14 DAY TRIAL // The good old CD is replaced almost completely by the younger and stronger DVD, especially when talking about multimedia applications or high definition movies. Burning this kind of media can be a real trouble without the right tools, especially when we talk about burning movies and creating menus for the resulting discs.
InterVideo WinDVD Creator is a software built especially for this purpose. It can grab movies from your hard drive or other devices such as digital cameras and then create DVDs. Of course that everything is closely supervised by the user of the program, and the results can be excellent. Let's start digging in!
First of all, you may need some time to download the program, depending on the speed of your connection, of course, because the size of the installation kit is a bit over 61MB. The setup process goes on fast and without any problem. After that, you will face WinDVD Creator's startup screen.
The startup screen allows you to perform eight activities, as it follows...
Starting new empty projects and editing currently saved ones should be nothing new, since we do this everyday, with almost every program that we use.
Movie Direct to DVD Disc and Edit Existing DVD Disc allow you to put movies from your digital camera straight to a rewritable DVD and then perform the changes you want, changing the content of the disc.
Archive Video to DVD and Smart Movie, once clicked, will start two wizards, first one allowing you to automatically transfer your video from the capture device to DVD without requiring any editing, the first one, while the second will create a DVD movie, the only things that you have to do being to add the video and sound. In both cases, the resulting media will have its own menu, which is very cool, in my opinion.
The last two activities that can be launched from the startup screen are called Record to Video File and Edit Existing Video File. First one allows you to grab video from your camcorder, VCR or other capture device and save it to a file on your hard drive for further processing, while the second activity lets you edit video files already saved. You can add music, pictures, image effects and even a menu to your movie.
Let's go to the main window of this program, which is opened every time you perform one of the previous activities. WinDVD Creator is a wizard-driven application, so no matter what you do with it, you will get a wizzie's help sooner or later.
There are four tabs in this excellently designed and easy to use interface, one for each step to be taken when creating a DVD. Using this program is as easy as one-two-three-four, and to be more specific, capture-edit-add menu-make movie. Following this tendency, I wouldn't be amazed to see in the next three years a software able to receive voice commands and do everything for you while you're lying down in your bed.
The built in libraries are excellent for beginners. For example, you can choose from the existing transition or title effects templates. The menu templates are grouped by categories, but you can show them all at once, if you like, there's no problem with that. Apart from that, you can even create custom menus to use on your movie/DVD, in order to show your desired pictures, text or chapters.
Last step is very simple; you have to choose between burning your creation onto a DVD and saving it on your hard drive. Just as easy as that!
I am sure you will have fun with this product, but before I move on to the last words, I have to warn you that the evaluation version only lets you output videos under 5 minutes in length, and the program expires in 14 days. Other than these, everything's fine, so go ahead and try it!
The Good
InterVideo WinDVD Creator is just the way it should be: easy to use, wizard-driven and good looking. Besides having a user-friendly interface, this program has also a well done help file, so getting lost inside it is out of question. Add a good price to this equation and you'll get one of the best solutions for basic DVD movie creation.
The Bad
The only bad thing that I found with this application is the big latency of its interface, and the system that I tested it on is much powerful than the recommended system configuration.
The Truth
I am not a big fan of the enthusiast video products, hardware and software, and the only reason is that I am somehow addicted to traditional 2D and 3D graphics.
For those thousands and thousands out there that are not like me, WinDVD Creator can be a great choice, if you are not professionals in this field. Prepare your camcorders, load your rechargeable batteries and start shooting!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
