Sony DVD Architect Studio review

YouTube has made sharing your videos easy, but DVD is still the best medium if you care about video quality.

All modern video-editing software comes with built-in DVD-authoring facilities, but there are a couple of reasons why you might want to upgrade. One is for extra features such as direct camera-to-DVD recording or DivX encoding, for which packages such as Roxio MyDVD 9 Studio Premier (see opposite) are a good choice. The other reason is for more sophisticated control over the appearance and behaviour of your DVDs.

DVD Architect Studio lets you create DVD-Video discs from pre-recorded video files. At its simplest, it's an easy-to-use template-driven authoring program. There are a range of attractive themes, and you can mix and match elements from different ones. When applying a theme, menu buttons and text are automatically resized to make the best use of the available space, and scene selection menus, slideshows and music compilations are handled elegantly.

However, the fun really starts when you start to delve into DVD Architect Studio's advanced options. Text, images and videos can be freely arranged in a menu, and any of these can be turned into buttons. There's comprehensive control over button highlight colours and shapes. Disc navigation options are comprehensive too, making it possible to structure menus and videos. Best of all, DVD Architect Studio's single-screen interface presents these features clearly, making it easy to keep track of complex projects. The only significant absentees are multiple soundtrack and subtitle support - features you'll need to spend well over £100 for.

If you need video-editing software too, DVD Architect Studio can be picked up as part of the excellent Vegas Movie Studio +DVD Platinum for £50. However, if you already have a preferred editor, but are frustrated by its simplistic authoring facilities, DVD Architect Studio is the perfect antidote.

Author: Ben Pitt