From: M.L. on


>I'm interested in using as few programs as possible on Windows XP to
>combine home video (avi), pictures (jpg), and background music (mp3) files
>into a DVD compilation on the hard drive (video_ts folders).
>
>What's the best freeware for creating DVD images on disk?
>
>The best freeware I've found so far is Photostage Slideshow Producer
>http://www.nchsoftware.com/slideshow/index.html
>
>But NCH Software's PhotoStage Slideshow Producer can't create DVD images on
>the hard drive so an external post processing step is required to convert
>the AVI to DVD.

>Is there ANY freeware program that will create a DVD image on disk from
>JPGs, AVIs, and MP3s (suitable for burning to a DVD to play in almost any
>DVD player)?

DVD slideshow GUI (not recommended) and Foto2Avi are multimedia
slideshow apps that can directly output a VIDEO_TS compilation. BTW,
PhotoStage claims the capability to burn output directly to a DVD
disk.

Why make PhotoStage output to AVI instead of a DVD-compliant MPEG2
file? Authoring a DVD-compliant MPEG2 to a VIDEO_TS compilation will
take much less time than reencoding an AVI to a VIDEO_TS compilation.
If you prefer using PhotoStage and don't need menus, chapters or
subtitles, 007 DVD Author Free can quickly author a DVD-compliant
MPEG2 from PhotoStage to a VIDEO_TS compilation.

007 DVD Author Free
Pros: No reencoding of DVD-compliant MPEG2 files, preserves AC3 5.1
channel audio
Cons: Registerware, no DVD menus, chapter or subtitle support
Input: MPEG2
Output: VOB(VIDEO_TS folder)
OS: Win NT/95/98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista
http://www.007-dvd.com/007-dvd-author.htm

Foto2Avi
Pros: Effects/filters, supports photos and videos, can output Avisynth
script for video export via other AVS compatible apps
Input: Video(AVI, FLV, MOV, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMV/ASF), Audio(MP3, OGG,
WAV), Photos(BMP, JPG, PNG)
Output: AVI (uncompressed), FLV, MP4(IPOD,PSP,ZUNE), MPEG1, MPEG2,
VOB(VIDEO_TS folder)
OS: Win 2000/XP/Vista
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Foto2Avi

DVD slideshow GUI
Pros: Effects/Filters, supports photos and videos
Cons: Difficult to use
Input: Video(AVI, AVS), Audio(MP3, WAV), Photos(BMP, JPG, PNG)
Output: AVI, FLV, VOB(VIDEO_TS folder)
OS: Win 2000/XP/2003/Vista
http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/index.htm