My PC came with an OEM version of Cyberlink products, including PowerProducer for DVD authoring and burning. The good thing about this is program that I can make it do what I want (except that I’ll have to purchase some extra menu templates to do it properly), but it has a very tedious user interface and some strange quirks. For example, it seems to insist on reencoding mpeg2 files when burning a DVD. I’m not a wizard on this stuff, but I suspect that this is bad practice. Also, PowerDirector (the accompanying video editing software) by default changed my TV recording from 720×576 to 640×480 when I edited out the commercials. Strange. I know how to fix it now, but it took some errors to get this far.

I don’t like PowerProducer much, so I shopped around for other products. I tried TsunamiMPEG DVDAuthor Trial, but it won’t read the files that PowerDirector produces. Besides, I can’t figure out how to make a proper menu with chapters using TMPEG. I couldn’t do that with PowerProducer at first, but I learned to do it, so I could probbly learn it with this program too given enough patience. Some people seem to like it. I just don’t understand why the user interface has to be so difficult to navigate. Rightclick popup menus are too far between.

I then tried InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2 with similar results. It can read the mpeg2 files I have, but I can’t figure out how to make a decent menu.

Finally, I tried Pinnacle Studio Version 9. That program has a free trial version, but it requires me to pay for an mpeg2 codec if I am to use mpeg2 files. That means I can’t load my own files (it doesn’t read DivX files either) and I can’t test a DVD burn, as the vob format is also mpeg2. It looks like the program has potential, though. Hard to be sure.

So, the only program I found that works reasonably well is PowerProducer. But I’m not at all satisfied with it. There are programs in the range USD 250 and upwards, though, but that’s a bit expensive for home use.