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In Reply to: Niconico / audio gaps - An official response from Minnetonka Audio posted by Eric LeRouge on April 03, 2003 at 17:41:11:
Thanks a lot for the intersting answer from Minnetonka.
Reading the answer, if I correctly understood, the problem is in the loading of the still images.
But I have a question.
Why is not possible to diable the still iamges from Steel, I tryed to disable the images but only the menu image disappear the others remain.
Is it possible that completely disabling the still images the problem of gaps will be solved?
Could be a remedy to not have audio gaps disabling completely the still images of the traks, I think that it is not absolutely necessary to have still images if I can eliminate the audio gaps, also because the DVD-A is an audio disk and the pictures are not so necessary.
Many thanks to any answer from Minnetonka.
Bye Bye
Follow Ups:
I received another more complete response from Minnetonka to Niconico's post, and post it under the same thread for future reference. It contains a thorough response to the criticsm of Niconico, and also a lot of information about DVD-Audio authoring software, and current competitive environment for software products. I think it should be posted unedited.I also left the header, where it says I'm one of only "voices of sanity" on the Audiobahn (I really like that company :)
****************************************************************
Eric,
Below is a reponse to niconico's questions/comments. Could you post this on our behalf?I read a few random postings in theDVD-Audiobahn forum. Quite a religious war between dvd-a, sacd and vinyl. Yours was one of the few voices of sanity I saw.
***It's aquite good software Steel but why is not compatible with DVD-A players on the market?***
Can you explain how you arrived at the conclusion that STEEL is not compatible with DVD-A players on the market. In our testing, with players from Panasonic, JVC, Pioneer, Toshiba, and Creative Labs, we find that STEEL is quite compatible.
***And why Chrome is compatible?***
I am not trying to be combative here (the Pleistocenic comment still hurts, though) but I still don't understand how you define compatible and non-compatible. Compatabiliy issues (as we understand them) are very important to us. The DVD Forum defines DVD-AUDIO features that are required and some that are optional. STEEL supports all required features and produces completely valid DVD-AUDIO discs. STEEL may not support some of those optional features but I do not think that is what you are talking about. I think you are talking about some formatting choices that we made to keep the cost down that you don't happen to agree with.
***I don't think it's a good thing sell a product without WRITING BIG that You will have audiogap, limitation in munber of traks with many DVD-A Player and no way to have a background without the Diskswelder logo! and WRITE BIG that if You want all this "bugs" away from Your life You have to buy Chrome.***
On http://www.discwelder.com/compare.htm we clearly show the differences between the products. We explain the limitations in STEEL with respect to the number of tracks/groups and the background.
In the case of gaps between tracks, that is not mentioned in the product comparison. Why would you assume that the feature exists in STEEL if it is not explicitely mentioned? Even with gapless authoring as provided by CHROME, Sonic Solutions and MEI, some players - notably the Toshiba 4700 - do not support gapless playback under any circumstances. It is not a foregone conclusion that authoring a gapless disc will play back gaplessly on all players.***That's all!***
> For 600 Euro are money and for that money You can buy Audio Editing software that are real good objects, and You can buy great Audio Card for digital processing, and You can buy also some hardware to make recordings!
discWelder STEEL and CHROME are products in the DVD-AUDIO authoring market, not the Audio Editing or Audio Card markets. Keeping that in mind and looking at the DVD-AUDIO market, you will find that the only other DVD-AUDIO authoring programs are offered by Sonic Solutions (6000 Euro for their low-end package or 25000+ Euro for their top-of-the-line - disclaimer: I do not know the true prices of the Sonic Solutions products. These are merely guesses) or Audio Cube (price unknown but probably quite high). That being said, I think the prices of the various programs mentioned, including STEEL and CHROME, reflect the capabilities of the programs. Of course I would like to think that the prices of STEEL and CHROME belie their feature but I may be biased here. STEEL may have limitation when compared to other DVD-AUDIO programs (and please, don't compare DVD-AUDIO authoring programs with DVD-VIDEO authoring programs. It would not be a valid comparison) but then again, it only costs 600 Euro. At that price, STEEL puts DVD-AUDIO authoring in the hands of many more people than was previously possible.
Formatting DVD-AUDIO is a hard problem and hard problems cost money to solve. If it were easy, perhaps there would be many more DVD-AUDIO authoring packages. There is certainly no shortage of audio editing packages and audio cards on the market.***You know software like Steel in 6 months, more or less, will be sorpassed by many other softwares form Sonic Foundry and Steinberg and I think that the prices will be competitive too.***
I was not aware that Sonic Foundry or Steinberg were entering the DVD-AUDIO authoring market. I understand that Sonic Foundry has just entered the DVD-VIDEO market with their Vegas + DVD product, however.
***Anyway if when I bought Steel somebody tell me of all these problems I'd never buy it and wait for something more professional compatible with my pocket and continue to go to my friend and do my DVD-V with PCM 24/96 audio with Scenarist, as I have to do now when I want something that plays withou problems.***
Please explain the what you mean by "professional(ly) compatible" and "play(ing) without problems". As you point out, Scenarist is a DVD-VIDEO authoring program. You will only be able to have 2 channels of 24/96 audio on a DVD-VIDEO "track". High-definition (24/96, 20/88.1, etc.) multichannel surround (5.1) is not supported. High-definition stereo (24/192, 24/176.2) is also not supported. Scenarist also costs 25000 Euro.
Now you just need some paid for testimonies. Anyways, any company which argues that its customers are wrong won't stay in business very long.I think Niconico had a very good point at the price of the product given the features. They are fair for a semi-pro environment, but not for the enthusiast market. However, this is Discwelders perogative as to which market they target. But, just because they currently share a duopoly on the market, doesn't mean artificially high product prices are reasonable. There is no reason for the high price of the product except lack of competition.
PS. You can download a demo version of a competing product for free, and if you want to try full functionality can get the readily available keygen.
SnaggS
I don't know about the keygen thing, I could never figure it out (I must be too old or too dumb).I realize that the message from Mninnetonka may seem like a commercial response to some people, and it is, because Niconico was making very strong comments about the product. I have passed on the messages to Niconico as well.
Believe me, information about DVD-Audio authoring software is hard to find, that's why I posted this message un-edited, with a caveat.
By reading the message, you will see that there are two major (and three in total) companies operating at various levels of price/functionality on the DVD-Audio software market, and with some significant information about the list prices of their products. You also get a feel for whether other publishers will enter the market soon.
As for Niconico, I think he has strong points, which will only be addressed in the future if Minnetonka Audio hears some feedback from early adopters and users.
In my view, this is a constructive way of dealing with a software publisher, rather than flame down the products (esp. with no real alternative :)Just like everybody else, I want more competition, better prices, improved products, and robust technology. It will come. But at this minute, discWelder Steel is the best product you can have at this price point. I has to improve, that's all.
Best
Eric
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