Menu Creation:  

TMPGEnc DVD Author makes menu creation a breeze. You can choose to create a menu based on a template or create a custom menu by choosing your own layout and specific items. You can choose to include/exclude a top title menu, track menus, navigation buttons, frames and background.

From there you can edit your menu selections by adjusting color, shadows, borders, frames, fade and more. You can incorporate your own background pictures, buttons and even frames for a more customized look and feel. You can also add animated thumbnails and full motion menus.

The one feature missing from TMPGEnc DVD Author’s menu creation feature set is the ability to change your still thumbnail image.

Features:  

DVD authoring software isn’t designed to have heavy, fancy additional features, however, most include some additional functionality. TMPGEnc DVD Author has a built-in player and burner, supports photographs and includes a wizard.

The wizard functionality is probably TMPGEnc’s best feature. As the software walks you through the DVD authoring process you can choose to use the source wizard and menu wizard. Each helps you decide exactly how you want your final copy to come out.

You can also create a slideshow complete with music, transitions and background music.

TMPGEnc does include some drag and drop functionality in how your chapters are arranged and the placement of objects on your menu. You can’t drag and drop files from Windows explorer into the program.

Perhaps TMPGEnc’s largest hindrance is the glitchy simulation playback and display in clip editing display. We had a difficult time trying to get an accurate idea of how our video would actually play without outputting to the hard drive or DVD.

Ease of Use:  

The source wizard, menu wizard and step-by-step tool bar display are what make this software extremely easy to use. Simply allow the software to lead you through the process and you’ll have a DVD authored in no time. However, TMPGEnc is unlike other software in its class because it doesn’t sacrifice functionality for simplicity. Once in the menu editor, you can adjust thumbnails, background, audio and effects.

Quality of Copy:  

The quality of our TMPGEnc DVD was really good. Although the provided templates aren’t particularly spectacular all of our menus were displayed clean and clear on our television. We didn’t experience any screen flicker like with some other software. All of our navigation worked great and each button performed exactly as it should.

The performance and quality of the DVD are now even more adequate now that you can author your favorite AVCHD, HDV and DV camcorder footage to the high-capacity Blu-ray Disc format.

Ease of Installation/ Stability:  

TMPGEnc DVD Author is a relatively small DVD Authoring application, therefore, the software installed quickly and without any problems. Although when you are finished installing you do need to restart your computer.

With regard to stability TMPGEnc never crashed on us but we did dock it some points because the video playback feature was below par.

Help/Support:  

TMPGEnc DVD Author includes a user manual, free online tutorials and “how to’s,” a help guide, an online community forum, comprehensive knowledge base and email support. To contact email support you have to be a registered member.

We found that although TMPGEnc DVD Author includes a built-in user guide it is a little sparse on information. When we had questions we found ourselves going to the knowledge base more frequently than the user guide.

TMPGEnc DVD Author is great for the beginner just looking to transfer their home videos to a DVD the wizards and chronological tool bar make the process easy without sacrificing functionality. However, in future updates we’d like to see TMPGEnc include more and better templates, and a smoother functioning video viewer.

If you are interested in other DVD authoring software see our reviews of DVD MovieFactory, Sony DVD Architect Studio and AVS DVD Authoring.