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Alternatives to DVD Architect Pro? (other than Apple)
Hi folks. Wondering if any of you find limitations with DVD Architect Pro. Before I throw myself into producing numerous pieces using this tool, I’d like to know if any of you ran into a ‘wall’ with it and moved to a ‘better’ higher end tool.
Why the Q? I’ve found a number of serious limitations with Apple’s DVD Studio, in that I produce both Blu Ray and SD DVDs for customers. I’ve liked the work that I’ve done on DVDA so far. (I’ve been working in both platforms for a year now). My requirements are to be able to edit a single HD shoot (say multicam, with chapters added), render it to multiple DVD formats, without losing the chapter markers and then create DVD templates for them once and burn the dang DVDs and Blu Ray DVDs on the same machine.
Since I’ve not gotten into the subtleties of DVDA that I know exist on any piece of software, is this possible, and if so, are there any shortcuts to know (I am planning on using PA 2.0 to help automate this), and if not, what tool do you folks use, or do you simply go ‘out of house’ for this? My clients are short run productions, 20 to 50 DVDs total usually, so going out of house is a bit too costly. I need a cheap intern to do this burning (G)
Thanks in advance for your support.
Alf
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3 Replies
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Haven’t ran into any wall with DVD Architect as you put it…But i do use another application for basic DVD burns, its (VSO-ConvertXtoDVD).
Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Creative Arts Director and Film Maker.
Project Samples at:
http://www.youtube.com/hentys -
I came to DVD Architect having used a number of tools that came before it. I own a copy of Pinnacle Impression…
The big problem with DVD Architect in a pro environment is that it’s really a consumer DVD tool. Impression was kind of ugly to use, but (aside from being the most heinously bug-ridden pile of drek I’ve ever successfully used on a project), but it didn’t hold your hand. It worked pretty “close to the metal” on DVD. While it didn’t do scripting, if there was an effect possible on DVD, I could do it on Impression.
Most DVD applications, DVDA included, insert their own abstraction layer over top of “native DVD”, which sets limits. DVDA has improved, but also, I have yet to do as much DVD programming as I did back with Impression… so I can’t say if it’s quite there yet.
And now we have it all over again with Blu-Ray. With Apple not supporting Blu-Ray, looking elsewhere is an easy decision if you’re on the Apple tools and want to author Blu-Ray. Since I have DVDA and since it’s already part of my workflow, looking elsewhere is a real question. So far, I just change my interface to work within what DVDA is capable of doing.
And there is a big advantage of DVDA’s ability to support BD and DVD pretty seamlessly from the same project. I spent the last week working on a BD project, and a few hours after that was complete, I had a DVD (mostly just rendering time).
DVDA is building an abstraction layer on BD, too… but one that matches DVD. So you can’t do much of anything that DVDs can’t do but BDs can… and in fact, you can’t even do everything a DVD can do. For example, I was working on a menu that defaulted un-selected items to a non-transparent background color through a mask. This works fine in DVDA… until you try to create a BD. Their BD abstraction doesn’t support non-transparent “transparency” (color 4 in a colorset is the “transparent” color, though on DVD, it doesn’t have to be transparent).
So basically, for complex DVD/BD authoring, DVDA is limited. For mid-range complexity and the ability to just press a button and go from BD to DVD, it rocks.
-Dave
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superb info. thanks ever so much.
Alf
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