Now that June is winding down I have a feeling we will not see Architech 5 until real late this summer, probably in August at the earliest....

Your probably correct. I just saw this post in the Vegas Studio Forum:
http://www.betanews.com/article/Sony_plans_Bluray_disk_burning_for_consumer_movie_software/1214498726

Surely it will have DVDA 5 studio version included.

As (Tom Petty's) song says "the waiting is the hardest part" ...

Please keep us updated on your creative ideas dvd architect readers ..and stop complaining about a delay of a day or 2 (weeks or even months)

I just got another newsletter from Sony Creative, with no mention at all made of DVDA 5, kind of annoying. Just a nod or a "hang tight" would be nice.

This delay makes me wonder.....

Maybe Sony is thinking about releasing DVD 5.0 with Vegas Pro 9 and no free update??

I hope this isn't the case.

No they are pretty much locked in on the free 5 upgrade, they already posted a large press release promising just that..Version 9 will probably be sometime next year, I am however wondering if the 64Bit version will be delayed till 9's release .... I hope not....

What I can never understand is Madison's intense secrecy policy on Betas and new releases. I can understand not giving the competition a "heads up",...but c'mon. I just think they go a little overboard on keeping the lid sealed shut untill the exact hour something new comes out.

Many companies release public Beta software versions. Why can't Madison do it too? There is allot of good opinion out there form Sony Software users. They need to styart using us to their advantage.

It sure would go a long way to help them make better first releases.

CT

Many companies release public Beta software versions.

and all that ever does is end with people assuming things the like will be in the full version & pissed if they aren't & that everything will be fixed, which they never are.

My new LG Bluray Burner arrives Monday, It would be a nice present if Architech 5 was released on the same day.....
One can only wish....

Well, as someone else said earlier, I wouldn't hold my breath. I was just reading through an old book on how a CEO should work and how he should make his team work. The most important part of that kind of work is communicating with your customers. The second most important part is communicating with your employees.

In my experience, when a communication channel that has no technical problems, goes completely silent at one end, that is because the party at that end is dead or very close to it. Or perhaps they just couldn't care and just left. For the party still on the line, the end result is the same.

The SCS CEO would get an F on the "communicating with customers" test. With the repeated dead communication channels from SCS, what is a fellow to think? I'll be looking into the CS3 production package in the next few months. In my experience, which is with the Flex product only, a least Adobe is communicating.

I think I would rather wait for a working version than a buggy one. To think what a BluRay disc costs it would only make you more angry if you had to throw away unusable discs because of faulty software. I am just glad that we will be able to update for free. Sony could have said DVDA 5.0 will only be released with Vegas 9 which we all know is inevitable since Studio 9 is already out. They could have bought themselves more time that way. Thanks Sony for your efforts.

For me, only offer a working version.

Craig

For testing and playing, a buggy beta version can be great. For serious production needs, a working version is a must. So, some weeks more or less should not be the main issue.

And I think, it is great that the DVDA5 will be available for free - for Vegas 8 Pro user who have the DVDA4.5 in their package (what excludes some OEM versions only, but there is an upgrade possibliity).

I think that the new DVDA5 will be a great tool and appreciate Sonys efforts, to make that happen.

Wolfgang

I think I would rather wait for a working version than a buggy one.

I totally agree, which is why I am not accusing Sony for anything about releasing dates, I am pointing out that they are failing totally in communication. Since communication is the most important part of business, failure here is very bad.

Welllll, Sony like everyone else is only human. :-)

Not disagreeing with anyone, I just want to remind folks that there are no perfect companies, & doing things *better* is no assurance of success. Sonic Foundry used to release public betas, and had a lot more communication with average users... they also had to sell their software ops to Sony. Nowadays Sony has problems elsewhere, & I think it'd be a safe bet to say the kind folks in Madison don't have total access to Sony's bank accounts, so there are limits on their resources. Could SCS be better? Sure, just like all of us could. ;-)

Missing published deadlines hurts, no question. Whether talking about missing your deadline helps or not I think is something for history & accountants to decide, particularly when you're a big company listed on the stock exchange, with folks just looking for some reason to start a rumor that can effect stock prices. OTOH not making your projected deadline is nothing new when it comes to PC software - look at Microsoft.

Whether talking about missing your deadline helps or not I think is something for history & accountants to decide,

Not at all. Communicating with your customer base is vital, we don't need history to judge, it has judged a long time ago. This is "Running a business 101" stuff. Honestly, it is.

if I call sony I can talk to someone.

better idea for them: ditch the whole forum part of the site. It's causing nothing but bitching & whining because they don't live on it. let a 3rd party run the forums. Then when people WANT to get info from sony they call them instead of post "hello, sony, you there?" a million times on the forums.

when I bought Vegas it NEVER said that they offer web-forum based support. free e-mail to pay calling.

when I bought Vegas it NEVER said that they offer web-forum based support. free e-mail to pay calling.

I don't think anyone think it did, and I have not seen anyone assuming they should. Nobody is complaining that Sony employees are not spending all of their time on this forum. I have only been pointing out that when you officially announce something and then fail to deliver on that announcement, you need to communicate that to users. Total silence is absurd, and seriously bad business practice. I mean, we are talking about the first chapter of "Running Your Business for Dummies" here. And this is where the bugger is buried. If they can't even get something as basic as communication half right, what else is failing in the SCS organization. Logic would assume "just about everything else".

