DVDStyler - create a video disc with an interactive menu. Creating a DVD Menu

Useful tips

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

Everyone has probably seen professionally made DVDs with all kinds 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 before professional solutions It still falls short; a decent-looking disk can be created with minimal time and effort. If we compare DVD Styler with paid analogues, then ZC will be closest to it in terms of functionality DVD Creator Platinum.

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 related to 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 at the program's working window:

We almost won’t need the menu bar at the top, since the toolbar (below) contains all necessary buttons. 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 menu item.

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 picture. Go to the tab " Background images" 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, let's go to " File manager"and we'll find what we need. The drawing can be prepared in advance in any graphic editor, so that it contains ready-made captions 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 Windows Explorer the right 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 of how full the future disk will be 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. Let's click on it right click mouse 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

Go to the "Buttons" tab and we 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. Let's call context menu buttons by right mouse click. 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 going to a certain part of the DVD, or, for example, playing a certain melody or going 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 the first cross references. 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 the last step - saving. 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 generating the DVD by checking the appropriate option.

After all the installations, finally press 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 the right 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.

Do DVD disc from existing video files in AVI formats, MPEG, MP4 and others - it seemed like a simple task to me. But I did not imagine that you would also have to pay for conversion to a de facto standard. But videos shot with a smartphone or tablet can easily turn out to be an interesting video.

1.Windows DVD maker

Included in Windows composition 7, no additional expenses. It understands a bunch of file formats, you can make both a disc from video files and a presentation from photos, you can create a DVD menu. But a huge minus is that the program immediately writes to disk. In my case, this turned out to be impossible, because... The drive in the laptop has long since outlived its usefulness. I just wanted to make a DVD project, and I wanted to burn DVDs on a desktop computer.

2. WinX DVD Author

WinX DVD Author is found by Google when searching for free DVD authoring software. And she even works for free. You can create a menu there. Only here is the program logo and a message that the DVD has been made free version, negate all the capabilities of the program.

3. DVD Styler

It turns out that there are still programmers who simply do good for other users. Alex Thuring has released DVD Styler, which allows you to create a DVD from a set of video files. different formats. The program contains several nice menu templates.

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

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

Video file converter to VOB format, to create movie fragments. I would like to emphasize that you can convert existing ones VOB files— useful if you want to reduce the size of the film or trim it.
Creating a DVD menu, followed by burning to DVD and, of course, creating an auto launch for the menu
Burn movies to DVD. I think no comments are required.

So, let's launch the converter. There are a minimum of buttons and all sorts of bells and whistles, everything is clear - this is already good, but I would like to point out a drawback - you cannot adjust the pixel resolution for video, which would be useful for laptops or just home computers.

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

Click on the “DVD compiler” button, here it’s even easier, the whole process DVD creation The developers of Super DVD Creator have placed the menu in one window.

On the right, select a background screensaver for the menu (you can create your own), add movie fragments at the bottom and specify the screen format (16:9 or 4:3). Next, you should pay attention to the function of adding text to the menu and background music, this completes the process of creating a menu, all that remains is to burn the resulting DVD, which can be done both in the program itself and using any other DVD burner, for example Nero, but this It's up to you now.

Specifications:

Weight: 10.2 mb

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

Main disadvantages:

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

A more powerful solution for those who want to make a professional DVD menu. The developers betrayed DVD-lab Pro Special attention fine tuning effects and unique menu items. The program has the ability to create beautiful animation effects, such as the movement of buttons when selected. You can make a slideshow of images, for example for a presentation or favorite photos for convenient viewing on TV. Also DVD-lab Pro can make a mode DVD reader disc in karaoke format. I won’t describe the capabilities of this program in more depth, but if you are confident in your capabilities, download, I’m always available for help, write in the comments what is not clear. I'll help.

Specifications:

Weight: 27.3 MB

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

Main disadvantages:

Quite a complex interface. In general, everything you might need is available in the program.

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

DVDStyler (added 03/26/2012)

DVDStyler - free application from the developer “DVDStyler Team”, which allows for DVD authoring. This is the creation of DVD images that can be played in a standard DVD player. Using this program, anyone can create one DVD image with all the relevant functions from any video or series of videos.

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

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

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

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

The user independently chooses not only appearance created menu, but also the arrangement of elements, active buttons and other things. He selects fonts, primary colors, button sizes, etc. at his discretion.

