Hey everyone,
Just thought I would sound the alarm here. In the past I have used Sony DVD Architect to author a commercial DVD title from a small studio.
I used an outside MPEG-2 encoder and the Sony Vegas AC3 encoder, and brought the files into DVD Architect. After this, the files were sent to a professional DVD replication facility and were turned into "Real" silver, pressed DVDs, just like you'd buy in a store.
Just before the release date, we discovered that at one point in the film, playback would freeze up on select older DVD players. On other affected players, playback would freeze momentarily and skip past the affected area. To ensure customers weren't frustrated, we re-encoded and re-authored the disc with more thorough testing, and paid to have it replicated again.
This solved the freezing issue on these previously affected players, but then we got reports that the second, redone version was stuttering and behaving erratically on some NEW Toshiba DVD (and HD DVD) players - in other words, compatibility was actually worse than before! Utterly baffled but at least grateful that most players were capable of a successful playthrough, and the budget already spent on the first repressing, we had no choice but to continue.
In the mean time, we have changed the MPEG-2 encoder, which we thought would solve the problem. It did not. Just yesterday, we traced the problem back to DVD Architect. That's right: we created a test disc in DVD Architect Pro 5 and a friend's copy of DVD Studio Pro on the Mac, using the *EXACT SAME* source files to build each disc, without re-rendering in both cases. The DVD Architect authored discs stuttered and froze; the DVD Studio Pro ones played through flawlessly.
So, what changed? Why did the redone version - which was encoded at a modest bit rate of around 7.5mbps, by the way - play WORSE than the old one?
Here's what changed. Sony upgraded DVD Architect Pro to version 5. By the looks of it, they have introduced some sort of multiplexing/disc building bug in the process.
To say that I'm disgusted is putting it lightly. Yes, bugs happen, and although I'm sure Sony have no legal responsibility whatsoever in this (the terms and conditions will surely set that out), we're now out of pocket for repressing *AND* buying a new authoring program. At the same time, I'm not too surprised that DVD Architect is the culprit... after all, Sony Creative Software seems to have been releasing an awful lot of botched Vegas updates lately.
Let me just re-iterate here: these results are from real, pressed discs AND recordable DVD-Rs. The media type is NOT the problem. There is something screwy with the way DVD Architect is building discs.
I love, love, love Sony Vegas and up until lately I loved DVD Architect's clean interface and easy subtitling capabilities too. But I'm afraid that this has been the final straw, and I can no longer trust the program and let it put my reputation as a DVD author on the line. I'm very disappointed and would love to have some sort of official acknowledgment from Sony, but who am I kidding.
Just thought I would sound the alarm here. In the past I have used Sony DVD Architect to author a commercial DVD title from a small studio.
I used an outside MPEG-2 encoder and the Sony Vegas AC3 encoder, and brought the files into DVD Architect. After this, the files were sent to a professional DVD replication facility and were turned into "Real" silver, pressed DVDs, just like you'd buy in a store.
Just before the release date, we discovered that at one point in the film, playback would freeze up on select older DVD players. On other affected players, playback would freeze momentarily and skip past the affected area. To ensure customers weren't frustrated, we re-encoded and re-authored the disc with more thorough testing, and paid to have it replicated again.
This solved the freezing issue on these previously affected players, but then we got reports that the second, redone version was stuttering and behaving erratically on some NEW Toshiba DVD (and HD DVD) players - in other words, compatibility was actually worse than before! Utterly baffled but at least grateful that most players were capable of a successful playthrough, and the budget already spent on the first repressing, we had no choice but to continue.
In the mean time, we have changed the MPEG-2 encoder, which we thought would solve the problem. It did not. Just yesterday, we traced the problem back to DVD Architect. That's right: we created a test disc in DVD Architect Pro 5 and a friend's copy of DVD Studio Pro on the Mac, using the *EXACT SAME* source files to build each disc, without re-rendering in both cases. The DVD Architect authored discs stuttered and froze; the DVD Studio Pro ones played through flawlessly.
So, what changed? Why did the redone version - which was encoded at a modest bit rate of around 7.5mbps, by the way - play WORSE than the old one?
Here's what changed. Sony upgraded DVD Architect Pro to version 5. By the looks of it, they have introduced some sort of multiplexing/disc building bug in the process.
To say that I'm disgusted is putting it lightly. Yes, bugs happen, and although I'm sure Sony have no legal responsibility whatsoever in this (the terms and conditions will surely set that out), we're now out of pocket for repressing *AND* buying a new authoring program. At the same time, I'm not too surprised that DVD Architect is the culprit... after all, Sony Creative Software seems to have been releasing an awful lot of botched Vegas updates lately.
Let me just re-iterate here: these results are from real, pressed discs AND recordable DVD-Rs. The media type is NOT the problem. There is something screwy with the way DVD Architect is building discs.
I love, love, love Sony Vegas and up until lately I loved DVD Architect's clean interface and easy subtitling capabilities too. But I'm afraid that this has been the final straw, and I can no longer trust the program and let it put my reputation as a DVD author on the line. I'm very disappointed and would love to have some sort of official acknowledgment from Sony, but who am I kidding.