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DVD MovieFactory

DVD MovieFactory

List Price: $44.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best low-priced DVD authoring solution available...
Review: Before I purchased this product, I was attempting to use Impression 2.1 and My DVD 3.0 to author DVD's using my HP DVD 100i DVD+RW recorder. Using these programs, I found the task of authoring DVD's to be difficult and almost impossible. However, after I found MovieFactory by Ulead, I have had ZERO problems authoring DVD's for home use. This program makes capturing, editing, and burning DVD's extremely easy and user-friendly. While I have not tried the VCD and SVCD authoring modules of the program, I have no reason to believe they would work any differently, as they use the same engine.

Bottom line, if you are using the equipment I am using and mentioned above, you MUST have this software to simplify your DVD authoring. Before purchasing this program, I was disheartened to say the least as the process was extremely cumbersome. Now, however, I am burning DVD's like crazy. This software makes it easy!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: more bugs than an ant farm
Review: Earlier I posted a positive review of this product, despite the bugs I listed. That was before I discovered that through competitive software I didn't have to struggle with frequent crashes, malfunctioning thumbnails windows, and atrocius splicing, joining, and re-rendering. Unanswered e-mails (outside of "It's been 30 days. We give up. Reinstall and enjoy the continued lack of performance." A webboard that could only be clunkier if it was in braille. All this and unimaginative menus, too. I suppose I was just happy to successfully burn a disc.

Worst of all, using the built-in capture I could only get 360x240 resolution, which guarantees VHS quality video at best. My ATI AiW 7500's accompanying capture program gets me 720x480 with no dropped frames.

There's no perfect dvd-authoring software yet, granted, but this one is bottom-rung.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Look around for Better
Review: I am fairly disappointed with Ulead's DVD MovieFactory. There are several glaring problems that I have encountered that Ulead's support team has been unable to help me correct. First is the inablity of the software to burn to my Pioneer DVR-A03. It just won't do it and Ulead support is unable to help me with this. Second the software bogs down terribly when working with 1+ hour videos making it nearly inpossible to set in and out points accurately (I am on a P4 1.8 Ghz with 1 Gig of memory, and Seagate Barracudas in a RAID 0 configuration). However, MovieFactory is simplistic and fairly straight forward to use. I also have tried using MyDVD and it is not very intuitive and it is cumbersome to use. I would suggest investigating alternative solutions like Dazzle's DVD Complete.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Finally DVD Authoring Software that [is good]
Review: I am quite impressed with Ulead DVD MovieFactory. As a programmer I am harsh when evaluating software. To pass my litmus test, a program has to

1) Do its job
2) Not interfere with other programs trying to do their jobs
3) Have just enough user interface so it can be used
4) Not crash

MovieFactory was the first DVD authoring program that I have tried that passed all three of these criteria. The other authoring programs that failed include the bundled software that come with my DVD burner, PrimoDVD and MyDVD (formerly DVDit). I found MyDVD particularly flakey. I have also used Ulead VideoStudio, the Tsunami encoder and other open source tools to capture and encode software. At this point I feel MovieFactory can replace all of these programs.

Also, a word on elegance. MovieFactory is an elegant program. The minimalistic user interface gives you enough control to create a DVD or SVCD or VCD, without burdening you to click on thousands of little hidden menus and buttons. It is meant for someone like me who has a DV camera and a DVD burner, and who doesn't want to invest money and effort learning a complex DVD authoring package. You don't need a separate program to capture DV. You don't need a separate program for MPEG encoding. MovieFactory can do all of these things, from capture to encoding to authoring.

I would have given it a 5 out of 5 but for a few minor glitches in the interface. For example, when you edit the menus sometimes the text is white on a white background. Also the MPEG encoder does not seem to utilize dual processors when available.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Where are boxed copies.
Review: I bet its great software, but who is going to spend over 2 hours downloading it. Where are the boxed copies of the software.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: DVD Movie Factory not flexible
Review: I bought this product because I was dissatisfied with the quality of the MPEG compression of the MyDVD product which came with my HP200i DVD writer and I had heard that DVD movie factory did a better job. Also MyDvD did not allow chapter setup on imported MPEGS. Unfortunately the DVD Movie Factory would not work with a Firewire drive and their support on this issue was not great.

I bought the Dazzle DVD Complete Plus from Dazzles web site and that product is fantastic. Get the DVD complete Plus instead

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poor Customer Service
Review: I decided after purchasing this product to return it. I wanted to return it because the user interface wasn't intuitive and, frankly, it was ugly. I sent two email messages to their customer service email address; only one of which was replied to and it was merely a generic we-received-your-email confirmation. I called their customer service phone number and was greeted by an obnoxious childlike individual that could do little beyond point a finger at me because I had not first downloaded the software from their website. She was right, however. Had I downloaded the application rather than purchase it in a store, I would have known about the cheesy interface and not purchased the product. Finally, she recommended that I return the software to CompUSA, where I originally purchased it, and lie about why I was returning it, not because of a poorly designed user interface, rather because it was not compatible with my operating system (not true!). Problem solved? If you ask me, I don't think that's honest, and it certainly isn't good business.

Bottom line is this. If you purchase the product, it may work just fine for you. Just hope you never have a problem with it. If ULead ever gets back to you, they're sure to be rude and blame you for the problem, whatever the problem may be.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Heared only good things
Review: I havent tried this product out yet. I have been interested in something like this for a long while. I have asked around and have heared nothing but good reviews. I am still looking before i buy but i do believe that i will end up chosing this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Downloaded a 30 Day Trial Version first.
Review: I really like the interface! It is much easier to convert AVIs to MPEG with this program then with other programs I have tried. Also you can record directly to a MPEG file no conversion neccicary (if you set it just right) VERY COOL Saves me hours of work. Its wonderfully easy to use right out of the box (or in my case download) Wonderful Program, can't say enough good about it. I use it to make VCDs of my video files.
I can also convert my video tapes to VCD witch is a lot of fun.
I can take the old Video Camera things we filmed years ago and put them on a VCD. Witch is much easier for me to carry around then a VHS tape.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Can't create DVDs over 4GB
Review: I spent days trying to find why my program was crashing while creating a Image file to burn on DVD. I tried almost all available upgrades for Windows XP Professional, DirectX, etc, etc but this thing kept crashing. Finally, I found that it can't create files over 4GB on FAT32 disk drive. Which means that all blank DVDs you buy will have to have almost 0.5 GB wasted if you have to use this software.

Another major drawback I saw with this otherwise very friendly interface is, it creates TITLES and not CHAPTERS for each file you add to the list of video files to make DVD. The drawback with this is if you select a chapter from menu, it plays only that chapter and comes back to the parent menu. This gets really annoying and I am currently so frustrated that I am already looking to replace this [money ammount] software for which I fortunately paid only [money ammount] due to some rebates and coupons...


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