:-)

The AVC encoder is $995.00 from memory.
Does it work with Vegas?
Is it any better than the Sony AVC encoder we get for free with Vegas?

Questions, questions, questions. Rather obvious ones too I would have thought.
SCS seems to have sent the email to all Vegas users and I'm fine with that. How about some words about how this "all the bells and whistles" stuff integrates with Vegas.

Bob.

The title of the software is lacking something... sounds like a soft drink and not software!

Unfortunate connotation. There is a local business here called ZooDoo, which is , um, fertiliser harvested from the local zoo .... ;-|

geoff

The company that created DO Studio was not SONY. That company is most likely responsible for the name it was given. When SONY acquired them, it chose not to tweak the name, most likely because the branding that it had already created was in very high-standing in its market. You never want to fiddle with a good thing when its acquisition may add to your bottom line.

To Bob: If you follow the links of DO Studio - you will note that it ties into the Blu-Print encoder (at least for descriptive purposes) AND curiously the site says that with this encoder DO Studio would enable you to create one-offs burned by SONY VegasPro9 or DVD Architect Pro 5.0.

HMMM! This is 2012 info ??? - oh no ! where are web updates for this unfortunate bit of mis-speak?

No matter who is to blame for the name, it sounds like a soft drink. To continue with it's use does not change that fact.

"No matter who is to blame for the name, it sounds like a ,,,"

Sounds a lot like what people said when "Vegas" was released.

well, let us hope it doesn't slowly slip into it's name al la vegas, ie. a bit of a gamble....

nothing changed, still editing hours of interviews and just had repeated crashes when deleting the unneeded end takes from a multicam tl. thankfully error message was sent off and project reloaded to a couple of edits before crash....

A lot of people said the Vegas title sounds like a soft drink? That is senseless. However, I have noticed I get blank stares, whenever I mention Sony Vegas to other people, so maybe you are on to something about Sony & name branding. It's as if they think I am talking about Las Vegas, so a not confusing name is beneficial.

Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode in which the name in question was Molan Springs Water. Mold & water does not make for a good name either.

Hence why i removed "soft drink" from my reply.

Bargain at 3k? Hate to be the bearer of bad news but Blu-ray is dead, the world just doesn't know it yet.

- Ray
Underground Planet

Bargain at 3k? Hate to be the bearer of bad news but Blu-ray is dead, the world just doesn't know it yet.

That would be unfortunate, considering the only alternative is online media, which doesn't come close to offering the quality of Blu-Ray in terms of video bitrate or selection of high-res lossless audio codecs. But I guess, if you don't mind mediocre-bitrate 720p or low-bitrate 1080p combined with ordinary Dolby 5.1, online is an option. Kind of makes those $5000 1080p HDTVs a bit pointless, though, doesn't it?

Also, the rights issues. If you live anywhere outside the US, you're kinda screwed as far as content availability goes.

No, I think physical discs will be around for some time to come.

-------------------

As far as this product goes, I think it's a bit beyond the scope of what many Vegas users need, but unfortunately DVD Architect doesn't provide enough with respect to Blu-Ray burning features. There's an extremely wide gulf between the two products, and DVD Architect needs to move in to fill just a bit more of that than it currently does. Its BD features are substandard compared to similarly-tiered products such as Adobe Encore CS6, or even the now-outdated CS5. And even some lower-priced products have BD features that DVD-A lacks, such as TMPGEnc Authoring Works. How is it that $100 package offers pop-up menus when DVD-A can't manage it?

have to agree with ray (muttley).

blu-ray never saw the light of day among the people i know. hd files on disk a resounding YES, but actual blu-ray disks, no.

i would hazard a guess that those interested in blu-ray are the home theatre crowd and considering the costs associated with such set ups it would be more minority than majority.

i've often asked sales people about blu-ray sales and it seems most still buy the dvd rather than the blu-ray version. then again, woolies (woolworths) sell a 'brand name' dvd player for $29, whereas the cheapest 'brand name' blu-ray is $115, not to mention the add cost of a blu-ray movie....

Blu-ray is very significant despite some casting looks elsewhere - don't judge what you don't know. There are many sides to the product and where I sit from real INDIE production and having commercial clients in Fortune 500, IT is an important play.

If you are making product for tablet, net, etc that is a different animal.
You might also look at the retail side - Amazon, Walmart, Target are making considerable in-roads to becoming real Blu-ray shops. Hollywood plays the game by pushing 2nd rate DVD in the single Blu-ray package for $2.

"Among people one knows" isn't usually a sound demographic study, lol. Among people I know, I can think of only 1 person with no Blu-Ray player. So which of these groups is "right", or more representative of the population as a whole? You can't judge by just people you know.

