Simply put, the reason I use DVD Architect is because I as soon as I finish a project in Vegas, it rolls right over into DVDA seamlessly without skipping a beat.

Have 'em both, and they are both 'good' for different reasons/occasions. Depends on what you want to do. DVD arch is certainly easier to use, but contains less robust features.

JTH

From what I've just read in PC Mag, the Adobe product is much more capable. But it's also true that it's easier to use the SF product if you have been editing in Vegas.

It's also true that neither product is the most capable authoring program. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd guess DVD Architect is about a 5, Encore about a 7, Maestro a 9 (my favorite), and Scenarist a 10.

And how much is Scenarist going for these days?

So far DVDlab has worked 100% on every Vegas file I have authored with it.

Dont trust PC Mag reviews---this month they give Vegas 3 out of 5 stars and give Premiere Pro 4 out of 5---The reviewer obviously doesn't know what he is talking about--he makes plenty of errors that show me he is a complete novice when it comes to NLE's--

OH---Scenarist can be picked up for a cool 20,000 (dont quote me on that but I think I am close) I recommend that Zippy pick up a copy---it will keep him preoccupied for many hours and thus we wont have to read his innane posts.

Don, what's the learning curve on DVDlab like?

Riredale,

Where can one get DVD Maestro? Apparently, it's been discontinued as Apple has purchased Spruce and is not interested in continuing the software.

John

Learing curve on DVDlab? Not too bad Oscar has a great help section on his web site with screen shots and much documentation. You get it when you click on help in the program. I learning about motion menues now but I did't have much of a hard time picking up the major stuff. The GUI is a whole lot like Vegas with the docking window thing. Version 1.1 is the released version. I'm hesitant to try any of the beta's. That any beta version in general.

Go with a Fusion system. You can get a nice turnkey system with a SD-1000 encoder card for about $20,000. We bought one about 6 months ago and it is so nice to be able to do all your authoring on 1 system instead of jumoing around between DVDIt, DVDA, MyDVD, Ulead DVD crap, and all the others. It is a great investment.

YEah, DVD maestro is hard to find these days. Every once in a while a copy pops up on e-bay so keep an eye out there, otherwise just get a MAC and DVd Studio Pro 2, I hear it is very similar to Maestro, but I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy yet to try out. I'm still stuck with version 1.5 at home, but at work I get the nice Fusion system :)

I use Reel DVD which is a very nice stable program and has come down in price lately.

Marc

Craftech:
As mentioned, Maestro does pop up on EBay from time to time. DVD Lab is remarkably similar to the "look and feel" of Maestro, though it currently lacks many advanced features. Makes me wonder is this Oscar fellow is patiently reverse-engineering the discontinued Maestro program...

DVD Lab has been reported to not really author discs within the legal DVD spec which may cause playback problems as well as replication problems since most replicators won't accept discs that are not within the DVD spec. That is why the program is only $79, it looks great on the outside, but if you dig a little deeper you will find a lot of problems. I have played with it a little bit and I wasn't all that impressed, it's basically a Maestro skin on a pretty basic package. If you do want some good power on the PC side I would have to agree that ReelDVD from Sonic is the way to go. I think it was around $500 the last time I checked but that's not a definate price.

STUPID STIX! PIECE OF JUNK!

>DVD Lab has been reported to not really author discs within the legal DVD spec which may cause playback problems as well as replication problems since most replicators won't accept discs that are not within the DVD spec.

I not sure what you mean by "legal DVD spec" but I have been able to play every DVD I have authored with DVDlab in at least four deferent stand alone players of greatly varying ages. So far I believe I have done with DVDlab what most commercial DVD makers have done with their menues. I have also never had any trouble replicating my DVDlab authored disks. Personaly I think its a great buy at $79.00.