called a Motion Menu. In addition to being clear, Motion Menu gives your DVD a professional look.
Creating such a Motion Menu is extremely simple. Click on the Wizards panel -> Add chapter selection menu, and go to a small window where we select a template for the future menu for episodes.
The program will create a new menu, and after that another line Scenes1 for Movie1 will appear in the Project window. Double-click on it and go to the already familiar menu editing window. In each of the template windows, the first frame of the corresponding episode will be automatically inserted.
At the bottom of the frame it is indicated which disk location the object is associated with. Next to each frame, the order of navigating the disc using the remote control is displayed remote control DVD player. And below is the name of the object from which it was taken and the episode number. The resulting menu is already fully functional. But let's modify it a little by adding to each frame decorative frame. You can get them in the Assets library. The program will automatically adjust the frame to fit, as if “flowing around” the frame on which it was placed. Also, if an object has a link, the frame will inherit the same link. You can also import your frame samples in *.png format. But this is only with more professional use of the program. For now, standard elements will be enough for us.
Making connections
Let us dwell in more detail on the methods of selecting personnel and establishing connections. First, we can check how our menu works; to do this, click the “Simulation” button.
A “navigator” will appear, emulating the DVD player remote control. By clicking on the arrows, we see how the menu reacts to these actions. In our case, the active frame is highlighted with a different frame color. Let's try to ensure that the entire active frame is highlighted, i.e. frame and frame inside it. To do this, you need to use the “Group objects” function.
It allows you to group multiple objects. The group acts like a single element. Click the “Group Objects” button and draw a circle around one of the frames. The group is highlighted with a red and white dotted line. All that remains is to restore connection with the desired fragment of the film. Right-click on the group and then click Link/Movie/ChapterXX, where XX is the number of the corresponding episode. We do the rest of the frames in the same way.
Now let's try to change the highlight color of the active element when hovering over it. Open the “Map” tab in the Properties panel.
Use the switch in the “Color Map” tab Normal/Selected/Activated to select the button state, where Normal is an unselected button, Selected is a selected button, Activated is a button at the moment of pressing. Each of them includes three sliders, which are responsible for the color in each group of buttons. The third group is set by default, so we use the lower regulator.
The color is assigned by clicking on the square (a palette of sixteen colors), and its transparency is assigned by the position of the slider. Customize according to your project.
Now is the time to make video clips in the episode selection windows. Select Menu->Animate Menu (the program will issue a warning that 10 seconds of an uncompressed AVI file can take up 300MB) and go to the "Animate Menu" window.
The top left is the preview area. It displays a general view of the menu, with a red rectangle indicating the active link.
In the right corner there is a list of objects that can be animation objects. In the Preview window you can view the active clip, and using the slider (to the left of the window) we select the starting points of each Motion Menu clip. Next, set the duration of playback of the clips “Total Clip Time”, within 10-40 seconds. For smooth transition from the end of the clip to its beginning (do not forget that the clip is “loop”), check the box “Smooth development at the end of the loop” and just below indicate the duration in frames.
The “Screen Saver Effect” feature is worth noting. It allows you to add the effect of a menu “appearing” on the screen. There are several preset options: cross-fade, top/bottom, right/left, etc. In addition, there are two special options: Buttons Cut and All Objects Cut. The first one makes all buttons invisible for the time specified in the Intro Effect parameter (all other objects remain visible), the second one makes all objects invisible except the background.
Finally, we select the MPEG-2 encoding method, bitrate and temporary folder in which the rendering result will be stored. When everything is ready, click the “Create” button. The process occurs in two stages, the rendering time depends on the duration of the menu clip and the number of episodes. The finishing touch is to set the background music that will play while the menu is playing. Simply transfer the required file to the Audio track.
Let's summarize
Now let's finish editing the main menu. All we have to do is associate the buttons with the corresponding project objects and arrange navigation links. We associate the “Watch” button with the first chapter of the film (Movie 1)
“Episodes” is linked to the episode menu (Scenes 1 for Menu 1), “Settings” is connected to the settings menu.
Defining connections
The main part of the work on the future DVD menu has been completed. All we have to do is determine how the various elements of the project are related to each other. For these purposes, go to the special Connections window.
Each project object is presented in the form of a conventional graphic icon. Audio/video data files are displayed as a fragment of film, menus are framed in various frames, etc. As you can see, some of the connections have already been made. They appeared at the stage of creating the menu and determined the links for the buttons.
If you want to change something, the connection is determined using the “Draw Link” tool.
