TSUNAMI MPEG DVD Author Pro Review

The TSUNAMI MPEG DVD Author Pro software title is the latest offering from TMPG Inc. to DVD creation enthusiasts and new users alike. Building on the past success of the infamous TMPGEnc family of products, DVD Author Pro adds improvements over past versions of TMPGEnc DVD Author. This review takes a quick look at the program for interested users but SHOULD NOT be used as a guide to using it. We will explore some of the best features of this software so users can decide if it is the software they want/need.

Introduction & Requirements

You can download a trial version of DVD Author Pro from the TMPG Inc. site. I will now take a run through the minimum system requirements and input formats supported by DVD Author Pro, then continue to show the extra features that the software package has.

Minimum / Recommended System Requirements

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000/XP.
Minimum CPU : Intel Pentium 4 2 Ghz, AMD Athlon XP 2000+ or higher.
Minimum RAM: 512 MB (1024 MB recommended).
HDD: 512 MB (10 GB or more recommended).
Screen Resolution: 1024x768
File System: NTFS.

DVD Author Pro Interface

DVD Author Pro supports both inputs of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video. It is simple, to input any of these files into DVD Author Pro. From the picture located above, you can see that there are two ways to begin a new project. There is a Start New Project button or if you click Source a new project will be started then also.

This will take you to the picture accompanying this text. Now you can see the program has a relatively easy to understand interface. On the left is the Track List. You need at least one track to compile a DVD. You can add clips to tracks by simply clicking the Add file button, or using the Source Wizard. There is also a slideshow creator which we will take a closer look at later. Once a clip is added, it appears in the middle of the interface, in the Clip list. Below are the supported input video and audio formats.

MPEG-1 System Stream or Elementary Stream:

• Resolution: 352x240 (NTSC), 352x288 (PAL).
  
• Aspect Ratio: 4:3.
  
• Max Bitrate: 1.8 Mbps.

MPEG-2 Program Stream or Elementary Stream:

• Resolutions: 352x240(NTSC), 352x480(NTSC), 704x480 (NTSC), 720x480 (NTSC), 352x288 (PAL), 352x576 (PAL), 704x576 (PAL), 720x576 (PAL).
  
• Aspect Ratio: 4:3, 16:9.
  
• Max Bitrate: 9848 Kbps.

Supported Input Audio Formats:

• Dolby Digital (AC3); mono 64-256kbps; stereo 128-448 kbps.
  
• MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2); mono 32-192kbps; stereo 64-384kbps.
  
• Linear PCM (LPCM); mono 786kbps; stereo 1536 kbps OR 16 / 20 / 24 bit monaural stereo (MPEG-2 Vid Input).

Other Input Formats:

• Images: JPEG, PNG, PSD, BMP.
  
• Alternative: DVD-Video (VIDEO_TS.ifo), VRO, DVR-MS.