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So many of you have read of our failings with Adobe Encore trying to create BluRay discs. Today we start a new chapter in BluRay authoring by transferring all our needs to NetBlender's "DoStudio." NetBlender has instituted a really neat month to month licensing option that's approx. $250 per month to use the software. This is truly a month to month deal. So I can activate it for September for $250 and then sign up again in December. There's no extra fees, nothing. They have several plans for 6 months, 12 months or you can outright purchase the software if you want. But in my case, we plan to produce maybe 10 BluRays all of 2009. Probably in batches of 3 or 4, so I might spend $1,000 total next year in the licensing fees, which is significantly less than $8,000 for the permanent license. So to start out, I can just go $250 per month which is easily charged back to the client per job. The only caveat to this software is that it requires a Window machine, and we're a full blown Mac shop here. So I did what I swore I would never do..... purchased an HP Workstation loaded with Vista. Of course, the sad thing for me is this is a fully loaded workstation for less than $1,700 and I know that if I created a fully loaded Mac Pro it'd be around $5,000 or more. So that's one good thing, I guess! One really neat little gadget I added on is a 160GB "pocket drive" that slips into the bottom of the HP machine. We'll use this to transfer the large MPEG-2 files and graphics files from our Macs to the HP. Neat idea to essentially put a portable drive that slips in like a USB stick. So that's Step 1 - get an HP Workstation! I went by NetBlender's recommendations and picked up the following machine: - HP Pavilion Slimline s3500t PC
- Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q9300
- 3GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM (1x2048,1x1024)
- 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9500GS, DVI-I, HDMI, VGA adapter
- 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
- 802.11 a/b/g/n Wireless LAN card
- Blu-ray DVD writer/player & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner
- 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, headphone port
- No TV Tuner w/remote control
- None (Integrated 5.1 capable sound w/ front audio ports)
- Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
- No additional security software
- HP keyboard and HP optical mouse
- 160 GB 5400rpm HP Pocket Media Drive
- HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope I'll give you folks regular updates as we move forward with this new BluRay authoring tool! | |
