OT: DVD-Lab has a new bigger brother

riredale wrote on 4/13/2004, 6:05 PM
MediaChance has just released a free beta of a new DVD authoring tool called DVD-LabPro. From the looks of it you can do pretty much anything allowed in the DVD spec with it--8 audio programs, subtitles, and so forth.

The official release is supposed to be in the next month or two, and the retail price is $199.

I've made a few comments about DVD-Lab in the past. I use a powerful authoring program called Maestro, and DVD-Lab looks suspiciously similar in many ways. Hmmm...

Comments

donp wrote on 4/13/2004, 6:42 PM
I use DVD Lab 1.31 standard and I'm waiting for the pro version to come out. There are some folkes here who insist the program doesn't do DVD to spec. But I have only noticed that "to spec" is in the hands of the individual using the software, not the program it'self. I found a copy of Maestro (can't remember the version) but it would not accept my avi's from Vegas so I could not use it and deleted it. I though the Pro version of DVD lab was to be around $160 but you said $199 (200). I'll check it out.
Luxo wrote on 4/13/2004, 7:42 PM
Of course Maestro wouldn't accept AVI files. Why would you trust your MPEG rendering to an authoring app? You need to feed it elementary MPEG2 streams. Vegas renders these brilliantly.

I too use DVD Maestro and am intrigued by the new DVD Lab. However, I make commercial products that go on the shelf, and they absolutely must conform to DVD spec. As has been mentioned here before, this has not always been the case with this program. Can anyone positively confirm that the program now conforms?
donp wrote on 4/14/2004, 6:49 AM
Yes I got mixed up here about the avi thing sorry I'll give Maesro another shot. Can you tell me what to look for to see if DVDlab makes a "Compliant DVD" I have never seen anything but general statements. I need to exact points to look for.
logiquem wrote on 4/14/2004, 8:03 AM
I use DVD-Lab 1.3 and made about 40 DVD projects lastly for archiving purpose.

The main complains about the first versions were:

1.the single (over 4 Go for a full DVD) VOB file issue, wich created problems with old players not able to recognise the DVD structure adequatly. This is no more the case, as DVD-Lab now split the VOB in sub 1Go files, so file struture is now full compliant with DVD specs.

2.the audio video sync problem when using different audio encoding formats in the same DVD.
(never experimented this myself)

3.Instability under Win2000.: this is still the case. It is perfectly stable under XP btw.

I would say download the trial and try it by yourself. For my part, it is simply a small miracle in term of functionality when you compare it with Reell DVD, DVDit, DVD Workshop, DVD Architect, etc... (yes, i have and used all of these... :-) ). And the perpective of a full featured scriptable version is really exciting...

But full NTSC previewing, DVD structure display, end actions and multilanguage support features could take me back to Architect, we will see it in the next months...
Jsnkc wrote on 4/14/2004, 8:27 AM
greeeeeat, now I will get even more bad DVD's that clients bring in and want me to fix.

Just took a look at the site and the program is FAR from being able to do everything within the DVD spec. You still can't even use Closed Captioning which will make it useless for a lot of people in the professional world.
donp wrote on 4/14/2004, 9:43 AM
Great logiquem I said I used it DVDlab 1.31 to, downloaded a copy of DVD Maestro 2.9 and will try it tonight but it may take some getting used to. I'm not in business to supply DVD's to clients yet but soon. I never thought of "Closed Captioning" on DVD's but that is one specfic point but I'm sure it's not a big demand thing. That's why I'm beginning to question. I'm hanging on to DVDlab though, waitng for the pro version (multiple Audio tracks and D9 support).
Jsnkc wrote on 4/14/2004, 11:02 AM
Downloaded a copy of Maestro? Hmmmm, Maestro has been out of production for quite a while now, and was never available for download. Seems to me like you have a not so legal version of it.

"I never thought of "Closed Captioning" on DVD's but that is one specfic point but I'm sure it's not a big demand thing"

All state and government run programs are required to have closed captioning on all videos or DVD's that are produced. At least for what I do we get TONS of stuff from the government agencies.
Luxo wrote on 4/14/2004, 2:05 PM
What program do you use to input closed captioning text Jsnkc? Or do you outsource that.
Jsnkc wrote on 4/14/2004, 2:44 PM
We have a Caption Maker system to do all of our closed captioning. Then we export a .cc file and then import that into out Fusion system. Sometimes we use it with DVD Studio Pro 2 but that is only when our Fusion system is booked up.

We use the CPC-700 with Timecode.
http://www.cpcweb.com/Captioning/cap_how_software_works.htm
logiquem wrote on 4/15/2004, 6:23 AM
What specific issue about DVDLab are you talking about? Could you explain more?
Jsnkc wrote on 4/15/2004, 8:36 AM
Well, I know that in DVD Lab, it allowed you to import video files that were not within the DVD spec and allow you to bypass the warnings when you put the files in, thus producing non-compliant discs. Also there were many other problems, some of which have been mentioned above. These are ony for DVD Lab, I haven't checked out the new pro version yet, just waiting for a final version, or at least a few more betas till it's stable. I hope that they fixed a lot of the problems for the Pro version, if they did it has the potential to be a nice little authoring app.
johnmeyer wrote on 4/15/2004, 9:39 AM
Closed captioning? I am still confused. This was mentioned in another thread yesterday. Are you talking about closed captioning (which resides in line 21 of the vertical blanking interval of analog video), or subtitles, which are text files incorporated into the VOB files, and which can be turned on and off by the DVD player? They are two quite different things.
donp wrote on 4/15/2004, 11:42 AM
A lot of what makes DVDlab standard 1.31 create noncompliant DVD's is in the hands of the operator and their knowlege of what make a compliant DVD, the program doesn't do it for you. It just warns you but it doesn reject your noncompliant file in some cases. I only use .m2v's and ac3's so I have no priblems.
Jsnkc wrote on 4/15/2004, 11:54 AM
Yes, I am talking about line 21 closed captioning, not subtitles.

And about the DVD lab comment, that is right on. You'd be suprised just how many people thing they know how to make DVD's, and know about the DVD spec when in fact they usually know just enough to be dangerous. I see them every day when they bring in their DVD's to have duplicated and they are just a mess. Then they expect me to be able to fix them with just a few clicks of the mouse and make them into compliant DVD's. When in fact it normally takes quite a while to fix all the peoblems and normally we have to start from scratch.