What happened to DVD Maestro?

[bayaraa_us]

I never used DVD Maestro and SpruceUp softwares before. I was interested how these programs work compared to other authoring softwares. When i go to the official site www.spruce-tech.com they say it is acquired by "Apple" in 2001.

Personally i think Apple bought Spruce's core dvd making technology and made their own Apple DVD Studio Pro software. Well maybe not, but a possibility.

Does anybody have any info on these products?

P.S. By the way what's the difference between Maestro and Spruce-Up? Can you have motion menus and custom rollover buttons on them?

[unclebud]

Spruce-Up was the simple $100 program. No audio or motion in the menus.
I've read that Maestro was could do almost any type of menu's you wanted and was easier then Scenarist to use.

[Petco]

I think Spruce up is the name of the company and their product is DVD Maestro. However, they no longer exist.

<edited - no WAREZ here - please>
I use two softwares for authoring, depending on what you are doing?

1) I usually use Spruce Up's DVD Maestro to rip movies (easy to create chapters, subtitles, and combine AC3 (sound) with M2V(movie).

2) But for home movies I use Ulead's DVD Workshop because thats easier to use for creating menus with music and motion buttons (but not together, it cycles every 10 secs). Ulead accepts AVI's directly and compresses it for you.

For burning the DVD into a DVD-r, don't use Nero (lots of weird bugs - sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't), use Prassi Primo or any other software except Nero.

[bayaraa_us]

Thanx,

Petco you mentioned: "but not together, it cycles every 10 secs"
What do you mean by cycling?

<edited - no WAREZ here - please>


Also i'm using Workshop currently and i was wondering all the other programs i have tried none of them allowed me to create rollover buttons.

Even in Workshop it is impossible to create rollover button. Do you know how to create rollover buttons just like creating a javascript rollover on websites?

[BJ_M]

http://www.spruce-tech.com/products/dvdmaestro.html

cost -- about $22,000

[Nolonemo]

I think rollover buttons (if you're talking about what I think you're talking about) are not part of the DVD spec. Check discussion on DVD Workshop forum on www.creativecow.net

[ImaWeTodd]

2) But for home movies I use Ulead's DVD Workshop because thats easier to use for creating menus with music and motion buttons (but not together, it cycles every 10 secs). Ulead accepts AVI's directly and compresses it for you.

You can use Avisynth to create motion menus. There is a complex example in the guide here:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/userguides/99389.php

But it's easier than you may think. And with Maestro you can the pretty much do whatever you want.

BJ_M $22k US or CA? Does that include a workstation and a hardware encoder card?

This is really stating to add up. $22k for maestro, $2k for cce, $2k for dv cam..... I guess I shouldn't scrimp on the cheapo DVD-Rs !

[BJ_M]

well you cant buy maestro anymore -- closest to it is the mac dvd authoring package $999 US i think plus throw in a cheapie G4 for a total of about $3000 - $4000 (get a nice display and few other apps)

or buy sonic scenarist - 2 prices $20,000 and $25,000 depending on which package you get .. PC not included

$22,000 was US price for maestro w/ a hardware playback card and ac3 encoder tied into the spruce hardware encoder package..

really not a bad authoring app is expression pro , i suppose also REELDVD , though i dont use REELDVD myself ..

[Nolonemo]

bayaraa.

Now that I see your post and photos at the Cow, I stand corrected. You see that on commercial disks all the time, no?

[BJ_M]

spruce has an application for spruce up to create buttons if thats what you asking (i have it) .. works w/ photoshop



SpruceUp Photoshop Actions its called

Photoshop Actions For Making SpruceUp Buttons

For more information on SpruceUp DVD Authoring, please visit <http://www.spruceDVD.com>.

This package contains a Photoshop Actions file and a ReadMe Acrobat (.PDF) file explaining how to use it. This set of Actions will assist knowledgeable Photoshop users in building “.psd” files for use in SpruceUp as buttons.

The actions file will need to be manually loaded in Photoshop 5.5 or 6.0 before use. Please contact Adobe Systems, Inc for more information about Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Acrobat at <http://www.adobe.com>.

Any other questions can be directed to Spruce Technologies Technical Support at <http://www.xxxxxxxx-removed>.