And your player prices are way off. Even in Canada, which is known for being more expensive at retail much of the time (despite the current near parity) than the US, you can buy a brand-name (Toshiba) Blu-Ray player at this moment for $79.99 at Best Buy. If LG is a good enough brand for you, one of their players is on sale for $73.99. These prices will only be lower in the states, and of course significantly better prices can be had if you wait for special sales or bundle deals.

As far as disc sales and overall household penetration goes,

http://gamerlive.tv/article/blu-ray-movie-sales-continue-rise-audience-transitions-dvd

http://www.pcworld.com/article/242893/bluray_still_alive_as_disc_sales_soar.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/blu-ray-harry-potter-280185

3-D content online poses even more problems with potentially very low bitrates than ordinary video content, in order to make file sizes manageable for people. It's the minority of people who have ultra-tier high-speed internet with unlimited bandwidth.

I've had this debate before but just to expand: More and more devices, including televisions themselves, are coming stock out of the box with NetFlix, Hulu, Amazon and a slew of other streaming services. The HD content looks great. There is no shame about it. Though Blu-Ray may indeed be slightly more pristine there's no getting around the convince. To most audiophiles mp3's were a slap in the face, well actually even before that there were heated arguments against CD's, the position being that neither of those mediums could match the quality of an actual album and a good turntable with a good needle. How much space do I save not having to carry around or store a collection of albums? My once quite expansive CD collection? Every song I'd ever want to hear just a couple clicks away without having to go to a brick and mortar store or order online and have to wait just to get a hard copy. I can jump from the Ramons to Adele without fumbling threw one of those big floppy cd cases I used to have, or making a mixed tape, or a mixed cd, or having a cd changer in the trunk of my car.

Though some may indeed have dedicated Blu-Ray players Id hazard a guess that many of those are not dedicated but part of something else like a gaming system. Just because someone has one doesn't mean they use it, or at least not like most did when DVD's sprang on the scene. I think the more important questions would be when was the last time they bought a Blu-Ray, whens the last time they rented a Blu-Ray, whens the last time they used their Blu-Ray player? You could ask me if I have a DVD player and my answer would be yes but now ask me when the last time I used it was and I honestly can't remember.

This was initially one of the things that put me off of Blu-Ray, there was no way I was going to replace my entire DVD collection with Blu-Ray versions and had no desire to expand on my DVD collection with Blu-Rays when I knew it was temporary. I can say that those I know with Blu-Ray players certainly don't have the 100+ collections that they once had on DVD. I'd contend that if Blu-Ray had a real place in today's market Blockbuster wouldn't have tanked like it did.

Beyond that more and more devices will play HD content right off of a thumbdrive. My 60 inch Sony flat screen has a usb port which will play media, though as my model only has one usb port that I'm using that for Sony's wireless dongle to network to my internet to receive the aforementioned services. But I do have a rather cheap Western Digital media player that connects to my TV via HDMI that I bought two or more years ago, I can plug in a thumbdrive, or any usb drive actually, and watch my content that way. With it I can drop just about any content onto a thumbdrive and have it playing in all its HD glory within seconds. Though not exactly mainstream yet it was also well over a year ago that I was at the CVS Pharmacy and there at the check out they had for sale a usb thumbdrive for Michal Jackson's "This Is It" film. Another aside, but cool and worth the mention, is how the band OK Go sells copies of their shows as soon as the concert is over on usb drives. And yet one more thing that I think is pertinent is Wallmart's new "Disc-to-Digital" service whereby they will give you a digital copy of any DVD or Blu-Ray disk. (http://www.vudu.com/disc_to_digital.html).

The last thing I'll say on this is that since the dawn of Blu-Ray, having done countless productions over the years from features to commercials to training DVDs to, of course, music videos, I have never once, NOT ONCE, been asked by a client for a Blu-Ray version. All have taken delivery as either a digital file or a DVD because the market just isnt there to justify the added expense of producing Blu-Ray though just about everyone still has a DVD player.

Feel free to drop 3k on something like this if you think its a money maker but I simply cannot fathom it being worth the expense. I could write a whole laundry list of other things I could buy for that kind of cash that would actually enhance my business and productions.

... Blu-ray is dead.

- Ray
Underground Planet

I agree with Ray. In these times it appears that with the overall majority of consumers, convenience trumps quality when making a purchasing decision.

Chris.

I attended today’s webinar (and by attended I mean I was sitting at my computer and watched the presentation live). It was rather disappointing. It did not offer useful information, as their usual webinars do, but sounded more like a 45-minute sales pitch by giving us a quick, and fairly boring, overview of what the software can do but not really teaching us how to use it.

