DVD Workshop vs Vegas 4+DVDA?

[goemon]

Anyone done a comparison of these two products?

I'm interested to know how the feature sets compare. Just the DVD-authoring part though. Eg what does DVD Workshop have that Vegas4-DVDA does not, and vice versa.

[idbirch2]

I've used both of these programs to author. Workshop for Season 1 + 2 of Southpark and DVD-Architect for Season 1+2 of coupling.

I thought nothing would match DVDWS for ease of use until DVD-Architect came along. Its just as easy but gives a much more professional result.

DVD-A can do animated thumbnails i.e. use video clips as menu buttons - DVDWS cannot. This feature is normally very difficult but with DVD-A you just tick a box "Animate thumbnail".

DVD-A can use video clips as backgrounds to menus aswell - DVDWS cannot. Once you have imported the video clip as the background you can choose to include the audio, or not, again with the use of a single tick-box.

DVD-A's menu screen can be customized alot more than those in DVDWS - borders to thumbs can be changed/removed, "Next-page" arrows can also be chosen from a large pre-installed collection

There is only 1 advantage to DVDWS and that is the fact that you can use MP3 as the audio to your clips/episodes. DVD-A only allows AC-3 or PCM which obviously means less room for the movie part of your files. You do however have a few choices in DVD-A AC-3 5.1 sound, AC-3 Stereo and PCM. I found AC3 stereo gave brilliant sound without sacrificing too much space.

Overall I would go with DVD-A but its all down to personal preference. If you want funky menus you have no choice - its DVD-A. If this isn't important then go with DVDWS because while both are easy, DVDWS is stupidly easy - I think my mum could probably author a DVD with that thing.

Anyways, hope this helps you choose.
Cheers.

[russwcj]

the previous post is inaccurate on some points.

I usually use Workshop for DVD authoring. It does have the ability to have animated thumbnails, a video background on the menu,different frames on buttons and had a library of predefined buttons for next page, home menu etc.

I had a look at Architect, and yes, it is a nicer package to use and does offer virtually the same facilities as workshop. The only main facility i can find missing on architect is the ability to control the the path once the video finishes. Workshop can author a disc so that when the video finishes, it can go straight onto the next video or even to a different menu to the one that called the video (useful for transitions between menus).

the fact that Architect can take in MP3's (I can't remember if Workshop can or not), makes no difference to the disc space used on the DVD, as mp3 is not a valid audio type on DVD's. It still has to be converted to pcm, ac3 or mpeg1 layer 2 anyway.

Workshop also has an anti-flicker option at the authoring stage which does reduce the flickering on menu options and stills when the DVD is viewed on a interlaced TV screen. (this works very well)

one definite plus point for Architect, is that the final authoring stage is far quicker when dealing with animated thumbnails than Workshop.

[idbirch2]

Quite right russwcj - following your reply I checked my Start Menu and lo & behold I actually used Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 for my Southpark coversions so my comparisons kinda suck i guess. Sorry. Oh well, the thought was there.....

[goemon]

the most annoying problem with DVDWS is I have not been able to make a 'movable cursor' for menus.

eg, DVDWS only lets you use colored buttons, or transparency/opaque boxes for buttons. What i'd like is a movable frame to outline the selected clip, or an arrow which moves from clip to clip indicating which one is selected.

With DVDWS, all you can do is either have a transparent square button over the clip (which changes the clip color, very annoying), or a colored button next to the clip, to indicate it's selected. There's no way to make the un-selected button disappear completely...

If DVD-A can do this, then i'm dumping DVDWS...

[russwcj]

I'm not suree if I understand what you what you want but...

when you have clips on the menu with a frame, you can select if you want to highlight the clip only, the frame only or both.
Also, if you can have a coloured button next to each clip, then can't you just make the button transparent and give it the highlght colour of your choice. Then you only see the button when highlighted.

[goemon]

Originally posted by russwcj
I'm not suree if I understand what you what you want but...

when you have clips on the menu with a frame, you can select if you want to highlight the clip only, the frame only or both.

there isn't a frame option on DVDWS. at least, not 1.3 ... btw when i mean clip i really just mean a still image, or sometimes just even text.

you can't make a list of episode names, then have a frame move from one name to the next... at least i havent found a way yet in DVDWS 1.3...

Also, if you can have a coloured button next to each clip, then can't you just make the button transparent and give it the highlght colour of your choice. Then you only see the button when highlighted.

i've tried that. the problem is that buttons have a default color, and making them 100% transparent just makes them the default color. (if the button doesn't have a color, then there's nothing to hilight, either...)

i've tried it without success. have you tried it?

[goemon]

well i found sonicfoundry has a downloadable demo of DVDA, so I tried it.

my conclusion: DVDWS has more features and is more powerful. DVDA has nicer, simpler interface, but DVDWS can do more.

DVDA can't link arbitrary button image to video file.
DVDA can't write .iso file.
DVDA doesn't have special text effects (emboss, glass, imprint, fire, etc)

DVDA is quite a nice package, but I think DVDWS fits my needs better.

I think SonicFoundry should sell DVDA as separate package. It could easily compete with DVDit etc...

[magicmycote]

Yea when I was reading idbirch2's pros/cons I was thinking "DVDWS can do all of that and more" ..glad you found out it was MF not WS. DVDWS does indeed have frames too, goemon..they work exactly like russwcj described (frame, clip, or both). Play around with it more if you are deciding on DVDWS (those who are reading this)...it will do a lot of things.