DVD Architect no longer in development?

I am sure whomever made that comment does not work at
Sony Creative Software, nor represent them.

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
1-876-832-4956

It would be nice if they added the create to flash feature that Adobe has in Encore.

Its Graphics manipulation could very well be overhauled. Much work to do there.

1] I want to throw a 3 Layered PSD at it and it just deal with making a Button. The naming of layers is archaic. I just want it to work.

2] I want to be able to move text boxes the way I want to. The same way I move the Graphical items using Transformation. I'd like to apply FX-ing to the Text.

3] I would like a similar Project Media pane as in Vegas. As it uses Graphical assets, how about Thumbnails of the Graphical assets? Or even the MPGs?

4] Mouse Thumb-wheel to make the Timeline Cursor work? My CSP does it. Maybe this is a Preference option?

5] Timeline Sync to the Crop and Adjust Pane Timeline. Really find that frustrating.

6] "Take" options to the Audio Timeline. I'd like to Audition Sound Tracks?

7] More of a Bug than an Idea: Preview on 2nd Monitor. I used to have this but it is broke. I can Identify my 2nd Monitor taking the feed - 1 and 2 - but no Preview. Also, I can Preview on my External CRT! But not on the 2nd Monitor.

8] I'd like to have more control of the Graphics that would take the place of say, the Underlining: Navigate from one Button to another and be able to easily elect for "another" type of underline - maybe an underline of my own making? Like a "swish . . . . "

Thanks for asking John!

Grazie

Glad to hear that Sony has not abandoned this software. I don't know enough about what is out there to compare it to. I am generally happy with it... would be nice if it were a bit faster... addition of more backgrounds....

John is correct. I've wanted that too.

If SCS wishes to form an early BETA, for registering better user input, I'm up for it.

SONY now have a great option for bashing down the doors on a new slippery sexy DVDA. Are they hungry enough to do it? Let's see!?!

Grazie

I agree,
it seems odd that no updates have emerged alongside the Vegas Pro evolution.

Gilles

[Gilles Gagnon] "it seems odd that no updates have emerged alongside the Vegas Pro evolution."

Ummm...if it ain't broke, don't fix it? :-)

That was probably me.

They have done occasional maintenance updates, like the recent one bundled with Vegas 12. But little has happened in a long time: DVD Architect 5.0 came out in 2008... the small 5.2 update came out in 2010. This clearly has not seen any active development in a long time.

Do I know that they're NOT about to release a DVDA 6.0 with hundreds of new features? Of course not. However, having worked in hardware and software development since the 80s, I know what it looks like.

What could they add? How about missing DVD features? How about multiple title sets? Even some little details; some of the more advanced tricks you can do with DVD, like using transparency in various ways, either isn't supported on DVD, or works there but isn't faithfully reproduced on the Blu-ray model (what you use to author in DVDA is basically an abstraction layer Sony builds over the "guts" of the DVD and BD standards.. some of the early programs didn't do this, so while you didn't have any of the nicer automatic features, you could do anything DVD was capable of doing, which is not true of DVDA).

How about actual Blu-ray features? DVDA has the whole "make a DVD or Blu-ray that look the same" thing pretty well nailed. How about Pop-ups, for example?

And the user interface is ancient... it's actually a bit more primitive than some of the early tools I used, like Impression. More features, absolutely, but there's no tree view of the whole project, no way to graphically add things in such a view or introduce an asset without dropping it somewhere first, etc. Play with Adobe Encore a little, you'll see what you're missing. Or BluPrint. Or DoStudio.

And those latter applications are also setting limits on what Sony's ever going to do with DVDA. If they make DVDA too good, how are they going to sell DoStudio? This is exactly the kind of problem that allows suites like Sony's or Adobe's to advance much faster than, say, Avid's, since Avid had to put artificial limits on their lower-end tools to protect the high end saleability, while the companies without a higher program didn't.

-Dave