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Strata Live 3D is written in Java http://strata.com/

'm writing a beautiful musical notation app in Java. It runs unmodified on Windows and Mac ( all versions). I have not tested on Linux. On my old Mac tower 867MHz, my program can play, and highlight 32nd notes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-second_note The notes are calligraphic WYSIWYG rendered using Java 2D ( not fonts) and fully printable. I chose Java for its vast libraries(packages). The GUI interface was a bonus. Very easy See another example of an app written in Java: http://www.strata.com/products/strata_3d_cx_suite/strata_live_3d_cx/

There are apparantly multiple NTSC standards, 720x486 only being one of them. According to that site, the 4:3 aspect ratio is the preferred normal resolution standard and comes in at 648x486.

There are 3 simple rules not to lose quality:

1) Perform effects, fade in,fade out etc on non compressed source never overwriting it. E.g. use "edited.avi" as output file

2) Never upsample. E.g. don't convert to DivX, it is lossy, "final" format. Decide what media you will need and compress using regular TV specs, don't delete the source if you can. For example, if you want to output to NTSC/Progressive (which in case, camera is not HD), here is resolution specs. Anything lower loses quality, higher won't work.

648 x 486-->Standard NTSC ( http://www.strata.com/support/3dmanual/ch13/ch13_7 .html ). If the program allows it, select also "progressive scanning" option. Near all TVs,DVD players support it. It becomes dubbed as "480p"

3) Do not transcode. E.g. do not convert something to DivX (mpeg 4 variant) and re-convert it to Mpeg 2..

4) Always use "multi pass" encoding. Not only the result will be smaller, it will be better quality as the bandwidth is used wherever needed.

Your problem was, single layer DVD. As the output media lacks space , the program you used lowered quality to fit 4.7 gb media. You should use dual layer DVD or 2 DVDs (which seems like bad idea)

I am on Mac so I really forgot/don't watch Windows/Linux programs but there is one program I can blindly suggest: TGMpegEnc. I have even seen it used in purely professional production work on windows based studios. Don't let its "plain" look trick you. It is a very advanced solution which I heard "basic" version is free.

Yeah, I had to refer to http://www.strata.com/support/3dmanual/ch13/ch13_7 .html for the NTSC/PAL numbers... but every source I've looked at for those resolutions numbers always seem to be different. I guess the D-1 PAL is more common, with 576 scan lines. Probably some interesting history behind how most of the world got the higher resolution, slightly lower framerate PAL std instead of NTSC.

Haven't come across a 1440x900 LCD panel yet, but I'm sure they exist. If you do the math, it comes out to 16:10, though (unless the pixels ain't square for some reason). Anyway, it's pretty frustrating that we haven't reached digital convergence yet between common HDTV and computer formats & displays yet. But I guess that would make them too cheap :P

I've been using Strata 3D for years. It's no Maya, but it's got a fairly decent modeler and a decent ray-tracer. I like it because it's pretty straightforward to use (as opposed to, say, Blender). New versions have IK and all that junk, and the animation support is almost good. (Note that these are compared to some theoretical package that's easy to use and powerful. AFAIK, such a thing doesn't exist.) Anyway, there's a demo in their online store, try it out. (The MacOSX version doesn't have a demo yet, but 3.7 runs fine under Classic.)

I've been using Strata 3D for years. It's no Maya, but it's got a fairly decent modeler and a decent ray-tracer. I like it because it's pretty straightforward to use (as opposed to, say, Blender). New versions have IK and all that junk, and the animation support is almost good. (Note that these are compared to some theoretical package that's easy to use and powerful. AFAIK, such a thing doesn't exist.) Anyway, there's a demo in their online store, try it out. (The MacOSX version doesn't have a demo yet, but 3.7 runs fine under Classic.)

If you've got a Mac...

• Strata 3dBase is what I use.
• POVRAY runs on a lot of platforms besides the Mac too.
• RenderBoy is also out there.

The Strata product is free. It has some disabled functions (for example: it only does single light sources), but it renders very nicely. POVRAY has a more difficult UI. RenderBoy is $25 shareware.

I wish people would stop complaining about Intel replacing Motorola if Apple were to port OSX to x86. For those unfamiliar with the graphic design industry, Apple has become much a standard there and Intel cannot compete on that market. Line of two machines an Intel box and an Apple with the same amounts of mem/disk space, etc, then run photoshop, some 3d programs such as Strata Pro, and you'll see the comparisons.

Apple will probably not be concerned over people sidestepping hardware purchases opting for OSX software to port to cheaper boxes, they already have a major market. Do you think that just because us geeks speak in wonderment and chant OSX OSX OSX, Apple feels threatened to port OSX?

What would be the big gain for Apple here, if they put OSX on the market think of all the free download mirrors that'd pop up causing them to lose money on sales. I don't think its a matter Apple feeling scared or threatened about losing hardware sales, you purchase an Apple comp for, looks, functionality, and its niche in the market, in this instance with OSX and x86, its like buying a Ferrari only to have a Daihitsu engine.

John Ashcroft replaced by Kathie Lee?

Well, at least this means a 3d app that won't crash. I've tried most of them (apps, I mean) on whatever OS, and inevitably -- hang, crash, here we go again... I was kinda hoping Strata would release a 2.x or 3.0 of StudioPro for OS 9 (hell, I'd be anxious as ***insert proverbial thing here*** if only they said "hey all you users, we're going to release an upgrade once OS X is out"), but ever since C3d bought them, there's been no news. btw DuesEx ala G4 rocks.