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Top 7 DVD Reauthor Tools in 2025 — Features & Comparisons

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DVD Reauthor Tips: Preserve Menus, Chapters, and SubtitlesReauthoring a DVD means taking the contents of an existing disc — video, audio, menus, chapters, and subtitles — and rebuilding a new disc structure that better fits your needs. That could mean trimming extras, combining multiple discs onto one, redoing menus, or creating optimized backups. The trick is doing this while preserving the things that make a DVD navigable and user-friendly: menus, chapter points, and subtitle tracks. This guide walks through concepts, tools, and practical tips to help you reauthor DVDs with those elements intact.

Why preserve menus, chapters, and subtitles?

  • Menus give quick access to features (play, scene selection, bonus content).
  • Chapters allow users to jump to specific scenes — essential for usability.
  • Subtitles enable accessibility, translations, and accurate dialogue reproduction.

Losing any of these during reauthoring turns a polished disc into a simple file collection that’s harder to navigate and less usable for viewers.

Overview of the reauthoring workflow

  1. Rip the DVD to your hard drive (lossless if possible).
  2. Inspect and extract assets: video streams, audio tracks, subtitles, menus/IFO/VOB structure.
  3. Decide what to keep, remove, or change (e.g., remove duplicate audio, combine multi-disc tracks).
  4. Edit video/audio if needed (cutting, re-encoding, or remuxing).
  5. Rebuild menus and chapters or import original menu assets.
  6. Author the new DVD structure and burn or create an ISO.

Tools you’ll need

  • Ripping: MakeMKV (for lossless main-title extraction), dvdbackup, HandBrake (for re-encoding).
  • Inspection/extraction: DVD Decrypter (older Windows tool), VobEdit, BDSup2Sub (subtitle handling), SubRip (OCR for bitmap subtitles).
  • Reauthoring/authoring: DVDStyler, MultiAVCHD (for Blu-ray but useful), TMPGEnc Authoring Works, DVDAuthor (command-line), tsMuxeR (for muxing).
  • Menu editing: IFOEdit (to inspect), PgcEdit (for advanced menu and navigation editing).
  • Subtitles: Subtitle Workshop, Aegisub (for timing/fixing text subs).
  • Utilities: MKVToolNix (for container edits), ffmpeg (versatile encoding/muxing), ImgBurn (burning/creating ISOs).

Choose tools based on platform and whether you want GUI or command-line workflows.

Ripping: keep it lossless where possible

  • Use MakeMKV to rip main titles, all audio tracks, and subtitle tracks into MKV containers without re-encoding — this preserves the original streams and timings.
  • For full DVD structure (menus, extras), use tools that copy VOB/IFO/BUP files intact (dvdbackup, dd). This preserves navigation data needed for exact menu replication.

Why lossless? When reauthoring, maintaining original timestamps and stream integrity makes it far easier to preserve chapter points and subtitle synchronization.

Extracting and handling menus

  • Menus live in the DVD’s VOB/IFO structure and are often authored as separate video sequences with button navigation data. To preserve original menus you generally need to keep the DVD’s original file structure (VOB/IFO/BUP) or use an authoring tool that can import IFO structures.
  • Tools like PgcEdit let you inspect and modify menu logic. Use it to preserve or tweak button navigation without rebuilding menus from scratch.
  • If you must recreate menus (to shrink disc size or combine discs), extract keyframes from original menu videos as images to use as background art, and recreate button links in your authoring tool. DVDStyler and TMPGEnc Authoring Works let you design clickable menus and import custom background and button graphics.

Practical tip: capture a screenshot of each menu and keep a notes file describing where each button should link — it speeds up recreation.

Preserving chapters

  • Chapters are typically embedded as program chain (PGC) cell boundaries in the DVD. When ripping with MakeMKV, chapter markers are copied into the MKV. Use MKVToolNix or ffmpeg to inspect and retain those chapters when remuxing.
  • If you re-encode video with HandBrake or ffmpeg, ensure you export or preserve chapter markers. HandBrake can import chapter markers from an MKV; ffmpeg can map them with metadata copying.
  • When authoring a new DVD with dvdauthor or DVDStyler, import chapter points explicitly (many tools allow importing a chapter list). You can also generate a chapter file — a simple text list of timecodes — and import it into your authoring software.

