DVD Moviefactory 2.0

Rating:
Summary: What a big disappointment
Review: I was a happy user of version 1.0, it allowed me to create dvd's. so when i heard that version 2.0 was coming out, i went and bought it. What a big mistake that was. i had problems installing this software onto my PC. after doing a complete system restore, i was able to install it. but i was highly disappointed. this program is buggy. keeps getting error messages. the reason why i wanted to upgrade to version 2.0 is because of it's ability to burn directly to the disc itself instead of to the HD. the only thing it does is create discs which is what version 1.0 can do as well. if u have version 1, i would definetly skip this version. i agree with some of the other users, this should have been included in the version 1.0

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: I wish there was an rating option of less than zero. After spending hours trying to make this piece of crap work and upgrading my DVD-RW to a SECOND ULEAD compatable device, I've given up trying to copy VHS tapes to DVD using this. If its not telling me my input device isn't compatable then its telling me it can't calculate the space. I went back to Sonic MYDVD and in about 30 seconds I'm copying VHS tapes. Its obvious the world of computer video software is in its infancy and there's bound to be problems but when you have vendors like ULEAD claiming that their products are all things simple, then the industry will have problems converting more people.

Rating:
Summary: Stay Away
Review: Take my word, stay away. This program has bugs.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: Ulead's Moviefactory 2.0 (MF2) is among the cheapest DVD authoring tools available. The same price group also includes Cyperlink's PowerProducer and Sonic's MyDVD. But MF2 has the best features and is the most reliable among the three. I've been using it to record TV programs and burn them onto DVDs, and the results looked very close to the original broadcast with no audio sync problems. It has worked perfectly with my DVD rewritable drive (Sony DRU500AX) and has not created a single unreadable disc. I've used several brands of discs: Memorex +R 1x and 4x, -RW 1x, and +RW 2.4x, Verbatim -R 4x, Ritek -R 4x, and also generic brands like Meritline -R 2x, Princo -RW 1x, and Leda -R 4x, and they have all been burned successfully. The readability of the burned discs is also what I would expect. The more compatible -R discs were playable on all my DVD players and drives, while the +R, -RW, and +RW discs were playable on only some of them. (The compatibility of recordable DVDs is a known issue in the industry.)

To use MF2's built-in capture tool, you need a video capture card. (Mine is an ancient Pinnacle Studio PCTV tuner/capture card with BT878 chipset, with generic WDM drivers for Windows ME). MF2 is able to capture MPEG files with DVD-, VCD- or SVCD-compliance. For DVD-compliant MPEG capturing, you can only choose among the preset bitrates: CBR or VBR, 4000, 6000, or 8000 Mbps. You can choose between MPEG Layer II or LPCM audio, but you can't set the audio bitrate. You can choose between interlaced or non-interlaced capturing. Since most TV broadcasts are interlaced, capturing at interlaced mode is preferred; but be sure to choose the correct field order, or jerky motion will result. You cannot adjust advanced settings such as GOP count, number of I-Frames and P-frames, etc. to improve your capture. There is, however, a "quality" setting to improve picture quality. Set it as high as you can, but without burdening the CPU so much that it would cause dropped frames. On my Intel P4 2.4MHz, while capturing at VBR 8000 Mbps with MPEG Layer II audio 384 Kbs (my preferred settings for high-quality captures), I could set quality up to 12 (max is 15) without dropping frames, with CPU utilization at about 85% during capture. It is a good idea to monitor CPU utilization (with a tool such as CPUIdle) during capture. If it is near or at 100%, dropped frames would be very likely. Also, any activity that would increase CPU utilization, even as minor as moving your mouse, should be avoided in order to achieve no dropped frames. Video capturing is the first and most important step in DVD creation. Without a video source with good quality and DVD compliance, it would be necessary to re-encode, or transcode, the MPEG source, which is a laborious and time-consuming process.

MF2's own transcoding ability, however, is horrendous (and PowerProducer and MyDVD are even worse). Transcoding is done automatically whenever a non-compliant source is detected, or you can force MF2 to transcode. The resulted video is often filled with skipped frames and audio sync problems, indicating MF2's inability to alter video resolution and resample audio bitrate reliably. When I need to transcode, I use an external tool like TMPGEnc, and pass the resulted MPEG file back to MF2 before authoring the DVD. The best way is, of course, to avoid having to transcode altogether by obtaining a high-quality, compliant source material.

Thankfully, MF2 can author and burn DVDs reliably. You can author and burn to disc directly, or you can author to hard disk first and burn it to disc later. You can also create an ISO image of the authored files, and later burn the DVD from the image file. MF2 can also reliably detect the burning speed of a disc.

MF2 lets you add chapter stops and design menus for your DVD, but they are for the most basic purposes only. Menu design is template-based, and there is no "free-form" design. Chapter stops are added after video capture, either manually or automatically at an adjustable time interval (some software can create chapter stops during capture, but not MF2). You are only limited to adding a main menu and a chapter menu on your DVD. You cannot create additional screens for your own special purposes. You can, however, create "slide shows" -- a series of static images. There are a lot of menu templates to choose from, with a variety of background graphics and button placements. You can also import your own background graphics and add background music for your menu screen. You can also omit the menus altogether (which I often do, because the menus created with MF2 surely aren't going to impress anybody).

There are certain advanced functions that MF2 and other products in its price range cannot do, such as adding multiple audio tracks, subtitle tracks, multi-angles, 5.1 audio tracks, AC-3 audio processing, and more sophisticated menu designs. Software with these features usually cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Software with advanced video editing tools cost even more.

