does anyone have repeatable success with DVDA?

Widetrack wrote on 4/22/2007, 1:34 PM
I've just started trying to use DVDa (V4), but have used Vegas and Forge for years. I'm experiencing some problems with basic functions in DVDA, and I see that there are to be a lot of other guys (and girls) in the same straits.

I know forum posts tend to be problems rather than successes, but it's troubling to see problems with basics like preview and A/V sync (my current impediments), DVDA miscalculating file sizes, and wanting to recompress mpeg 2 and ac3 files. I am getting curious if people can actually use this software dependably.

I did a big DVD project a couple of years ago using an early version of DVD Studio Pro. I hated it, but judged it was the best to use at the time. I've been really looking forward to uisng a mature DVDA, and expecting the kind of compatibility i'm used to with Forge, Vegas and Acid. but just trying to author and burn a plain-vanilla, ten-minute preview of my current project is presenting some elemental problems, and I'm wondering what would be in store for me if I try to use DVDA for a professional DVD master with complex menus, longer video and so on.

Help me, brothers. Is this thing for real?


Comments

richard-courtney wrote on 4/22/2007, 4:25 PM
I don't use the studio version just the main version.

I burn using USB 2.0 external drives. Started with Sony and have a HP.
File size has been close but never exact. I produce all mpegs and AC3 files
in Vegas first.

I have had to go outside DVDA a few times using IFOEDIT to get a function I
was requested to have.

Keep up with the current patch revisions.
Chienworks wrote on 4/22/2007, 4:29 PM
No particular problems here. I generally make 2 or 3 DVDs each week with DVDA4, used to use DVDA3. I can burn in DVDA4 reliably,but i tend to use Nero most of the time. Nero burns faster, and has a validation pass afterwards. Doing both the burn and the validation in Nero is almost as fast as doing just the burn in DVDA.
ScottW wrote on 4/23/2007, 6:06 AM
Miscalculating file sizes is largely a result of DVDA wanting to recompress; recompression in turn is usually caused by feeding DVDA files that were not originally compressed using the appropriate DVDA template.
TLF wrote on 4/23/2007, 7:42 AM
Aside from miscalculating file sizes, I have had no problems.

Worley.
bStro wrote on 4/23/2007, 10:34 AM
I've used DVDA successfully for about four years now. The miscalculations are of no concern to me; I already know how large my files are, and so long as I use the proper Vegas templates for encoding, my files will stay that size.

The only times I've experienced sync issues were when there was something wrong with the original MPEG. In that case, I either go back to the source and fix whatever caused the issue or use something like Womble to check the file for errors. Once I've fixed the MPEG, the sync issues were gone.

Rob
johnmeyer wrote on 4/23/2007, 1:08 PM
The miscalculation of file sizes has nothing to do (in my experience) with re-compression. However, I agree that it is very annoying -- especially since it could be fixed -- but I've learned to live with it.

I have created many hundreds of different DVDs in the past few years, and have done things that most other people have never attempted (e.g., 352x480 DVDs, mixed with standard 720x480). I have created menus using PSD files; used scripts for all sorts of extra navigation; created subtitles; mixed VCD and SVCD content with regular DVD content; created "music-only" DVDs (no video at all) to, in essence, create a 4.7 GByte music disc for long car rides (since AC-3 compresses about as well as MP3, you can easily get about 80 hours of audio onto one disc).

Point is, I've done a lot of weird and unusual things with DVDA, and it has worked well for me, and done so repeatably. I will admit that I usually burn with Nero, because I often want to add data files to my burn, and DVDA's "extra" feature is too limited for what I need. However, I sometimes do burn with DVDA -- and I've gone through three different burners during the time I have owned DVDA -- and it has always burned just fine.

I was hardly a cheerleader for this product during its first two revisions, but in DVDA3, Sony finally started getting its act together, and DVDA4 is an excellent product.

