If 50 People had 10 Dollars to spend on a Ten dollar item and another fifty couldnt afford it cause they only had Five.. Big Business would rather take everyones Money and introduce student Pricing.. ;0)

More on topic, I think it would be a good idea if Sony unbundled DVD-A from Vegas. The second version is much better than the first and deserves to be on its own.

BillyBoy, that would mean higher prices for everyone right? Take care BillyBoy you must have cash my friend.

There may be student pricing at the beginning, that is how I got mine (ID and department letter), but after that it is direct to Sony for Upgrades. Sony loves that part. They have sold me 2 Vegas upgrades already, one to DVDA.

You may be on to something, Bob. It's quite possible that this is a restriction by Dolby, and Sony just has to follow their licensing deal.

I'm sure there's a licensing fee involved with MPEG-2 as well, and that is included in Vegas without DVD Architect.

Actually, I think you only get the full blown mpeg-2 encoder with DVDA, maybe that's changed since V4.
In any case software companies can perhaps afford to be generous, apart from paying for 3rd party licences the production cost per unit is almost zero if it's a download and only a few dollars even for the boxed set.
Then again if you're studying to be a carpenter, plumber or electrician the tools don't come at any discount or a very small one if you're lucky. In general people study either for the pleasure or in the hope of making more income, some do it for altruistic reasons perhaps. Either way though I'm all for education being subsidised but NOT by big business, this is a role for governments not those with vested interests.
On top of that student discounts are supposed to be for those studying that subject. I'd suggest if you were studying full on DVD Authoring 101 you'd be most likely into DVD Studio Pro or the high end Sonic stuff. That's no slight on DVDA, just a commercial reality.
To show how silly it is I was studying part time for an electricians licence and the student bookshop would have happily sold me ACAD and PS at a student discount. The saving on those two would have more than offset the cost of the course for four years, go figure.

Bob.

Bob, Vegas 4 and Vegas 5 both come with the "full blown MPEG encoder". DVDA installation just eliminates the need to register it separately.

The AC-3 encoder for audio is DVDA only.

Are there other DVD authoring software that come with ac3, and dolby? If so which ones. I would hate to go adobe because they offer a good student discount.

Anything wrong with just using PCM? It's free, so you can't beat the price. The drawback being that your audio files aren't going to be exactly small, but if you're only working on small projects then that might not be a problem.

--Scott

What is PCM?

I am bummed out at the moment due to the removal of Vegas 5+DVD. Hopefully, 2005 will introduce a new version or worthy competition to Vegas.

I agree with you, may be will see VEGAS 6 bundled with DVDA again with a great low price.

I'm definately with Billyboy on this one. Education discounts B.S.!!!! If you're a full time student and can't afford the professional version, then you're not using the software in a professional environment, thus don't need the professional version. You need to therefore get the version that fits your budget, which also has 90% of the core functionality of Vegas+DVD but is 800% cheaper...it's called Vegas Music Studio+DVD and goes for $99.95, compared to Vegas+DVD at $795. Yeah, I'm upset too, that you can get 90% of the functionality of Vegas+DVD for $99.95.....boo..hoo.

Compare here:
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/Products/showproduct.asp?PID=932&FeatureID=7790

PCM is basically a standard windows WAV file. All DVD players will play PCM audio as well as AC3. If you're looking for an inexpensive authoring solution, try DVD Lab or DVD Lab Pro - the workflow is a little different than DVDA, but DVD Lab or Pro actually have a few more features than DVDA has.

--Scott

I work for the government. I can get educational, so I do.

I'm saving money. If they keep offering it, I'll take it.

Boo Hoo to you. KaChing!

Cervama, just to keep you a little bit back on the reality track ... Vegas 5 and DVDA 2 are still offered as a bundle. It's only the educational discount pricing that seems to have been discontinued (or at least at some resellers). The bundled version for the full price is available as always, so your statement "VEGAS 6 bundled with DVDA again" is a bit out of touch.

If you have any previous version of Vegas you can upgrade to Vegas 5 + DVDA 2 for only $249.99. Isn't that pretty close the educational discount price?

Chienworks, thanks for your advice, that's what I'll be doing, but I wanted both versions, one that my wife can use, and the other being Vegas 5 seperately, I wanted to do it so I can have both versions.

If you upgrade you do get to keep the Version 4.0 and it still does work.

I always had the mindset, that once you upgrade it overides the previous version. Thanks for the 411.

Here is an acadamic site that sells what your looking for,

http://www.softwaretime.com.au/product/product_list1.shtml?prod_code=82009

It's an Aussie site, so you might have to get in contact with them, to make sure they accept overseas orders in respect to your student status.

If you purchase an upgrade and install it on the same pc, you only have one license for one user. Correct me if I'm wrong but you can not use the previous version and the upgraded version together.