The positive of the DoStudio (as compared to DVDA) is that it can produce Blu-ray popup menus, which DVDA cannot, but which are probably not that important to an independent producer. Also, it can create a 3D Blu-ray.

The negative, all it does is assemble existing video and audio files to put them on the BD, but it contains no codecs whatsoever. In other words, you need other applications to create your video files, compressed to the right format. The same about audio: If you want Dolby or THX compression, you have to create the right audio files in some other application.

They did not mention any pricing (nor did they offer a webinar discount), but if that software really costs about $3,000, it is certainly not worth it. If, however, the $3,000 is for an entire suite of different software applications including those that prepare all those file formats for you, it may or may not be worth it depending on your needs.

As for me, they can keep it.

Anyway, they said they’d have the webinar up for download within a week or two, a much shorter time than usual (which only confirms my impression that it was really meant to be a sales pitch).

Adam Stanislav

That such expensive software contains to codecs itself is a bit disappointing; but I imagine any production houses large enough to be creating Blu-Rays will probably want to invest in dedicated, high-quality encoding solutions. SCS also offers those, of course, as separate purchases. They couldn't possibly have included encoders for all the formats Blu-Ray allows, of course; that would easily have cost $3000 on its own, if you throw in the high-res lossless codecs like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. But H.264/AVC and Dolby 5/6/7.1 probably would've been affordable enough to include.

VC-1 probably isn't necessary, since it's fallen out of favour for use on Blu-Ray compared to H.264/AVC. I can't think of a single recent release that uses the VC-1 codec, and I only own one myself (Blade Runner 5-disc set).

Just noting that THX isn't a actually a format in itself, though. THX is a series of certification standards for audio/video quality which equipment has to meet in order to carry the THX logo.

-----

NetFlix, Hulu, Amazon

As I said, these (as well as iTunes) are either non-existent or very much reduced outside the United States. This may not affect you, but it does affect many others. Get back to me when that's not the case, because I couldn't really care less about online media until that's changed. A great deal more content is distributed internationally (through official, legal channels) on disc than in digital form, and even for that content which isn't, a disc is still much easier to import than a DRM-restricted digital file.

Another aspect of digital media that turns me off it is the way it can be so heavily restricted, only playing on devices with certain branding. iTunes sells a lot of good content, even in Canada, but why should I have to buy an Apple TV to play what is, essentially, a regular H.264 video through my television? As you say, virtually every TV (as well as most Blu-Ray players) now come with the ability to play content right off a thumbdrive or USB hard disk. Apple shouldn't be able to coerce people into paying more for one of their overpriced toys, yet iTunes Store content won't play on a TV (legally) any other way. That's not what I call convenient. We've already paid for the content, and should be free to play it however we choose in our own homes.

With Blu-Ray (or DVD), the option exists to rip them and create your own digital file archive, free of device-branding restrictions or DRM. This may be questionable in the legal realm, depending on where you live; but by and large there's no ethical issue assuming you actually did buy the disc. We can rip Audio CDs, and there's no reason why we shouldn't get away with ripping Blu-Rays or DVDs that we own. I've created quite a few digital versions from my own Blu-Rays, simply remuxing the video stream along with the language I want into a more standard *.mp4 or *.mkv container. I can then play the file from a USB hard drive through my TV in Blu-Ray quality with the convenience of digital media.

Nobody's ignoring the convenience of VOD or online content, and the articles I linked clearly state that they're growing alongside Blu-Ray; but Blu-Ray is also still growing. Of all the current channels of distribution, only DVD growth is faltering (though the format still has solid sales). Just because you personally have no interest in the BD format doesn't mean many others don't. And digital media does have its drawbacks, just as disc-based media does. Not everyone is as blind to them.

I think the more important questions would be when was the last time they bought a Blu-Ray, whens the last time they rented a Blu-Ray, whens the last time they used their Blu-Ray player?

The linked articles also mention that disc sales are ever increasing, and that includes the first quarter of this year.

As for Blockbuster? They were doomed to failure. I watch movies fairly regularly, and rent them as well; but I hadn't gone to Blockbuster for years prior to their closure. Their selection was substandard, and included only new releases and a scattering of the most popular older films. Netflix in the US and Canada, and independent video stores in dense urban areas would always trump Blockbuster for convenience and selection, respectively.

In my area of Toronto, there are two independent rental stores that rent both films and TV series on Blu-Ray and DVD. Both are still in operation, and show no signs of failing business. They were, in fact, one of the reasons why the Blockbuster around here closed quite a bit earlier than many others. Not only do they carry new releases, but extensive collections of old films and foreign films. Between the two, they probably have nearly every title anyone could ever think to ask for on disc. Blockbuster could never compete with that; and most people prefer supporting an independent local business rather than a large corporation.