Next we need to loop Menu 1, i.e. connect the end of the menu icon to its beginning. When cycling, it forms special connection LOOP. Thus, after loading the disc, the main menu is played, which will continue to play until the user chooses what to do next. We loop the episode menu in the same way. In principle, there is practically no need to loop (LOOP), since by default the duration of the menu in the program is set to infinity. But just in case, I did it myself. Now let's get acquainted with some interesting additional objects. The line of these objects is located at the bottom of the Connections window.
Return to last Menu. When the movie ends, it determines the link to the last displayed menu. Therefore, if we started watching a movie from the episode menu, then after the end of the movie we will return to it. Very logical from a navigation point of view.
Random List. Plays movies listed in random order. Ideal for use in audio/video clip collections.
Chapter Play-List (Movie Branching Object). Allows you to create a playlist and play movie episodes in a given order.
Almost FINISH!
Almost everything has already been done, and all we have to do is compile the project and burn it to a DVD. Click Project->DVD Compilation.
In the “DVD Compilation” window, specify the path to the folder in which the disk image will be located. If you need to burn the disc right away, check the box next to Autostart recording.
That's all. Click “Run” and wait a few minutes for the program to compile the project. Since we have virtually no experience in creating DVD menus, we will make a test recording on DVD-RW. Then check it on your DVD player. The program provides the opportunity to professionally create projects of any complexity. The purpose of this article was to introduce you to the program and help you understand basic concepts. If you want to study the program's capabilities in more depth, there is a lot of literature on the Internet. The program also has a help (F1), but in English. I assure you that there is nothing complicated, and there is no need to be afraid to create a menu for a DVD disc on your own. Remember, no one will ever do for you better than you yourself. Good luck!(/spoiler)
Editing a ready-made DVD menu
Editing a ready-made DVD menu will allow you to change the design or structure of all content. Also, sometimes, on different DVDs, you can find intrusive advertising, all sorts of agreements, movie trailers and the like. You can get rid of all this and make the appropriate changes to that menu, and make it your own, using the program, which we will consider below. But first, in order to edit a ready-made menu, you need to familiarize yourself with the principle of operation and structure root directory DVD disc.
(spoiler title=Instructions for editing the menu opened=0)
DvdReMake Pro is a program that we will use to edit DVD menus. The program interface is quite simple and should not cause any difficulties. You can download it at the end of the article. The program presents the menu in a tree form, which facilitates the editing process. Therefore, it will not be difficult for you to find and remove advertisements or unnecessary menu items. As an example, let's delete the part of the disc menu called "Episodes". So let's get started.
Open the program and specify (using the Import DVD command) the path to the folder with the DVD movie.
- Please note: you need to specify not just any file, but the folder itself. The program will download the content. You just need to wait a little while the DVD content is imported.
- We have a tree-like menu structure. Since we want to remove the button from the menu, we need to find where the main menu is located. In our case, this is Video Title Set 1/Menus en/PGC 2.
- Now we work directly with the main menu of the disc. To remove the “Episodes” menu button, right-click on it and select “Hide button”
- We removed the "Episodes" button function, but the name of the button remains because it is written on the background image. Unfortunately, you won't be able to edit the background image in this program. To do this you need to use other programs.
- If you accidentally deleted the wrong thing, DvdReMake Pro has the ability to return the button function. To do this, right-click on the title “Episodes” and select the “Restore block” command. Using this method, you can remove not only menu buttons, but also advertisements and other unnecessary menu elements.
- Now you need to save changes made. To do this, click File/Export modified files or using
A window will open in which you specify the path to save the files. There is one peculiarity at this stage: by specifying a folder to save, the files will be saved not in it, but near it. Then you should replace the original ones with these files.
DVD disc structure
A standard DVD disc consists of two folders and several files with different extensions. The AUDIO_TS folder is usually empty on DVD video discs. It is used in DVD-Audio as a directory of audio files. The Video_TS folder contains files, the meaning of which we will now consider in more detail.
video_ts.ifo is a file that is responsible for the disc menu. It is this that needs to be launched by the player in order for the disc menu to open.
*.ifo - files containing information that the player uses during playback.
*.bup is a backup file for the *.ifo file in case of possible damage.
*.vob are DVD files that store information about video, audio and titles.
DVD movies are compressed using the MPEG-2 codec. The .vob video format takes up a lot of space because the bitrate of such videos varies from 2000 to 9800 Kbps. Video frame size in PAL standard is equal to 720x576 pixels, and for the NTSC standard - 720x480 pixels.
