I've recently started downloading old black and white movies from www.archive.org. I recommend people take a look, they have loads of old feature length movies available there and they are all in mpeg2 format ready for burning on a DVD.

Now I want to create DVD's using these movies which have chapters and a main menu where I can select Play and Chapter Select to make them more watchable. It's just plain irritating to have DVD's without chapter markers.

Now could someone tell me where I might find a program to do this at a relatively low price? Also my computer is really old. I only have 500 mhz. It's enough to burn a DVD but not much more.

The mpegs on Archive.org probably aren't DVD ready. They will almost certainly require transcoding. It might be faster to DL the much smaller mpeg4 versions and transcode to mpeg2.

There are several relatively cheap DVD authoring programs that can make the sort of DVD you want. I use Nero 6 with NVE3 for simple things. DVD-LAB for more complex. I don't know of any free authoring programs.

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Fav quote - "Experience is whatcha don't get 'till ya don't need it no more."

System - Athlon 1.4GHz, Win98, Hauppauge PVR250 receiver and compressor.
Software -Magix Movie Edit Pro 10, Nero 6 + NeroVision Express, Moho 4.61, PSP 8.1, Bryce, Quicktime 6.52 pro, Goldwave 5, DVD-Lab.
Cameras - Panasonic GS9, Canon ES8400V, Canon EOS D20 and Canon A70

So the mpeg2 files aren't DVD compatible?

They probably aren't. The only way to tell for sure is to download the gigabytes and try. At 30kBps, this will take a while. DVD is very particular about mpeg details.

To put it another way, the MPEG standard defines a rather large number of variable parameters. The DVD standard specifies a very narrow subset of these. If the MPEG file has any departures from the DVD standard the DVD authoring program will try to recode it to make it comply. Even if the MPEG is DVD compliant, the authoring program will still have to modify it to produce the extra information for VOB file(s) the DVD has to have. This is for fast forward/reverse timing marks, chapter marks, audio PTS timing, etc.

__________________
Fav quote - "Experience is whatcha don't get 'till ya don't need it no more."

System - Athlon 1.4GHz, Win98, Hauppauge PVR250 receiver and compressor.
Software -Magix Movie Edit Pro 10, Nero 6 + NeroVision Express, Moho 4.61, PSP 8.1, Bryce, Quicktime 6.52 pro, Goldwave 5, DVD-Lab.
Cameras - Panasonic GS9, Canon ES8400V, Canon EOS D20 and Canon A70

The FAQ on the archive.org site has a link to this thread in their forums about turning the archive movies into a DVD:

http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.php?id=26467

it has some links to free software, but no complete DVD authoring solution, just different app's for each stage.
Here's a link to a free app' based on DVDauthor:

http://www.videohelp.com/~gfd/

I downloaded it and opened it up, but I havent tried it properly yet, it doesn't look like the most intuitive program to use, and you'll need to use your burning app' as it just produces the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders, but it is free, and you should be able to use your downloaded MPEG2 files in it.

I'm downloading a movie now from the archive so I'll be able to test it properly soon.

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P4 1GB Ram 50+160GB, Win XP, Premiere 6, Encore+Photoshop, Lite-on 4x dvd rw.
Sony TRV-250, Panasonic NVGS-75, Canon MV600i

Well I'm downloading a thing called Booked for Safekeeping. An instruction video for police officers in the 60's on how to treat mentally ill people. I'm quite interested in Psychology so it should be good stuff.

Hello there. If you want me to do it then PM me. Will do it for free (as long as you post the clip on a data DVD)

They should be on any (S)VCD DVD player/recorder.

Mpeg2 files play fine on all our DVDs, but then again all our DVDs play VCD's, (S)VCD's, MP3's, CDA's, ect.

But the amount of space they take up on a CD is hardly worth the effort of burning them. In my own experience of this, I've found you'll get 10 to 20 mins of video on 1 650meg CD which means if you have over 600 hours of video, (as we have), you'll need a hell of a lot of CD's

I use Windows Movie Maker for my video's then convert them from WMA to (s)VCD, which works but as I've said above, the files take up massive amounts of CD space.

I'm looking for a decent freeware/shareware program, (on the basis there's no vested interest by the author to 'create bugs' and then get more money from updates and patches unlike some DVD progs out there), I can edit my video's with and then burn back onto a disk.

Windows Movie Maker is fine for a 'film' that's a few mins long, but any longer than 8 or 9 mins and I find it locks up when I'm time lining and editing.

Hi bgarthp,

Could I be really cheeky and ask if I PM'ed you my email address, would you send me a copy of that program please?

I went to the site but the download links weren't working. It said the files were missing :(

Thanks.

Its impossible for me to become a director, but I am prefer to make or publish my own DVDS and share it with my friends. One trouble haunting me so long that program used in authoring my DVD always perform badly; Slowly and poor picture quality etc, Nobody likes nasty blocky video, I have used such as TNPGEnc DVD Author; 007 DVD Author; DVD AUTHOR PRO etc, Fortunately, I discovered when I feel desperate and helpless. In this topic I have instead of you to take some compare.

Comparing TNPGEnc DVD Author; DVD AUTHOR PRO; 007 DVD Author with WinX DVD Copy, the latter possess following highlight features:

1. Build DVD less than 60 mins; faster than others
2. Higher quality than others
3. Friendly and clearly interface
4. Emphasizing easy-of-use that makes it work for casual and professional users alike
5. The best to offer multichannel audio for multi-lingual DVDS and audio filters
6. The greatest price $29.90

Speed comparing: Create the same one DVD task:
WinX DVD Copy spend 52 mins
TMPEGnc DVD Copy spend 57 mins
DVD Author pro spend 62 mins
007 DVD Copy spend 71 mins

Price comparing:
WinX DVD Copy $29.90
TMPEGnc DVD Copy $89.95 [upgrade] $54.95 [users discount] $61.95
DVD Author pro copy 67.63EUR
007 DVD Copy $39.90

My experience is High quality picture; full rich sound; incredible capability; multifaceted interactivity and inexpensive, Conclusion that I need advanced features and flexibility to DVD creation. Emphasizing ease-of-use that makes it work for casual and professional usersalike, it is the best DVD creation program in its class to offer fit-to-disc tanscoding and DVD+R dual layer support, enable you to create menus buttons and chapters or subtitle etc