Ulead DVD Workshop trial 32MB

I just completed my review of DVD Workshop earlier this week.

Pete

and ........ ?

I know buy CV & find out.

It's not as advanced as I'd like, but it's well featured for the price, and the user interface is fabulous. Seriously - it makes DVD authoring fun. I like it a lot.

Pete

Also note the very low-cost upgrade deal for anyone already using DVD MovieFactory or the DVD plug-in for VideoStudio or MediaStudio Pro...

That makes it a very good deal. A must-buy, even.

Hi Pete,

quote:Originally posted by pcwells:
Also note the very low-cost upgrade deal for anyone already using DVD MovieFactory or the DVD plug-in for VideoStudio or MediaStudio Pro...

That makes it a very good deal. A must-buy, even.

On the Ulead web site the upgrade version is £145 and the full version £175 - just £30 difference - am I missing something? This doesn't seem a "very low-cost upgrade deal" to me!

Cheers,

Tony

Thanks for pointing that out!

Seems I misheard and misread Ulead's upgrade plans!

Pete

I've had a good go at it over the last couple of days and have been impressed - although I presumed it would retail in the £50 range, so perhaps I'm not so impressed now!

I used mpeg2 files produced from TMPGEnc (via Prem 6.1 and Avisynth)

Its quick and easy to use, although has some limitations (I would have liked some more "advanced" functions so you can tinker if you want to), but generally found it a greater "starter" product.

I did find two anomolies, anyone know the answers to ;
1) Chapters are flexible and easy to implement but although they act as "in" points from menu's, they don't seem to function from within the footage itself (i.e. chapter forwards/backon on a set top player). Anyone else found this?
2) When creating the disk is appears to re-encode the project (which in my case was already encoded with TMPGEnc). This is slow, may affect quality and pointless.

Jez

Anyne manage to get the chapter stops working correctly (i.e. within the clips themselves)?

Which DVD player do you use?

I haven't played with DVD workshop much as yet, but I've seen the same comment about chapters using DVD Movie Factory (although I find they work OK).

Tony

Tony,
Pioneer 525, although the in-product preview player doesnt accept chapter forwards/backwards either.
Jez

What is the DIRECT Mpeg capture like?

Shaun

Hi Jez,

I burnt a DVD-RW from DVD Workshop - chapter skip forward/back worked OK on a Hitachi DVP250 and Cyberhome ADL528.

Also discovered that if you use a 'make disk' template with video/audio bitrates set higher than the source MPEG files it doesn't appear to re-encode them (also assuming frame size, frame rate, audio sampling rates etc are the same in source and disk template).

I've only checked this so far with MPEG files from the VS6 encoder, not TMPGEnc.

Tony

Thanks for the info owlsroost. I'll try again.

BTW I'm assuming you've got a Pioneer A03 writer, in which case how do you think Moviefactory compares with MYDVD, packaged with the pioneer?

quote:Originally posted by jez275:
Thanks for the info owlsroost. I'll try again.

BTW I'm assuming you've got a Pioneer A03 writer, in which case how do you think Moviefactory compares with MYDVD, packaged with the pioneer?

Just butting in with my four penworth...

In my case MyDVD was "ok" but I never managed to burn DVD's reliably - Instant CD+DVD keeps throwing up error messages. So I tried MovieFactory and every burn so far has been an unqualified success. Sure its a bit limeited but at last I'm getting somewhere Making a decent background file in Paintshop Pro has even produced professional looking menus.

------------------
Hedley Wright

quote:
Also discovered that if you use a 'make disk' template with video/audio bitrates set higher than the source MPEG files it doesn't appear to re-encode them (also assuming frame size, frame rate, audio sampling rates etc are the same in source and disk template).

I was finding this out when I was inserting ADS IDVD files.

Thanks for the confirmation Tony.

John
http://www.johnpr98.com

Hi Jez,

I don't like MyDVD, mainly because it converts all the audio to PCM on the DVD, thus increasing the space used on disc. The version that comes with the A03 also doesn't support chapters (which MovieFactory does).

Also I find MovieFactory quick and reliable to use, and it does VCD and SVCD authoring with menus as well - and if you have Ulead PhotoImpact you can edit the templates, see http://www.dvdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000884.html

Tony

Thanks for the info.

Incidentally, I've been persevering with the trial version of DVD Workshop over the last week, and though I'm impressed, it does appear to crash rather too often, especially during a save (i.e. worst time poossible as it doesnt apprear to create a backup.)
I'm using an Athlon 1700, under w98. This may be a problem with just the trial version.

Also I think £200's a bit steep for "just" an authoring solution.

2) When creating the disk is appears to re-encode the project (which in my case was already encoded with TMPGEnc). This is slow, may affect quality and pointless.

Jez[/B]

I find that my transitions within slideshows are not as smooth flowing after using Ulead DVD Workshop. Is it because Ulead re-encodes the mpeg2 file as well? Is there anyway to just allow Ulead DVD Workshop to only encode the menu/title screen? I used TMPGenc to initially encode and make it SVCD compliant.

When I create a menu with chapters using DVD MovieFactory I don't not have this problem.

Mesiah,

See my 8th March posting above for how to avoid re-encoding.

Tony

quote:Originally posted by owlsroost:
Mesiah,

See my 8th March posting above for how to avoid re-encoding.

Tony

Thanks! I used custom setup upon Make Disk and increased the video bitrate and everything seems to work perfectly now as only the menu/chapter screen seems to be encoded.

quote:Originally posted by mesiah:
Thanks! I used custom setup upon Make Disk and increased the video bitrate and everything seems to work perfectly now as only the menu/chapter screen seems to be encoded.

