How to build a DVD with multiple titles and an introductory video?

[undertakertv]

Hi, I have a bunch of home videos stored in folders on my desktop. Each folder has several videos in it.

I want to put them on a DVD to have different video folders in the menu, when you click on one and get into the different clips of that folder.

The other thing I'm looking for is when you first put in the DVD, I want a small video to play right off the bat, something like an intro video, then when that is ended, go to the main menu, and from there have multiple selections as stated above.

How can I do this with maybe another software?
Thanks!

[cqqc]

You can use MPEG Video Wizard DVD

The following is an example of building a DVD project with 2 movies, a text menu, and a short introductory video to be played as soon as the DVD is inserted into a DVD player.

The steps are easily adapted for building a DVD with more than 2 movies.

1. Add movies

Click the "Add video..." button.

In the open file dialog, check the box for "single title" if it's not the current selection, and select the video files for the first movie, which consists of two MPEG files in this example.

To add the 2nd movie, right mouse click on the Video icon to open the video context menu, and select Add Title....

Again, select the video files for the second movie, which consists of another two MPEG files in this example.

This completes the step for adding 2 movies, and the video tree is shown below.

2. Add menu

The quickest way to add a DVD menu is to use the menu template.

Click on the menu icon, then click Add Menu..., and this brings up a menu template list window.

In the menu template list window, select the Text menu template, and press OK.

We now have created a DVD menu with three menu pages: one main menu page, and two chapter menu pages for the two video titles, respectively.

You could add more to the menu with background video and background music, as well as motion video buttons. But for this sample project, we will use the first menu template.

3. Add a short introductory video

As you may have already noticed, a DVD player starts playing automatically whenever a new DVD movie disc is inserted. For a standard commercial DVD movie, it usually starts with a copyright message; or frequently, with the main menu. This is set by the "First play" control, which instructs the player to play the selected video title before anything else.

Please note that the default selection of First Play is the first menu page.

Add the introductory video as the third title, right mouse click on the icon of title3 under the video tree, and select "First play".

4. Set the End Action for the introductory video

One of the frequently used playback sequence is to return to the menu page after the completion of a movie segment, also known as "return to menu".

This can be specified by selecting an End Action to go back to a menu page at the end of the selected clip.

When the First Play is set for the introductory video, you may also want to set a proper End Action so that at the end of ("First") playing the introductory video the DVD player will be at your desired video, such as returning to the main menu page. This can be done from the additional entry in the context menu.

Note that you may select Loop to play the introductory video repeatedly until you issue a new command, such as pressing the menu button on your remote control.

[larry99]

There are many video editing programs availble anywhere from free to about $200. If you want to check out all options you probably can find websites more focused on that topic. Note that a single-sided DVD can only hold about 1 hour of video at standard resolution. If you want more than that, you need the hardware for buring double-sided DVDs.

[dlfl]

For a free program, try *** DVDStyler *** (http://www.dvdstyler.org/). It was a solid program the last time I used it, several revisions back, and it looks like it has been substantially enhanced since then. There is a *** FAQ *** (http://dvdstyler.wiki.sourceforge.net/FAQFirstPlayClip)that addresses your first-play clip requirement.

DVDStyler has built-in DVD burner software, but I would recommend generating an ISO image file as output then using (free program) imgburn (just google) to burn the DVD. This may be more reliable, but it also has the advantage that if you want to make more than one copy you don't have to re-author the DVD.

[larry99]

Totally agree on making an ISO image first what ever program you use. If you hit a bad DVD, you save a lot time making the second copy. Also, more likely to make a good copy if you use one of the lower burning speeds.