Comments

GizmoGorilla wrote on 3/9/2004, 11:30 AM
I've checked out Videofactory and DVDLab and decided on DVDlab & have no regrets. The flow chart approach to laying out your menus is great. DVDlab is extremely verstile and has a more "professional" approach. Thats not to put down vf, 'cause it too is pretty good. I think you'll find a lot of people here use dvdlab. I think you'll get maximum flexibility with dvdlab. It did have a bit of a learning curve for me in the beginning but once I got the hang of it I was fine. I think, in part, thats because I was used to the "click n go" stuff out there that uses templates, and limits options.

Norm
IanG wrote on 3/9/2004, 12:33 PM
I completely agree with Norm! I've just done a wedding DVD for my niece using DVD-Lab - being able to use the same design elements, layout, fonts etc that were used in the wedding stationery was a big plus for me.

Putting the chapter thumbnails in heart shaped frames was unspeakably naff, but at least there was the flexibility to try it! Switching back to conventional oblongs only took a few seconds, which highlights another strength of the program - you can chop and change things quickly without having to rework the parts you're happy with.

Ian G.
ADinelt wrote on 3/9/2004, 2:27 PM
What I really love about DVD-Lab is it's complete flexibility. I can create more professional looking DVDs than I was able to with ULead DVD MovieFactory 2 SE or ULead VideoStudio 7 SE.

For instance, on my own personal DVDs (since I am somewhat not quite right upstairs), I will put a Copyright Notice (you know the type, don't copy this or else...). This plays only once when you insert the DVD into the player. After that, everything takes you to the main menu (which is usually animated).

On my main menu, I will have Play Movie and Scene Selections. If you pick Play Movie, I go to another quick little clip borrowed from a Digitally Mastered In THX clip, only I have replaced THX with my initials AJD (animated of course), then go to the movie. If you select anything from the Scene Selections, it will bypass the AJD clip altogether.

It doesn't seem right that this is just so much fun...

Al
mbryant wrote on 3/10/2004, 5:20 AM
Late last year, when I got my first DVD writer, and discovered I couldn’t live with MYDVD, I needed to make a quick decision (quick ‘cause I wanted to create some DVDs quickly) on what package to go for. I did a short trial of DVD-Lab and Movie Factory, and went for Movie Factory as it seemed to be easier to learn.

Now, some months later, I’ve become frustrated with Movie Factory. Not because of limitations (I knew it wasn’t as powerful as DVD-lab), but because of bugs. Like burning different colored fonts than the ones I chose.

I hardly used DVD-Lab to give it a proper try, but now I can’t trial it as it shows on my system as already expired.

One question for DVD lab users: Whenever I make a DVD, I have to make both a PAL and NTSC version (I live in PAL-land, but also send copies to the US, where I’ve found the PAL versions do not generally work). In terms of the video itself this is no problem, Screenblast with the plug-in encoder does a good job at rendering my PAL DV footage to both PAL and NTSC MPEG. My question is on the DVD authoring side. Assuming I’ve created menus for a PAL DVD with DVD-Lab which I am happy with. Now I want to make a NTSC version of the same DVD. How easy is it to use the same menus, but replace the video with a new (NTSC) copy? This is one of the main reasons I went for an easy DVD solution, as whatever I did I’d have to do twice.

Mark
IanG wrote on 3/10/2004, 5:29 AM
It should be simple - delete the audio & video and import the NTSC versions, redefine the chapter points and link the existing menu items to the new chapter points.

Ian G.