DVD Authoring with NERO

An easy step-by-step guide that will teach you the ins and outs of using this popular DVD authoring program.

There are many programs to choose from when creating a DVD. WinAVI and Nero seem to be the most popular, the latter being my personal favorite.

Now in additon to converting your video files they both are able to burn them to disc as well, so you only have to use one program when creating a DVD. The main difference between the two programs, aside from cost of course and additional features and functions, is the ability to create menus. WinAVI doesn’t allow for menu creation in your DVDs and Nero does.

Having covered WinAVI previously, here I intend to go over the NERO program. It is the more expensive of the two($79.99), but does much more than WinAVI, as well as allows for the creation of menus in your DVDs.

What you’ll first want to do is make sure you have the proper CODECS , of course cutting to the chase if you like and simply downloading ACE Mega Codecs package .

To begin, open the NERO program, bringing up what’s referred to as the “Smart Start Center.”

Select DVD at the very top, and then select “Photo and Video” among the icons. Then click on “Make Your Own DVD-Video” among the selctions that appear.

This will bring up the video creation window. Here you can either drag and drop videos into the content window, or select the “Add Video Files” button. There is also a “Create Chapters” button where you can create chapter divisions in your DVD.

When done adding your video files, click the “next” button.

Now we arrive at the menu creation window.To the right is a scroll menu offering a variety of premade menu templates to use, or if you wish you can create your own.

To create your own menu, select the “Edit Menu” button to the bottom left.

The edit menu window has a wide variety of different functions of features that allow you to fully customize your DVDs. You can change everything from the button types and sizes, to adding background music or pictures of your own. The fnumber of features are too numerous to fully discuss here, so in the name of brevity I will leave it up to you to spend a few minutes and take a look at them.

When done editing the menu, click the next button.

You will now see a “finished” product of what your menu will look like, seeing and hearing the pictures and audio you have selected for it. To further get a feel for how your DVD will function click the “remote” keys to your right. Chapter insertions and video content can be perused here to make sure it will look and perform as intended.

When done making sure it is to your liking, you can proceed at last to burning your DVD “masterpiece.”

The “burning” window is the final menu for us to calibrate. There are several options here we need to consider.

For here one can either burn an image(ISO) file or straight to a DVD.

Make your selection accordingly and take a deep breath. For now you can press that magic “burn” button.

Wallah, presto, the magic begins, if of course, you have some blank DVDs.

DVD authoring is just one of the many features available on the NERO program. It offers everything from audio file encdoding to VCD authoring and everything in between. For more guides on some of these features please ask. Here at Zeropaid we are always willing to answer each and all of your questions, and more importantly SHOW YOU how to do it.

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