Here is my opinion on why someone would choose Scenarist over DVD Architect 3.

You know those snotty nerds who make fun of people that use Dreamweaver instead of Notepad to make a website? Dreamweaver will do everything Notepad can do in half the time all while making a lot of sense as well, yet people still choose Notepad, because they are huge dorks (no offense to anyone in this category).

Open up Scenarist one day. It looks like a program from 1992. You are totally clueless as to what you are supposed to do next. If you finally figure out how to even simply import a video file, laugh at the 16 color thumbnail. It's disgusting. How anyone can charge so much for that program is beyond me.

DVD Architect 2 left a LOT to be desired, but now that 3 supports DLT, Dual Layer, and delayed buttons, there isn't a DAMN thing you can do on Scenarist that you couldn't do in Architect. And at least Architect makes sense.

there isn't a DAMN thing you can do on Scenarist that you couldn't do in Architect.

Well, except nested projects.

Subpicture effects. (DVDA3 made a step in the right direction, but still limited here.)

Text data.

Cell-level access.

Oh, and DTS audio.

Granted, I've never used Scenarist, and I'm just going by the feature list on Sonic's website. But there are all things that aren't even listed on DVDA's, so that's a check mark in Scenarist's column right there. :)

And it probably has better burner support, but I'm just guessing there. And, really, how hard would that be, anyhow? ;-)

As for opening it up and being "clueless as to what you are supposed to do,," no offense, but that's what manuals / help files are for. The number of really basic questions that come up on this forum indicates that many people have the same feeling -- clueless as to what to do -- when they first start using DVD Architect. Some people figure it out quickly, some do not.

Rob

What does Subpicture effects and Cell Level Access mean anyway?

From the Scenarist page:

          Subpicture Effects - Add fade, wipe, and scroll effects to any 

          menu subpicture or movie subtitle.

In DVDA, any menu transitions you wanted have had to be created outside of DVDA beforehand and inserted as separate videos. This wasn't possible in 1.0, got a little easier with end actions in 2.0, and much easier with playlists in 3.0. Trouble with using a separate video for transitions, though, is that most DVD players will pause between the two videos, leaving a noticeable gap. DVDA3 improved this by letting us "split" a video into two pieces --- the non-looping part and the looping part. But 1) the whole thing still has to be created beforehand, even if you want a really simple transition like a fade or wip; and 2) you don't get to specify a portion of the video to use as an outgoing transition.

          Cell-level Access to the DVD Specification – Scenarist provides

          the most detailed access and control over the DVD specification 

          to enable you to control every aspect of DVD playback for your title.

There's more to the description, but that's the important part --the rest is just chest-thumping. ;-) Useful for advanced navigation, DVD-based games, and other things that people see on commercial DVDs and then ask on this forum how to do them in DVD Architect.

Personally, I can make do just fine without most of these features, but nonetheless they are things that DVDA can't do. Some can be imitated, but they still fall a little short. DVDA makes great improvements with each release, though, so maybe some day...

Rob

I am going to sound really dumb but how do I do menu transitions in DVDA 3 without having a pause? The manual is VERY vague on this feature.

You can't. In fact no authoring program can promise that there won't be a pause.

If DVDA3 has included the ability to set an out point for a motion menu then you could minimize the pause, but even then the possibility for a pause would still exist.

--Scott

how do I do menu transitions in DVDA 3 without having a pause?

I think if you navigate through some professionally made (aka, "Hollywood") DVDs that have menu transitions, you'll find that pretty much all of them pause slightly. Some just hide the pause better than others with movement and/or sound at the beginning of the transition. It's like the the magician that, while he has you to examine his regular deck of cards, he's pulling his trick deck out of his sleeve and palming it.

Rob