Topic: interactive CD/DVD authoring software?

Can anyone recommend some? basically would only be interested in CD authoring for now.

I've got Premiere 6 and a Pinnacle DV500 card, this came bundled with Minerva Impressions 2.0 but I installed it and found that it was only a limited version and I'm not having much luck finding information on how to upgrade. Their own website says nothing about this software and the only stuff I'm finding on the web is mere mentions of it as part of a Pinnacle package.

anybody know of any options?

are you talking about authoring or codec?

compressing video and then burning to cd/dvd or creating multimedia applications on cds?

authoring, multimedia presentations.
I use Premiere for editing and compressing etc...

Check out Director 8 or Authorware by Macromedia. www.macromedia.com/software/director/

Director has a steep learning curve and is about $1000 US.
Like most Macromedia products it is usually slow going at first,
but after using their products for a while they become addictive more intuitive, and very powerful creative tools.

Seems to be the pro industry standard at the moment.



[This message has been edited by kromaZ (edited 04-07-2001).]

That's a little high on the price right now but it would be sweet. I've spent over 5 thousand on computer stuff in the last month and have a digital video camera on the wish list. I think the boss might be getting worn thin.

If you know of any cheaper alternatives, I'm all ears. Thanks

Here's a few you might want to check out.
http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/search.html

(edit) sorry, use these key words to get to the list "authoring multimedia presentations software"(/edit)

I'm asuming you are running a PC and not Mac?

Just did a quick read through and there was some good things said about Multimedia Builder v4.4. Never used any of these so I can't critique on the quality.
http://www.mediachance.com/oldindex.html

The price is right though

Hope it helps.

-kromaZ


[This message has been edited by kromaZ (edited 04-07-2001).]

Zoinks! That sounds good!

I feel a bit like a dolt when someone gives me a link to zdnet.... heheh, thanks man.

I like director, and I don't find it to be to diffucult to use to do basic things, there are a lot of drag and drop behaviors that are standard for creating presentations. What is nice is that you can import .avi's, etc as castmembers or launch them in a seperate window - there are lots of options available to you.

If you are a student, you can purchase an academic version for less than 1g, check out gradware.com.

also it is really easy to find Director 8 on the web if you are one of those bad people who don't like to buy things

and there is always Powerpoint (uggh) if you are in a bind and you MUST create a presentation soon, i don't know how easy it is to include video in PPoint, although I have seen it done before.

good luck

hippy centenary Lotiss! lol.. we can up your meds now! woo hoo!


~Vp~

yeaaaaa

i am no longer neurotic!

now I won't have an overwhelming fear of scotch tape anymore!


wooo hooo!

thanks vp i didn't even notice!

Yup, director is definitely the way to go. We've just completed a cd for a homebuilding company, video intro and all done in director (well, the video itself wasn't done in director, but you know what i mean). There may be some other software for DVD authoring tho, looking up some stuff on that and I'll let ya know...

Chris

KAIROSinteractive

[This message has been edited by Fig (edited 04-09-2001).]

kromaZ: multimedia builder is not bad. It's poorly documented but if you're playing with at least half a deck (I run about 60%) you can figure out the basics. I put together a simple sample this morning and it was an eye popper for the boss. I appreciate the recommend.

Chris: I'd like to use director but I'm not sure if they'll let me buy it, we'll see. What's the learning curve on Director in your estimation? I'vem never used any Macromedia products btw...

To be honest it's hard to say on learning curve, i'm just getting back into it but i also know Flash quite well now; first time around i had a bit of a hard time picking it up with no other experience. There are a lot of good books out there though, that definitely helps. I really don't know of any other apps that do the same thing well tho, director is pretty much the standard. Some cd-rom stuff can be done in Flash, but director does a much better job handling bitmaps and video.

Chris

KAIROSinteractive