Ulead DVD MovieFactory is now available for purchase download (demo soon) at $44.95 and with no NLE software required this has to be one of the cheapest ways of getting your movies to CD & DVD.
It will be interesting to see how this compares with Pinnacle Express.
Jeff
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Is Pinnacle Express any good then ?
DB
Dave,
If you are looking for an uncomplicated way of producing CD/DVD movies, and are particularly interested in creating attractive menus, then yes. It needs help from TMPGEnc though, as the embedded transcoders, particularly the MPEG2, are not yet all that good. I have a section on it on my website.
I have so far produced several VCD/SVCD projects, with no burn failures.
Jeff
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Visit me at http://www.sparkysworld.co.uk
Thanks for the advice.
DB
Can Express burn DVD a based project onto CD-Rs ? I.e. better quality than SVCD ?
DB
Dave,
I think you may be talking about miniDVD? If so, the answer is no. Express will only burn VCD/SVCD on CDR/RW.
Jeff
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Visit me at http://www.sparkysworld.co.uk
Having some problems with Express.
The interface is easy and intuitive, and I've got to the final stage of the project - burning to disc.
There's a DVD-RW disc in the Pioneer A03 drive, and the program will not burn to it. It does all the encoding, goes through the motions of burning and freezes at 99% done.
I eject and inspect the disc to find that nothing has been burned to it.
Visiting Pinnacle's website, I found a version 1.02 update which provides support for the A03 (and which DVD-R drives were supported prior to this pray tell?).
Install the update, no difference.
I've now blatted my system, installed Windows ME rather than 2000 and am starting again.
Anyone faced and conquered this problem already?
Cheers,
Pete
Having reinstalled everything under Windows ME rather than Win 2K, Express is behaving itself well.
I'm intrigued - does Express not support Win 2K properly?
Pete
Pete,
Yes, that is odd, because the Pinnacle engineering department is Win2k based. Maybe the DVD writer drivers are at fault?
Jeff
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Visit me at http://www.sparkysworld.co.uk
The A03 does not have low level drivers.
Like CD-R/RW all the hard work is done by the ASPI layer in the operationg system (or so I am led to beleive) and the writing software itself.
I have also read that W2K does not have a native ASPI layer driver. There is a recent thread about this - do a search
Some users with Windows 2000 have found that turning DMA off for the A03 has made it work.
The trial version of DVD MovieFactory is now available. I have used the full version and it produces good results.
quote:Originally posted by Gavin Gration:
Some users with Windows 2000 have found that turning DMA off for the A03 has made it work.
What's odd here is that the A03 works fine for other applications under Win2K, but not Express.
I've written a DVD using this trial software and I must say it's easy to get the hang off. It's also got a lot more features compared to the software that came with my Pioneer writer. One problem I've had is with one particular video clip where the sound "crackles" quite badly. It's OK on the tape and the captured AVI just crackly on conversion to MPEG2. All the other video files on the disk are fine. Any thoughts or help appreciated
Just bought Ulead DVD MovieFactory - first impressions.
I haven't had much time to play with it so far, but they seem to have taken the DVD plug-in (which I quite liked) and improved somewhat so it now handles multiple MPEG files (with multiple chapter points in each one). I've tried it with files from TMPGEnc and it's own encoder, and it accepted both OK.
It's also got DV and analogue capture facilities, a simple video editor (cut & splice only, no transitions), and an MPEG encoder (standard Ligos GoMotion, so 'OK' quality but not TMPGEnc standard).
I don't yet have a DVD writer, so I've only made miniDVD so far, but these play OK in my Cyberholme ADL528 (burnt directly from the application)
It also includes a customised version of the Photo Express image editor in the price.
At 45 USD for the download version (80MB), it's almost a steal for quick and simple VCD/SVCD/DVD authoring.
Tony
[This message has been edited by owlsroost (edited 21 October 2001).]
Tony
Does your Cyberholme ADL528 mannage high bitrates and DVD menus when playing miniDVDs or is it like the Yelo in offering an MPEG file selection menu?
John,
The ADL528 plays miniDVD the same way as standard DVD - with full menus etc. With the stock DVD drive, it will go up to 4.5 - 5 Mbit/s from CD.
If you are desperate for higher rates (and don't mind invalidating the warranty), the DVD drive fitted is a standard PC form factor/ATAPI interface drive, and can be replaced with something else (mine now has an old Hitachi GD-2500BX DVD-ROM drive installed - this gives 6Mbit/s plus and is quieter than the original).
Tony
Thanks for the quick response Tony, I have a client shouting about Yelo but with Richer Sounds doing the ADL528 at a smidge under £100 it looks like a great bargain for disc makers.
