Windows Movie Maker 6 vs. Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus ?

[mmccarty]

I just bought a new computer with Windows Vista Home Premium and I was planning on buying Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus for capturing my DV and 8mm home videos. My question is: What's the difference between Windows Movie Maker 6 (came with Vista) and Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus??? When I capture with WMM6 the quality of the WMV file seems better than the MPG captured with VS11+ (captured at DVD quality).

I'm not doing a lot of editing. I just want to capture DVD or better quality and output to a MPG or WMV for use with Windows Media Center and possibly burn to DVD. Do I need all the extra features of Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus? Is there any review or comparison chart for Windows Movie Maker 6 and Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus?

Thanks,

Mike

[MOVIEGEEK]

If you capture to DV-AVI then the quality will be the same.
Ulead has more effects,allows multiple overlays and outputs Dolby audio.

[redwudz]

Probably the biggest difference is the WMM only outputs WMV or DV-AVI. So you can't make a DVD with it. You can output as DV with it, then encode and author to a DVD with other programs. With my Vista OS, it included Windows DVD Maker, and that can produce DVDs. But I don't use either program.

You can download and try VideoStudio and see for yourself the differences with the trial version.

And welcome to our forums.

[jagabo]

Probably the biggest difference is the WMM only outputs WMV or DV-AVI. So you can't make a DVD with it...

As usual, Microsoft does everything they can to lock you into Windows' proprietary formats.

[thecoalman]

I just want to capture DVD or better quality and output to a MPG or WMV

If you're renecoding the video after capture as mentioned capture as DV-AVI and the quality is the same. This is an exact duplicate of what is on your cam, there's really no point in encoding on the fly if you're going to encode it again anyway.

As usual, Microsoft does everything they can to lock you into Windows' proprietary formats.

DV-AVI is not a MS format, I don't know the reasoning for it not being able to output to DVD but I'd imagine it's simialar to the reasoning behind not providing a MPEG2 codec with XP in that it would add to the cost. No matter what the case een if they did provide DVD authoring someone else would be bitching that they were doing the same thing with MM that they did with IE .

On a side note I thought I read Vista does included a MPEG2 codec and the Vista version of WMM does support DVD authoring?

[jagabo]

DV-AVI is not a MS format

No Duh! I was talking about WMV.

[redwudz]

Vista does have a MPEG-2 decoder and both Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker, at least in the Premier Home version. I believe just the Premier Home and the Ultimate have this, though.

[edDV]

Vista does have a MPEG-2 decoder and both Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker, at least in the Premier Home version. I believe just the Premier Home and the Ultimate have this, though.

The Home Premium version includes Windows DVD Maker which includes an MPeg2 encoder. That gives Movie Maker a path to DVD. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/dvdmaker.mspx

Even so, Ulead Video Studio will be more powerful and more flexible for MPeg and tuners.

[edong]

With my son's Vista Premium Movie Maker, I have created a DVD wedding video from down-converted HD-MPEG2 and was satisfied with the quality. I can recognize the people . Next time, I will try to convert my HD-MPEG2 to 1080P WMV. I hope the WMM can do it very close to the original. Looks promising.