Reaalllly FWIW...
From a purely biz point of view, I think the risk is lopsided... what happens if SCS doesn’t tell the folks in their forums any details about DVDA 5? We might grumble, but realistically most of us wouldn’t stop using it as long as DVDA does the job, because the folks who produce most of the alternatives won’t talk to us either. When/if it doesn’t do the job, say for example you really need BD today, even if you had an eta for DVDA 5, you can’t ask your clients to wait, & you move on (if only temporarily) - that’s understood. If OTOH SCS released an eta & missed it, maybe we’d be ticked off enough to start talking about it all over the web, hurting DVDA’s reputation, and worse, maybe some stock analysts might speculate on imaginary problems.

As far as the forums go, I think the question is why not rather than why keep them... Realistically they don’t cost anything nowadays, & if it saves a few customers, maybe helps SCS spot trends or frequent requests, so much the better.

That said, a nice and friendly image can go quite a ways, but it requires more resources and frankly isn’t always worth it. Unless you’re a big corp client, neither Adobe or Microsoft are well liked or known for being nice, but they’re on top of their markets, consistently. If you’re a Niche player it can make or break you, but as you grow, at some point being nice can turn into a costly liability.

If/when you can't deliver (& sometimes customers expect nothing less than magic), customers are more upset. Customers/clients also read what they want to hear into whatever you say, and at the end of the day, you’re spending a lot on a few rather than focusing on the big numbers you have to make each quarter. Microsoft has loads of employees providing unofficial help, suggestions, and feedback in different forums, but 1) they can afford it, 2) they’re trying to change & develop markets, and 3) by & large folks still don’t like Microsoft.

But again that's just me rambling FWIW...

From a purely biz point of view, I think the risk is lopsided... what happens if SCS doesn’t tell the folks in their forums any details about DVDA 5?

Nobody is asking for details. SCS announced a little over month ago that they would release DVDA-5 in mid-June. They haven't, and they have been completely silent since. This is what is bad. It is an absurd business practice. This is not the first time, a similar thing happened last year with the 64 bit version of Vegas.

most of us wouldn’t stop using it as long as DVDA does the job

It doesn't. DVDA-5 will include Blu-Ray authoring, and the current version has nothing like it. So, it doesn't, compared to v5 "do the job".

the folks who produce most of the alternatives won’t talk to us

Generally, when a company has announced time and date for a release, if they miss this, they will release information on the revised schedule. In my experience. Microsoft, for example, has had a vast number of rather public delays, but they keep their customer base informed along the way. Once a product is officially announced it is rarely delayed.

Unless you’re a big corp client, neither Adobe or Microsoft are well liked or known for being nice

Nobody has ever asked SCS to talk to me or any other individual. Nobody has ever stated that they should do so. Nobody has even said that they should answer questions in fora, though I think that is generally a good idea for smaller companies with a small market share (SCS falls into that category). The only thing that has been "asked" is that SCS issues a press release about their new schedule. Hopefully they already know the exact release date for DVDA-5, if they don't then their engineering process isn't managed and then I would have to hope that there is some Divine Entity somewhere that can protect us all.

If/when you can't deliver (& sometimes customers expect nothing less than magic), customers are more upset.

Actually this isn't true at all, and again, I am talking Business for Dummies level here. Telling your customers you have a delay, perhaps some elaboration and absolutely a new target for release is typically not going to piss off anybody. Not communicating at all is guaranteed to piss off everybody but the most fanatical fans, and you can't live off of your fanatical fan base.

Again, this is Business 101. Communicate with your customer base. A single press release or a note on your website is all that is needed. I have worked for 5-person companies who do this better than SCS does these days, and since all business text will generally agree that customer communications must be priority number one in any company, one have to wonder what is actually going on at SCS.

As for fora, as I said before, my previous 30 person company set aside a few hours a week for several of our technical experts to mill about in our fora. It was good for business. I don't request it from SCS, but I would recommend it. It is expensive though. That is not my beef with SCS, and never was. Their total lack of communication skills is what is bugging me. Not because I desperately need Vegas 64 bit or DVDA, but because I know from long experience that any company who is screwing up the basics of running their business is rapidly gaining momentum down a slippery slope that ends with them going out of business. I like Vegas, I don't like to see Sony f.ck it up.

I have only been pointing out that when you officially announce something and then fail to deliver on that announcement, you need to communicate that to users

Yes they have. That's an update.

Unless people want to be called/e-mailed personally or read a press release, the forum IS the communication people are talking about. There's NO REASON to give us a play-by-play. just because other companies do doesn't mean THEY should. Adobe's idea of "communication" when I last used an adobe product was "it's an OEM included with the hardware, call them". And "no, we don't support that, there's no reason anybody would want mpeg-2 on the timeline, it's crazy (even though that was what was advertised!)".

If people want to know, CALL SONY. Summer ends in ~2.5 months, so until it's officially fall there's nothing to complain about.

That's the kind of communication that works :-)

Now, imagine the number of posts on this forum that had NOT been posted over the past two weeks if the Sony website, on Jun 15th said: Due to a minor bug-hunt, we are going to release DVDA in early July. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Summer ends in ~2.5 months

Ah, but the announce wasn't "Summer" it was "mid-June".

DVDA v5 has been released as of today, so this thread is moot.