sammy63,

To ultimately get a full working copy of DVD-A, you will need to buy the Vegas+DVD-A bundle--you can't get it as a stand alone. NAB is just around the corner, and I would wait (unless you absolutely have to do something now) until then to see what shakes out, including the possibility of an upgrade to DVD-A. Until then I would make sure that at least the demo works, and does what you want it to. There are other apps out there to consider as well, and many of them have working demos.

Jim

The DVDA demo is downloadable as a seperate file though - which makes me wonder if that's part of his problem; I don't think I've ever tried installing just DVDA on a system without Vegas already being there.

Wait until version 2. Version 1 has too many problems.

I hope there will be a good deal for us loyal DVDA ver 1 users to upgrade to 2.

Can't tell you to wait or purchase now but your demo should work first.
I burned a disk with the Star Wars look-alike project and was hooked with
the AC3.

I trialed the demo without Vegas, and it seemed to work 'OK' (although some of the features were missing or disabled). My only point on it being bundled is that it will cost you a bit more to actually get it because it requires you to buy the NLE (Vegas). Obviously many here like that app, but many come to the 'dvd table' with other NLE's they are comfortable with and don't want or need another NLE. I definitely would see if you can't get the demo to work first before buying the app (and another NLE) and not be happy with what it can and can not do.

Jim

I hope there will be a good deal for us loyal DVDA ver 1 users to upgrade to 2.

Sony has made it pretty clear that there will not be any kind of special deal. I am sure there will be some sort of discount, but I would be amazed if it was anything out of the ordinary. The Sony management, at least as represented in these forums, clearly seems to believe that version 1.0x is a really good program, and that any deficiencies are within the normal boundaries for a first version. We could debate that one all day long. You can obviously tell that I don't believe the program's deficiencies fall into the range of acceptable for a first version.

Apologies to all the Loyalists.

I agree with johnmeyer. If you want a simple DVD authoring program go with a Sonic product (DVDit, MyDVD) or something similar for a lot less money. I like DVD-A for its ease of use but it cannot be classified as a "professional" grade program due to its many limitations. Haven't been following the forum lately but if Sony has stated they believe version 1 is adequate I guess they are targeting the same people who buy Video Factory (or is it Movie Factory?) Whatever. I'd like to see DVD-A achienve the same levels of sophistication as Sound Forge and Vegas but until that happens I'm stuck with Encore for serious work.

Peter

So, Version 2 will have subtitle and alternate audio tracks - hopefully end actions are included in the "and much more" phrase at the end of Sony's release.

http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/4483

Thanks for the input, everyone.
Here's what happens with the demo. I double-click, it asks if I want to run the demo or if I have a code, I click on demo, and then I get an error message stating that the application "could not start." It also gives me an error code of 0x8004e00a, Startup code:2 whatever all that means. I tried deleting it and downloading again and got the same thing.
Anyways, thanks again for all your input. Sammy

"Sony has made it pretty clear that there will not be any kind of special deal."

Who said this?

"Sony has made it pretty clear that there will not be any kind of special deal."

I guess I was thinking of this post, from you:

think I'll wait

I'll admit that all you said in this post is that the upgrade will not be free. The reason I came to the conclusion that Sony would not be offering any special deals to existing customers is that in this same post, you defend the product as being "solid, stable, and versatile," and that it supports "all the specific features it claims to in the marketing materials."

I found this statement a little "lawyerly." By this I mean that it is exactly accurate in defense of your position, but does not really address the crux of the issue.

What is the issue?

The issue is whether DVDA, version 1.0, has a sufficient feature set to be deemed a professional product, worthy of its prosumer pricing. Given your statement, coupled with the statement that the upgrade would not be free (and to be clear, I do not expect to get it for nothing), I concluded that because you felt the product met the feature and customer expectation threshold for a version 1.0, that there wouldn't be a break for existing customers.

By contrast, if you had admitted that there were some fairly serious shortcomings (not compared the marketing literature, but compared to the competition and to customer expectations), and then made the statement that it wouldn't be free and then also said, as you did, that Sony always looks after their customers, I would have come to a different conclusion, namely that existing customers might expect the upgrade for a better than usual price (based on Sonic/Sony’s past upgrade pricing).

The key part of my argument about DVDA has always been that, given your marketing positioning, it lacks basic, essential features needed by the market you targeted (end actions being number one, but certainly not the only one).

I hope this helps.