My burns do seem to be taking longer lately, I hadn't noticed the rebuild.

Do you have multiple burners? What I'm also seeing with the latest build is that when I burn multiple copies, the drive letter isn't remembered. It always defaults back to the lower letter drive so I *always* have to change it to the second disc drive before I burn. Yet another thing I'm frustrated by with the newer build.

@chienworks, I've seen you and others mentioning using another burner software rather than DVDA(S) but I've never had a problem burning so I've subscribed to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." up until now. I'm hoping SCS will get it fixed in the next build. If not, I may consider Imgburn.

SCS Customer Service, or at least one individual there, is starting to frustrate me.

I tell them that I'm choosing the From Previously Prepared folder option but twice now, they reply to my open support question, reference number 111209-000105, that I should select the "from previously prepared folder" option. Hello?? Thirteen days elapsed for them to tell me to do something I'm already doing!! It's like they're not even reading what I said.

"When I burn a disc or multiple discs from a previously prepared folder, DVDAS 5.0 build 157 creates a new temp file each time. Is anyone else seeing this?"

I irritate lots of people.

Where is the temp file being created?

I don't normally make more than one DVD at a time since I built a DVD duplicator tower. But I did have an occasion to burn a second disk because I screwed up the label printing. I told DVDA to burn another and it started burning almost immediately.

Where is the temp file being created?

In the folder set in Options > Preferences > Burning tab > Temporary files folder.

You should see a file the size of your disc image created there. When disc burning is completed and your prompted to burn another, the temp file is gone. So if you choose yes, a new temp file has to be created, and so on and so on.

It used to be that it didn't create a temp file, if burning from a previously created folder, it would just read the files in your projects VIDEO_TS folder, Burn lead in, burn tracks, burn lead out.

Now it prepares, burn lead in, burn tracks, burn lead out, deletes temp file. The process is repeated for each subsequent burn.

I am not sure what's going on here because I opened a window in explorer to monitor the content of my temp folder, then burned a DVD from an existing project. There was no new temp file created.

You're using Architect Studio build 157, correct?

If so, I guess I'll uninstall, reinstall build 120, test and update to 157 again to see how it behaves.

[rant2]
Now I'm officially frustrated. After repeated replies stating what I'm experiencing, here is the reply I got:

What is the result when you attempt to burn a DVD from a previously prepared folder as described in the steps provided?

To which I replied, "Are you for real?.... please transfer my question to another customer support representative as you are not helping me."

One more useless reply and I'm submitting another support question to reference my open one to state I'm not getting help.
[/rant2]

Excerpted from my added reply to my support question:

I decided to take my own advice and see how build 128 behaves. I uninstalled DVDAS and installed build 128. I still have the installer. It performed as expected when using the Previously prepared folder option, it started to burn the lead-in right away then the tracks, no temp file was created. It even remembered the previously used drive letter.

After a successful test with build 128, I updated to build 157. The installer recognized I had an earlier version and proceeded to update it. However, after the update was finished, there was no shortcut on the desktop, no start menu folder, and the Program Files folder for DVD Architect 5.0 was empty, save for a few .dll files and the elua file. You've got to be kidding me.

So I run the Add Remove Programs control panel to uninstall DVDAS then run the build 157 installer which treated it as a new install. I behaved as it did before, it proceeded to prepare a temporary file image!! So I cancel the burn and it didn't stop until the temporary file was completely created. You would expect it to close the temporary file, delete it and cancel the operation, wouldn't you? But no. Oh, the drive letter wasn't remembered and defaulted back to the lower DVD drive letter, G.

Using the Previously prepared folder option and previously used drive works in build 128 but doesn't in build 157.

I can't wait to see how the csr replies to that!

Well, here's the reply I received today....

I was unable to reproduce the issue you've been experiencing using our latest build of DVD Architect Studio 5.0 (build 157).

That's not what I was hoping for. So I ask again, is anyone else having the same issue? I'm on XP SP3 if that makes a difference.

I wonder - could DVDA be creating the temp file because you don't have enough RAM? If you can find someone still running Vegas/DVDA on an XP (I'm sure there's at least one), see if they can duplicate it.

RAM isn't the issue. It works properly in build 128 but not in 157 (or the previous update build, 156). They broke it after the initial DVDAS 5.0 release.

I installed on my Win XP SP3 2GB RAM machine, DVDAS 4.5 and 5.0 builds 128, 150, 156 and 157 in turn. 4.5 and 5.0 build 128 went straight to burning a leadin from a prepared folder, but builds 150, 156 and 157 prepared an image first, taking about 2 mins to do so.

DVDA Pro (various versions) went straight to burn leadin.

I used a SATA burner for the above tests. My machine normally has two PATA DVD burners, but coincidentally, DVDAS 5.0 builds 150, 156 and 157 did not see them. Furthermore, although ISO Image Writer was available, when the PATA drives were connected, the Next button was greyed out so I could not create an ISO file either.

So builds 150, 156 and 157 have more than one bug not present in earlier versions.

Peter, THANK YOU for taking the time to confirm what I'm seeing. I'll post a link to this thread in my support question to validate the issue, at least for those of us on XP SP3.

Thanks again!! You went above and beyond!

You're welcome. Next time you may be able to help someone else, and so on.

Peter, SCS is making me jump through hoops, letting them know you replicated the issue wasn't enough.

They want me to Please try installing the software on a newly created Windows user account. This helps create a fresh install environment for the application.

This, after already stating I reinstalled Windows XP on my PC. After mentioning it again, they repeated the request. To wit I replied, "I reinstalled Windows XP, the problem persists."

I've met the "fresh install environment" request.

Any suggestions for escalating this beyond the one SCS CS rep I've been interacting with?

I have not tried getting help from SCS so I can't help you there except for the old saying, "Its the squeaky wheel that gets the oil".

Well I'll be a son of a gun!! It's working as expected now!!! Drive letter is retained and it burns right away without creating a temp file. I didn't make any changes do DVDAS. I've tried this on several projects and they all work as expected.

The only thing I can think of is that the latest set of MS updates resolved the issue. What ever DVDAS uses to call XP functions in the newer builds was broken by an MS update in December. Could it really be?

Peter, does your XP box get MS updates? If so, could you give it another go and let me know? Thanks.

Since the time that I did those tests, I have restored Windows from a backup to fix some problem and applied all recent updates.

I now installed DVDAS 5.0 build 157 and tried making a DVD. Last time I had to replace my two PATA burners with a SATA because DVDAS wouldn't see them, but now it wouldn't see the SATA either. Never-the-less I was able to make an ISO file and DVDA did not re-render when I made another ISO. I therefore confirm that your problem seems to have disappeared.

I don't know why DVDAS is not able to see the burners, but it is not important because I don't normally use it and I do my video work on a Win 7 box anyway, so I am not fussed about that.

So you now seem to be happy, and as they say, "All's well that ends well".

What else can I say? You da man!!!

Yes, I'm happy now.

I'll update my support question letting SCS know MS resolved "their" issue. :)