Today I'll tell you about a couple of programs with which you can easily create any DVD menu without any special knowledge. If it seemed to you that it is difficult, then I can only say that you are deeply mistaken. The following programs will make the process of creating DVD menus easy and interesting! Now you can make your own collections of your favorite movies with easy navigation through the fragments, which is very important when watching DVDs on a regular DVD player.

The developers of Super DVD Creator have built three utilities into the program:

1. Converter of video files to VOB format to create movie fragments. I emphasize that you can convert existing VOB files- useful if you want to reduce the size of the movie or crop it.
2. Creating a DVD menu, followed by burning to DVD and, of course, creating an auto launch for the menu
3. Burn movies to DVD. I don't think comments are needed.

So let's start the converter. A minimum of buttons and all sorts of gadgets, everything is clear - it's already good, but I want to note a drawback - you can't adjust the pixel resolution for video, which would be useful for laptops or just home computers.

The beginning and end of the fragment, the quality and format of the screen - that's all that Super DVD Creator suggests choosing in its converter - it's not rich, but we need to create a menu, and therefore we go to the next stage and see how the program works there.

Clicking on the “DVD compiler” button is even easier here, the Super DVD Creator developers fit the entire process of creating a DVD menu in one window.

On the right, select a background screensaver for the menu (you can use your own), add movie fragments at the bottom and specify the screen format (16:9 or 4:3). Next, you should pay attention to the function of adding text to the menu and background music, this completes the menu creation process, all that remains is to burn the resulting DVD, which can be done both in the program itself and using any other DVD burner, for example Nero, but that's up to you.

Specifications:

Weight: 10.2mb

Interface: English Systems: Windows 95/98/ME/xp Vista

Main cons:

• there are few opportunities, you can only make a simple menu, nothing more. For home viewing, you don’t need more;)
  

A more powerful solution for those who want to make a professional DVD menu. In DVD-lab Pro, the developers paid special attention to fine-tuning effects and unique menu items. The program has the ability to create beautiful animation effects, such as the movement of buttons when selected. You can make a slideshow of images, for example, for a presentation or favorite photos for convenient viewing on TV. Also DVD-lab Pro can make read mode DVD disc in karaoke. I will not describe the capabilities of this program in more depth, if you are confident in your capabilities, download, there is always help from me, write in the comments that it is not clear. I'll help.

Specifications:

Weight: 27.3 Mb

Interface: English Systems: Windows 95/98/ME/xp

Main cons:

• Pretty complex interface. In general, what you may need in the program is available.
  

Update from 03/26/2012! Overview added great program DVDStyler.

DVDStyler (added 03/26/2012)

DVDStyler- free app from the developer "DVDStyler Team", which allows for DVD-authoring. This is the creation of DVD images that can be played in a standard DVD player. With the help of this program, anyone gets the opportunity to create one DVD image from any video or series of clips with all the relevant functions.

The feature set of the DVDStyler program primarily includes the ability to create an interactive menu, through which the user gets access to the contents of the disc. For convenience, the program itself has the ability to burn with a ready-made menu.

Simplicity of work is ensured by the fact that several templates are immediately available to the user to choose from, from which he chooses the most suitable one. With their help, you can quickly create your own menu for the disc.

The list of supported formats includes AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP4, MOV, OGG, as well as some other file formats that users encounter in their work. Supported audio formats include MP3, MP2, MPEG2, MPEG4, AC-3, DivX, XviD. At the same time, using this program, you can mount an image using several files of different formats.

The program interface is based on the drag&drop principle, i.e. to use a particular file or template, simply drag it to the appropriate cell. DVD disc menu is created based on vector graphics, you can also import other files to create backgrounds, etc.

The user chooses not only appearance created menu, but also the arrangement of elements, active buttons and others. It selects fonts, primary colors, button sizes, and more at its discretion.

OS: Windows, MacOS, Linux

Summing up, I will say that depending on the complexity, quality of the DVD - Menu depends on which program is better to choose. For simple and quick creation simple menus to help you - for others who want to do something more interesting help or DVDStyler. By the way, DVDStyler was added to the review recently, there were reasons for that - the application is completely free and multifunctional. Recommend!

And today I want to talk about menu planning software.

Needless to say, the choice is limited. If only a kind person could be found and write an ideal program - so that she would keep recipes, count the cost of dinner and warn about calories. And by itself, it gave out a list of dishes for the whole week, and at the same time printed out a list of products. Cooking, okay, I agree myself.

But until a good person is found, we will choose from what we have. So here are the results of my searches.

Programs for compiling menus.

