Much to be done for Pro use

radcamdvd wrote on 4/9/2003, 6:56 PM

IMHO, DVDA is more akin to DVD Workshop than any other authoring app. For professional use, it's extremely limited. The NLE integration is nice, but Ulead now offers the same with MSP 7 and DVD WS-AC3. In fact, again IMHO, the DVD authoring is far more intuative in DVD WS than with DVDA. Menu order and construction is visable throughout the process whereas the layered presentation in DVDA is harder to work with.

However, neither is useful for pro work. The lack of control over subpicture creation and use, the lack of dynamic button creation and button order creation and the lack of access to Prev, Retn, Next and commands (even to the limited set with ReelDVD) will likely keep the VV4+DVD an unbalanced offering. VV4 is an excellent and powerful NLE, but the limitations of DVDA essentially means that the extra money is really for the AC-3 encoder. Someone has already pointed out that DVDA is basically free under SF's pricing strategy.

Why do we keep harping on this? It's frustrating always having to deal with the 800 pound gorilla.

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Comments

kayakdiving_com wrote on 4/14/2003, 7:05 PM

Well, I was actually HOPING to find some useful info in this thread... no such luck!

Here's what we (I) know:

- DVD-A does indeed have some shortcomings. However, it is the first program I have used in a LOOOONG time that I have been able to nearly master within less than a few hours of using it.

- I have created a couple REALLY GREAT looking DVDs! I love being able to have moving video inside of my buttons, music, slide shows, Introduction Media, looping video background with audio, easy Object Order setting, etc... AND being able to implement them all, as quite the novice user, within an hour of my first exposure to the product. I haven't tried multi-depth menus and therefore cannot comment on the lack of Next and Previous navigation capability, although I can see where these would be missed.

- So far, I am not thinking about a possible need (or want) of the AC-3 encoder. I am glad that I made use of a special upgrade price to move to VV4+DVD so the package didn't cost THAT much. Still, even though I am not yet a pro user/producer, I would submit that, for a pro user, price is not as important as productivity, performance, and features supported and creatable by the product on the finished DVD. Version 1.0 is certainly lacking and I look forward to seeing how SoFo addresses these issues, which are much better expressed by the professional users, in the next major release.

- The major shortcomings that have affected me are: 1) I have yet to figure out how to render an MPG2 in Vegas for which the audio does not have to be rendered in DVD-A, and 2) one must re-Prepare the entire DVD whenever the slightest change is made to the project or a single media file. I hope I am just missing something for the solution to #1. And, perhaps there is also a workaround to #2 for those who know a lot more about VOBs and IFOs, and editors for these files.

- I have also encountered what seems to be a major bug that I explained in my first post to this forum. The audio of my Introduction Media quits partway into the video portion which plays to completion on the DVD but not necessarily in DVD-A Preview.

As far as all this bantering back and forth about "not liking what I have to say", I would suggest you "just say it" and let the people who don't like it have the last word. It would sure make it a LOT easier for the rest of us to get to the useful posts! I am VERY appreciative of BOTH the negative and positive comments. Both have helped me to make an informed buying AND upgrading decision on ACID, Vegas, and Vegas+DVD.

Meanwhile, any help with the Short Audio problem I described would be GREATLY appreciated!!!