Looking for DVD Architect "Studio" 5.0

[Ken Jarstad]

Yeah, yeah, I know DVDAS 5.0 doesn't exist. And that is exactly the problem.

So, what is the next best thing? I could go up to $100 usd. MUST fully support menus on AVCHD BD5/9 disks as well as Blu-ray and conventional DVDs.

Ulead/Corel DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus w/HD Pack has previously been suggested here ($60 usd) and looks like it might do but all I can demo is the version without Blu-ray/AVCHD support. The manual indicates that the AVCHD menu support is limited and the app has not been updated for Windows 7.

I have tried TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 which looks really nice but has no AVCHD support. There are actually quite a number of Blu-ray burning apps which also support AVCHD - but don't feature menus - at least for the hi-def disks. I am going bleary-eyed searching, pawing through feature sets and getting generally disappointed. There must be something out there that does what I want.

[RJ Johnston]

For $100 you can get an OEM version of Vegas Pro 9 (which includes DVD Architect Pro 5). And I'm not even sure that it has everything you want.

[Ken Jarstad]

OEM version? I've heard of educational versions. With the price of some software it's enough to get you back into school - for a day or two!

[RJ Johnston]

OEM? Sure. Did you notice the twisted evil smilie?

How about trying the Australian trial version of Corel MovieFactory Pro 7. I'm downloading it now so I can see how different it is from MovieFactory 7 SE that Corel recently released to licensed users of Corel VideoStudio Pro X3.

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/ ... bview=tab6

[Ken Jarstad]

Oh, humor - honk, honk

I looked at your link and here is where I think the "gotcha" is:

# Output to Blu-ray Disc® with advanced pop-up menus that display without interrupting the movie
# Burn HD video to AVCHD discs on standard DVDs

When they list the two items separately - that means the functionality is separate According to the version 6 Plus HD manual it does support menus but not motion menus nor Customize.

Recently, I found what I thought was a very good price for a Blu-ray burner on an Aussie website but they wouldn't sell to me. Seems shipping is rather expensive from half way around the world.

But......., I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try it. Tomorrow.

[RJ Johnston]

It's too late for me, but what I did see in the Aussie version is that Blu-ray discs can have motion menus, but pop-up menus have to be still. AVCHD discs can only have still menus, no pop-up menus. But you will have to verify that for yourself.

There are only four sample menus with the trial.

When you say "customize," customize how? You can customize, but to what extent depends on AVCHD or Blu-ray. You can further customize menus with PhotoImpact X3, I believe.

Now I have to uninstall the trial version and install the SE version.

[Paul LS]

It is a real pity HD-DVD died. I went down this course initially with MF6+ burning HD-DVD to standard DVDs... the quality was great and you could have the full motion and advanced menu features that you have with Blu-ray. Then of course HD-DVD was killed off and so I was forced to follow the AVCHD to standard DVD route. In MF6+ you can only have the static menus as you say... no motion menus and no advanced transitioning between menus. This is OK for me. I am more concerned with the quality of the video... and the ability to smart burn H.264 files from PE7.

I would need to check the menu capabilities of DVD Architect Pro 5. I have only made a couple of AVCHD discs with this (I generally use MF6+) and I used static menus for those.

[RJ Johnston]

The main difference between MovieFactory 7 Pro and MovieFactory 7 SE that I see is that 7 Pro has disc utilities such as format disc, erase disc. Also, 7 Pro allows DVD-VR.

To get MovieFactory 7 SE you need VideoStudio Pro X3, which includes the bonus software Corel DVD Factory 2010 which lets you have motion menus for AVCHD. With Corel DVD FActory 2010 you can change menu transitions, background, soundtrack, add decorations. Corel DVD Factory 2010 has a GUI that I don't like, but there are some attractive menus, and you can have multiple titles on a menu and each title can have it's own chapter menu.

If you get VideoStudio Pro X3, you have to wait three days before MovieFactory 7 SE becomes available for download in the "Do More" tab. Hopefully, Corel will provide a direct download link in the near future.

None give you full control of menu hierarchy as Sony DVD Architect can.

[RJ Johnston]

I want to add to my previous post: I just noticed that the Aussie version has BD pop-up menus (at least 1) whereas the MF7-SE version that I have does not have any pop-up menus.

The MF6+HD does not have BD pop-up menus, nor does it have "Note Menus."

EDIT: Now I know what BD-J is. Those are the ones with the pop-up menus. Corel DVD MovieFactory 2010 supports that as well as BD-J Calendar.

MF7-SE has BD-J pop-up menus in the Content folder, but Corel seems to have disabled the ability to actually use those menus. Instead you have to go to Corel DVD MovieFactory 2010 (included with VideoStudio Pro X3) for BD-J menus.

YOu have to use the arrow keys and enter key to navigate BD-J menus if you play the movies back on Corel WinDVD 9 or WinDVD 2010.

[Ken Jarstad]

I uninstalled Ulead/Corel DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus and installed the trial version of Corel DVD MovieFactory Pro 7 and here are my first impressions. DMFP7 is designed for people who have a hard time seeing smallish print on the screen. On a 22 inch monitor it takes up three quarters of the screen space and has huge, cartoonish icons. This of course does not indicate how it performs, only that the designers could have made the window and contents half the size and everything would have been perfectly readable by even the sight challenged.

