i am running one avid xpress -- in order to encode video for dvd i have to use the avid, thus tieing the maching up for several hours depending on the project -- Is there an alternative?? Can cleaner be used with avid??

Also, is there anyway that i can use another computer for encoding?? - the computer is on my network, but not connected using any avid networking software/hardware -- So would i have to output to tape and digitize on another machine?? Hopefully that makes sense?? Sorry for my confusion -- DVD authoring is a new thing for me!!

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

This will only work if you have two programs on both ends that
can read and understand a common file format. Avid XPress
understands the DV format and so might your MPEG2 encoder,
that depends on which software you want to use for that.

Authoring is not the same as MPEG2 encoding. Basically the
workflow for a DVD is like this:

1. video encoding (MPEG 2 DVD compliant)
2. audio encoding (PCM, AC3 or dts)
3. authoring
4. burning or pressing the disc

thanks for the clarification!! - i am specifically talking about mpeg-2 encoding - Is there a better way to encode?? Without using the avid - could you suggest any other programs that i might try?? any help would be great!!

As you can see i'm fairly lossed in all of this - thanks for your help!!

The four programs that I know that are good are:

- Canopus ProCoder (www.canopus.com) (can convert multiple format), not that expensive
- CinemaCraft Encoder (www.cinemacraft.com) (very expensive)
- TMPGEnc (www.tmpgenc.net) (normal price)
- Vegas with mpeg plugin (mediasoftware.sonypictures.com) (NLE, might be expensive as an encoder)

All except ProCoder have demos, so I suggest to try them out.
Keep in mind that Vegas is a full-blown NLE. The rest are all
standalone encoders.