How to author the DVD with chapters, menus, navigation commands using free tools ?

How to author the DVD with chapters, menus, navigation commands using free tools ? Is there any freeware program to author DVD with menus?

Download:

DVDAuthorGUI

Run DVDAuthorGUI_1.014.exe.
Choose whether you are dealing with NTSC or PAL, by changing the "DVD Format" dropdown box. This will toggle it to PAL or NTSC (This cannot be changed once you begin adding material). This gui supports multiple mpeg sequences (referred to as titles). In this tutorial, there will be 2 different titles. To add titles to the project, click the "Add Title" button on the left hand side. It will then prompt you for an mpeg video elementry stream (either mpeg1(*.m1v) or mpeg2(*.m2v).

After loading up the video stream, it will then ask for an audio stream. Currently, the gui supports .ac3 and .mp2 streams.

At this point, if you are only needing one title, you can then goto the AUTHOR Step. If you are interested in other features, proceed on...

For this demonstration, we need 2 titles. Let's go ahead and add these in, following the same steps from above.

-chapters-

Now, add some chapter points to the first title. To do this, click on the first title to select it, then click the chapters button. Chapter times need to be in HH:MM:SS format. Below you can see 3 chapter points, one at the very beginning, one at 10 minutes in, and then another 20 minutes in.

-menus-

Let's add a menu to dvd. Again, this is optional, but if you want a menu, read on.

If you have an animated mpeg sequence you would like to add, simply goto "menus"..."add titleset menu". It will then prompt you for the video stream and the audio stream (if you want to include audio into the menu).
Optionally, you can now create a menu from a jpeg still image (that could easily be created in a paint program). For this dvd, create a jpeg image that you will use for the menu. To use this menu, it must be converted into a Mpeg still. To do this, goto "menu"... "create m2v still".

This will ask for the jpg image (Must be 720x480 or 720x576). If it is the proper size, the gui will ask where to save the mpeg still. Name it and press save. It will prompt for the number of frames to encode. Selecting 1 frame will suffice. (If pal users have trouble with the menu only appearing for a short time, lengthen the number of frames needed). Now goto "menu"..."add titleset menu" and select the mpeg still you created (*.m2v file). Just press cancel if you do not have an accompaning audio file.
This will bring you to the menu editor. Click "Add Button". As soon as you do this, this creates a set of coordinates found in the white box. Move the sliders found to the right and underneath the video window to indicate where the 'button' for the menu will be located. Adjust the 'width' and 'height' to make the box taller or wider. Once the dvd is authored, the gui will put a rectanglular box wherever you position the sliders. Once you have the sliders positioned where you want the button to go, tell that button what to do by changing the "Action" dropdown box to what you want the button to do. You can also change the colors of the buttons with the "highlight" and "select" options. Below, you can see 2 buttons configured. One goes to the first title (chapter 1). The other goes to the 2nd title. Please note, that the menu could be set up to goto other chapters in the title, but for this demonstration, that won't be necessary. When finished, click the "accept" button.

-navigation commands-

Now, we will make it so that the wedding video jumps to the menu, instead of playing the next title (in this case, the slideshow). This can be done by editing the "navigation commands". Simply click the "nav cmds" button, and the navigation command window will appear. Title 1 (the main wedding video) by default will jump to the slideshow. To change this, click title 1, then change the action using the dropdown box. In this situation, choose "call menu".

You can also change the "first play" option. This would be handy if you want the dvd when it is first played to (for example) play an intro video first, and then go to the menu. For this example though, just leave it default. ( means that the first title is played, or if there is a menu, the first menu is played).

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Time to Author the DVD =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Before doing so, consider how you would like to burn this dvd. This gui is able to build an iso image file, capable of being burned in burnatonce, nero, and many other burning applications, so if you would like to do this, click the "create iso after authoring" button. Otherwise, just leave it unchecked. Now click the "Author dvd" button found on the right hand side of the screen. It will then prompt for a folder and location to put the authored files. Give it any name, then click save. At this point, a log will pop up and begin processing your files. This may take some time, since it is having to multiplex all of the selected titles. When it is finished, a box will pop up announcing that the authoring process is complete. If you had selected for it to create an iso, you find the image iso file with the folder you selected when you clicked "author". Burn an already authored Video-DVD with ImgTool Classic DVD, Nero Burning ROM or DVD Decrypter.