OS: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

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

Programs for DVD recording video discs are designed to create digital videos discs that can be played on any DVD player. If you have videos of birthdays, various holidays, New Year's events, dances, your pranks and any other pleasant memories captured on video cameras and stored on mini-discs, VHS tapes and other specific media, then it would be a good idea to record and structure them on DVD. DVDs can be stored for quite a long time and, today, they can be opened almost anywhere where there is digital equipment.

With this class of programs, you will not need to edit each video separately and try to stitch them together. You can create and record videos with interactive menu in various templates, divide videos into chapters for easier navigation, add subtitles and additional audio tracks, cut scenes from videos and even create slideshows from photos. And all this can be done quickly and easily.

Note: You don't have to edit videos only with DVD video burning software. You can use any video editor for editing and correction. A this class programs only for importing and creating menus before burning to DVD.

Review of free programs for burning DVD video discs

DVD Flick - convenient and powerful DVD video recording

It is a fairly simple program, but at the same time has powerful tools for editing and recording video to DVD. With this program, you can quickly turn video reports stored on different folders, into a full-fledged DVD video disc that will open not only on your computer, but also on any other digital players, including home theaters. At the same time, you can add additional audio tracks, for example, to clarify some important events. Insert explanations in the form of subtitles. And structure the video as separate menu for fast and easy navigation.

The developer’s website notes the following advantages:

Burn almost any video file to DVD
Supports over 45 file formats
Supports more than 60 video codecs
Supports more than 40 audio codecs
Easy to add menu
Ability to add your own subtitles
Easy to use interface
Completely free, no adware, spyware and any restrictions.

DVD Flick allows even a novice user to create their own DVD video surprisingly quickly.

Quick selection guide (links to download programs for burning DVD video discs)

DVD Flick

		Simple, but powerful program to burn video to DVD. Supports many file formats and audio-video codecs. It's easy to add a menu. Own subtitles. And much more.
		-------------
		http://www.dvdflick.net/download.php
		13 MB 1.3.0.7 Open source freeware Windows 2000 - 7
		64-bit OS support

Most The best way to organize files stored on your computer is to transfer them to physical media. In order to get this opportunity, you will need an effective one, for example, “Disk Studio” from AMS Software. After reading this article, you will learn how you can easily use it to burn documents, music, movies and other information to a DVD disc, and also learn how to configure the interactive menu of the disc with chapters. So let's get started!

Online recording of media

"Disk Studio" is a convenient and visual program for burning DVDs and CDs, as well as their varieties. Working with the application is as simple as two: you choose necessary files(movies, documents, music, etc.), configure the recording parameters, and then insert the blank media into the burner and start burning it.

It is also worth noting the fact that with the help of this software you can easily overwrite or completely erase any previously recorded disc. This is possible thanks to the presence of appropriate options in the editor. For example, if you find a little free space on one of the previous DVDs, it can be filled with new content (in other words, re-recorded). In this case, the same disk can be rewritten multiple times, eliminating the possibility of damage or loss of data.

Record movies and music in a couple of clicks!

The main function that the recording program has DVD discs, is to create musical and visual media. This is very useful when you need to copy to disk a large number of compositions/albums or video clips/films. This way you can create a home digital archive.

If you are interested, then simply select the format and add tracks. You will be asked to make not only mp3, but also wma, which will contain up to 10 hours of music with decent playback quality. This CD can be played both in a car radio and in a specialized player. You can also give it to someone as a souvenir if you wish.

"Disk Studio" is also great program for burning DVD discs with menus. So, before you create a video medium, you can design its intro to your taste. For example, choose a beautiful background picture, come up with a catchy title, add bright photos and upload music. The interactive menu you develop will subsequently be reproduced on any computer or multimedia player.

Convenient work with images and ripping discs

To insure yourself against accidental loss of certain data, it is strongly recommended to generate virtual image disk. In addition, you can create an ISO image of any media with the ability to further write files to it. All these manipulations are also easy to carry out using Disk Studio.

In addition, the program for creating DVD discs allows you to perform ripping - this is the name of the function DVD conversion and audio cd in high quality. It will come to the rescue if you need to quickly reproduce any disc with music or video (of course, if it is not copy protected).