I don't understand what is going on? I was able (once) to just encode the menu/chapter screen without re-encoding the entire mpeg2 file constructed from TMPGEnc but I can no longer do this even if I increase the video and audio bitrate. I have been at this for about 6 hours now and Ulead DVD workshop wants to re-encode the whole mpeg2 movie. I have no idea how I manaaged it before without any problems. After it re-encodes it once, I can then go back and open the file and create a new disc image and burn without re-encoding by selecting a higher video/audio bitrate but by then my transitions between slides are no longer smooth as I believe it is no longer using the original TMPGEnc mpeg2 file. Please help...I'm getting frustrated with this and don;t want to use the old boring limited function menu templates from Ulead DVD MovieFactory

quote:Originally posted by jez275:

I used mpeg2 files produced from TMPGEnc (via Prem 6.1 and Avisynth)

I did find two anomolies, anyone know the answers to ;

2) When creating the disk is appears to re-encode the project (which in my case was already encoded with TMPGEnc). This is slow, may affect quality and pointless.

Jez[/B]

I too use mpeg2 files produced from TMPGEnc (via Prem 6.1 and Avisynth.

Any luck with just encoding the menu/chapter screen instead of the entire project? I can't seem to figure it out even when using custom options at a higher video bitrate and audio bitrate than the original mpeg 2 file.

Hi,

I have been trying to capture directly to MPEG1 and can not get it to work. It will only capture AVI. Any ideas?

------------------
All the best
Dave
Dave Knowles Films
Southampton - uk

HELP!
Finally got my AO3 yesterday, but DVD Workshop's trial's expired.

Anyone know how I can re-use this (just once). I'm prepared to reformat my hard drive if necessary, but I'm not shelling out £175 and then finding out it wont do what I want.

Thanks

Jez,

Have sent you an E-Mail,

Go here......

h**p://www.ulead.com/dws/esd.htm

to download FREE additional components file (51765kb) - this adds lots of extra goodies into DVD Workshop "Trial" version.

Named "DWS_Extra_Content.exe" follow the instructions to install.

It worked for me - Enjoy.

Regards - Alf

Thanks for the info Guys. I've had enough of sonic's mydvd

Alf, 56mb's a bit big for my home 56k modem so I'll have to wait till I'm back at work on Tuesday.

Stuart, I've sent you an email.

Thanks again

Jez

Just to say that DVD Workshop trial is on the cover disk with this month's PC Magazine - if anyone's got problems with big downloads.

------------------
Richard Jones, http://www.activeservice.co.uk
Home of the MediaStudio Pro 6 Tutorial, and free 6.5 Supplement

Richard,
do you know if it contains the extra components Alf highlighted? (i.e. does it enable you to get an extra 30 days trial?)

Jez,
Have you tried to redownload the programme "trial".?
(What stops you downloading again and retrying for another 30days?)

Kindest regards.

I managed to pork my first install and started out with zero days.

I ripped all mention of DVD workshop from my reg and to my surprise I managed to get a fresh install, otherwise a format would be the only way - not quite the idea of 30 day trials though!

PS Hi All and how do I get the motion menus, can you get motion buttons?

Blip,

I also removed all mention of dvd workshop from my register settings but still no luck.

I'm currently slaving over mydvd, but I have to say it sucks!

Maybe it is the the beer but if you are after a "one off" render is it not enough to change the calander settings on your pc??

regards a (sluggish) Chris

ps it does specificly mention the lack of certain (motion) features in the trial version.

quote:Originally posted by ChrisG:
Maybe it is the the beer but if you are after a "one off" render is it not enough to change the calander settings on your pc??

regards a (sluggish) Chris

ps it does specificly mention the lack of certain (motion) features in the trial version.

Motion within the menu's is restriced to 5 seconds

Jez

Quick word of warning....

messing with calendar settings is likely to noble any trials you have installed.

......And dont work anyway!

Alf, Blip,
can someone give me some detail on how they managed to get some extra time on this trial. I've used regclean on my register settings, deinstalled/reinstalled (including extra content etc.) etc. No luck

Sonics MyDVD is driving me mad!

Cheers
Jez

Richard J.

I can only find Ulead DVD Movie Factory on my PC Magazine disk!!

John

I too have had problems with DVD Workshop re-encoding files already captured directly from DV to MPEG-2 using the capture program in the program itself. What is the purpose of this?
Does anybody have any comments on the quality of MPEG-2 encoding of DVD Workshop as compared with say TMPEG or the Ligos Premiere Plugin?

I presume you've seen the earlier posts about changing the make disk template to bitrate settings higher than the source MPEG files - does this fix the re-encoding problem ?

Tony

There is another version of Ulead's DVD Workshop that can be downloaded - this will enable you to use DVD Workshop for another 30 days if you have used up all your 30 days on the first "trial" version. Go to:

ftp://ftp.ulead.com/pub/Trial/workshop/DWS_TBYB_en.exe

This is a Try-Before-You-Buy version (40 Mb) of DVD Workshop - this is still a cutdown 30 day trial program that needs a payment of £197.55 to obtain the unlock code and enable the full program to run.

I believe this TBYB version has the "full" DVD motion feature but I haven't tried it yet.

Sorry about the 40 Mb download size!! - try using the "GetRight" downloader for easy downloading at: www.getright.com

Hope this helps - regards - Alf