John
Is the Cyberhome ADL528 compatable with DVD-RW discs? Most players seem ok with the DVD-R for general discs but DVD-RW apears to be more patchy...
Gareth
Gareth,
The only info I have seen re DVD-R/DVD-RW compatibility is here: http://www.dv-rec.de/technik/dvdrw/index.shtml (and it is DVD-R 'yes', DVD-RW 'no' with standard drive fitted).
(I'd be happy to try a test disk for you, but as I said above, mine no longer has the standard DVD drive installed)
Tony
Thanks for the offer Tony, but I don't want to buy _another_ that needs pulling appart to get it to read my disks!
Gareth
This thread seems to be wandering off topic.
I agree with owlsroost - for the money (£31 download) its a great little package. I have authored DVDs using it and burnt them on the A03 - perfect playback on the Yelo and a Pioneer.
I agree that DVD Factory is a good product although I only have the 31 day tryout. I have written a DVD-RW on my AO3, but the Ulead product does not allow you to gradually build a project (MyDVD does), so you have to start from scratch every time. The order that you load the MPEG files determines their order in the menu(s) and I cannot find how to change this.
Bill Lewis
The Cyberhome player will play DVD-R with no problems but spits out the DVD-RW disks.
The following is the machines I have tested:
Wharfdale 750s - plays DVD-RW but not DVD-R
Sony 735 - plays DVD-R & DVD-RW
Cyberhome ADL528 - Plays DVD-R not DVD-RW
Oritron 100/600 - Both Play DVD-R & DVD-RW
Pansonic LV55 - Plays DVD-R not DVD-RW
Currently testing plays by Pioneer
Bill,
You don't have to start from scratch,simply save the project and restart from where you left off. The order of files can be changed (I think) by clicking and dragging on the thumbnails.
John
John,
Just back from holiday!
Thanks for your note. I will try again, and probably buy from Ulead, unless anyone knows that Pinnacle is better.
Bill Lewis
I agree with all the good comments about Movie Factory. Considering the price it gives great quality, has a good encoder and produced excellent results.
Sonic and others take note. You can produce quality without spending a fortune on lacklustre software.
Well done Ulead
I'll second that for DVD Movie Factory.... especially when you factor in that it has capture facilities for DV (with automatic scene splitting), and WfW and DirectShow based analogue capture (with real time software MPEG encoding if you've got a fast enough PC).
Tony
Hi,
I also bought the DVD moviefactory to use with my HP DVD100i (DVD+RW)Drive. I am happy with the result, but am looking for better mpeg2 encoding. I have tried TMpGenc, but have not got better result that the encoder that comes with ulead DVD moviefactory. Maybe I have not got the best TMPGenc setting.Why I say so is because I have seen the same DV clip recorded on Philips DVD+RW giving better result, better details in the background with fast movement and panning actions.
Hi,
My two pennt's worth on DVD factory.
I bought the full version of Ulead DVD factory and use it with a Pioneer A03. It works great.
When encoding DV PAL video at 7Mb/sec CBR, the visable difference between the built in Ligos encoder nd TPMG is hardly noticable. Lower bitrates, esp using VBR may not be the case though.
The only things I can complain about (tho' hardly for £33 !) are;
1) It would be nice to be able to select buttons for use in the menus instead of being fixed only to video thumbnails.
2) You cannot encode a video clip into MPEG and select PCM uncompressed audio, you can only select MPEG layer audio.
3) With point 2 in mind. If you do your encoding externally (TMPG) there is no way I can see to bring in a MPEG video clip and a PCM audio clip and join them together as per Sonic myDVD/DVDit etc.
Otherwise a great product which is reliable and works well with a A03 under Win 2K Pro Sp2.
Have fun!
Hi All,
Ref DVD Movie factory, Do the menus ie. icons etc highlight on your stand alone players ?
They do when played back on my computer, but do not highlight on my Hitachi DVD player although the DVDr disks play the video back ok. So to find the correct scene etc I have to use guesswork with the control.
Regards Steve.
Anyone checked the above yet?
Regards Steve
Hi Steve,
The icons highlight OK (from miniDVD) on my ADL528.
If the 'scene numbers' are enabled the numeric keys on the remote also select the items correctly on my player.
Tony
The menus highlight and work just fine on my Sony DVP NS300
Best regards.
ITSPMAN,
You said that DVD-RW plays on a wharfedale 750s, I've never got my wharfedale to play DVD-R or RW and wharfedale themselves say it's not compatible. Can you give me some more details on the disk you created which worked OK.
John.