1. Cooking recipes - well, a very serious program. It contains 12,000 ready-made recipes, can calculate the cost of dishes and take into account the products in your refrigerator. Sorts by different criteria, produces fields calculated by formulas (just like Excel) And all this can be automated. Unless she cooks herself. Well, I don’t know… To be honest, I opened it, got scared and closed it. I don’t need so many functions, I would cook a family dinner. However, if you dig, you can customize only the most necessary, probably.
2. Cooking notepad - this program is not so much for compiling menus as for recording and storing recipes. With this simple function copes with five. Everything is convenient and clear - sections, subsections, composition, preparation, notes. There is a database search. You can insert pictures.
3. Menu planning is a fun program for weight watchers. It contains three windows - products, dish editor and menu. The first one already has a ready-made food base with an indication of the energy value (you can also add your own), from which it is supposed to make a menu. In the second, dishes are made from these products. In the third - the menu is assembled. A little manipulation - and you have not just a menu, but with an indication of the number of calories! It's a pity, the program is paid (3500 rubles) Although, there is free version slightly limited in functionality.
4. Simple Cookbook - maximum simple program for storing recipes, literally for writing on the run. You can only create categories, scatter recipes on them, edit and print. And no troubles for you.
5. Culinary Notes is a cute program with a cozy blue interface. There is a database of recipes, you can add / change / delete. good search. Dishes can be rated or marked as favorites. You can decorate the recipe with a picture and provide a link.
6. Manager recipes— cataloging recipes, searching and selecting recipes by ingredients, cooking time, complexity, etc. Paid program, costs 300 rubles.

In addition to all of the above, you can use the Evernote service to store culinary recipes - all you need to do is re-photograph all your magazine clippings and note sheets. I wrote more about this unique service in the article.

In general, this is all that I could find. If you can add to this list, write in the comments. I will talk about how to organize paper next time.

P.S. You won’t believe it, but a kind person was found 🙂 Our reader Anastasia (she is a programmer) herself wrote a program that solves almost all the tasks listed at the beginning of the post - Menu planning. I have already tested her service a bit - and I really liked it! Pleasant design and convenient management, everything is able, but nothing more. Free. Of the possibilities:

• collection and storage of own recipes
• collection of recipes collected by other users
• convenient search by ingredients, types of dishes, cooking time
• menu planning - and in the next column a list of products is immediately displayed. You can even choose how many servings you need to cook, and based on this, the amount of products will be indicated. And under the list of products, the “Print” button is very prudently made.

There is absolutely nothing to complain about 🙂 True, he doesn’t count calories and cost yet, but the author continues to work on it, and it is quite possible that such a function will appear. I have only one wish - oh, but if the menu block consisted of 7 days, in order to plan for the week at once, and see before our eyes that on Monday we have this and that, but on Tuesday this and that is impossible to build something similar?

Instruction

Download and install a program to create a boot menu, such as Longtion AutoRun. To download the program, go to the developer's website http://www.longtion.com/. This program allows you to work with templates, manage and test shells, which makes it possible to accelerate development. The program has clear interface, and a build wizard - this will allow a non-professional to work with it. There are two ways to create a boot menu. If you are creating a menu for the first time, choose the creation wizard. Select the "File" menu and click the "Wizard" command. Put all the files you want to burn to disk in one folder and specify this folder in the first window of the wizard.

Click the Next button to continue creating the boot menu. Click the "Configure" button, select the desired design for your menu, set the font and background colors. In the Form icon field, click the Select button and select an image file from your computer to set it as the disk icon. In the next field select sound file, which will accompany the opening of the disk. Next, set the colors and size for the boot menu using the appropriate buttons. Go to the Splash screen tab, in this tab select an image that will open as a welcome screen for your disk. Set the time for which it will be displayed on the screen. Go to the next tab to arrange the disk boot menu. Select menu settings, then text and agreement settings. In the next tab, select security settings.

Click the "Next" button, set the link settings. For example, link to setup files, which are located on your disk, so that you can immediately start installing a particular program from the menu. In the next tab, create shortcuts and buttons for your boot menu, click the "Next" button. In this tab, you can test your boot menu using the Save and test button. After viewing the result, you can return to any of the steps and the boot menu.

Register the program to be able to use the templates in the creation of the boot menu and the program after the 30-day trial period. To make a boot menu using a template, click on one of the template icons on the program toolbar. The window on the right will open a template available for editing. Click on a specific element to change it. Next, click the "Save" button.

Any branded DVD disc contains a menu with which you can start playing a video, select a movie episode, or access settings. Such a menu can also be made for a disc created at home. If it is supposed that an amateur film will be viewed on a TV screen using a household DVD player, then such a menu is simply necessary. It is much easier to spend time creating episodes and buttons to quickly jump to them once than to rewind to the right moment every time you watch.

Programs for working with a DVD menu may also be needed if you want to make changes to an existing disc, for example, discard additional materials from it and edit the menu accordingly.

I present to your attention 4 programs for creating a DVD menu:

Conclusion

There are many solutions for creating and editing DVD menus. Of course, the choice of a particular program depends on the goal. With Super DVD Creator and Video DVD Maker Pro, you can quickly create a simple navigation menu, and DVD-lab PRO will be useful if you want to do something more original and more complicated. Finally, if you are not just transcribing video from a camera to DVD, but are using some kind of video editor to edit it, be sure to pay attention to whether it has the ability to create a menu. Many video editing programs include DVD authoring tools as a bonus.