Architect software

vittorio wrote on 2/26/2006, 11:38 AM
Having recently acquired the Vegas+DVD software, I went through the learning process. While Vegas, in spite of the rather inadequate manual, has been a pleasant experience, Architect instead has been very painful. The manual is near useless, with fundamental information completely missing (e.g. how to link buttons to chapters) and the overall structure of the program appears to me extremely complicated, un-intuitive and in the end time consuming. The final product (granted my videos are not pinnacles of sophistication) is in no way better than the much simpler, intuitive, quick and a lot cheaper Ulead MovieFactory 4.

Comments

rsp wrote on 2/26/2006, 12:16 PM
Without doubt there's always things to be improved - make sure your report your thoughts to the folks at Sony's supportdesk !

However after reading your message i really wondered if you did try the demo before buying?! Anyway don't give up and give it some more time, search this forum or just ask your questions overhere!

Rudi
TheHappyFriar wrote on 2/26/2006, 5:54 PM
DVDA3 is an excelent program... once you figure it out.

The manual (I prefer the online help.. it's searchable) is actuatly VERY usefull if you know how to search for things & what to look for. If I were you I'd print out the manual & read through the entire thing. It's worth it.
vittorio wrote on 2/26/2006, 6:46 PM
I have the full manual that came in the package and I have read it quite carefully. For the example I made in fact ( linking buttons to chapters) there is no mention anywhere. Other simpler programs (e.g. Ulead) make that link automatically as one sets the chapters. Why isn't DVDA3 doing that?
I have no doubt DVDA3 is an excellent program (once you become familiar with it) but the effort, the cost and the much longer time it requires, in my opinion, are not warranted by the results ( at least for my relatively unsophisticated videos). That is why I will stick to the simpler program.
DrLumen wrote on 2/26/2006, 7:25 PM
It is very difficult and tedious to try to do things in dvda the way you may do them in other apps. I beat my head against the wall, at first, as I was trying to use it as I "thought" it should be done.

However, after you get the "mind set" of how to use DVDA, it is probably easier than the others. I know it is more powerful!

The main thing is to let it create the buttons and links as much as possible and then tweak as needed. For example, add your movie to the the first menu, go into the timeline for the video and add markers for the chapter points. These could be imported if you added the markers (chapter points) in Vegas. Then, right click on the main video button and select create sub-menu. After you answer the prompts in the dialog, it will create all your sub menu pages and related links.

You can tweak them if you need/want to for some aesthetic reason or navigation preferences. This is the easiest way I have found... Other people here may have more tips .

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TheHappyFriar wrote on 2/27/2006, 5:24 AM
i just went in to the help file (since I don't have the PDF handy at the moment), went to the index, typed in "chapter" & had three listings: "Chapter List Menu," "Chapter Markers" & "Chapters, Playing from a Scene Selection Menu".

Two of those cover how to easily put in chapter markers. I found it much easier then using the few pre-packaged OEM DVD authoring apps that I've used.
vittorio wrote on 2/27/2006, 1:53 PM
Of course that part is described in the manual, easy and effective (Pinnacle Impression is similar). How to link menu buttons to chapters instead is not mentioned anywhere and I had great difficulties finding out.
MarkWWW wrote on 2/28/2006, 10:22 AM
How to do this manually is on page 73 - you need to set the button's action properties appropriately, specifically the Destination and Destination Chapter items.

Or if you prefer to have DVDA do the work for you, you can just add a scene (chapter) selection menu as described on page 53 and following.

Mark