Sony Vegas DVD Architect - Opinions

[beto666]

after looking for a good software to author dvds finally i came across sony dvd architect. i must say it´s the best i ever tried. unfortunately it was shown to me by a friend but i am seriously thinking about purchasing it. anybody ever used it and liked? any tips to help me out? it reads the .avi´s and encode them to make a dvd come through. most of the other good progs (dvd lab, f/example)only accept already mpg encoded files. the problem i found is that it took 6 hours (!) to finish the whole job, after i made everything, from menus to show. i need opinions.
thanx you people out there.

[PhillipWyllie]

In my opinion DVD Architect 2 is mince. It's just an expensive step up from Nero Vision Express 2( and that was free with my dvd burner). I'd avoid using the re-encoding feature in DVD Architect(or any dvd authoring program for that matter) as the predicted file size is inaccurate and you have little control over the parameters. I know encoding in MPEG2 takes long but that's life(and I'd use a separate program for that).How about frameserving into CCE basic($58) from Avisynth(free). As for DVD authoring goes there is only one choice, and that's Scenarist Pro(but it's extremely costly).

Edit: Encoding 720*576@25fps on my machine I get 1.2 times speed using CCE basic, so MPEG2 encoding isn't slow.

[freenow]

In my opinion DVD Architect 2 is mince. It's just an expensive step up from Nero Vision Express 2( and that was free with my dvd burner). I'd avoid using the re-encoding feature in DVD Architect(or any dvd authoring program for that matter) as the predicted file size is inaccurate and you have little control over the parameters. I know encoding in MPEG2 takes long but that's life(and I'd use a separate program for that).How about frameserving into CCE basic($48) from Avisynth(free). As for DVD authoring goes there is only one choice, and that's Scenarist(but it's costly)
is scenarist better of architect?
please tell me why??????????
:thanks:

[PhillipWyllie]

Because it lets you author the DVD how you want. For example where to put the menus( VTS or VMG domain), the order the chapters are burnt to disc, navigational commands etc. It was written for DVD professionals( hollywood for example) in mind (with a professional price tag~ £13,000 +VAT). There are cheaper versions, goto www.sonic.com to find out more. Have you tried PgcEdit and IfoEdit?

Edit: At the moment I'm trying out Sonic's DVDit Pro 6( £270), and on first impressions it looks not to bad.

[Lubi007]

I must say that I find DVD Architect the best half-professional program for Authoring DVDs. I did many - FULLY ANIMATED, usual navigated, menus with loops, masks, highlights or just anything what you can see in professional DVDs,- in 3.0c version. I must say, that It s so better choice even for beginners than expensive Scenarist. Scenarist is really for professional issues, really coz you do there DVD from nothing. There are many useful setting, but usually, normal user will find them useful and won t even touch them - as I say, DVD Architect does these "features" automatically instead of U. I would recommend this software to any DVD Author, even to somebody more experienced coz version 3 really gets very close to a professional DVD Authoring software.

All 4 now.
Lubi

P.S. - when you do all your menus and buttons and things like this in DVDA in the right way (DVD compliant), DVDA wont recompress whole streams and after clicking on Make a DVD button, everything could be done in 10minutes....of course, just when you know how. :)