The DVD menu display can be static (not changing over time) or animated (the first few seconds of the movie will be played).
Since editing the finished menu is enough difficult process, requiring the use of third-party programs, we decided to do detailed description the process of editing a ready-made DVD menu without delving into technical points. If you have any questions, write in the comments.
Creating a DVD Menu from any video formats
In order to create a DVD disc with a full-featured menu using video files of other popular formats (*.avi, *.mp4, *3gp, *.ts, *.mkv, *.wma, *.flv, etc.) , which are not supported by programs for creating DVD menus, you need to convert them to a format supported by the program. For these purposes, you can use any converter from the “Video Converters” category. But I recommend using the free video converter “Format Factory”, which also contains a description of the conversion process.
Conclusions from everything done
The first one is aimed at the novice user. That is, the program that is used in the first method creates a menu in a few clicks. It uses ready-made pre-installed templates. The advantages of this method are the simplicity and speed of creation. The disadvantage is that it is impossible to move away from the theme of the template.
The second method uses more professional program, where the user needs to set all the parameters and settings himself. It takes more time, but also gives you more creative options.
We wish you success!!!
- In this article, we suggested two ways to create a DVD menu. The process of creating a DVD menu is accessible to everyone: both beginners and experienced users.
- The first one is aimed at the novice user. That is, the program that is used in the first method creates a menu in a few clicks. It uses ready-made pre-installed templates.
Advantages
- This method lies in the simplicity and speed of creation.
Disadvantage
- is that it is impossible to move away from the theme of the template.
- The second method uses a more professional program, where the user needs to set all the parameters and settings himself. It takes more time, but also gives you more creative options.
- We wish you success!!!
Any branded DVD contains a menu with which you can start playing a video, select a movie episode, or access settings. Such a menu can be made for a disc created at home. If it is assumed that an amateur film will be watched on a TV screen using a household DVD player, then such a menu is simply necessary. It’s much easier to spend time creating episodes and buttons to quickly jump to them once than to rewind to the desired moment every time you watch. Programs for working with DVD menus may also be needed if you want to make changes to an existing disc, say, remove additional materials from it and, accordingly, edit the menu.
Developer: MasterSoftDistribution size: 9 MB
Distribution: shareware Using Super DVD Creator, you can not only create a menu for a DVD, but also build such a disc. The program contains three modules: for creating a DVD based on video files, adding a menu and burning the result to disk. You can run each module separately, but in many cases it is more convenient to use the DVD Disk Builder wizard, which walks you through all the stages of creating a disc.
At the first stage, you can compose a DVD from several video files. For each video added to the project, it displays detailed information, the file itself can be viewed in the preview window. In addition, you can add subtitles. The bar at the bottom of the screen clearly shows how much space is left on the drive. It is important that Super DVD Creator supports not only regular disks DVD-5, but also double-layer (DVD-9).
Once the disk layout is complete, you can proceed to creating a menu. There are several to choose from background images, but you can load any background image from your hard drive, and also add music.
By default, each video file generates a preview icon based on the first frame. As a rule, this is not very convenient, since the first frame is rarely indicative. To change the frame in which the video file will be presented in the menu, simply click on the icon and find the desired location using the control buttons and the preview window.
If the video files you'll be burning to DVD are longer than 10 minutes, it might make sense to create clips not only for each clip, but also to quickly jump to the middle of each clip. To have the program automatically create chapters every 10, 15, or 20 minutes, you must select the Setup Chapter Property command. The frequency with which fragments will be created can be set manually. Then all that remains is to burn the DVD, which can be done directly in the program. Developer: Protectedsoft
Distribution size: 10 MB
Distribution: shareware As a rule, DVD authoring programs have a fairly large distribution size. If this is not the case, then this means that the program does not have ready-made templates. This, of course, can be regarded as a drawback, but, on the other hand, the menu can be created based on any images available on the hard drive. Video DVD Maker Pro is one of those programs that does not indulge in a variety of templates. There are only five background images in the library that comes with Video DVD Maker Pro, so you'll likely have to worry about finding a suitable image. Like many programs of a similar nature, Video DVD Maker Pro is built in the form of a wizard. First you need to select a background image for the menu and specify the project type. Since the program interface is Russified, there should be no problems with this: you can capture from a video camera, make a selection of ready-made video files or photos, etc.
