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If price were no object, Spruce's DVDStation would be a slam dunk for any DVD developer, corporate or commercial. The first truly integrated encoding/authoring system we've seen in this series of DVD authoring reviews, the DVDStation produced excellent MPEG-2/AC-3 output, while the authoring software enables nearly all DVD features in an extraordinarily easy-to-use interface.
At $50,000, however, the system is more appropriate for commercial title developers than corporate training departments, especially since you can replicate most corporate-level features for under $1 5,000. Still, commercial title developers and corporations wanting to push the DVD creation envelope should place the DVDStation at or near the top of their short list.
filler up: what you get
Spruce's DVDStation is a Pentium II 300MHZ NT Workstation with MPEG-2/AC-3 encoding, DVD authoring, and a DVD Player boasting 128MB RAM, an ATI Rage Pro graphics card, and a whopping 17GB Seagate hard drive. The integration of three separate products, DVDStation arrived without a sorely needed integrated quick-start guide, though the company said that one was in the works during testing. Spruce packages the densely-populated, full-length AC-3 and MPEG-2 encoding cards separate from the workstation because the cards tend to shake loose when shipped inside the system. This makes step number one opening up the system and installing the cards.
Step number two is connecting the components. Spruce's MPEGXpress 2000 MPEG-2 encoding system includes an external DigitalConnect converter box that accepts analog audio and video inputs and converts them to digital format for input into the Dolby audio and MPEG-2 encoders. You'll also need up to ten cables, which Spruce provides in well-- labeled bags.
Overall, installation was a nightmare, the result of poor planning and lack of coordination between Spruce's marketing and manufacturing groups and even worse timing [we tested in the midst of a new product release]. However, once Spruce's technical support manager became involved, problems were quickly resolved.
After reviewing the quick-start draft and discussing new shipment procedures, we decided to take a deep breath and assume that our problems were unique to the circumstances of our review and decided on that basis to disregard them. Potential customers who are a little less trusting might be wise to ask for customer references from new DVDStation owners.
The MPEGXpress2000 encoding...