This Story Posted:
April 16th

 
 

[4:12 PM]
Astarte Released Two Mac DVD Authoring Tools
Astarte has released two new DVD authoring tools for the Mac called DVDirector Pro and DVDirector. These tools are aimed at the high-end professional market and carry a hefty price. According to Astarte:

First previewed at the DVD Pro conference last summer, DVDirector™ is the result of over two years of development work by ASTARTE's award-winning software team. ASTARTE made CD recording easy and accessible with Toast CD-ROM Pro, now they're doing it again for DVD Video creation. DVDirector™ combines unprecedented ease-of-use with sophisticated capabilities that let anyone create professional-quality Video DVDs in record time.

Priced at US$5,399, DVDirector™ offers breakthrough features at an industry-leading price. Included in that price is the DVDirector™ authoring application, plus M.Pack™, our acclaimed MPEG-2 encoding software, and our new Subtitle Editor™ application. Also included is the Wired 4DVD playback card, which is used for DVD emulation and playback during the authoring process.

In conjunction with the release, ASTARTE also announced a new lower price for DVDirector Pro™. Now priced at US$9,899, DVDirector Pro™ sets a new standard for value and performance. In addition to all the features of the standard DVDirector™, Pro includes a copy of our new Dolby AC-3 encoding application, ASTARTE A.Pack™, and the Wired MediaPress, realtime MPEG encoding card with composite, S-Video and component (Y/UV) input and transcoding functionality. (Please note that all DVDirector Pro™ pre-orders placed at the old price will be adjusted to the new lower price.)

DVDirector™ is designed for multimedia companies, video producers and service bureaus who want to produce DVD Video discs but don't have the time or the budget for a high-end authoring system. It is designed to fit seamlessly into the traditional work flow of a multimedia or video production environment. Authors can use their favorite tools for creating their source material (video, audio and graphics), then use DVDirector™ to integrate them into a professional-quality DVD Video disc.

A version for Windows NT is being worked on , but both of these products are Mac-first.

The products are shipping now and more information can be found at the Astarte web site.

DVDirector's web page.

DVDirector Pro's web page.

Astarte