There are plenty of reasons you might want/need to put
together a DVD. Sure, you might want to put together that family DVD to send to
everyone at Christmas time - but there are also training videos, marketing
materials, and even products. But without the right software, creating those
DVDs would be an exercise in futility. For those on a tight-as-nails budget, I
have found five free DVD authoring tools that are not only spot on for your
spending limit, they are also fairly easy to use.
But will any of them meet your specific needs? Let's dive
into the world of DVD authoring and find out. Remember, these aren't editors;
you'll need your completed clips ready to use. With your video in hand, let's
author some DVDs.
1. DVD Styler
DVD Styler is a cross-platform
(Windows, Linux, Mac) authoring tool that allows you to convert your footage
into a DVD-friendly format, but also create professional-quality DVD menus. The
ability to create menus is especially important when creating marketing
materials or products for your company. DVD Styler also features: Slideshow
creation, add multiple titles and audio tracks, multiple supported video and audio
formats (AVI, MOV, MP4, MPEG, OGG, WMV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid, MP2, MP3,
AC-3), use MPEG and VOB without having to re-encode, drag and drop interface,
add buttons, text, and imported backgrounds to menus, and more. DVD Styler is
open source and has a fairly shallow learning curve.