The reason I mentioned this opening design is because the first impression is that this application is designed so that anyone can use it. However, it quickly gets into territory where technical knowledge is required. Even I had trouble selecting files for a project because it took a knowledge of file systems to get to my files and the step-by-step windows made strange (to me) assumptions about how to pick the files. First, you have put a check mark next to any folder where the files you intend to use are located so the app can present a nice thumbnail list to you. If I hadn't been working with an existing collection of files already I would have had to use Windows Explorer to find the location of my files first so I could put the checkmarks on the proper folders.

Once I got the thumbnails presented to me I put checkmarks in the appropriate box next to the files I wanted. This particular window gave me the option to view each file to make sure it was the right one and even played my hi-def HV20 m2t files without problems. I clicked OK and the app loaded the files, then disappeared from the screen for a while. I even checked Task Manager to see if the app was still running. Apparently, DMFP7 needs a while to 'digest' the files - but it doesn't give a clue if anything is going on - so you just have wait patiently for it to reappear!

Then you get to select the disk type. In Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 you have to select Blu-ray in order to get the AVCHD options. Selecting Blu-ray in this app gives you........ Blu-ray. Select the default DVD and then the AVCHD option will be available.

Next I was presented with a dialog asking whether I wanted proxy editing or not. Actually, it is an option for everything but AVCHD where it is selected automatically - no choice. Interesting piece of software, no? Here is the Help file:

Enabling Smart Proxy
Proxy files are lower resolution working copies of video files. They are reduced in resolution or compression bit rate for only one reason -- to speed up editing of high definition files. Proxy files are source-dependent rather than project-dependent. In other words, proxy files can be shared among different projects. Smart Proxy can also be used in other video file formats and is not limited to HDV files only. The main purpose of this feature is to have a more efficient editing experience by making smaller proxy files out of large videos.

When you edit and preview your HD project, proxy files will be used as substitutes for their large video source counterparts. Whereas when you edit or preview your project in standard playback mode or when you render a video file, the original video source files will be used.

When you add an HD video clip to your project, you will be prompted to confirm whether or not you want to enable the creation of proxy files.

In the case of HDV files, Smart Proxy is automatically activated during capture and use of HDV files in your project.

Once Smart Proxy is enabled, proxy files will automatically be created and used in your project whenever you insert video files into the Timeline.

.....to be continued.

[Ken Jarstad]

DMFP7 is now in the middle of rendering my 18 minute test video. It is using all four cores at around 80 to 95 percent. There was no mention of GPU support. It does support smart rendering.

I tried editing my files in the test video and my opinion is that the editing capability is suitable for a quick vacation video but I wouldn't want to do much more than a trim. It also has some effects but nothing to adjust brightness/contrast/hue/saturation so your clips had better be quite satisfactory from the start. It seems to have a lot of features but I can't take the editing too seriously.

The 18 minute video took 55 minutes to render from HDV m2t MPEG2 files to AVCHD disk. For visual quality I give it a grade of B compared to the A I gave burning from the Vegas timeline. The marker handling was also vague or non-existent - I couldn't seem to go backward to a previous marker, for instance. Also, the general brightness of the video was noticeably less. I compared with a previous test disk to be sure.

Next, I will try saving this project as an AVCHD file from Vegas and then burn that. With smart rendering it should go pretty fast. And not having to convert from MPEG2 to MPEG4 should get me the better looking video that Vegas has been giving.

BTW, I downloaded DMFP7 from the Aussie site and when I completed installing the app automatically popped the US Corel website which didn't even offer the app for sale. DMFP7 is listed as $103 AUD which translates to about $95 USD. There is no provision for purchase with other currencies. DMFP7 still has an older copyright and compatibility listed is WinXP and Vista.

[Ken Jarstad]

I ran into a snag - not sure what the problem is. I rendered out of Vegas using the AVCHD template an mp4 file which plays in WMP just fine but DMFP7 doesn't accept it even though it will accept the mp4 file type. What little niggling parameter doesn't it like?

Edit: WMP and VLC player do just fine on this file. QuickTime does not, however. And I have been reading that the MPEG4 codec development originally came Apple/QuickTime which use AAC for the audio rather than AC-3 which Vegas puts out. Vegas has no other option. Is QuickTime and DVDMFP7 choking on AC-3 sound?

[RJ Johnston]

Ken, I'm on someone elses computer, so I don't have all the software that I need to check if this will work. In VMS9, instead of exporting the AVCHD as an MP4 stream, change the stream to Mpeg-2 Transport Stream .m2ts. You'll also be able to use Dolby for audio.

[Ken Jarstad]

OK, Robert, but the idea here is to use VMS9 to render to the AVCHD MPEG-4 file because it does such a stellar job. I have already seen DMFP7 degrade the video when it does the transcoding.

[Paul LS]

If you export as .m2ts (AVCHD) DMFP7 will not re-encode it. In Vegas Pro I can export as .m2ts, I assume you can in the studio version. Off hand I can nor recall the export option you need to select... I think it is the AVC option... either MainConcept AVC or Sony AVC