What program to make a DVD disc with a menu. Creating your own menu for a DVD disc

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 is much easier to spend time creating episodes and buttons for quick transition to them than to rewind to the right moment every time while watching. 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: MasterSoft
Distribution size: 9 MB
Distribution: shareware Using Super DVD Creator You can not only create a menu for a DVD, but also assemble 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 background images to choose from, but you can upload any background picture With hard drive, and also add music.

By default, a preview icon is created for each video file 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 enough big size distribution. If this is not the case, then this means that the program does not 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 type of project. 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 DVD will be created. separate section(chapter). 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 across the future disk. If the video files you burn to DVD are large enough, you can add additional sections For fast travel 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 about " magic button", which would do all the work for them, the creators of Video DVD Maker Pro added a button, which they called - Magic Button. When you click on it, the program analyzes the project and creates a menu with links to the main sections. After that, you can manually select the location of each element menu, as well as set transparency and even add a depth effect, that is, make menu elements three-dimensional. By selecting menu elements, in the Layer Properties group you can see which fragments of the disk they refer to. It is also possible to add additional elements menu. Add button Audio 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 in automatic mode and contains the disc name and background image selected for the menu. You can add text, images, different elements vector graphics(ellipse, rectangle, line). 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 import Adobe files Photoshop, including those that use layers. The DVD-lab Pro program stands in the middle between simple programs for DVD authoring and professional solutions. The developers of the utility focused not on ready-made menu templates (although there are also quite a lot 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 has 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 allows you to add entire folders of photos at once, determine the orientation of pictures (horizontal or vertical), and 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 TV screen, unlike a computer monitor, a small portion of the image may be cut off at the edge. When creating menus 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 for creating DVD menus is viewing connections between menu elements. 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 graphic 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: DimadSoft
Distribution 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, select the 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.

Conclusion

There are quite a lot of solutions for creating and editing DVD menus. Of course, the choice of one program or another depends on the goal. Using Super DVD Creator and Video DVD Maker Pro, you can quickly create a simple navigation menu, and DVD-lab PRO will be useful if you want to do something more original and complex. Finally, if you don’t just copy video from a camera to DVD, but use some kind of video editor to edit it, be sure to pay attention to whether it has the ability to create a menu. Many video editing programs include DVD authoring tools as a bonus.

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 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 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 image to it. 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.

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 DVD on regular DVD player.

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

1. 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.
2. Creating a DVD menu, followed by burning to DVD and, of course, creating an auto launch for the menu
3. 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. It’s even easier here; the developers of Super DVD Creator fit the entire process of creating a DVD 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 reading mode DVD 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 capabilities of the DVDStyler program primarily includes the ability to create interactive menu, with which the user gains access to the contents of the disk. 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 menu is created using vector graphics, and 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!

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 DVD recording 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).

Watching your favorite films in a pleasant company is always an interesting pastime. And although many of us are accustomed to enjoying the latest movies on the Internet or big screen, the most convenient way to watch them is on a DVD player. To do this, you just need to burn the desired movie to disk. A visual DVD creation program such as VideoMASTER will help with this.

"VideoMASTER" is incredibly simple and at the same time universal, allowing you to work with any video files. With its help you can convert videos to various formats, as well as work with them in the built-in editor (cut and splice videos, add effects, etc.) The program easily converts both popular video extensions and more rare ones, for example, MKV, FLV, etc.

Supports any video formats

One of the most useful features The utility is a function for downloading videos from YouTube and VKontakte. And if the downloaded video for some reason is not played by your player, then it can be easily converted to another format, including audio. It is also possible to upload films and clips to the Internet directly through the editor, because VideoMASTER generates FLV and SWF videos with a ready-made player. Media player settings are set in advance.

Video editing

The program for creating DVD discs is equipped with a built-in video clip editor. This will allow you to make various changes to a particular video file. The editor contains huge selection filters for processing. Thus, with one click of the mouse, you can crop a video, add unusual special effects, improve image quality, extract sound, etc. At the same time, you can add an unlimited number of files, and even entire folders with videos.

Convenient DVD recording

Now let's talk about using the VideoMASTER program. To get started, you need to insert a blank DVD media into the computer drive. Next, you will be prompted to add video files of interest to the user - be they films, clips or something else. After this, you can begin to create an interactive menu that will be displayed on the TV screen. A special module contains a collection of ready-made design templates that can be edited. Here you can change the background, choose a title, add pictures, etc.

"VideoMASTER" is not only convenient program for creating DVD discs, but also a high-quality video converter for different devices. With it, you can download any video to your iPhone, iPod or other device at hand. The utility has over 350 video profiles for smartphones, players and game consoles, and the list of models is constantly updated.

Conclusion

To summarize what has been said, we note that “VideoMASTER” is a very a good choice For home use, since this program is simple and easy to use. Thanks to the impressive number of possibilities and clear interface in Russian language converter will help you in as soon as possible convert and process video, and burn a DVD with an interactive menu.