[MacDV] Academic $249 DVDSP 1.5 to 2.0 Update for $30 More

[Ron Woodland]

As I understand it, DVDSP 2.0 will have some of the better features of 
iDVD as well.  Specifically, the themes.  I just bought a single copy 
of  DVDSP 1.5 to get up to speed with the interface before 2.0 is 
released, and I plan to upgrade that copy for another $30.  But I'm 
waiting until the 2.0 release to buy enough for the student labs.  last 
year, we used iDVD but realize now we need the full-blown product to 
give students the ability to be more creative.  iDVD is too limiting 
for professional work.  Still I find that I often use iDVD first 
because it's nice to have a coherent design theme as a starting point, 
then bring it into DVDSP 1.5 to tweak it in ways not possible in iDVD.  
I think that new feature and the other additions will make DVDSP 2.0 a 
compelling upgrade,   I'm thinking it will be easier for students to 
use DVDSP 2.0 and I'm glad I waited to add it to our software 
repertoire.

I'm a little put off by Apple's pricing structure, however.  In 
education, it's hard to fork over $249 per copy each time there's and 
upgrade.  I've done it twice already with FCP, and expect to do it 
again with 4.0.  I'm not sure how often we can do that, but then again 
how can we not have the latest and greatest for our students?  It's 
just one of the reasons they choose our degree program over others, but 
it's a big one.

On a more positive note, I got an e-mail today from our Apple rep. 
offering a free copy of FCP 4 with each new Mac bought before the end 
of the quarter.  I am counting the hours until Steve Job's keynote 
address on Monday to make my purchase decisions for this year's new 
Macs to replace my three-year-old ones.  From the rumors, this is going 
to be a great day for Apple.

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Ronald Woodland, Assistant Professor                       435.652.7857
Director of Visual Technologies Program
Dixie State College - St. George, Utah  84770

woodland at dixie.edu                                     cit.dixie.edu/vt
woodland at infowest.com
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On Thursday, June 19, 2003, at 03:42  PM, Kunga wrote:

> Well here I go again. Do any of you see a compelling reason to spend 
> the extra $30 to get DVDSP 1.5 now for $249 and 2.0 Upgrade for $30 
> more vs. just waiting and getting DVDSP 2.0 only in August for $249? 
> 1.5 still works with 9.2.2 and OS X while 2.0 only works with OS X. 
> Any other reasons to get both for the extra $30? Are the extras in 1.5 
> (Corel Photo-Paint, FreePlay Music, Subtitle Editor etc) which may not 
> be in version 2.0 worth the $30 tax for both? Is it too soon to ask 
> this question? I don't want to wait until the last week before August 
> 15th to make this decision like I did with FCP.
>
> This is a different situation since the academic price of 2.0 alone 
> will also be $249 and not higher. So this time the issue is about 
> spending a little more for both. Any thoughts?
>
> k
>
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