DVD MovieFactory

The biggest problem I have with Movie Factory is it's built in encoder. It just takes way too long and the quality isn't always that great. There is also a problem with audio becoming async when converting DivX/XVid to MPEG2 with Movie Factory; just test burn to a DVD-RW first, so you won't end up with a bunch of expensive coasters. To be fair, this can be a problem with many other authoring programs, and is a pain to fix.

Personally, I prefer DVD-Lab, though it costs more and is a tad harder to use. For $80 you get an authoring program that is fairly easy to use, yet is capable of producing professional quality DVDs, complete with fully customizable menus. Similar programs can cost hundreds, even thousands of dollars and won't be nearly as easy to use.

It also lacks an encoder, so you would probably want to look into TMPEGnc Plus (another $30.00) or Flask MPEG (Free). Actually, it's not a bad idea to use TMPEGnc instead of Movie Factory's encoder. Both DVD-Lab and TMPEG have 30 day demos available.

Regardless of which authoring program and encoder you go with, you'll definitely want to download a copy of Virtual Dub. This is probably the most useful piece of software you will ever use for video editing. It's also free. You'll also want to bookmark dvdrhelp.com; if you can't find a solution to your problem there, it probably can't be solved.


A little fussy, but otherwise quite nice   October 8, 2003
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I'll concur with some of the bad reviews; Ulead's customer support is snotty at their very best, and that's after sitting on hold for a half hour. However, I'm rejecting some of the bad reviews largely because the posters don't seem to know what to do with the software. DVD MovieFactory is ideal *if* you capture the video somewhere else. If you have a digital capture card, use the application that came with it to do the capturing (I use Creative's DigitalVCR). MovieFactory will only import files that adhere to DVD standards, so you'll probably need to convert the file to a 720x480 Mpeg-2. Adobe Premiere 6.5's MainConcept plugin can do that. However, once all that is said and done, MovieFactory works very smoothly. You can set chapter points effortlessly, create detailed sub menus for chapters, and even have accompanying music to each and every menu. Definately try it out before purchasing it, but if you give it what it wants, I think you'll be happy.


Decent features, poor video quality   March 17, 2003
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

MovieFactory is strong on features. Menus created with it look great, and its thumbnail selection feature is ideal. The only downside feature-wise is that you have to manually add chapter points while actually watching the video (can't just fast forward on the timline to where you want to add them).

This said, the MAJOR downside to MovieFactory is the video quality of the resulting DVD. I have a good system and a popular DVD drive, and other software produces great results on DVD's. But Moviefactory produced very blocky video--full of obvious artifacting. And the worst part was, the video would completely pixellate every 15 seconds or so.

It's a real shame too. The features are pretty decent. But without features AND decent video quality, the software is pretty much worthless to me.


Does not work!   March 6, 2003
4 out of 8 found this review helpful

Save your money....this product is full of bugs and glitches. I encountered one problem after another attempting to get it installed and running on my fairly new loaded Dell PC (Pent IV, 356 memory, Windows ME, GeForce2 Ultra, CD-RW drive, & 40G HD with room to spare).

Repeated email correspondence got the program running on my PC, but it is a confusing and glitchy program. After struggling with it for a week, I was still unable to produce a single functioning SDVD of home movies from my new digital camcorder.

In the end, I returned to Amazon.com for refund.


5 stars for basic video editing and manipulation   December 12, 2002
The Patriot (San Antonio TX)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

While I have a couple of the expensive packages, I always use this one to first bring in my video or MPEG files. The editor is easy to use, and I can move an hour, minute, second, or frame at a time. I can make quick work of archiving old TV shows minus the commericials by marking the segments and converting. Export is easy and fast. It's strength is file handling.

Basic menus on the final products are also available here. But they are basic, compared to the expensive packages.