I read you... ; )

That's why I ask : learning Encore would probalby take me twice the time... I feel very lazy these days, lol!
Functionality, stability... usual main concerns ...

I wouldn't be put off by the anti-Adobe comments. They make good software just as Sony/SOFO does.

Encore is still in its 1.0 release so it is limitied just like DVDA 1.0 was. A new version is coming out and will probably address many of the faults just like DVDA 2.0 does.

It really comes down to the user interface you prefer and the upgrade paths that are available to you. See which company gives you the best 'upgrade' price.

Personally, I've been put off by Adobe's upgrade policies of late (especially for owners of previous versions) and gravitated from Premiere to Vegas+DVDA. The one-upsmanship of video apps is good for us, the users, because they all emulate each other in their features and capabilities.
As I said above, it really comes down to the interface and the pricing in my mind - pick your favorite flavor and stick with it.

From the company who made Photoshop, Illustrator etc, you might want to try Encore--Just kidding---

Adobe's version 1 release of encore was full of bugs. they eventually released a "fix" for those bugs in version 1.0.1 (i think) for free. now they released version 1.5 and asking customers to pay 99 bucks to upgrade. the major difference (from what i could remember) was that the new version could now work with the latest version of premier, after effects and photoshop cs. Oh, they also enhanced the library palette. wow. all these for only 99 bucks.

obviously i was being sarcastic..........

Thanks a lot guys for feedback!
I'm gonna have a look now at the PDF DVDA2 manual...

Can you create menu pages entirely without having to conform to templates or (even worse) very basic "grids" ? You can place the buttons everywhere? you have lots of flexibility concerning what's underneath these buttons?
transparencies?
In sum: how's the image creation possibilities?
I've read a few about these ending actions and I think it's a "you can't ignore it" feature in DVD production anymore ...
The subtitles possibilities and how it functions (via regions) looks great too.

....

fUTZ,

I have just started my first DVD with architect an hour ago and, of course, I haven't looked at the manual yet. It's not as easy to figure out as Vegas, but I am getting around so far. You can just drag buttons on screen and move them around if you wish. I don't understand your other questions about beneath and transparencies. you can choose what ever image you want for the buttons.

futz,

i haven't really played a lot with dvda2 to answer all your questions. basically you are limited to using the buttons that came with dvda. yes you can make your own but you have to do the scripting/xml thingy that i have no clue as to how to even start. you can make your own backgrounds using any image file you create on other creator programs (such as photoshop) or even motion menus done in vegas. that's just the thing though, you are limited to the type of buttons it came with if (like me) you have no knowledge of the xml thingy. i think you can adjust the transparencies of those buttons though.
also you don't have to conform to the grids because you can turn the snap to grids off. i like how you can view it on an external monitor now.
the one thing i like about adobe encore is that you can make any text or image or shape as a button so easily. this is on my wish list for the next version of dvda. maybe they can design it so that i could import an image file with tranparencies and resize it and turn it into a button.

If you view or download the SVUG DVDA2 tutorial from NAB, it will teach you just about all you need to know, in 40 minutes.

1. Download the Trial
2. Download the tutorial at http://www.imagebeam.com/nabstream/

Sit down and play with a new project, listening to the tutorial : 40 min. That's it! See by yourself what you can do after those 40 min.

Architect developper team must be congratulate here. The new workflow and features in DVDA are *truly* outstanding.

Its incredibly intuitive, fast, powerfull, just the same kind of exciting revelation that Vegas 4 was for me 1 year ago. Incredible, really!

Thanks a LOT guys for these links to this tutorial !
I'll try it. Meanwhile, I got to get some toner to print the manual... ; )

I assume you saw this thread:

DVDA2 vs. Encore?

OK, printed DVDA2 manual and had a quick read: Can not design your own buttons unless going XML...
Lots of new features compared to DVDA1 but, still, not total control of what you want to achieve, graphically speaking.

But that's probably rock-solid, and for quick and simple DVD creation it might be a really good solution.
And considering the price they offer it right now as an upgrade, I'll probably buy both...

Johnmeyer: lol, didn't even noticed there was indeed a DVDA forum... thanks!

"quick and simple DVD creation it might be a really good solution" , yes does look like it --- lots of new good features..

Encore's live connection with Photoshop is very slick, but the authoring is very basic also -- and from what i have heard, buggy ..

DVDSP 2 or 3. A few missing items in DVDSP-3: no manual VTS allocation, can't create sync audio tracks from concatenated video files (although it may not need to), can't split GPRM's, and I'd bet there are other small things. On other lists there are always reports of DVDSP2 still having problems with layer breaks, encoding spikes in Compressor (and you can't do any segment re-encoding). So compared to DVDA - DVDA is SOLID in what it can do ..
But untill DVDA can do these things -- its still a semi/pro - pro-summer authoring app, though a pretty good one at that ,,,, it is all that is needed for 95% of the authoring jobs i bet ..

At NAB, Sonic had no Mac based systems in their booth, they were only demoing Producer and Scenarist. And an upcoming release of eDvd as standalone software to integrate Interactual,- supposed to be very good.

Sonic (whom everyone looks to these days since apple killed off the next best and certainly easiest use Maestro) also showed off thier special beta version of Sonic Producer WMVHD . This is not a part of any DVD spec, it would appear that Microsoft and Sonic are making it up as they go. If the DVD-Forum does not quickly settle the standards for some consumer standard hidef DVD, this system could gain ground. By "quickly", I'd guees 12 months or less. BUT then agin - no one really pays a lot of atttention to the DVD-forum since they dropped the 8 ball on DVD+r ....
But the 19meg/s stuff they call mpeg2 HD pawned off on consummers as well as the blinders in your eye wmvHD9 stuff (most of it is really not that good as you may think) may be the next "standard" no mater what.. on2 vp6 codec is better , and the china consortium went that route jumping the gun on blu-ray .. i have a bluray recoder now -- but untill sony really does something with it - the other side still could win (all the other sides)

THE new high-end authoring tool coming out is Zootech's "DVD Studio Extra" - an amazing development platform aimed at highly interactive game style DVD's. Imagine auto-generating thousands of menus and tens of thousands of conditional links that go between them. Going to generate a lot of interest if it works as good as its supposed to ..