DVDA vd DVDWS - Opinions?

plasmavideo wrote on 4/27/2005, 11:01 AM
This is a duplicate of a post I made in the Vegas Forum in a thread on Vegas 6, but it was suggested I post it here as well:

Can I pick some of your brains on this. The weak link for me is my DVD capability. The only thing I have right now is the limited Ulead software that came with my Pioneer burner. It doesn't even do AC3 encoding. I can upgrade for a reasonable price to their DVD Workshop or their DVD Workshop Express. I was thinking of doing that before the Vegas 6/ DVDA3 offer came out.

The bonus would be having Vegas 6. I'm happy with Vegas 4, but 6 would get me all of the features of 5 plus 6.

I don't need a very sophisticated DVD authoring package - my projects are mostly family histories, presentations and projects not for mass production. What I DO need is a reliable, stable, package with good AC3 encoding and basic menus and sub menus.

In my workflow, I normally use Canopus Storm with Edius for most editing and Vegas for compositing and for things Edius won't do. I then use Procoder for MPEG encoding.

Do you folks have any comments regarding DVDA vs DVD Workshop? I'm beginning to think the V6/DVDA3 upgrade is a no brainer, but I'm a novice at DVDs and would appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks.

Tom

Comments

jetdv wrote on 4/27/2005, 11:20 AM
Actually Vegas + DVD is a no-brainer even if you use some other DVD authoring program. The combination gets you the AC3 encoder which is not included in Vegas and has been sold separately for about $180. So, for about $100 (or $200 depending on new purchase vs upgrade) you get the $180 encoder. Essentially you get a great authoring program for about $20 on a new purchase!
psg wrote on 4/28/2005, 8:00 AM
Some thoughts based on my experience:

I have DVDWS2 and DVDA2 (have not yet started useing DVDA3).

I have used DVDWS since it first came out and although there were some problems with the first release, DVDWS2 has worked very well for me. It is very easy to use, especially building menus (lots of templates included) and setting up the navigation among the menus and buttons. DVD creation seems faster than DVDA2, although I've never actually measured it.

Unfortunately, having not yet installed DVDA3, I can't offer a comparison to DVDWS2, but I find myself turning to DVDWS2 more often than DVDA2 for the features and ease of use. However, it sounds like many of those features are now included in DVDA3.