Cirlinca looking for beta testers for HD-Audio Solo Ultra 3.0

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I checked out their website, and all of the info on their DVD-A product seems to be gone, except the link to BUY it. Strange.
 
I've been using this to generate a couple of DVD-As, one of a choir and organ concert (very nice), and another of lineside recordings of a steam railway gala. I successfully managed to put still pictures on the DVD-A, but for the Blu-Ray version, try as I might, with various different PNG dimensions, it always ended up rendering it as a widely stretched 3840x1080 image, with a 1920 crop of the middle of the image showing on screen.

With the Blu-Ray I also had an issue with distortion (very much like tape drop-outs) for the first few seconds on the rear left channel on one of the tracks. This distortion isn't present when I play the DVD-A disc cooked from exactly the same LPCM files. Odd. I chopped the first minute or so off the affected track for the Blu-Ray version as it's pretty much superfluous -- I should think about chopping it off the DVD-A as well as it doesn't contribute anything much.
 
This is one of those "one button solution" type programs that gives going from stereo to surround a bad name. If that's your interest, SPEC will give you a ton better results than any professional stereo to surround solution out there.

Can't speak for its authoring capabilities, but I'm sure there's better out there.
 
...I'm sure there's better out there.

Please do tell.

For simple DVD-A authoring, I have not found better or more reasonably priced. Admittedly, it has limitations in its image processing, but for simple DVD-A discs, it can't be beat.

I would be very interested in other low priced options.

- Ben
 
This is one of those "one button solution" type programs that gives going from stereo to surround a bad name. If that's your interest, SPEC will give you a ton better results than any professional stereo to surround solution out there.

It's only as good as the VST plugin one uses with it. For me, this isn't an issue. I record in quad, edit in quad, then just import the quad files into HD-Audio Solo Ultra 3 to get it to burn to disc. Job done.
 
Cirlinca have released an update for HD-Audio Solo Ultra 3, bringing it up to version 3.3. According to them "It corrects issues with some FLAC files and with Blu-ray authoring." I'll try re-authoring some Blu-Ray static picture files with it at some point.
 
Cirlinca also just announced a pre-release to HD-Audio Solo Ultra 4.0 (www.cirlinca.com/betarelease.htm). It mentions Blu-ray corrections regarding pictures aspect ratio. This may solve your problem. By the way, if you try to import an image that is wider than the target format after height resizing it is cropped widthwise (which is the choice of Cirlinca rather than downsizing, say). It's better to pick pictures that are not too far from the target dimensions.
 
It can't come soon enough! What I found with the static caption images for Blu-Ray was that it made no jot of difference the dimensions of the image. I rendered some as 1920x1080, square pixel, and those also came out stretched twice the intended width, as I wrote in post 4 of this thread. Nothing I tried worked, so in the end I gave up. The disc only plays in a Sony PS3 anyway.
 
Guys, I just tried to download the latest Ultra release and my NOD 32 anti virus kicked in blocking the download, warning me that it included more than one serious threat.
Dwight
 
Is this the v. 3.3 or the beta of version 4? I downloaded v. 3.3 the other day and it's clean as a whistle according to NIS 2011.
 
I sent support a note....I was pretty shocked and hope this is some kind of glitch connected to Nod 32, which is very aggressive. I was bummed and hope this clears up.
 
Just got a note from Cirlinca claiming, and I think they're probably quite accurate, that Nod 32 recorded a false positive. I've asked ESET for a clarification,if possible, but Cirlinca has been used without problems by so many, I can't help but think it's as Cirlinca claims.
 
It can't come soon enough! What I found with the static caption images for Blu-Ray was that it made no jot of difference the dimensions of the image. I rendered some as 1920x1080, square pixel, and those also came out stretched twice the intended width, as I wrote in post 4 of this thread. Nothing I tried worked, so in the end I gave up. The disc only plays in a Sony PS3 anyway.

Puzzling. I tried to reproduce your problem with 3.3 and couldn't. I imported a 1920x1080 picture and tried the following combinations :
PAL/4:3/1080i, PAL/16:9/1080i, NTSC/4:3/1080i, PAL/16:9/1080p : all pictures fine
Why don't you get in contact with cirlinca support to get to the bottom of this. By the way, the latest Ultra 4.0 works with all Blu-ray players here. Before, it wouldn't with the Panasonic. May solve your PS3 only problem.
 
Rather pointless with v. 4 in the pipeline. It's the Blu-Ray compatibility that's causing me problems. I'm having to advertise it as being only compatible on PS3 only. This is a screencap of the problem, and it happens no matter the file dimensions or encoding options. I've tried shrinking the width of the image to 1440x1080 and 960x1080, but the end result is always the same as this pic.

IMAG0068.jpg
 
I started my Solo Ultra 2.3 today for the first time in ages. It prompted me that there was an update to 3.3 available. Yet I could see no way to get the upgrade from within the program. Am I missing something in plain sight?
 
You have to go to the download page - look on the top of the home page. If you have v. 2.3 you are going to have to request a new registration key - which is free for v.2 purchasers - just email [email protected] with your info and they will send you the key for v.3. I'm beta testing v.4 right now - they've added some basic menu authoring capabilities - you might want to contact them to get in on the beta test as well.
 
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