I agree, you definately want to stick with MovieFactory for the DVD production, it is much better than MyDVD, so don't upgrade for that reason. After realizing that you can't create chapter points in MyDVD I've been trialing MovieFactory, and plan to buy it. But the other enhancements (extra video track, chromakey) are still worth ther upgrade to Screenblast.

Mark

chromakey and the extra video track are well worth $30 upgrade costs.

you can achieve some advanced title effects using the added video track and chromakey...as well as multiple overlays.

Thanks so much,

VideoFactory is great, so I will seriously consider upgrading. I having been having really good luck with Ulead DVD Movie Factory until lately. But I will stick it out since you (and other posts) say it is better than MyDVD.

I am hopeful about Ulead DVD Movie Factory . . . I just got a response from their techy and they think my problem is caused by the program getting corrupted and that I just need to reinstall.

barbnewbie,
I upgraded even though I already have MyDVD just to get the newer ScreenBlast features. They are well worth the $30 upgrade price.

My advice is to install the ScreenBlast update but do not install MyDVD. MyDVD, while it does do DVDs, has too many limitations and bad behavior (version 4.5) for it to be worth it. If you're interested I can go into some detail of what I've found with using it.

Definitely stick with DVD Movie Factory for authoring your DVDs.

Ron

Thanks, I will follow your advice. If you have time, it would be interesting to hear of some of the bad behaviors.

I have been using DVD Movie Factory, but something weird kept happening lately. I went back and made some changes in VideoFactory and re-rendered the mpeg2 file. I know it took because I pulled up the mpeg2 file. Also, it looked great in Ulead DVD MovieFactory. But, when Ulead burned the DVD, it burned it with the original mpeg2 and not the revised. Too weird! I don't evenk know what that could happen. Finally after double and triple checking myself and trying many things like rebooting, cleaning out temp files, etc., I wrote Ulead techy. They think I have a corrupted Ulead and should re-install. So, that's why I was concerned about Ulead.

HI barbnewbie,

I didn't want to offend anyone with my opinions about tech help so I refrained from saying anything before. But, in my experience, reloading an app because it could be corrupted is usually "tech speak" for "I don't know what the heck is going on so let's try a hail mary pass." Sometimes reloading does help because some other program that was loaded afterward causes problems with previoulsy loaded programs. Especially in video, because so much can go wrong.

Now, I don't quite understand the description of your problem but if I'm interpreting correctly, you re-rendered an already existing mpeg2 file and tried to burn to a DVD; the burn ended up with the original, unmodified, mpeg2 file. Is that close? Anyway, maybe what's happening is that you are getting filenames confused in one or the other app. I can't count on my fingers and toes the number of times I've done this and then run around in circles trying to figure out what went wrong; only to find out that I never changed a filename in some app. Not saying this is what is going on but it's a very easy thing to do, then get confused.

Now, about MyDVD; here are a couple of problems I've found in no particular order.
1. MyDVD transcodes audio to PCM format. This means that any audio input, in whatever format (like mp3, mpa, etc.) will get converted to PCM (pulse code modulated). PCM is uncompressed audio and is huge. You don't have to know all that but the consequence is that there is less room on a DVD for video with large audio files. So you can't get as much video if you have a lot of audio. I don't believe MyDVD knows this until it tries to burn a DVD then tells you there's not enough room. It then becomes trial and error to find what will fit.

2. If you use the burn screen to select mulitple copies, the first DVD will burn fine but DVD #2 and on will be coasters. The burn will error out. I found this out after making 2 coasters. The first I thought was bad media; the second made me suspicious; I emailed Sonic support and they told me it was a known problem and would be fixed in release 5.0. So beware.

3. While the included motion menus and backgrounds (I think they're called styles; it's been a while since I've used MyDVD) work just fine, they get old after awhile. I made a wedding video and slideshow of my daughter's wedding last summer. MyDVD did a fine job; I was lucky that I didn't have a lot of video and a limited number of photos because the uncompressed audio took up a lot of space. I discovered the audio situation while pulling my hair out on this DVD. Anyway, Sonic has a means of creating new backgrounds and menus and a web site to exchange with others; the problem with this is that their canned approach requires that you have Adobe Photoshop. If you've ever priced this package, you know it's very expensive.

I tried to make my own menu background on a friend's computer who has Photoshop; I could not figure out the correct way to make a new style using Sonic's instruction. So, I gave up.

Sorry this has been so long; I just wanted to relate some of my experience with MyDVD. It's a fine package if all you want is what it can do. It's probably good for newbies getting started. It's how I got started but I quickly outgrew it's capability.

Ron.

Thanks for the info.

With Ulead, you said: "you re-rendered an already existing mpeg2 file and tried to burn to a DVD; the burn ended up with the original, unmodified, mpeg2 file. Is that close? Anyway, maybe what's happening is that you are getting filenames confused in one or the other app."

Yes, that is it. What do you mean different file names? Maybe that is the problem. I rendered with the file name 2003_3.mpg. I then opened Ulead DVD MovieFactory and clicked "Add Video".

I then went back to VideoFactory, made changes and re-rendered, and used "replace file" in order to keep the same name. So when I opened Ulead it said "do you want to relink this file". I said no. Again, it looked great in Ulead, but it burned the original and not the revised. So that was weird. I would think if there was going to be a burning confusion, I would see the "old" file in Ulead.

Anyway, I'll just give the re-rendered a different name.

Hi barbnewbie,

The problem I've had in the past and still have on occassion is that my source and my destinationfiles are usually in different folders. I do that purposefully so that I don't accidently overwrite something important. Now the paths to the 2 different files are different but the filenames, like your 2003_3.mpg are the same. Sometimes I get them mixed up because they have the same name but in different folders. I easily overlook that fact and write the wrong one.

For example, if I render an avi file in MS then I use that file as input to TMPGEnc to encode to an mpg in another folder; then I rework the original in MS and re-encode in TMPGEnc. If I get those mixed up, I could end up with re-rendering the original.

It was only a guess as to what might be going on. I don't know anything about MovieFactory so I can't comment on that. All I'm saying is are you sure that the Replace FIle is asking about the file you just changed and that Ulead is asking to relink the same file? Sometimes you can't see the whole pathname in the little windows they give you. You sometimes have to put your cursor in that window and use the arrow keys to scroll around in there to see the whole pathname. Just be sure that you are linking in the same file as you replaced in VF. Look at the whole pathname, scrolling if you have to.

Hope I've haven't confused you more.

Ron

I use separate folders as well to help keep things straight.

The folders are 'Captured Video', 'Rendered Video', 'Video Projects' and 'DVD Images'.

I just make sure that I am in the correct directory whenever I go to perform a task.

Al

Ron,

I think MyDVD should gray out the burn button if the final file size will be greater than that allowed -- including any transcoding needed to get the correct audio. My info comes from searching "gray" in the Sonic knowledge base Sonic MyDVD KB. (I absolutely cannot figure out how to link to the burn button KB article directly so you need to search)

I'm not 100% sure about this.

SUzan

SUzan,
Yes MyDVD does gray out the burn button if the final size will be greater than allowed. That's not the point I was trying to make, to wit: if MyDVD transcodes all audio to uncompressed PCM, then there is less room on a DVD for video. That's all I was saying.

My personal preference is to be able to put as much video (with it's corresponding compressed audio, be that mp3, ac3, etc.) as I can. That way I have to burn less DVDs.