Bye, Bye Ulead DVD authoring ... long live Corel DVD Authoring

[Mr. Budwar]

Maybe you know or maybe you don't but the software industry is being re-structuralized once again. (translation: monopolized)
August 28, 2006: Corel Corporation Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire InterVideo
and
"Since 2005 InterVideo is the principal stakeholder of Ulead"

Corel in its press release states:
"Customers and partners will now have access to a full breadth of popular, award-winning digital media brands including WinDVD®, WinDVD Creator, Ulead® Photo Impact®, Ulead®VideoStudio™, Ulead DVD Movie Factory®, and Corel® Paint Shop® Pro- all from a single, trusted source."

I thought maybe you like to know. With these latest mergers (Adobe,Macromedia) and buyouts soon only a handfull of companies will own 95% of all software.
I am wondering who will be next...

[lordsmurf]

I read a while back that the Ulead brand would be left alone. It's not part of the buyout, not directly.

[jagabo]

Corel press release:

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Section/Display&sid=10470229461...=1047022985433

When the acquisition is completed, Corel will provide the industry's broadest portfolio of digital media software... including WinDVD®, WinDVD Creator, Ulead® Photo Impact®, Ulead®VideoStudio™, Ulead DVD Movie Factory®, and Corel® Paint Shop® Pro...

[GeorgeW]

I read a while back that the Ulead brand would be left alone. It's not part of the buyout, not directly.

lordsmurf, you seem to hear and read things alot lately. Like when you heard some second hand comments about some feature that would never make it into a DVD WS3 -- and you hear that during the same week that Corel announced their intention to buy Ulead -- so I wonder if you heard that from Ulead or Corel personnel

I wish you could provide some evidence for of all this "information" you happen to have...

btw, I saw this post from a Ulead representative yesterday in response to a query about DVD WS3

Development of DVDWS3 is still on hold. With the aquisition of
InterVideo/Ulead by Corel it is still an open issue as to whether it
will be restarted. I will keep the group updated when I am informed
of a decision.

Regards,
George

[thecoalman]

That's interesting as Corel owns Paint Shop Pro, Photoimpact is about the only pay for photoediting application in the same class that I'm aware of. I wonder how they are going to handle that, they'll have two products competing against each other.

Development of DVDWS3 is still on hold. With the aquisition of
InterVideo/Ulead by Corel it is still an open issue as to whether it
will be restarted. I will keep the group updated when I am informed
of a decision.

Hopefully they will actually include something in it making it worth the upgrade. I know if it was the only application you have it added quite a bit but most of the major features it has were already available in WS1... or more specifically 1.3 with the AC3 powerpack.

[ocular]

Hope the fact that the Ulead Support forum is no available up has got nothing to do with change of ownership.

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/

[lordsmurf]

GeorgeW, it came from the Ulead side. When companies merge or buy each other out, plans can literally change overnight. Until any acquisitions are finalized (top to bottom), I'd have to say anything is possible, and everything is up in the air, for the moment. I don't doubt anything I've heard (old or new), and I'm sure more will continue to change as time goes on. Nature of the beast.

While it had some useful info, that Ulead forum was mostly crap. It's shame it's closed. They should at least keep up open for archival reasons.

[rayzray]

gee,, this saddens me.. i joined this forum cause i am having TROUBLE with my Ulead-DVD movie Factory;; and now i see i have no access to it's forum..
i have abandoned it towards stand alone units for now..

by posting here,, i hope i am subscribed

interested and fatigued
Ray

[GeorgeW]

GeorgeW, it came from the Ulead side. When companies merge or buy each other out, plans can literally change overnight. Until any acquisitions are finalized (top to bottom), I'd have to say anything is possible, and everything is up in the air, for the moment. I don't doubt anything I've heard (old or new), and I'm sure more will continue to change as time goes on. Nature of the beast.

While it had some useful info, that Ulead forum was mostly crap. It's shame it's closed. They should at least keep up open for archival reasons.

lordsmurf, giving comments like "it came from the ulead side" without anything to back it up is just more hearsay to me. You never seem to have any real evidence to support your statements. You bash other software, yet when I give you a list of reaons why the other software has more features than DVDWS, you do not even acknowledge the fact.

