Yeah, if nothing else the DVDA2 update is worth most of the $199 upgrade price. For people like me, I think it would've been a more welcome upgrade if it were couched as "DVDA2 is here! And we've added a few things to Vegas, too!"

DVDA2 addresses just about every need there could be :D

Thanks!

- jim

"DVDA2 addresses just about every need there could be"

Not really...but they are getting there. Can't beat it for $200 though.

...eh?

I think it would've been a more welcome upgrade if it were couched as "DVDA2 is here! And we've added a few things to Vegas, too!"

That just made me laugh.

Agreed. DVDA is now Major League. I had a chance to play with it in the "hands-on" session. What's also cool is that you can do subtitles over in Vegas 5 for it.

One thing that's new with V5 that hasn't gotten much exposure yet is the fact that it does the backward-video thing much better now, and also can do backwards-audio.

Here's what's missing in DVD Architect 2.0.

The ability to add video clips/media -in between - menus for transistions. And dont tell me "end actions" cause that doesn't do it either.

Guess i'll HAVE to learn DVDlab if i want to have menu transitions.

:(

Well if I'm not mistaken you can do this with end actions.

>>DVDA2 addresses just about every need there could be

Without having played with the demo and only looking through the manual...

It can't do scripting: doesn't have access to the DVD registers for advanced authoring. That's the single greatest reason I was so disappointed and won't buy it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a long-time user and supporter of Vegas and Sound Forge. It just pisses me off that register access is a feature that Mac users have had for quite some time with DVDSP for $500, and every other PC authoring tool keeps passing it by.

I'd also like to *seamlessly* link movies on a timeline so that each movie is a chapter. I render my movies in sections in case parts need to be re-done, and while there are utilities to combine mpegs into one stream, that would unnecessarily double the storage requirement.

Oh well. Maybe next year.

Don't forget about the CC support. Vital to a Pro Application!
I haven't played with the program at all, just read the manuals. I'd expect the company I work for will buy it when everyhone gets back from NAB, then I can get a better look at it.

doesn't have access to the DVD registers for advanced authoring. That's the single greatest reason I was so disappointed and won't buy it.

Can you tell us why DVD registers are necessary? I'm not trying to set you up for a rebuttal -- I'm genuinely curious as to what it is registers enable the author to do?

If/when you post your response, could you offer some insight into how Vegas handles these things, or could with a little work (or workaround)? That would help me better put this shortcoming in perspective.

All that said, I think it more than exceeds my personal needs -- I just feel that if more pro needs like registers are an issue for you, I'd like to see them added -- we'd all benefit innevitably :D

Thanks in advance,

- jim

Could you elaborate a little on this?

I just did a transition between a menu and the main video....

>The ability to add video clips/media -in between - menus for transistions. And dont tell me "end actions" cause that doesn't do it either. <

You are mistaken.

Gary

Watch for my new video on using DVD Architect 2.0. It will be out in a few weeks.

Gary

For one example, with register access, you can create some really cool button routing by setting GPRM values on one menu or the end of a video to highlight buttons accordingly.

Let's say you have a main menu with five movies. You play movie #1. When the movie completes and control is returned to the main menu, you could automatically highlight button #2 for the next movie. Many "Deleted Scenes" portions of commercial DVDs do this.

Or, perhaps in menu navigation you want the user to always know where they came from--the bread crumb philosophy. Menu 1 goes to menu 2, which can go to menus 3,4,5 with three buttons. User goes to menu 4, then hits the return button to go back to menu 2 via the GoUp link (if that's supported in DVDA), and the button to go to menu 4 is automatically highlighted.

Or take scene selection menus. On one project I had five of them. The scenes were the typical little pictures on the top part of the menu. Supposing the user pushed the right arrow while on the rightmost picture of menu #1. Routing takes it to an invisible, auto-activate button that brings up menu #2 and sets the button to the leftmost picture in that menu. Now the user presses the left button from there. Control goes back to menu #1. Wouldn't it be nice if the rightmost picture was selected in that menu, as if the user was traversing backwards instead of the default "top-left" button?

What about having a menu that plays with audio the first time it's selected, but is silent the next time it's brought up?

The list goes on...

Vegas has nothing to do with anything in this phase. It's purely authoring related, so you're totally at the mercy of the authoring program you're using. Right now, nothing short of Scenarist in the PC market can do it.

HTH!

From what I saw in the NAB stream, highlighting a specific button after a movie is easily done in DVDA.

Count me in on your video, Gary. Are you going to have one on the new
Vegas 5?

Dwuane

Exactly, go buy scenarist you half wit!

Here here- DVDA2 is outstanding, beyond my expectations...

Hopefully, Everyone has either viewed the DVDA2 Stream or Downloaded the Seminars that the SCVUG Produced.

Jay Mitchell

What I was really, REALLY hoping for was multiple camera angles! Doh! Oh well.....

So far in the DVD market there have either been really high end programs or really low end programs, there hasn't been much in the middle. Looks like Sony is trying to captitalize on that market. DVDLab started to do that a little while ago and have had great success with it. While DVD-A can't do "everything" within the DVD spec they are definately taking a step in the right direction to be one of the top mid-level authoring programs. I would never expect DVD-A to be able to do everything withing the DVD spec, becasue it would probably be more like $20,000 instead of $200. Looks like they are finding themselves a nice niche in the DVD authoring market.