Paul Mead wrote on 4/23/2007, 3:17 PM
I typically burn 2-3 different topics (disks) per week and I never have any problems. Most are between 50-90 minutes in length.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/23/2007, 5:53 PM
Aside from miscalculating file sizes, I have had no problems.

same here. no issues with DVDA3 since i got it. done complex & simple projects no problems.
Widetrack wrote on 4/23/2007, 10:41 PM
good to see some familiar names from Vegas and Forge fora. Particularly good to see them supporting DVDA as a useful (if annoying :-\) tool.

I finally did get it to burn a dvd directly from the "current project". Even though A/V sync was off in preview, it was perfect on the disc.

I guess one thing I have to learn is not to be afraid of burning a flawed DVD. I'm still thinking back on 2002 when burning a disc was an overnight process. thank goodness for my core2 duo.

If I could only get it to stop telling me it can't play a preview....

TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/24/2007, 6:37 AM
burning speed should have nothing to do with your CPU speed. I was burning 4x on an AMD XP 1800 CPU.

anyway... burn to a RW before you commit to the disk. Then you can preview it.
MPM wrote on 4/24/2007, 2:52 PM
"I'm wondering what would be in store for me if I try to use DVDA for a professional DVD master with complex menus, longer video and so on."

If I understand correctly it seems the gist of your initial post, Widetrack, is whether DVDA's worth bothering with... A fair question I think, so FWIW, IMHO & all that...

The Higher end applications are better, have more features, and in some situations are easier to use -- in return you pay much more than DVDA's msrp. If you can afford it & put the extra power something like Scenarist offers to good use, then go for it.

Another option is to author on a MAC, where there are some excellent tools available. In the PC environ DVDLab Pro 2.x is a decent program at reasonable pricing, but it doesn't have the abstraction layer you see in DVDA or Encore etc... IMO this means you do a little more work, have to learn a bit more, but what you author has a very good chance of staying that way when the DVD's rendered.

DVDA is very capable, but the way the interface works is a little different than most. It has a fairly substantial abstraction layer, so you have to edit your rendered DVD to get some higher end effects -- i.e. stories for example. If or once you get used to the idea of using multiple apps to achieve your desired results, not a big deal. OTOH it offers some nice sub options you'll be hard pressed to find elsewhere.

However you author your DVD, chances are if the actual layout's written using common practices, it'll come out OK -- by that I mean there's no obvious difference on playback no matter how your DVD was authored; it's like a photo edited in PSP vs P/Shop -- can't obviously tell after the fact. If you can achieve the menus you want in Nero or Magix or Cyberlink, the end result isn't necessarily going to be any different than if you used DVDA or Scenarist.

For problems with: "preview and A/V sync " -- AFAIK this is partly dependent on your hardware, drivers etc, & as preview w/subs isn't all that common, easy IMHO to overlook. If your video and audio match when you encoded them [something I've never seen a problem with in Vegas since the first video betas], they'll be in sync on your DVD -- video & audio are just muxed intact, so really no way for them to go out of sync.

re: "miscalculating file sizes", I've seen software get it right, and software get it wrong, but I personally don't consider it all that important one way or the other... if your media's already encoded [i.e. in Vegas], you know how much disc space it takes up. Menus add a little bit true enough, but if I'm barely over I have no qualms about using Shrink or Recode -- in all fairness I have to post that others disagree with that philosophy.

re: "recompress mpeg 2 and ac3 files"... I've only seen this in once or twice -- please trust me when I say that's an extremely small percentage. :-) And it's less than I've seen using other products. If it's a problem for you I'd suggest checking on how you're creating your mpg2 & ac3, finding out what's wrong with those files, and then preferably fixing or re-encoding elsewhere as necessary.

RE: "not to be afraid of burning a flawed DVD"... render to hdd? FWIW, in my workflow I normally test before burning, fire up Nero, then fix a cup of tea, & by the time I'm back at my desk Nero's done so I can test the burned project.