And MF2 is also very basic in video editing. It doesn't let you combine two video clips into one, insert transition effects, nor manipulate the audio. About the only useful thing it lets you do is extract portions of a clip.

A trial version of MF2 is available at Ulead's web site. It is fully functional for 30 days, with a limit of 20 pictures per slide show. The full version has no such limit.

Ulead also released a patch for MF2 on 8/22/03, notably adding PAL capture ability and fixing a few bugs.

Rating:
Summary: Good author/burning, basic menu/editing, pitiful transcoding
Review: Ulead's Moviefactory 2.0 (MF2) is among the cheapest DVD authoring tools available. The same price group also includes Cyperlink's PowerProducer and Sonic's MyDVD. But MF2 has the best features and is the most reliable among the three. I've been using it to record TV programs and burn them onto DVDs, and the results looked very close to the original broadcast with no audio sync problems. It has worked perfectly with my DVD rewritable drive (Sony DRU500AX) and has not created a single unreadable disc. I've used several brands of discs: Memorex +R 1x and 4x, -RW 1x, and +RW 2.4x, Verbatim -R 4x, Ritek -R 4x, and also generic brands like Meritline -R 2x, Princo -RW 1x, and Leda -R 4x, and they have all been burned successfully. The readability of the burned discs is also what I would expect. The more compatible -R discs were playable on all my DVD players and drives, while the +R, -RW, and +RW discs were playable on only some of them. (The compatibility of recordable DVDs is a known issue in the industry.)

To use MF2's built-in capture tool, you need a video capture card. (Mine is an ancient Pinnacle Studio PCTV tuner/capture card with BT878 chipset, with generic WDM drivers for Windows ME). MF2 is able to capture MPEG files with DVD-, VCD- or SVCD-compliance. For DVD-compliant MPEG capturing, you can only choose among the preset bitrates: CBR or VBR, 4000, 6000, or 8000 Mbps. You can choose between MPEG Layer II or LPCM audio, but you can't set the audio bitrate. You can choose between interlaced or non-interlaced capturing. Since most TV broadcasts are interlaced, capturing at interlaced mode is preferred; but be sure to choose the correct field order, or jerky motion will result. You cannot adjust advanced settings such as GOP count, number of I-Frames and P-frames, etc. to improve your capture. There is, however, a "quality" setting to improve picture quality. Set it as high as you can, but without burdening the CPU so much that it would cause dropped frames. On my Intel P4 2.4MHz, while capturing at VBR 8000 Mbps with MPEG Layer II audio 384 Kbs (my preferred settings for high-quality captures), I could set quality up to 12 (max is 15) without dropping frames, with CPU utilization at about 85% during capture. It is a good idea to monitor CPU utilization (with a tool such as CPUIdle) during capture. If it is near or at 100%, dropped frames would be very likely. Also, any activity that would increase CPU utilization, even as minor as moving your mouse, should be avoided in order to achieve no dropped frames. Video capturing is the first and most important step in DVD creation. Without a video source with good quality and DVD compliance, it would be necessary to re-encode, or transcode, the MPEG source, which is a laborious and time-consuming process.

MF2's own transcoding ability, however, is horrendous (and PowerProducer and MyDVD are even worse). Transcoding is done automatically whenever a non-compliant source is detected, or you can force MF2 to transcode. The resulted video is often filled with skipped frames and audio sync problems, indicating MF2's inability to alter video resolution and resample audio bitrate reliably. When I need to transcode, I use an external tool like TMPGEnc, and pass the resulted MPEG file back to MF2 before authoring the DVD. The best way is, of course, to avoid having to transcode altogether by obtaining a high-quality, compliant source material.

Thankfully, MF2 can author and burn DVDs reliably. You can author and burn to disc directly, or you can author to hard disk first and burn it to disc later. You can also create an ISO image of the authored files, and later burn the DVD from the image file. MF2 can also reliably detect the burning speed of a disc.

MF2 lets you add chapter stops and design menus for your DVD, but they are for the most basic purposes only. Menu design is template-based, and there is no "free-form" design. Chapter stops are added after video capture, either manually or automatically at an adjustable time interval (some software can create chapter stops during capture, but not MF2). You are only limited to adding a main menu and a chapter menu on your DVD. You cannot create additional screens for your own special purposes. You can, however, create "slide shows" -- a series of static images. There are a lot of menu templates to choose from, with a variety of background graphics and button placements. You can also import your own background graphics and add background music for your menu screen. You can also omit the menus altogether (which I often do, because the menus created with MF2 surely aren't going to impress anybody).

There are certain advanced functions that MF2 and other products in its price range cannot do, such as adding multiple audio tracks, subtitle tracks, multi-angles, 5.1 audio tracks, AC-3 audio processing, and more sophisticated menu designs. Software with these features usually cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Software with advanced video editing tools cost even more.

And MF2 is also very basic in video editing. It doesn't let you combine two video clips into one, insert transition effects, nor manipulate the audio. About the only useful thing it lets you do is extract portions of a clip.

A trial version of MF2 is available at Ulead's web site. It is fully functional for 30 days, with a limit of 20 pictures per slide show. The full version has no such limit.

Ulead also released a patch for MF2 on 8/22/03, notably adding PAL capture ability and fixing a few bugs.

Rating:
Summary: It can create VCD on a CD-R with a CD-R drive.
Review: You don't need a DVD burner to create movies you can view on your DVD player; A VCD is burned on a CD, you can only burn about an hower of video but you don't need a DVD burner. If you burn several short videos it is easy to create a custom interactive menu. This program doesn't do anything but burn videos, it doesn't burn music CD, it doesn't burn a data CD, it does what it does well and I'm glad I have it.