Ulead DVD Movie Factory...

[FM]

I like this product! It makes excelent SVCDs with menus and they even FF/REW on my Philips DVD player. Ones created with Nero does not even with all patches/files on the disk.

Menus are limited, that's true. But templates are designed very well and there are a lot of them.

Definetely a great program!

[Dragonsf]

@FM: How did you get FFWD and REWD to work? It doesn't work with my version- even the test within MF doesn't use these keys!

[mmitchell_houston]

FM & Dragonsf: Are you refering to the FWD and RWD controls on you DVD player that lets you watch the movie while rewinding or fast-forwarding it? It worked fine on my Apex 703 player. I was able to frame advance one at a time, zoom in or areas of the screen, and move forward or backward at will.

Lamont: I looked up the stats to the left after I left the message. I hadn't checked them because I hadn't been interested in those formats before. Although XVCD does sound appealing, I will probably stick to SVCD for compatibility reasons. But, if I get a faster processes and some more disk space, I will probably create a "master" disk in XVCD format for my archives (saved for when DVD burners become more affordable), and then cut the video quality down for SVCD copies that I can send out to more people.

[gadget]

i tried using ulead dvd movie factory but no luck. i was only able to make a short 3-4 minute of video with chapters using this program successfully. I just tried making another one with 6 chapters on a 48 minute video but i got an error. It says "Failed to record" or something like that. But the same 48 min video, i successfully burned with nero. what's wrong?

[JohnZ]

I tried DVD MovieFactory and .... indeed it looks great.
However:
1) I have an HP 6020 CD-R which Ulead does not seem to recognize
2) In Europe we use PAL; the SVCD PAL that DVD Moviefactory makes is NOT recognised by MovieFacory itself

So, it seems I still have to capture and edit with MGI Videowave, and convert with TMPGEnc, and burn with Nero (NO MENUs)
The moment Ulead fixed my above problem (1), I'll buy the product.
Did anyone else experience the same problems as I did?

[mmitchell_houston]

JohnZ: I haven't tried to make a PAL SVCD, so I can't help ya there. As for it not recognizing your burner... is it internal and what OS are you running? I had more problems with Win98 than Win2000.

Gadget: Try a different brand of blank CDs, or try burning at 2x or 1x speed.

[video567]

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On 2001-11-03 16:59:36, AndrewDV wrote:
Hi,

Just a quick FYI, you can use Ulead PhotoImpact 6 to edit or create templates for the Movie Factory.
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i tried editing the original templates but i cant get them to work. do you have to do anything special when you save them? HUMMM i smell tutorial

[The_Flash]

Lamont Cranston:

I realize that you can encode an NTSC Film source into 29.97fps w/o using pulldown. However, this is a serious degrade in quality. You're basically encoding wasted space that you could otherwise remove via a pulldown. To me this is unacceptable and a serious issue that Ulead needs to address in future versions.

[Lamont Cranston]

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On 2001-11-04 13:28:42, JohnZ wrote:
I tried DVD MovieFactory and .... indeed it looks great.
However:
1) I have an HP 6020 CD-R which Ulead does not seem to recognize
2) In Europe we use PAL; the SVCD PAL that DVD Moviefactory makes is NOT recognised by MovieFacory itself
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Unfortunately, the HP 6020 is not listed in Ulead's compatable burners: http://www.ulead.com/dmf/compatibility2.htm#cdburners.
I can't help you with the Pal issue.

[Dragonsf]

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On 2001-11-04 12:16:05, mmitchell_houston wrote:
FM & Dragonsf: Are you refering to the FWD and RWD controls on you DVD player that lets you watch the movie while rewinding or fast-forwarding it? It worked fine on my Apex 703 player. I was able to frame advance one at a time, zoom in or areas of the screen, and move forward or backward at will.
.....
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

I meant the FWD/BACK keys to jump to the next/previous chapter.Rewinding/Forwarding is AFAIK not a feature of menus but of the DVD player and shoud work with any movie.

[jasonmj]

I too have tried burning a VCD using the PAL template and have errors .

I have emailed tech support and will let you know if I get a response...if I do get one that is.

