The Pioneer A03 has been bolted into Intec Edit 2 for less than a week and has not made a DVD so far - I've been experimenting with the two authoring packages the come with it, Sonic MyDVD and VOB InstantCD/DVD, plus the SpruceUp DVD authoring software that comes with a DV Storm.
Without wishing to pre-empt the full reviews that Bob is promising in CV, here are some first impressions.
VOB is, it would seem, staffed by ex-Microsoft designers from the 'Windows Blue Screen' section. After installation, it asks for a reboot. From then onwards Windows crashes every time during loading with a 'Fatal Exception' blue screen of death. Only by uninstalling InstantCD/DVD could I get Windows to load again. (Incidentally, Ian at Lynx tells me that I am not alone in having this problem)
Sonic, on the other hand, is staffed by designers from the Microsoft 'don't make it easy if we can make it difficult' section. All the features you might expect such as a clear progression from beginning to end, or 'right-click on an object to show and set its properties' are missing. It also manages to reject MP2 files that SpruceUp accepts.
SpruceUp is closest to being a decent program. Amongst it's drawbacks, though, are:
1. The DVStorm CD is only a trial version. To get a code number for a full version you have to email Spruce with another code which is generated when you run the trial version. This initial code is linked to the computer running the trial version. What features of that PC may you upgrade without invalidating the code (CPU? motherboard? hard disks?). They don't say.
2. Nowhere in the Trial version do Spruce tell you how much you have to pay for the Full version. You have to log on to their website, fill in the first registration page, and only then will you get to the 'credit card' page where the amount ($129) is revealed. I dropped out at that point to have a think.
Does anyone have any other recomendations for PC-based DVD authoring software?
Ray Liffen
Certainly you did not expected more! The recent history of hardware, software and OS offerings is replete with "Rush it out the door, let the first customers be beta testers and charge them the highest price the product will ever be. The vendors expect us to participate in this development process. Why...because we love the challenges!
We've been succesfully authoring DVD's using the A03 since April and have so far completed over 40 - all playing quite happily on 40 different set-top players - and all wedding videos of around 60-90 minutes. Spruce Up is OK (you need version 1.1 to work with the A03) but the best by far is Spruce Virtuoso (2.8). There is a bargain upgrade price to registered Spruce Up users until the end of August
quote:Originally posted by gerry roffey:
We've been succesfully authoring DVD's using the A03 since April and have so far completed over 40 - all playing quite happily on 40 different set-top players - and all wedding videos of around 60-90 minutes. Spruce Up is OK (you need version 1.1 to work with the A03) but the best by far is Spruce Virtuoso (2.8). There is a bargain upgrade price to registered Spruce Up users until the end of August
Gerry,
Could you please tell me more about Virtuoso and the advantages over spruce up. I have read all the 'blurb' comparing the two, but would like to hear a user's perspective.
Thanks
denis
Hi Denis
You can't really compare Spruce Up and Virtuoso as they are totally different programs. SU is (fairly) cheap and does a reasonable job of basic authoring but is quite limited in what you can do. Virtuoso has very comprehensive controls and is a 'proper' authoring program. We've only just started using Virtuoso, so nearly all our DVD's were written using SU. It works fine - although the chapter setting part can be a nightmare if you use certain types of MPEG's (seems to be ones with header information at the beginning of every GOP rather than just the first one). This is a problem regularly brought up on the Spruce forums but seemingly reguarly ignored by Spruce.
Virtuoso seems perfect for our needs. It can do lots of nice things like setting end actions at the end of each movie and has dynamic menu ability. It also seems to work flawlessly - but is a fairly expensive program (I think about $900 before the upgrade offer)
Gerry