The crux is, how does one go about burning a DVD. Are there burners that are better than others? Is a specific format required to produce a functional DVD? And what about software: is one package preferred above all others? Do DVDs from one side of the pond work well on the other side, or is this a function of your DVD player?
Feel free to chime in.
I have a Sony DRU-500 DVD burner that burns all the different +/- DVD types (the new generation DRU-800 – link here – is now a duel layer burner and is about $100). I liked this option and the price difference didn’t matter to me. I bought it 2 1/2 years ago with a new machine (which I use only for video editing). The big thing for me is which DVD player the user has and burn it on that type of disk. The majority use the DVD-R types (which were cheaper 2 years ago, doesn’t matters these days). I think that mpeg-2 (at least on my machine) produces the best looking DVD product, although I don’t know about the new mpeg-4 version. Since I take everything from a digital video camera I rip all I need in the format that I use. I use Sonic Foundry’s (which is now owned by Sony) Vegas Video (I think I have version 4, which was 2 generations ago – link here). I bought the whole suite for about $700 (with audio editing etc.). I think the product alone is about $450 or so. DVD’s in one region (usually North America) don’t work overseas. You could change the region, but I think you can only do this 3 times before the burner sticks with the region. Of course if the burner is cheap enough, buy 2 of them, and set 1 for each region. Or get a friend to have a burner for another region and send them a disk and have them reburn it. Of course if you are doing lots of burning, that would be time consuming (I only do them every so often – at the max averaging 1 a month).