DVD Authoring Under Linux?

phorm asks: "After getting a much-awaited DVD-burner for Christmas, I've yet to use it to actually burn a video DVD. The main reason thus far: I've yet to find decent DVD-authoring software (either for Linux or Windows) that does what I want and doesn't have a high pricetag. So far, Freshmeat projects seem to be extremely alpha/beta quality, with not much support for buttons, animated menus/backgrounds, and all the other things that make commercial DVD's truly beautiful. Does anyone know of any affordable/free DVD authoring software that has these features? Preference to open-source or Linux software, but Windows software will do if there's nothing better." phorm is not alone in this quest, read on for another query on this topic.

To add on to phorm's query, smz420 asks: "A few months ago, I acquired a DVD burner and have had a lot of fun creating discs. While they come out well, they're very much cookie-cutter, due to the software I've been using to create them. There just doesn't seem to be a lot of flexibility built into the consumer level authoring systems out there, and I'd like to take my discs to the next level. Can anyone in Slashdot-land recommend books, links or software packages that could lead me down the road towards 'prosumer' DVD authoring? I'd like to be able to take full control over authoring: design my own button shapes and structures; place text where-ever I want on a menu page; create custom navigation structures, and possibly plant an easter egg or two. So far, I've tried Pinnacle Studio 8, Sonic MyDVD and Nero on Windows 2000. While each had very good aspects to them, all of them fell short of enabling 'next level' DVD authoring. Any advice would be most appreciated."

Comments

It's Quite Easy...

[MrBiiggy]

Buy a mac, use iDVD.

Re:iMovie

[callipygian-showsyst]

Are you stupid? He said Linux. What's the point of shoving your computing orientation down everyone's throat?

It's people like you who are doing more harm to computing than Microsoft ever has. You're doing that by marginalizing alternative solutions, including your Mac, by giving the impression that people who use alternatives are wacko zealots.

Re:sorry for more of the obvious

[nartz]

DVD Studio Pro looks very nice, but aside from it not running on his computer, it's $500...

I am appalled. Where has our resourcefulness gone? Out the window I assume. Whatever happened to Kazaa? WinMX? Gnutella? and my favorite...BitTorrent. Money doesn't seem an issue anymore.

My Mac Video Project Stalled, Linux to the rescue?

[FreeUser]

Yes, we are all aware of how much better the mac is at dvd authoring, but for various reasons many of us are tied to x86 win/linux world.

I have a Mac Powerbook 17" (and an external 200MB firewire drive for extra storage). I am quite familiar with the DVD authoring tools on Mac, but am unwilling to shell out an addition $1000 for the professional version of iDVD (or its similiarly priced competing product). The iMovie and iDVD software that came with my system should be sufficient.

Alas it is not.

I have had the system hang during burns (despite turning off the powersave features that are supposed to be the cause of this), I have successfully burned numerous DVDs only to have them hang during playback on both commercial players and other non-Apple systems.

Far from being a timesaver, I would have been better off sticking with Linux from the beginning for this project. (As an aside, I do not regret buying the powerbook, as I like the apple hardware and plan to install Linux on it when I get the time, and I do like the eye candy. The powerbook is the nicest laptop hardware wise I've seen, and the other Apple software, such as iTunes, is unparalleled.)

Now I am gearing up to attempt the project once again, this time using GNU and Linux software (making this /. article very timely).

I like Apple's products, but the Apple zealots and astroturfers are here in force just like their Microsoft equivelents, and they are not shy about modding posts criticial of Apple into oblivion. Even someone who is a fan of their products, and who has recommended their platform to more than one person who wishes to move away from Microsoft and isn't ready for Linux get's silenced if they do not toe the party line, it seems.

In any event, the meme that Apple is superior to Linux for video editing is not born out of my experience, and I am a very experienced engineer and user of Windows, UNIX, Linux, and Apple, so this is not some niave user error. This is buggy software, and for my home videos (taken from a Sony firewire video camera and edited only slightly) it doesn't work very well at all. I have already had better luck with dvgrab and transcode under Linux, and will be trying out the suggestions mentioned in this thread RSN.

So yes, Apple is good. But not that good (unless you pony up even more cash), and the assumption that it is superior to Linux for these sorts of tasks is premature at best, and certainly not a given.