Oh, and to say that the Ulead forum was mostly crap is a bit harsh. I would say the Ulead forums are the best place for information about Ulead products - they have plenty of tutorials available, and kind folks to help out as needed. To throw out a blanket statement and trash the entire forum is ridiculous (imho). btw, I am a forum moderator there, as well as elsewhere around the net, so I take that pretty personal when you call the forum "mostly crap".

And by the way, the forum is temporarily out due to a bad hack, and they are working to recover (and I also hope they implement some additional spam protection). It will be back...

Please get some people skills and more supporting evidence before throwing out your useless commentary...

Regards,
George

[rayzray]

there is a Ray of hope for Ray (me-rayzray);; thanks George!!

[SatStorm]

Huge Off topic post follows:

This is a forum. So, rumours, observations, news, critisism, opinions, are all welcome. Official / unofficial sources, it doesn't make a difference. The way we say the things we say makes the difference.

I suggest to put something like:

- I heard/read rumours that....
- According to this source: (post link here )....
- I believe ...
- My opinion - based on this - is...

when you post and don't wish conflicts.

And BTW: The irony on the expression, shows stupicidy and I don't welcome it. There are ways beyond irony to do things with those you don't agree or you don't like.

- End of the off topic

[lordsmurf]

Not sure when the Ulead forums started up, but for the longest time that place was in shambles, with zero input from admins or mods (if they even had mods), and tons of unanswered questions by one-hit-wonder posters. To make matters worse, those that stuck around passed around a lot of incorrect information. It's been a while since I visited there (a year, maybe), and I do know a few folks (VH members) were trying to make it better. I briefly visited again this year for some DL information, but of course, the forum was basically devoid of information.

Not sure what would make you happy about "evidence", but you have to remember the information was what I was after, not biographies of those that said it. Unfortunately, what I got is now a few months old, and has been displaced by business decisions (mergers, buyouts).

George, you're the one being confrontation. Work on your own "people skills" (which is a stupid term, by the way, mostly used by the politically correct crowd).

[GeorgeW]

Not sure when the Ulead forums started up, but for the longest time that place was in shambles, with zero input from admins or mods (if they even had mods), and tons of unanswered questions by one-hit-wonder posters. To make matters worse, those that stuck around passed around a lot of incorrect information. It's been a while since I visited there (a year, maybe), and I do know a few folks (VH members) were trying to make it better. I briefly visited again this year for some DL information, but of course, the forum was basically devoid of information.

Not sure what would make you happy about "evidence", but you have to remember the information was what I was after, not biographies of those that said it. Unfortunately, what I got is now a few months old, and has been displaced by business decisions (mergers, buyouts).

George, you're the one being confrontation. Work on your own "people skills" (which is a stupid term, by the way, mostly used by the politically correct crowd).

lordsmurf, you do not visit a forum for a year or so, and you think it's fine to throw out a blanket statement that the forum is "mostly crap" (this is the basis of my people skills comment)??? You say there is zero input from mods, yet you don't even know that for sure??? (btw, I can say there are hundreds -- if not thousands of answers from mods -- you might get an occasional "off the mark" answer, but mostly accurate and helpful). But "off the marks" are true everywhere, as nobody has all the answers. ..

Regards,
George

[sjj1805]

GeorgeW, it came from the Ulead side. When companies merge or buy each other out, plans can literally change overnight. Until any acquisitions are finalized (top to bottom), I'd have to say anything is possible, and everything is up in the air, for the moment. I don't doubt anything I've heard (old or new), and I'm sure more will continue to change as time goes on. Nature of the beast.

While it had some useful info, that Ulead forum was mostly crap. It's shame it's closed. They should at least keep up open for archival reasons.

The Ulead User forum was hit by a hack attack on 5 October 2006 and has affected their entire server. A few of the Forum Mods have got together and put up a temporary Help Site
http://www.grandpasgraphics.net/forum/index.php

[thecoalman]

And by the way, the forum is temporarily out due to a bad hack, and they are working to recover (and I also hope they implement some additional spam protection). It will be back...