Example chapter file format (for dvdauthor):

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000 CHAPTER02=00:03:45.000 CHAPTER03=00:10:12.000

Preserving subtitles

There are two main subtitle types on DVDs: bitmap (VOBSUB) and text-based (less common). Each requires different handling.

  • For VOBSUB (bitmap) subs: use BDSup2Sub or SubtitleEdit to extract .sup/.sub/.idx pairs. Keep the original .sup images when possible to retain exact styling and placement. If you convert bitmap to text with OCR (SubRip), expect occasional errors — proofread and fix timing.
  • For text subtitles (e.g., in MKV rips): they’re often already accurate and editable in Aegisub or Subtitle Workshop. When reauthoring, ensure the authoring tool supports the subtitle format you choose (VOBSUB for DVD). Use tools like SubtitleCreator or Subtitle Workshop to convert formats if needed.
  • When re-encoding video, be careful with soft vs. hard subtitling: prefer soft subtitles (separate tracks) so users can toggle them. Burned-in (hard) subs are permanent and should only be used if necessary for compatibility.

Practical tip: keep a backup of all original subtitle files before conversion or OCR.

Re-encoding vs. remuxing: when to choose which

  • Remuxing (no re-encode): best for preserving original quality, chapters, and subtitle sync. Use MKVToolNix or tsMuxeR when possible.
  • Re-encoding: required if you need to change format (e.g., compress to fit a single-layer DVD) or alter resolution/codec. Re-encoding can shift timing slightly; always verify chapter and subtitle sync post-encode. Use two-pass or CRF encoding for best quality/size balance. ffmpeg and HandBrake are reliable choices.

If you must re-encode, export chapter and subtitle files before encoding and reimport them into the new encoded file.

Rebuilding menus and navigation logic

  • If you preserved original IFO/VOB files, you can sometimes rebuild a new DVD by carefully replacing or removing certain titles while keeping menu structures intact — but this is advanced and risky without backups. Use tools like PgcEdit to relink menus when files move.
  • If recreating menus, design a clear structure: main menu, play, scene selection (chapter menu), audio/subtitle selection, extras. Include chapter buttons as thumbnails if possible — DVDStyler supports creating scene-selection menus with thumbnails generated from the video.
  • Test all button links and return/next behavior on a software player (VLC) and a hardware player where possible. Hardware players can behave differently with navigation commands.

Audio considerations

  • Keep all original audio tracks you want to preserve (e.g., stereo, 5.1 surround, director commentary). When downsizing, prioritize main channels for the target audience.
  • Re-encoding audio (e.g., from AC-3 5.1 to MP2 stereo) can save space but reduces fidelity and surround capability. If preserving 5.1 is important, keep Dolby Digital (AC-3) or re-encode to AC-3 at an appropriate bitrate.
  • Ensure audio track order matches menu selections and language flags in the authoring tool.

Testing and verification

  • Test on multiple players: VLC (software), a standalone DVD player, and a game console DVD player if available. Hardware players reveal compatibility issues not visible on PC.
  • Verify: main menu functionality, chapter skipping, subtitle toggling and sync, audio track switching, and bonus/extras accessibility.
  • If chapters or subtitles are out of sync, revisit your re-encode parameters and ensure timecodes/metadata were preserved during remux/re-encode.

Troubleshooting common problems

  • Missing menus after reauthoring: you likely restructured files and lost IFO navigation. Restore the original IFO or recreate menus and relink with PgcEdit.
  • Subtitle mismatch: check framerate/resampling changes during re-encode. Converting between PAL (25 fps) and NTSC (29.97 fps) requires subtitle timing adjustment.
  • Chapter markers lost: re-import chapter list or remap chapter markers from the original MKV using MKVToolNix or ffmpeg.

Only reauthor DVDs you own or have permission to modify. Circumventing copy protection may be illegal in some jurisdictions — know your local laws.

Quick checklist before burning or creating ISO

  • [ ] Backup original DVD files (IFO/VOB/BUP) and ripped MKVs.
  • [ ] Confirm all desired audio tracks and subtitles extracted and saved.
  • [ ] Export/import chapter markers; verify timings.
  • [ ] Recreate or preserve menus; test button navigation.
  • [ ] Test final author with multiple players.
  • [ ] Create ISO with correct disc label and burn or save.

Preserving menus, chapters, and subtitles takes extra care, but the result is a reauthored disc that feels and functions like the original. Follow lossless-first ripping, preserve metadata, and validate on hardware players to get the best outcome.

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