[AndrewDV]

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On 2001-11-04 00:06:02, mmitchell_houston wrote:
Andrew:

What, exactly, do you mean about being able to edit the templates for DVD Movie Factory in Ulead's Photoimpact6? Do you mean you can edit or create the background images? That's not difficult to do any program: they're just standard JPEG files.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Besides background files, you can use PhotoImpact to edit the thumbnail frames (graphics), thumbnail fonts, thumbnail positioning, title positioning, title font, etc. PhotoImpact utilizes the UFO format which is Ulead's standard.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: AndrewDV on 2001-11-05 05:07:11 ]</font>

[Dragonsf]

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On 2001-11-05 05:02:22, AndrewDV wrote:
Besides background files, you can use PhotoImpact to edit the thumbnail frames (graphics), thumbnail fonts, thumbnail positioning, title positioning, title font, etc. PhotoImpact utilizes the UFO format which is Ulead's standard.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Not really, I tried to use PhotoImpact with on of these .ufo templates. PI sees it, but can't open or even edit it! (this is PhotoImpact 7.0 Trial and the summer3.ufo)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: on 2001-11-05 07:20:28 ]</font>

[bertmartin]

Followup on my previous message:

I again contacted ULEAD tech support but did not find them helpful. Everything was my problem and each question was met with an excuse or I wasn't using the program correctly. They stated I had to use their encoder and could not use TMPGenc. But when I encoded my AVI from VideoWave IV for SVCD it would not complete. They said VideoWave IV AVI was not standard and I would have to recapture with Ulead Movie Factory. As I stated before, I did make a VCD using the Ulead MPEG encoder but the quality was not acceptable. I also noticed an extra file with a .upd extension after the MPEG was generated. I don't know what this is about but Ulead stated their Mpeg was unique. I have a very standard platform and have had all these problems so I concluded this program was not yet mature enough and I don't want to be a beta tester so I requested and received a refund.

I may purchase again when they get a more stable product.

[JohnWestbury]

I know you can create background images in any imaging app out there. The problem is that Movie factory will always place thumbnails right on top of the background. If you could have menu's without thumbnails, that would be great.

[AndrewDV]

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On 2001-11-05 07:17:56, Dragonsf wrote:
Not really, I tried to use PhotoImpact with on of these .ufo templates. PI sees it, but can't open or even edit it! (this is PhotoImpact 7.0 Trial and the summer3.ufo)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: on 2001-11-05 07:20:28 ]</font>
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

That's odd, no problems using the full version of PhotoImpact 6.0.

[thxkid]

Forget about this program unless you only want to do exact VCD and SVCD compliant MPEG1 and MPEG2. No XVCD or XSVCD it will not reconize anything you have change in your MPEG1 or MPEG2 encoding and I hate MPEG1 1150 Bitrate so VCD would be completely out for me on this program. Even though my MPEG2 are SVCD compliant MovieFactory said they were not, its uninstalled and thrown to side for now until Ulead unlocks these flaws in later versions, hopefully.

[gNOMEintheRedHat]

thxkid,

I made 2 xVCDs this weekend with the trial version.

352x240 @ 1800kps MP2 128k
and
720x480 @ VBR MPEG2 1150/1600/2000 MP2 196k

They both worked fine on CD-R (CD-RW woun't play well over 1700kps in my player )

[digitalhecht]

I too tried using PhotoImpact 7 Trial to make templates. I tried it two ways: making one from scratch and altering one of the premade templates. The former doesn't show up in the template library at all. The latter showed up (in the right hand library column, but as the original template! If I double-clicked on it, however, it actually WOULD show up in the main window (left) with my alterations, EXCEPT for the thumbnails. My thumbnails were replaced with the MPEG's thumbs. Are you saying that version 6 doesn't do this?

[Lamont Cranston]

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On 2001-11-05 10:29:33, thxkid wrote:
Forget about this program unless you only want to do exact VCD and SVCD compliant MPEG1 and MPEG2. No XVCD or XSVCD it will not reconize anything you have change in your MPEG1 or MPEG2 encoding and I hate MPEG1 1150 Bitrate so VCD would be completely out for me on this program. Even though my MPEG2 are SVCD compliant MovieFactory said they were not, its uninstalled and thrown to side for now until Ulead unlocks these flaws in later versions, hopefully.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
I create XVCDs and XSVCDs with no problem. For example, if I increase the video data for a vcd above the 1150 DVD MovieFactory wiil ask me if I want to produce an XVCD. I have mpge files encoded with TMPGEnc and Ligos LSX35. What are your mpg encoder XVCD or XSVCDs settings?

