Some Sony Musings ...

PeterWright wrote on 11/1/2006, 2:56 AM
12 days ago I had my 4 year old Vaio Laptop stolen - thanks to a remarkable Insurance Company (Allianz), it has already been replaced by a new Sony Vaio Core 2 Duo 2.1 Ghz with so many goodies - a 200 Gb HD, Blue Tooth, Wireless Internet, Built in Camera, DVD Burner .....

Now, about the Burner - according to the printed Specifications, it will burn Blu-Ray BD-R at 1x speed, and BD-RE at 1x. To achieve this, the laptop includes "ULead BD Disc Recorder for Vaio"

So - it appears, if I had the need, I could produce BD right now - can this be right????

My other Muse is also about Software - The Vaio comes with Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 and an editing program owned by SONY called DV Gate. This is not just an old piece of software - it is HDV enabled. What is going on????

Comments

p@mast3rs wrote on 11/1/2006, 3:18 AM
Nope. Not video. You can backup data on BD but no software is out yet to produce BD video discs.
Grazie wrote on 11/1/2006, 3:39 AM
"My other Muse is also about Software - The Vaio comes with Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 and an editing program owned by SONY called DV Gate. This is not just an old piece of software - it is HDV enabled. What is going on????"

. .I hear yah Brother . . I certainly hear you, loud and clear!

.. hmmmm....
farss wrote on 11/1/2006, 3:42 AM
Software is out to produce BD disks, from MMS no less.
A full BD authoring setup runs to around AUD 100K, the Sonic setup around AUD 200K.
I believe however there are other ways if all you want is a basic disk that'll play a movie with no fancy extras.
Serena wrote on 11/1/2006, 3:56 AM
Funny thing about the much valued extras on DVDs. Nearly always rather boring and I find of very little value (to me). I'd always rather they gave the space over for less compression of the feature.
PeterWright wrote on 11/1/2006, 4:04 AM
Serena - I think I know what you are saying - forget all the "extras" - I agree -in this case it's not a DVD but a 200 Gb laptop, but I agree. There's so much software on this wonderful machine that I don't want or need.

I was mainly wondering how long it would take for Sony Vaio to start pushing Vegas - this DV Gate software shows that there are two presumably separate groups of Sony employees developing video editing software ( not to mention Xpri, which is a bit different).
Then there's the old question of Sony including Adobe bloody Premiere ....
farss wrote on 11/1/2006, 4:15 AM
Peter,
have a dig around in that Vaio, I think it's the MediaGate software. Comes bundled with a lovely set of audio plugs from Sony's Oxford division. The guys who write lots of wonderous stuff for Protools.

Now you'd think the Madison team and the Oxford team would all be happily dancing to the same tune as they're both audio guys but no such luck it seems. Don't find a mention of Vegas or SF or Acid on the Oxford web site.
PeterWright wrote on 11/1/2006, 4:32 AM
Not sure Bob - not much mention of audio in the help files - a few acknowledgements to licences from Dolby Digital, but very little to say where it comes from ...
farss wrote on 11/1/2006, 4:47 AM
I'll see if I can check it out on the VAIO the boss bought.

Originally the VAIO was purchased to run DV Rack but then I got asked to use it to edit HDV with PPro LE :)
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/1/2006, 7:13 AM
Actually, this isn't quite so. You can purchase Avid DVD by Sonic

Just got my copy yesterday, looking forward to burning some discs and shipping them around.
Peter, this app will run on your new VAIO, and yes, you can/should be able to burn BD discs on your VAIO. Not to mention playback.
RBartlett wrote on 11/1/2006, 2:27 PM
There seem to be a few old faces kicking around in this space (at the mere mortal end of the price range):
Other authoring tools

To have to wait for DVD 4c to catch up to the level of the cheapy alternatives would be acceptable. ;-)

There is still life in the IT formats for "HD" delivery using computer/bespoke-player and hard disk/red-laser disc IMHO. Standards are standards and keep us on our toes and either onlooking or poor!
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/1/2006, 3:08 PM
Those links are for players, not authoring software.
What's really irritating to me, is that before BD recorders were shipping for the past year, we've heard "BluRay supported" from several software companies. Yeah?...Where is the BD authoring capability in Nero, Encore or DVD Workshop or DVD Factory? Oops...it disappeared after they announced (and shipped) their new authoring tools.
p@mast3rs wrote on 11/2/2006, 3:40 AM
Spot, SonicDVD w/ BD support is only available in Avid's Studio Toolkit right because I didnt see an option to buy it seperately.
RBartlett wrote on 11/2/2006, 3:13 PM
Where is the BD authoring capability in...............

Please do look closer. The link I posted did end you up rather high in the hierarchy of each manufacturers products - ie rather high up in the chain. I figured more and more would be added to the list over the next months. I'm fairly sure the intentions of the original link were to present creation tools rather than players. I also considered it better than a list of specific BD authoring apps:

anyway........ the claim is that these are more than BD Ready - they are BDAV capable albeit with a simple take on the level of authoring achievable. No doubt the licensing costs the earth but this is the 2nd time around:

Cyberlink BDAV authoring

and

MovieFactory Convert in real-time to High-Definition BDAV ; Record directly to BD-R/RE discs in one pass

Ulead MovieFactory BDAV authoring and concatenation support

Google for "BDAV format" or "BDAV Sonic" for more collateral.

Mediostream seems to be a bit late given that they were quite fast to market with their DVD-Video products. Whether these tools tick all the boxes will take some further investigation. The Sonic technology space would be where these weaker wannabes would like to be heading towards but sometimes immitation at the lower end is enough to get volume sales.

I don't believe everything I read - but I also don't believe that the HD delivery formats need to cost the earth or need to cover the full scope of the specifications that the standalone players have to honor to gain their badges.
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/2/2006, 3:31 PM
Again, I have the Ulead Movie Factory, and it does not work. I didn't see the Cyberlink Authoring application when I searched around there, but am going to be ordering it in a moment; we'll see if that functions as advertised.
Avid's Studio Toolkit works very well, FWIW
corug7 wrote on 11/2/2006, 5:20 PM
Spot,

Does the Ulead product work at all? Autoplay/Stop or loop? My employer just purchased this and we are awaiting its arrival.

DVD Studio Pro 4.1? Anyone?

Corey
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/2/2006, 7:10 PM
yes, the Ulead authors "DVR" type discs, it's the menus that don't seem to work. There is a new burnpak coming, it may fix the problem. For sub 100.00, it's a very nice option, if it works.
Coursedesign wrote on 11/3/2006, 8:10 AM
I thought the BD menus hadn't even been finalized yet, because of security concerns?

My understanding was that even the current $1,000 BD home player didn't fully support menus.