Need Advice From People Who Actually OWN Scenarist

[crusty]

Hey all,

My company is looking at spending the 100k required to get the Scenarist AV Professional suite http://www.sonic.com/products/scenarist/specifications.asp
I was keen to get peoples thoughts who have taken the plunge on this i.e. have you been happy with it any annoying bugs things like that. Any input from people who have brought this and used it would be much appreciated.

Thks

[handyguy]

I tried it once, it just stared me in the face. I guess you really got to know how this stuff works before you use it

[crusty]

Just for clarification I have been authoring DVD for 3-4years now using Maestro and we are looking at up an upgrade so I am certainly aware of White book specs etc, I was seeking advice from people who actually use it currently.

[BJ_M]

pro AV doesn't seem worth it - unless you really need DVD Audio capability , which you can get far far cheaper now ...

also - buying a system that includes the (very good) hardware encoder really locks you into that system, i also assume you have a D-Beta to use it ..

i found getting a very good SDI card (like a decklink or bluefish) and using software encoding to be more flexible , though somewhat slower ..

the sonic top end hardware encoders are very good quality .....



as an alternative -- i would also seriously look at getting a Apple and DVD studio pro ..... probably the route i would take now ..

[BJ_M]

otherwise -- scenarist is a very powerfull app .. and really not all that hard to use.

i just really question thier pricing -- it was the going price for authoring when all you could do it on was sgi and a few nt 4 systems .. and was a total black art ...

but this is not the case any longer ... but sonic bought up dalkin and i guess they want thier investment back ..

[crusty]

Thanks for the fast resopse BJ_M
Yes we are fully equipped post house
www.thelabsydney.com.au
I have been using a fully equpied Maestro setup for time now but due to increasing demand of DVD I need another station.
We have studio pro and I find it pretty much useless, I capture uncompressed 8 or 10 bit via FCP on a G5 then you are locked into using compressor for the conversion(I still don't think Apple have it together with MPEG2 just yet) even though that is OK for some mid range companies I find the quality no where near as a good as as a hardware based card, in fact I find in hardware based captures hard to tell the diff between Digi Beta and the captured material. I think that when Apple reworked Maestro they had to bend the White Book Standard so they could add nice like affects and be more consumer friendly hence I have had many players reject disks created in DVDSP that play quite happily on other machines to hit and miss. I was keen to hear from people who use Scenarist in a production environment.

Thkx

[BJ_M]

well i have not used DVD studio pro except in demonstrations (which isn't really using it but watching) , but i was impressed with what i saw ..
thanks for the feedback ..

i completely agree on the mpeg2 front -- i would cap and encode in hardware and/or on PC and transfer over anyway ... as we have the hardware and software already for that .. most of my source is film based frames anyway and not on tape (at first) ..

I am really just complaining about the pricing (3000$ for the software ac3 encoder is a joke as the sony vegas encoder is better at a fraction of the price) .. it seems as if pro 1000 or 2000 is a better value or just the software package and an optibase hardware (or other hardware encoder - i am just using optibase as an example) encoder or software encoder would be better value ..


though the sonic products work well together ... most of the time ..


i am just pointing out alternatives -- not saying don't go that route ..

[crusty]

Thanks for the advice BJ_M

I do agree the price is out of control, guess its not my money though, the bummer about being in Australia for these sorts of things is supply and support we are limited in that department. I am going to push them for this anyway as we have an Audio Post house as well who can master our 5.1 and supply to us on DA-88. Will be nice to learn another high end app anyway.

Anyway thanks Mate.