Ulead PowerTools vs. DVD Workshop?

[nbarzgar]

Hello out there!

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the two apps? So far I seem to find them mentioned alternately, like practically being the same...

I especially am looking for an authoring-app, which is able to accept menu-items in .gif-format AND ready-encoded .ac3-files!

Thanks!

[Richard_G]

PowerTools? never heard of that one. It's not mentioned on the Ulead website either. The two authoring apps that are very similar are DVD Workshop and DVD MovieFactory. MF is the cheaper consumer level application that is predominately wizard driven, WS is the (much more expensive) do everything authoring tool that will do everything you will ever want to do and a lot that you probably won't need. I upgraded to WS 2 (from WS 1.3) because I needed ac3 support. Just before the latest version of MF came out with ac3 support but at a considerably lower price.......

[nbarzgar]

Thank you, you are right...

I am in Germany and by your answer I realized (look at Ulead.de and Ulead.com) that "PowerTools" is the term for "Workshop" on the German market...

Now I have got the "Workshop" in German and I cannot add .ac3-files. It's only possible to add another format and have Workshop do the >.ac3 encoding. The results I get with ffmpeg or TMPGEnc AC3-Plug-in are very good, so I'd rather stick to those...
Do I need an extra for Workshop to accept ac3-files?

How's Workshop's output?

All-in-all I find DVD Workshop a bit slow on reacting. In TMPGEnc DVD Author - for example - cutting of files is fast and easy, adding them is faster both in DVDlab Pro and TMPGEnc. Do you think I might get Workshop to react faster by some little tweak/system setting?

[Richard_G]

What version do you have? Workshop 1.2 could only encode ac3 audio with the ac3 plug-in, I don't know if it would accept ac3 input. Workshop 2, the latest version will accept an ac3 file and can convert other audio file types to ac3.

I'm not sure I know what you mean by slow reacting. Do you mean the program seems slow or moving from one part of the video clip takes time? I would suggest that any slow running is down to your hardware. A 1.8 GHz processor should be OK but you really need more than 250 MB of RAM to run any video software under Windows XP. Increase your RAM to at least 512 MB and you will see a very noticable difference (much more so than the slight difference I noticed going from 512 MB up to 1024 MB).

[nbarzgar]

I've got the 2-version.
Just now I saw updates/patches on the German site. Am going to install them and see what happens. So far, as I said, this "PowerTools" (i.e. "Workshop") encodes to.ac3, but does not accept it...

Have looked for some Plug-in, but no result.
Will try getting more RAM. Almost any other video-app runs fine, but in "this day and age" more RAM might be a good idea anyway...

[Richard_G]

2 is the latest version of Workshop so that should be OK. I'm not at my video machine at the moment (at work) so can't try it and see, but it does seem strange that it won't be able to accept an ac3 input. It can accept sections lifted from a DVD so I would have thought that it will take the ac3 audio in from that. It seems pretty odd that it would take a clip from a DVD with audio in a different format and then convert it to ac3 when ac3 audio is available in the first place. Come to think of it, Region 2 DVDs often only have audio in ac3 so it must be able to accept it.

Where are you getting your ac3 files from, maybe they are not encoded correctly for some reason and it is not recognising them. I'll try importing a file with ac3 audio tonight and see if it works for me.

[nbarzgar]

I did what you told me, imported ac3 from commercial DVD and it works!!

Now I DID install those patches and updates before that (that is: today forenoon), but I will also try and see what may be wrong with my ac3-encoding/encoders... Using TMPGEnc AC3-Plug-in, ffmpeg and BeSweet, although BeSweet produces a rather dynamically-compressed, low sound (playing it with my DVD-player at least) so I prefer TMPGEnc...

If nothing else should work out, I will let Workshop do it...

[lordsmurf]

Only the paid version works.
Not the trial, not the hack. Paid only.

[Richard_G]

I've just tried importing a video clip with ac3 audio into Workshop and it accepted it. The version I have is V2.231 and it is shown as having the AC-3 Powerpack 1 although that is part of version 2 rather than a plugin as it was with version 1.

Lordsmurf has made a very good point though. It will only work if you have a full paid for version and not a trial.

[nbarzgar]

This is a bit late to answer, but getting more RAM (512 MB now) did the trick. It's fast and almost perfect now. Thanks for your tips!

[tumbar]

Lordsmuf said

Only the paid version works.
Not the trial, not the hack. Paid only.

Makes one ponder....how's he know that?

[lordsmurf]

Lordsmuf said

Only the paid version works.
Not the trial, not the hack. Paid only.

Makes one ponder....how's he know that?

Nothing to ponder.
Ulead knows it, and many DVDWS "complaints" are for this very reason.