Anyone used/using DVD Extra

[dgoodbourn]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone has used or are using DVD-Extra From Zoo Digital? We're looking at it at the moment, and we just wanted to see what people thought of it in a production environment.

Cheers,
Dave.

[Msc_Alex]

Were can I get a trail version ?, looks powerfull

[dgoodbourn]

You would need to speak to them about it.

D.

[Arky]

Dave have you spoken to Zootech directly? Although I have not used the system personally, I chatted with Chris, their lead engineer, while he demonstrated the system to me at NAB last year, and he was a very nice bloke. Although this is a premium tool, my impression of the team was that they were not in the least intimidating, on a personal level, and I am sure if you contact the Zootech team you will find them very friendly and helpful.

The system itself is pretty impressive - basically, it 'serves' the contents of spreadsheet documents to another well-known program, in order to generate multiple menu assets, for example, and then automatically imports these back into its own authoring environment and creates literally hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of PGCs to navigate between them appropriately. I believe it can also read Scenarist project files, although this was not demonstrated to me. There's a whole load more the system is capable of, but that's the fundamental essence of it. The speed with which it accomplishes this is truly awe-inspiring, particularly in the capable hands of its programmer :) I believe, at that time, they were 'selling' the system as a one-off initial fee + per-disc license fees thereafter. I have no affiliation whatsoever with the team - I was just impressed by their product and their attitude.

There is an older post, here on Doom9, which you may have seen:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36674


Regards,

John.
('Arky')

[dgoodbourn]

Arky, yeah we have a temp license for a short time. We have also found the guys to be very helpfull in all the questions we've had. I was just wanting some insight from people who actually use it on more of a day to day basis in a production environment. Just to try and get a non-biased opinion of how well it fits into a pre defined workflow.

Cheers for the feedback though, all is welcome.
D.

[Arky]

Ok, well in that case, I suggest you post on The DVD List - that's the number one place to ask this kind of day-to-day Pro-Level stuff. I know for a fact that DVD Extra users frequent The List (actually, anyone in Pro DVD production would be insane not to, quite frankly!). PM me if you are not familiar with The List and I'll gladly point you in the right direction.


Arky ;o)

[dgoodbourn]

Cheers Arky, I was just about to post onto the list.

D.

[Arky]

Someone recently drew my attention to yet another Interactive DVD implementation:

http://www.sceneit.com/company_optreve.html

The details are not all that clear, but make of it what you will...


Arky ;o)

[dgoodbourn]

Just looks like another DVD-Extra to me. Might take a look though, see what their interface and production setup is like.

D.