For each video file that is added to the project, a separate chapter will be created on the DVD. Sections play a very important role for DVDs, since it is the links to them that are included in the menu. In other words, partitions need to be created for easy navigation on a future disc. If the video files you burn to DVD are large enough, you can add additional sections to quickly move not only to the beginning of the clip, but also to other fragments. The next step after creating sections is adding a menu. Since so many users often dream of a “magic button” that would do all the work for them, the creators of Video DVD Maker Pro added a button that they called Magic Button. When you click on it, the program analyzes the project and creates a menu with links to the main sections. You can then manually select the position of each menu item, set transparency, and even add a depth effect, that is, make the menu items three-dimensional. By selecting menu items, in the Layer Properties group you can see which disk fragments they refer to. It is also possible to add additional elements menu. The Add Audio button is used to add background music that will accompany the loading of the menu. Finally, it is worth mentioning that you can select some settings for the background image, in particular, select the scale.
You can also burn a disc in Video DVD Maker Pro. The creators of the program did not forget about the need to create a cover for the disc. It is very convenient that the cover is generated automatically and contains the name of the disc and the background image selected for the menu. You can add text, images, and various vector graphics elements (ellipse, rectangle, line) to the cover. Developer: MediaChance
Distribution size: 33 MB
Distribution: shareware All programs for creating DVD menus can be divided into two types. For most users, all-in-one solutions are suitable, where you can compose a disc, create a menu, and burn a DVD. However, those who create menus professionally use programs that are designed exclusively for this purpose. Most of these applications are very expensive and difficult to learn, but they provide almost unlimited menu creation options. In particular, you can create multi-level menus and establish connections between each element. Such programs usually do not have ready-made templates, but they support importing files Adobe Photoshop, including those that use layers. DVD-lab Pro stands in the middle between simple DVD authoring programs and professional solutions. The developers of the utility focused not on ready-made menu templates (although there are also quite a few of them), but on individual elements and effects. Therefore, even if you decide to use a ready-made button for navigation, but add the effect of fire or metallic shine to it, it will become original. In addition, the same button can be made using any element from the program’s extensive library as a basis, for example, a smiley or Exclamation point. The program also includes ample opportunities for creating animation effects. For example, it is not difficult to create the effect of buttons moving to their assigned places from different corners of the screen when loading a disk. Using DVD-lab PRO you can create a slide show from photos. The program makes it possible to add entire folders of photos at once, determine the orientation of pictures (horizontal or vertical), add background music. In addition, you can choose the frequency of frame changes, add a shadow-casting effect and sign each photo. DVD-lab PRO even takes into account such little things as the location of menu items in the so-called safe zone. This is important if you plan to watch the disc on a TV screen. On a television screen, unlike a computer monitor, small part Images may be cropped at the edge. When creating a menu in DVD-lab PRO, you can observe the safe zone and refrain from placing menu items in it. One of the features that brings DVD-lab PRO closer to professional editors to create a DVD menu, – view connections between menu items. When switching to this mode, the disk structure is displayed in the form of a diagram, on which each element is represented as a separate icon and labeled. Elements can be moved from place to place, and the connections between them can be changed. In addition, for each of them you can set your own command, for example, turn on the DVD player’s disc reading mode in karaoke format. To create commands, the built-in script editor is used, which can be worked in text and graphical modes.
A special tool for catching errors will help you check the functionality of the DVD. It analyzes all connections, scripts, menu commands and indicates possible mistakes. Ready project can be saved as a video file, PSD file, and also as a template for subsequent projects.
Developer: DimadSoftDistribution size: 33 MB
Distribution: shareware Sometimes there is a need to edit a ready-made menu for a disk. For example, on branded DVDs you can often find intrusive advertising, licensing agreements, trailers for other films, etc. You can get rid of unnecessary content and make appropriate changes to the menu using the DvdReMake Pro program. The program allows you to view the DVD contents in a tree structure and remove unnecessary elements. To start working with the program, you need to run the File>Import DVD command and specify the path to the VIDEO_TS folder, which is on each DVD. You can then view the contents of the disk and delete unwanted items. To do this you need to select unnecessary element, then click on it in the preview window and select the Hide Block command. The size in megabytes is indicated for each element, which can be convenient if the purpose of editing DVD content is to reduce its size from dual-layer to regular DVD-5.
With DvdReMake Pro you can not only remove unwanted content, but also edit the disc menu. It's no more difficult than working with visual HTML editor: You can move and delete buttons and edit connections between menu items. This function can be useful, for example, to place a link to your favorite movie episode on the first page of the menu.
