You can't buy DVDA without buying Vegas, but remember, you also get the AC3 encoder as part of the package.

Also: unless you have an AVID that does great audio mixing as well as high quality file authoring for DVD, you shoud look at using Vegas for (at least) these two processes.

Avid is only a pro tool due to price and its file management processes. When it comes to ACTUAL produciton, i can do a hell of a lot more with Vegas or Premiere Pro...

as for avids dvd authoring solution, here in aus, you reviece "Sonic My DVD or DVD it
this is the Avid Express DVPro with the Mojo Breakout box

Is there ANY plan to make DVDA2 available to the Pros?

I wasn't aware that Vegas+DVD was unavailable to "the Pros."

I bet all the "Pros" over on the Vegas forum will be surprised to hear that...

Rob

Hey, all!

Thanks for your replies!

It's true- suggesting Avid is Pro over Vegas is a cheap shot. But it got the reaction I was looking for. I've been doing video production now for 15 years and have seen everything. I can take up 2 megs of server space listing why using Avid will keep me in business longer over using Vegas but I'll spare all of you the pain.

The point of this post is- DVD-Architect is a really really nice DVD authoring software package. I said so 2 years ago to the Sonic Foundry people at NAB when it first came out. It wasn't quite there yet but I could see it had potential. As of right now, still the most powerful DVD authoring package is Mac's DVD Studio Pro (this is spoken from an artist/business owner's point of view so I understand this is arguable). I don't want to go Mac, but I've seen nothing on the PC platform that has the power, flexibility and aesthetics DVD Studio Pro has. Even Avid's repackaging of Sonic's software into what Avid calls Studio Tools doesn't quite make it (also- same as the Vegas situation, I don't need 80% of what's in Avid's Studio Tools).

Which gets me to why I'm writing here in the first place. I've got my hands on a demo version of DVD Architect v2 and have been playing with it and love it. Except, using Avid as a source, it can't create a DVD using Avid media. I was thrilled to see Sony went through the trouble to allow the importing of QuickTime reference files. It's the purist way to bring unmanipulated Avid media into other software packages. But when DVD-A encodes the media it handles the fields incorrectly. And I don't mean the fields are reversed. I posted a question regarding the issue in this board and got a big fat ZERO replies. Not even a "Gosh, that's strange" from Sony. This is disheartening because it leads me to believe that Sony isn't interested in integrating DVD-A into the existing professional video world. They naturally want to push their editing package and compete against the Avids and the Final Cuts. Sony is notorious for forcing their technology (it started with Betacam and goes on and on). I was just praying they wouldn't do it with DVD-A.

Jesus this is a long post just to say- Sony, Avid is going to have the majority chunk of the professional video editing world for a while (Final Cut Pro is closing fast!), why not capitalize on that and set DVD-A free!

I welcome all thoughts on this! There are some smart artists out there.

Sony?

-derek

If you like DVDA, then bite the bullet and buy the package - you'll pay a professional level price even though you are only using one component of the package. If Sony broke DVDA out of the package they probably couldn't charge more than $150 or so for it, which would mean that most professionals wouldn't look at it as a viable option, right?

After purchase you'll have access to Sony's support and can submit a bug report on the problem you are having with encoding (which could be a MainConcept issue or an issue in DVDA).

Most of us that use DVDA regularly would suggest though that you don't do your encoding with DVDA, since making a small change to a rendered project forces a re-encoding of everything which is very time consuming (usually).

--Scott

derek,

With Avid and QT files you might be better off using DVD Studio Pro. I posed the same question way in the past as well about splitting off DVD-A, since it certainly can be done with the demo. Not sure why Sony takes that position, but they must have reasons. There really isn't any app on the PC side of things anywhere near Apple's price point for Studio Pro that has such a rich feature list. The only exception would be DVD-Lab Pro, but it is a new app and IMO has a few bugs to work out.

Jim

Scott-

Good point. I thought about just saying oh what the heck. If I like it so much, then I'll put my money where my mouth is. But, that's bad business. Remember- I'm not just buying one license, I'm buying several. I have more than one edit suite and I want them all to be able to spank out a DVD ( again- I love the simplicity of DVD-A as well as the power) . That's a huge waste of money buying software I'm not going to use. And lets say I decide to keep Avid as my editing software and just use Vegas as a way to get to point 'C' from point 'A'. That eats up time and resources and who's going to pay for that? Me? My client?
Also- about the price if Sony decided to break off DVD-A. Adobe has shown they can do really well charging consumer prices for essential professional tools (Photoshop) . Personally, I think they're a freak of nature and don't know how they do it. :-)

Jim-

Yeah- sadly, I agree with you. But! The two other software packages that get the most use from me is Adobe After Effects And 3D Studio Max. They take in Quicktime reference files and are PC based and it's fantastic! I don't have to export any media! It just draws straight from my Avid media pool! And I about busted a vein when I saw DVD-A could do it too! Until I found the field problem and can't get an answer to the problem. Truthfully- I'd buy one license to the whole package if I could get some sort of response to my problem.
And thanks for the suggestion of DVD-Lab Pro. I'm currently dedicated to Adobe Encore. But it's not a serious relationship and I'm still playing the field. :-)

THANKS, GUYS!
-derek

You should try formally reporting the problem anyway (not sure if they take formal problem reports from non-owners, but they might). These forums are not a formal support channel

Ah! Didn't realize that. Thanks, Scott. I'l report it.

-derek

Have you looked at DVDLab pro at the Mediachance website. It was just released. Ti should do all that you want and more.

already mentioned above

It's worth the price just to have DVDA2 and encoder. Besides you get Vegas. I would suggest that you will find some good uses for Vegas. The package is a bargin.