TMPGEnc: Which version(s) to buy to Burn DVD's

[bboldschool]

Any advice on which versions to buy to burn dvd's hassle free? They have so many versions? DVD author? DVD author with ac plug-in? ect..any advice

[nielm]

depends what you want to do...

Basic tmpgenc DVD Author allows you to create the DVD filesystem from Sage-recorded mpg, including generation of a DVD menu, and then burn it to a DVD disk.
It also has basic ability to perform cuts of the MPG file...
This is what you get in the downloadable trial version.

AC3 plug-in allows you to recompress the audio to AC3, making the resulting file a bit smaller, (but would allow use 5.1 sound if you had it available in the source!)

The DVD Source Creator is a separate product which allows you to create MPEG-2 video files from any other file format (eg home videos from a digital camera). This is also sold in a bundle with the Author program, giving the third option.

I have used the basic version to create DVDs, but I use VideoReDo to do my cutting.

[bboldschool]

Does it require any other plug in or driver to accept the sage mpeg files? I had read in an older thread that sometimes it requires something addittional..before TMPGEnc will read it..you have to convert it to a avi file? Is that still true with the newer versions of TMPGEnc?

[nielm]

If using the DVD recording qualities in Sage, it should accept them directly, and create a DVD format in approx 15 mins, no slow re-encoding is required.

PS: just try it! there is a 30 day trial version, and you don't have to burn a DVD -- just play the generated folder in your DVD player or in Sage itself...

[thatdude90210]

Once in a long while, maybe 2-3% of the time, Sage (+ PVR250) will produce a video file (even in DVD recording quality) that Tmpgenc dvd author will have trouble reading the audio part. That's where Videoredo comes in handy. With those trouble files, just load up in Videoredo, edit, and save... that fixes the audio part. Then Tmpgenc dvd author will read it ok.

I'm not the only one to have seen this, at least one other person have mentioned the same thing before.