I kind of wonder about that, when I was there they were running a VERY outdated version . One that was very vulnerable and pointed the fact out to them for months and they never fixed it. That place was very poorly administered when I was there and I would suggest it is now. The fact that it hasn't been put back online quickly pretty much proves that. You could hack into anyone of my forums even deleting database and I could have it back online with a completely secure plain vanilla install in 15 minutes to a half an hour at the most. At the most if the database was compromised I may lose whatever posts were made since the last backup.

BTW... I could tell them how to permanantly stop the spam bots and even to some degree the real person spammers, but I'll never tell. :P

[slacker]

No offense to anyone here, but all this hullaballo regarding Ulead is a kick to me. In the video software space, they BOTH have to be some of the WORST run companies producing some of the WORST software I have ever had the displeasure to evaluate. I say maybe Corel can do something with the digital video/photo suites that Intervideo/Ulead simply couldn't or wouldn't do themselves.

This is only one man's opinion.

Mark

[thecoalman]

In the video software space, they BOTH have to be some of the WORST run companies producing some of the WORST software I have ever had the displeasure to evaluate.

Duely noted but I'll disagree, VS10 is worth for the editor alone. It has decent encoder and native AC3 support and always seemed to be the first to offer many features that the others would only add after them. If anything it may have too many features for the novice... DVD Workshop is by their best product and one of the best Authoring tools on the market.

[lenti_75]

No offense to anyone here, but all this hullaballo regarding Ulead is a kick to me. In the video software space, they BOTH have to be some of the WORST run companies producing some of the WORST software I have ever had the displeasure to evaluate. I say maybe Corel can do something with the digital video/photo suites that Intervideo/Ulead simply couldn't or wouldn't do themselves.

This is only one man's opinion.

Mark

that's right it's just your opinion, and a bad one....

Ulead products are good, not the best but good enough to use it.

[SingSing]

I don't missed ULEAD.

[slacker]

When compared to other video software such as Apple's FCP, Sony or Adobe from a user experience perspective, Ulead clearly falls by the wayside. By user experience, I mean intuitiveness of the interface, editing commands, speed, quality, time to completion. And from a system's perspective (programmer, developer, etc), the same applies with regard to ease of installation, stability (does it use memory efficiently, is it too slow, does it crash, hang, etc), and the ability to uninstall cleanly. For example, when you uninstall Ulead's Media Studio Pro it leaves an enormous number of system files scattered all over your drive, very sloppy. Same goes for Ulead VideoStudio 10 Plus. You need to go in after the fact and remove registry entries, hunt down files, etc. And with Ulead's VideoStudio 10 Plus, I could just about take a nap from screen to screen, very slow compared to other video editors, as well as a limited number of features. And I experienced much frustration when capturing to PC, i.e. unsupported camcorders. No thanks!

Having said that, I have never used Ulead's DVD Workshop so I can't comment specifically on that package. I understand it's pretty darn good.

Anyway, I have Intervideo DVD Creator, Intervideo DVD Copy, Ulead DVD Movie Factory, VideoStudio 10 Plus, and MediaStudio Pro 8 sitting on my shelf gathering dust. I have used and reviewed them all. You want them? You can have them. Just send me money to cover shipping and a little something for my time.

My MAC associates use FCP. Personally I use Vegas+Dvd Architect. I would not trade it for anything. Fast, stable and loaded with features. When something better comes along at that price point or below, I'll be the first one to switch. I guarantee it.

I don't know... $50 gets you in the door I guess.
But front row seats are so much better...

Mark

[ocular]

Thanks for the tip on the temporary Ulead forum. This a good tutorial there on project settings for Ulead VS 10+

Ulead VS 10+ works very well with the HD Mpeg2 from my Sony HDR-HC3, not sure that there is much else out there that can be used with HDV that is as easy to use for the home enthusiast.

The DVD authoring part of Ulead VS 10+ leaves much to be desired.