Is it me, or does Sony's dvd software bundle suck? (1 Viewer)

[JohnTKline]

O.K I bought sony's dvd dru-500ax and the software bundle SonicMyDvd and Showbiz are horrible. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing, but I've had both programs lock up, and the video editing clips are painful to use.
I do have a copy of Ulead's 5.0 that came with my firewire card, maybe I should install that.
Do you have any dvd authoring programs you like?

John

 

[Christ Reynolds]

great, i have this drive on order, and its on the way, perhaps i should be ready for some problems. although i wont be using their software to edit my home vids. how do you like the drive so far?

CJ

 

[JohnTKline]

Well I've made two coasters so far just trying to copy a dvd I have that was made of the family's old 8mm tapes professionally. As far as data backup it has worked great. But my experience so far with making the duplicate home video dvd has been tragic.
And the authoring/editing programs have crashed, and the editing program is painful just to edit film. For instance I have a video, (wmv), and at the beginning I'm golfing, then in the middle is the baby at the pool, and the end is golf again. I just wanted to edit out the golf parts, but I think I lost hair attempting to do that, then it locks up.

John

 

[Danny R]

I've seen numerous complaints about how sony's software package interferes with other software, so it wouldn't faze me at all to learn that it messes up by itself.

The burner itself however is excellent and works quite well with other software (provided you haven't installed the sony package). Upgrade your firmware to the latest edition. That also might solve some problems (and give you increased burn speed with some media).

 

[Ken Chan]

Are you using RW discs so that you can reuse the coasters?

The last time I used MyDVD, about a year ago, it did suck. There are quite a few more programs that do DVD authoring now. For example Sonic Foundry just released Vegas+DVD, a good NLE for frame-accurate edits and a decent DVD authoring program.

//Ken

 

[Reece]

The packet writing software that comes bundled with the sony does suck and it has been found to cause conflicts with other dvd writing, authoring software. I only installed nero and powerdvd and everything works fine for me.

And like Ken said, use +-/rw. Make sure you project works first before final burning.

 

[JohnTKline]

That's a good point to use rw discs, I'll remember that for sure. What is the latest firmware for the dru-500ax? I just bought it last Thursday.
I need to find a good authoring/editing package and delete sonic and showbiz, and just keep powerdvd and the veritas backup, copier.

Thanks,

John

 

[Rob Landolfi]

The latest firmware update is 2.0e, just out very recently. I bought the 500A two months ago, and have upgraded the firmware once already (to 1.0g). I'm getting ready to do the 2.0e upgrade tonight.

I'm working on a project using the included Sony +RW disc, and this media quit on me after only two or three writes. I sent a note to Sony yesterday asking about it, and am awaiting a reply. I picked up some Verbatim +RW and +R discs on sale at CompUSA last week, and they all seem to be working well.

I haven't messed with too much of the software bundle other than Power DVD (player) and Record Now DX (burn engine), and I've been pleased with these programs.