Are you new to making your home videos into DVDs or have you been doing it for quite a while? Well, there are several DVD authoring software applications available in the market for you to use now. You can transfer the videos that you’ve taken with your camcorder, webcam or even your camera phones into DVDs and store those precious moments longer. You can also dig up your VHS or other video cassettes that you have stocked and convert them into other formats. While you’re at it, you can take the videos and make them look more like they were professionally edited with the use of DVD authoring software. You can add menus and divide them into chapters, combine it with music and background and a lot more.

DVD authoring software typically encodes your video, authors your menu and burns the video into a disc. How can you find one that suits you? You have to look for the following when choosing and buying software:

User-friendly

Ease of use is one factor that you’ll need to consider. You can have software that offers a lot but if you can’t figure out how to use it, then it’s a waste. If you’re new to this, you have to look for basic ones. If you’re already experienced, then you can look for more advance software applications to get even better results.

Stable and easy to install

You may have already heard that most DVD authoring programs demand a lot from your PC and shutdowns are not uncommon. You have to check for a program’s stability, the more stable it is the better.

Additional features/Special Effects

To put your finishing touches on your own DVD, you have to use the features on your authoring software such as menu and chapter creation, addition of music and backgrounds, animating thumbnails for the different chapters of your video, and selecting the transition effects. You may also want to add subtitles, so check if your software supports this kind of function.

Produces a good quality output

All the editing with new menus and chapters and loads of other features would mean nothing if your final output is not clear and looks awful. You also have to consider the file formats. Make sure that the software that you purchase supports the format of your video and has the particular format that you’d like your final copy to be in.

Budget options

When you’re a novice, like I mentioned above, you can go for basic ones which are cheaper. But if you’re looking for more sophisticated ones, they’re usually the more expensive ones – the Pro versions.

DVD authoring allows you create a DVD video that can be played on your DVD player. There are many authoring software applications out there including Ulead, Adobe, Nero, and Muvee. To choose a good authoring package, you have to consider the factors mentioned above. For beginners, you can start with the simpler ones like Muvee or Roxio or you can even use freewares for this. For more advanced users, you can try Ulead Video Studios, Pinnacle Studio Plus or Adobe Premiere Plus.