dvdSanta is an easy to use software for creating DVD Video discs with an easy-to-use one-click user interface.

You can convert and compress video files (AVI, WMV, MPG, ASF, RealVideo etc.) to DVD format, create a slide show with background music from pictures, and even transfer tapes directly from digital camcorder to DVD Video over a Firewire cable.

The video quality created by dvdSanta is rather good, and converting video files is as easy as it could possibly get. You can choose to compress videos at either NTSC or PAL video standard, in high (720x480/576), medium (352x480/576) or low (352x240/288) resolution, and in full screen (4:3) or wide screen (16:9) aspect ratio. The aspect ratio of the input video is handled correctly, so converting a 16:9 AVI to 16:9 DVD works as expected.

Creating photo slide shows has been made easier since v3.40 You can easily add hundreds of pictures to a slide show, and also adjust the settings on all the pictures at once. You can also rotate pictures if necessary. You can record a narration for each photo, which is a very nice feature indeed. You can also add background music files (in MP3, OGG, WAV etc. format) to the slide show and match the length of the slide show to the duration of the music.

dvdSanta is also capable of compressing 9GB DVDs on 4GB DVD-R discs, but I'd suggest using a different software for DVD backups. The software homepage has guides available for most of the tasks.

Digital video transfers were not tested. You should, however, have at least a 2GHz CPU in order to compress the video in real time.

The software includes a built in DVD burner, so you can burn your creations straight away. It is also capable of burning other, pre-authored VIDEO_TS folders and ISO images.

dvdSanta now also includes a preview feature and support for multiple languages.

This demo version will never expire and it includes all the features of the full version, but it will write a watermark on all encoded video.