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Review : DVDexpress from Pinnacle.
The home movie making market has proven to be very rewarding for Pinnacle so far. This time they attack the home VCD/SVCD / DVD creation market with a new product aimed at people that want to convert their home movies to VCD SVCD and DVD. DVDexpress is priced at 29$ or 49$ with a firewire card. As we have come to expect from pinnacle a nice userinterface and no-nonsense approach yield very fast results. It even controls directly all major CD and DVD writers. No need for external software. The tool can capture directly from firewire devices or use already available AVI files from your harddisk.
1. Building a project
Building a project is really a 1 2 3 step process. The program guides you trough the creation process.
On the import menu you can select the files that will make up your disc. You can import either existing DV encoded AVI files on your harddisk , JPEG and GIF pictures , or you can select to capture from the firewire port. The 49$ bundle comes with an excellent pinnacle firewire card based on the Agere ( lucent ) chipset. If you already own a firewire port in your computer then the software will work with that one without problems provided it is OHCI compliant. In that case it suffices to buy the 29$ version of the tool.
The importer allows you to create 'chapters'. You can both combine a number of imported files to form a chapter , or you can split imported files at any point to create a chapter.
To combine a number of files all you do is select them and hit the group button ( top most button ). In case you change you mind you can undo this by hitting the ungroup button.
If you want to break a single file there is the razor tool.
Let's say you imported a single 45 minute file. You can easily scroll trough the file ( the program has a preview window.) by clicking on the razor tool you 'cut' the stream creating a chapter. Or if you have 10 different streams and you want to glue 3 of them together , simply select them and hit the chain button.
Every icon in the file list becomes a separate chapter. It's as simple as that. You can change the chapter names by simply clicking on the text on the right side and changing it. The image you see is the image as it will appear on the menu. You can change that by scrolling trough the video and clicking 'Set as menu image' on the frame you want to use.
DVDexpress has a number of predefined templates that allow you to quickly create your disc. There's everything from Bithdays over party's and vacations to Weddings.
When you are not happy with these you can create your own. Just click open the customization menu ( the round button below the template browser on the left of the screen )
Now you can select background image , the border for the items on your menu , the item arrangement , font and menu music. Supported image files are BMP, JPEG, PhotoCD, Pict, Targa, Tiff and WMF. As for menu arrangement it offers a diversity of possibilities but you can't create new arrangements. The selected font is common for menu header ( if one is present in the template ) and the chapter names. You can use WAV and MP3 files as audio source. When you have made your customization you can save them as a new template for future use.
The global project settings allow you to customize the overall behavior of your design.
You specify an audio track to be run during the slideshow, switch title display on or off and more options. The settings menu allows you to select the output format ( VCD SVCD or DVD) , select the desired TV standard and specify the media.
Finally use the remote control on the right side of the screen allows you to experience what the final product will do.
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