[mmitchell_houston]

AndrewDV: Can you alter the SIZE of the thumbnails in PhotoImpact 6? If so, you could make them tiny (1x1 pixels) and shove them to the side so that no one can see them. I think I have PhotoImpact somewhere in my stuff -- I'll check it out.

DragonSF: Ahh. That makes more sense. I just didn't understand that you meant jumping between chapters. I'll test and see what's up on my system.

thxkid: This program may not be for everyone, but keep in mind that it's a first release and will get better. So far, I've found it to be useful and easy to use. Like the rest of you, I want more power and more options for editing templates and supporting other file types, but I think "throwing it away" is a bit premature.

[video567]

well i have the photoimpact 7 trial and it lets me change the templates but it wont load them.. i wonder if they can only be changed with photoimpact 6? ulead doesnt have the trial anywhere for the version 6 anywhere. does anyone know where i could find the trial for photoimpact 6so i can try it with the templates? im not asking for warez i just want the trial. thanks for te time.. if anyone gets to alter the templates with photoimpact 7 please let me know what you did.

[JohnZ]

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On 2001-11-04 18:46:49, mmitchell_houston wrote:
JohnZ: I haven't tried to make a PAL SVCD, so I can't help ya there. As for it not recognizing your burner... is it internal and what OS are you running? I had more problems with Win98 than Win2000.
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I use Win98SE. I did notice later that Ulead does not support HP 6020 ....
So it seems a dead end street for me

[Lamont Cranston]

Video576:
PhotoImpact has many component modules that are downloaded separately from the main program. With the trial version you usually can't add this modules, or at least you could not install them with other Ulead trial versions I have downloaded. I have a sneaky suspicion that why you can't edit or create the templates. (A $90 program to edit and create menu templates for a $40 program??? I think Ulead should have added a menu template plug-in to the Photo Express they packaged with the DVD movie Factory)

FWIW:I have been authoring and burning NTSC VCDs, XVCDs, SVCDs and XSVCDs with meg files created by TMPGEnc and Ligos LSX35 with win98se without one problem using the specs I posted on page 2 of this thread for some time. This is not the first release of this software. Just about all the function, short of some authoring add-ons, was in the DVD-Plug-in. To the best of my recollection there was not one person on this forum who used Ulead's on-board mpeg encoder with the DVD plug-in. If you include your setup, settings and some patience 'maybe' we can get it to work for you.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Lamont Cranston on 2001-11-05 17:33:11 ]</font>

[video567]

so what modules do you think are needed to edit the templates?

[Lamont Cranston]

A guess based on the name might be Component Designer Templates. AndrewDV what do you think is the problem?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Lamont Cranston on 2001-11-05 22:04:51 ]</font>

[mmitchell_houston]

You can get the TRIAL version of Ulead's PhotoImpact 6.0 at this address:

http://www.webutilities.com/download/download_pi.htm

It will ask you to register, do so. Then select FTP Site #2 (it worked, 3 & 4 did not).

I'm away from home at the moment, so I can't test to see if this works for editing the templates. If it works, please let me know.

[Dragonsf]

I download UPI 6.0 and it really can open and edit the templates. I'll try this at home this afternoon and check, if it can indeed make a better looking (i.e. longer texts) templates for me.

[weg]

[Hi guys im new to this forum. I have used nero for a long time and just resently changed over to Uleads DVD Creator, I have one problem the quality of Ulead Dat. file is not as good as nero's. Can you guys see a difference in quality. Thbe menus is great. ThaNKS]
On 2001-10-18 11:43:36, ejai wrote:
I also found that using Uleads DVD creation package a godsend. I was using nero to burn SVCD's that wouldn't play properly in my DVD player as well as some of my friends. After using this product I was able to apply menus and entry points that worked properly in all the DVD players that had previous problems playing it.

I like this product alot, and I found it to be hassle free and compatible with the DVD players that my friends have that are SVCD compatible.

I also agree that if I had more options in creating templates I would give this product 4 stars out of 5.

ej
[/quote]

[kHenryan]

yes, You can modify the template by Ulead PhotoImpact 6 and create your own.

There is also a way to make UDMF to accept the menu pictures you created by photoshop or other.

The keypoint is to modify the template and let all object to lay below the background picture (ie. the background will cover those scene and frame objects)

Then in the authoring process, you choose your own background picture and music... Done.